Hmm, it's difficult to make myself clear, I think. I'm not trying to imply that Valve is out to get me out of spite or something, or wants to hurt certain customers for its own sake. I'm saying they are prioritizing what every large business prioritizes, and that means caring about the part of their customer base that is the largest or spends the most money. [Also, I don't think many of the people working for major tech companies are very familiar with third world problems, or see them as something worth addressing.]
But you kinda did when you said this:
The fact that they have a reason for screwing me over does not make me wish to use their service any more if that service doesn't work well for me. I have no loyalty to any of these entities.
They don't really have any reason to screw you over, nor does they ACTUALLY try to screw you over. You're right that company prioritizing their largest revenue means they cared more for their major consumer base, but implying that's a reason for them to personally screw you over, and thus means you're considering to go to Epic however just slightly, is kind of ignorant of the current situation.
Likewise, as a customer, I prioritize whatever service is best for me. If Valve is not taking my personal circumstances into consideration, I will use whichever product IS taking my circumstances into consideration. Though I'm not sure why we're still talking about this as if it were Steam vs Epic. As I said, I have no opinion on Epic. And this is not a political fight for me. Where I take my business in this instance is not about a vote I'm casting in some sort of capitalist election. In fact, if it was, I probably would use Steam a lot less than I do now. As a popular platform, Steam has probably been good for the PC games market overall, but there is nothing they do that strikes me as ideologically superior to their competitors. And in fact, some things they do that I would like to see discouraged (like the reliance on steep discounts, but that's a different conversation).
I'm not talking about this as if it were Steam vs. Epic. Again, this whole debacles is Epic vs. PC gaming as a whole, because remember those games that went Epic exclusives either would have a GOG release or would definitely be planned to be released there.
I'm not sure from where did you get the impression that I'm trying to 'fight a good fight' here, or how I'm saying that Steam is 'ideologically superior to their competitors', but perhaps you're just saying what you have in mind. But the way I see it, Steam is definitely applying good consumer practice overall even if they unfortunately didn't include your personal circumstance. Also, I don't see how Steam put a reliance on steep discounts, because once again Steam gave benefits to both consumers and producers (devs/publishers) alike even though you've shown that you don't care about them (which I guess why you think Steam relied on steep discounts).
Plus, if Steam hadn't been a success, maybe we actually would've gotten a Half-Life 3...
Except you missed the fact that there are many, many people (like me) who had meager access to video games, wouldn't even know that cool stuff like Fallout exists nor wouldn't be able to easily gain access to those cool stuff. And without Steam, I'd say GOG wouldn't even be possible in the first place.
Going from how Steam really gave benefits to most consumers, do remember that without Steam indie games wouldn't really find a place in the market across the globe. Games like Underrail, Age of Decadence, and Tales of Maj'Eyal wouldn't as easily find audience as they did now with Steam. So Steam benefits both consumers and devs/publishers alike.
Edit: I wanted to try to clarify a bit further based on one particular thing you said.
"Again, this is unfortunate that Valve's interest doesn't take your personal circumstances into consideration, but is that still a reason to even slightly consider giving Epic some bucks?"
No, it is not. If I use Epic at all, it will not be because of some perceived slight by Steam. It will be solely based on whether I find Epic convenient for me or because of a desirable product I cannot get elsewhere. This has not ever been about customer loyalty for me. I use all of these services.
Then you should turn your head away and ignore Epic Store entirely. Because their interest isn't in giving consumers more convenience compared to other stores. They're solely focused on one-upping Steam with a farce of giving devs/publishers more benefit through their lower %cut, but realizing it isn't enough because 70% of 1000 copies sold is absolutely more preferable than 88% of 50-100 copies sold they decided to stoop to such scummy tactic of bribing the devs/publishers for exclusivity.
This isn't a good consumer practice, period.
Todd is awesome
