The unfortunate thing is that, in the long run, that strategy will probably be super effective. Unless Europe (with the only internet regulations that actually have teeth) does something harsh enough, they will probably pay a few small fines over this at most. Cost of doing business and probably baked in already.
For sure… Just one more reason to adopt co-determination laws like those in Germany.
Public or private, if the board of the company actually contained literal workers, it could make things so much better.
Totally. I wasn’t trying to rag on Valve… More just a comment about capitalism in general and how shitty it is.
These products are experimental and usually sold at or near cost not to make money but to prove to the market there is a need and a demand.
Well, no… I think it’s more akin to the concept of “loss-leaders”. Get people in the door and while they’re there, they’ll buy a game or two. Which is where their real profits come from.
In the end, it’s still just a business strategy intended to result in profits for Valve.
However, that being said, the fact that they don’t have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to maximize profits and keep that stock price up at (literally) all costs, allows them to operate the way they do.
But don’t get it twisted, they are a for-profit corporation, and their ultimate goal is making money. They’re just not as shitty about it.
The bar is REALLY fucking low these days.
FIGHT!
They’re also one of the few (possibly only) that has not gone public.
Just a coincidence, I’m sure.
Lol nothing says confidence like going through someone’s comment history to try to find things to hurt them… Good think I’m not ashamed of either of those things.
And just to clarify the latter: criticizing your own country because of the awful things it is doing ≠ hate. Usually it’s literally the opposite. If I despised my country, I wouldn’t be so distraught as I watch it being sold for parts for next to nothing.
🤡 👟👟
The problem is, they’re not actually learning about anything real, they’re learning about one specific outcome of rent seeking in the modern world that they only noticed because of their profession. By giving this very narrow and specific concept a cute name, and making that shit popular or whatever has literally prevented young people from understanding these important economic concepts on any real level.
So yeah I’m glad that a small portion of terminally online tech nerds have finally discovered a major form of rent seeking in their industry and identified it as a problem. But then they just stop there as if it exists in a vacuum. I just wish they’d read some actual books (or hell, if you don’t want to turn off the screen, audio books?) about the subject rather than just repeat some clever term over and over.
That’s my problem. I guess it’s nitpicky. But I do believe there are people who will now never learn another single thing about economic concepts that affect their lives because they’re not even aware that this “newly discovered phenomenon” is just one small aspect of a much larger problem that is endemic to all of capitalism. They just think it’s this quirky thing that only affects tech.
I literally had the opposite experience lol. Just got NewPipe and it seems to work fine.
Suck shit, Google.
As someone who’s (re) vanced stopped working today, one thing about using my browser instead was the inability to switch to a different app or lock my screen without pausing.
I fucking hate that shit. Made solely so they could sell it as a “bonus feature” for subscribing to their pay service.
Ohhhh got it, only one false flag attack was committed by the US. That means the war in Vietnam was justified.
To be clear regarding “false flag” operations for anyone unaware: this entails attacking our own military in order to provide spurious cassus belli to enter a conflict we had no valid reason to enter. In this case, a civil war on the other side of the planet, in a bay we should never have been in to begin with.
How stupid does a person need to be to think that, not only was the war in Vietnam justified, but that the Gulf of Tonkin false flag incident is that justification?
Hurr durr they get off two months, they’re fine
You’ll take your check for $3.27 from the class action lawsuit that settled 4 years ago, and you’ll be happy
Do it
LO-fuckin-L at using Gulf of Tonkin, a well known false flag operation meant solely to draw the US into a protracted conflict we had no business being in. 🤡
Here? On Lemmy? Where did you get banned for saying that?
I’m just annoyed that people think rent seeking is some newly discovered concept. I’m not sure if there’s a name for the very specific type we’re referring to and I’m not sure there needs to be.
I think we’d be much better off if people actually understand the underpinning concept rather than having a thin and shallow understanding of just one single way it manifests.
I’ll let the opening paragraph of the “rent seeking” wiki page to show why:
Rent-seeking is the act of growing one’s existing wealth by manipulating the social or political environment without creating new wealth. Rent-seeking activities have negative effects on the rest of society. They result in reduced economic efficiency through misallocation of resources, stifled competition, reduced wealth creation, lost government revenue, heightened income inequality, risk of growing corruption and cronyism, decreased public trust in institutions and potential national decline.
Successful capture of regulatory agencies (if any) to gain a coercive monopoly can result in advantages for rent-seekers in a market while imposing disadvantages on their uncorrupt competitors. This is one of many possible forms of rent-seeking behavior.
(Emphasis mine)
On the wiki itself, each one of those items in the list I bolded has an entire wiki page about it and I’m pretty certain what is called “enshittification” fits into at least one of them.
I just wish people would care about the actual thing that’s going on and not just one aspect of one type of the thing.
Edit: for any downvoters, look at my response to the reply below for clarification. Yes I’m glad that a small group of terminally online nerds in the tech industry have finally discovered one aspect (and consequence) of rent seeking. That’s not really my issue.
I’ve had my disc PS5 for two years now, and the only thing I’ve put in it was Top Gun on 4K disc
You are really missing out then, because if you know where to look (like psprices.com) you will often find sales on only physical copies at Amazon, Best Buy or GameStop.
I’m talking like significant sales. Like AAA games less than a year old (that still costs $60 on PSN) for $15.99 kind of sales.
I cannot tell you how many PS4 and PS5 games I’ve gotten, and which, for 40%+ off. Too many to count. I’ve saved hundreds if not over a thousand dollars doing this.
Lol