this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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Thanks for showing up. And yes you're correct, "doing nothing" is a meme, dervied from the fact that Epic, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony are all outwardly very anti-consumer, while Valve is simply less so. Yes they have done some shady things over 20 years, however they have also done wonders in the field of Linux game compatibility, helping (credit to the non-Valve developers) break Microsoft's monopoly on operating systems for PC gaming. In contrast, GOG has done little besides provide the occasional script, Linux version of their official library manager is only now in development after 10 years of begging for it.
Yes, you can still play DRM-free games, FOSS games and get some games directly from the publisher, but in terms of distributors, you're essentially left with itch.io (unless the time they removed nsfw games from CC processor pressure is also a bridge too far for you).
Which company was it that popularized the lootboxes so bad that Notch made a parody of their game in Minecraft's earliest April Fool's version? Oh it's Valve. Which company has been extremely instrumental in killing the ownership of games, making the idea of having to be online and connected to an unaccountable corporation based in the USA to play a single player game so much more palatable? Look, it's Valve again. Even their quaint """wonders""" for Linux (creating yet another distro, forking wine, and porting their DRM launcher?) are such a naked embrace, extend and extinguish effort going very smoothly because they're not Microsoft, despite being quite literally of Microsoft origins, down to the anti-trust saga.
Valve isn't doing nothing. You think so because like you've noted, itch.io went into this payment processor kerfuffle, despite Valve also going into it but nobody else. Plus, GOG themselves aren't helping matters with their own actions, not just the double sig runes and their strange and ineffective apologies, but also the obsession with LLM generated art among countless moments of getting caught with their pants down. Meanwhile, Zoom-Platform is relatively quiet, for better or worse, and I never hear anything from Fireflower Games.
It's easy, if Neverball and Super Tux Kart are the only games one plays, nobody can claim they support monopolists, anti-consumer practices or billionaires.
I checked out the zoom platform, seems nice, majority are Windows games though.
I acknowledge that it's important to raise awareness of bad practices, demanding change and highlighting alternatives where available. However, if you tie yourself in knots over every debacle, and permanently hold it as a grudge long after it's addressed positively, then I'd start thinking your hobby is grudge-holding rather than gaming.