I mean, I agree that the form factor isn’t what matters, that’s not what I was saying. When you boot the Steam Deck it actively hides that it is a computer. Let’s be real here, all consoles are basically just dumbed down PC’s at this point. They have slightly modified AMD chips with AMD GPUs. The only difference is that you can’t access the file system. You can on the Steam Deck if you want to, but Valve tries to simplify the experience by presenting it as a console. My argument has nothing to do with the form factor and everything to do with the default presentation.

I just want to say I’m right there with you, and I was trying to make that clear while still explaining my thoughts on why the Steam Deck isn’t really a “gaming PC”. It could just be the old man in me, but the Deck PRESENTS itself as a console on startup, and to do anything beyond that you have to restart the device. For the general public restarting the device is a huge barrier. Again though, I’m happy the Steam Deck exists and hope that game companies in general will get their head out of their ass and start making more games run natively on Linux. Even with devices that have better performance and look like an upgrade I immediately discount them as an option the moment I see they are running Windows.

My post was not meant to take away your points, and honestly I tend to forget about the Steam workshop because, as you said, I and many other general PC gamers don’t mod games that much. I’m not trying to be negative about the Deck, just realistic. Unfortunately for me, my general lack of optimism can be seen as inherently negative. The Steam Deck has already succeeded in its goal as evidenced by the, inferior in my opinion, knockoffs from Asus and Lenovo. The main point I was trying to make is the very fact that if or when people try to install a mod they immediately run into the barrier of having to reboot the device. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does tell many people this is not the main way to use the device. Remember that for the general public defaults are the most powerful thing on their device.

For transparency, I have a gaming PC. I have a Steam Deck. I love the Steam Deck to death and would never give it up. For many people, it is the closest thing they will see to PC gaming. I can say without a doubt that the Steam Deck is a PC in the same way a chicken is a wild bird. Can you do 90% of PC related tasks with the Steam Deck? Yes, but with a lot more work, and much more required knowledge. It’s not even because of the OS, which is great because it’s just Linux based. It’s because the Steam Deck does not put necessary parts that average PC users need as forward facing concepts.

The Steam Deck is a console first, and a PC in a pinch and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s the reason I love the device, but also use it less. A good example is modding Elden Ring for Seamless Co-op. You can do it, and it’s not HARD per se, but you may have to find files in the OS to make sure Steam knows to open them, and because of how the file tree works in Linux vs Windows it isn’t really a simple case of “type the file name in search”.

Breaking news, people on the Internet have no concept of nuance.

I feel like you are taking this way more personally than it’s intended. Most companies write stuff like this so the government can’t sue them. Basically, Microsoft is just covering their own ass.

It was so bad Nilay Patel had to apologize (semi-seriously) about causing a news cycle about a mouse.

The new CEO had the beginning of an idea in an interview. The interviewer tried to push back while still keeping the interview going, but it became messy real quick.

The worst part is that almost everyone was telling the DNC it was the wrong call, and they ignored people out of fear that they would lose. I fucking hate the DNC, but I hate the RNC more.

It is more possible than a bullet wound. I’m hearing it was teleprompter glass, which makes sense.

Which i would have an easier time believing than a bullet. If he got a small cut on his ear it would bleed that much, but that is in no way a bullet wound. It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day though because facts don’t matter to fascist MAGA idiots. If it doesn’t back up what they already believe it’s fake news.

I would agree with you if it wasn’t for the fact that his ear looks completely intact. Bloody, yes, but no chunk missing. If it was an actual bullet moving at subsonic speed even a graze would leave more than a little blood. Another thing to consider is that there would be WAY more blood than what was shown. Your extremities bleed more than any other part of your body because that’s where all of the blood vessels gather. I know this from the personal experience of splitting my head open on a metal pipe. It took no time for blood to cover one half of my face. If he was actually shot in the ear blood would be gushing. As it stands it looks like someone smeared lipstick on his ear.

I wouldn’t quite go so far as to say it’s gone “mainstream” since you still have to be moderately nerdy to know about it. I get your point though. This is one of the reasons I am so happy the Steam Deck exists. Before Valve released the Steam Deck nobody wanted to make games for Linux, so Valve said “fuck it, we’ll do it ourselves” and proved it was not only possible, but a better experience overall. While not all games work, having 78-80% of your game library work on Linux, with no Windows OS performance tax, is a great experience. Even with the Proton compatibility layer games generally run faster than on Windows.

I’m at work so I can’t do deep dive searching, and honestly I will probably forget about this by the time I get home, but there are other people I follow who report on this stuff, unfortunately only in podcast format, who have also talked to modders in person. All of them say mods are fine. Take that for what you will.

So, I don’t know how to put this, and I don’t this actually isn’t true . Not sure how this blew up, but yeah.

Four years of Trump did so much damage to our nation. We were already not doing great.

Reading this hurt me.

That’s most news today.

I think this is actually a good thing. In a perfect world exclusives wouldn’t exist and you would buy things based on their own merits. Having to buy something you don’t want because you fear missing out on a game is a horrible experience. In fact I stopped caring because I got so tired of possibly missing out on a game. It has worked out great for me this generation.

To be fair to Microsoft (I can’t believe I actually typed that) it’s not something they can just fix without splitting Windows into a consumer and business SKU that is significantly different from current Windows. Currently the only real difference is the amount of control the end user has over the platform, but the features are pretty much the same. To make a fully “modern” version you would basically have to build Windows from the ground up to eliminate all the cruft. There is no money for Microsoft in that. Better to focus on business and let the consumer complain.