Valve ban advertising-based business models on Steam, no forced adverts like in mobile games
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I can vouch for Luanti (formerly known as Minetest), Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection, and RetroArch.
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I’ve had a hard time finding quality games in there. Outside of Shattered Pixel Dungeon they are few and far between.
You're not wrong. F-Droid would benefit greatly from having some sort of curated "best of" list, especially for games.
That said, here are some I think are reasonably quality:
- Mindustry
- Frozen Bubble
- Burger Party
- Endless Sky
- Vector Pinball
- Surge Engine
- SuperTuxKart
- Xeonjia Ice Adventure
tried to just get the hill climb racing game or a similar one.
F-Droid has Lato, which seems to be in the same genre. It's pretty polished in terms of having a nice graphical style and music, but IMO doesn't quite make the list above because the gameplay seems a little simplistic compared to e.g. Hill Climb Racing. Still, worth a shot if you're looking for that sort of game.
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But trading cards are real physical things that you can sell loot boxes and virtual goods that will disappear if the game developers ever decide that they'll go and you also can't sell them.
The problem with the CS go gambling site was that that was an extra thing on top of the skins. The gambling was added by a third party.
No one's gambling with Pokémon cards. Any attempt to do so and the Pokémon company would come down on you like a ton of bricks they're about as ligacious as Nintendo.
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to anyone reading this comment:
I strongly recommend going to this government website and checking out the superfund sites located in your area. If you live anywhere east of the Mississippi, your chances of living near or not far from an illegal dumping site are really high.
https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live
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I almost wish I hadn't looked; knew my area had paper mills and wood processing, they've been dredging the waterways for PCBs (chlorinated organics) for decades.
I work with electronics and have heard from multiple older gentleman that when they were young, they saw old high-voltage transformers from power poles being replaced which would be leaking off the backs of the trucks until empty or even purposely tipped into the storm drains. Why is healthcare so expensive?
No apologies for being politics-adjacent in the Gaming community, billionaires aren't keeping their hands out of anything either. Keep rewarding Valve and the good companies and shitting on the bad ones!
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Some options you could consider include [...] making your game free to play with optional upgrades sold via Microtransactions or Downloadable Content (DLC).
I am not sure this is better. I hate microtransactions usually more than ads.
Ads don't cost you money, just time, and sometimes some screen space. They are annyoing and that sucks. But leveraging dark patterns as stuff like FOMO and other psychological tricks to nudge people towards microtransactions can cost you a lot. A business model, which relies on techniques from the gambling industry – also by catching some whales – is imo way worse than ads.
Such games aren't made for all players, just for some who don't have control over their expenses (or can really afford it).I can live with DLCs as long as there aren't so many that it becomes increasingly indistinguishable to microtransactions. But in the end I don't want to buy a fucking lego set, where I have to constantly buy new stuff.
That's why I prefer single purchase games. I am also ok with paying more for them if that means the devs get the proftis to keep the development of games I like going. Buy once – have it all. Keeping games at a comparably equal price over decades is imo not meaningful anyways due to factors like inflation. But the gaming community can be really unforgiving in this regard. That's why ad-based or microtransaction-based games are taking off. A majority of gamers are uncritical enough that this works. And then they are surprised when it bites them in the ass...
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If the "win for everyone" includes shipping a game as microtransaction-based instead of ad-based, I doubt it's really a win. Microtransactions usually come with dark patterns and rely on techniques from the gambling industry.
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I think what matters more, or perhaps at least in Valve's perspective, is that microtransactions are inherently binding between the game's developer/publisher and the player, so the game's developer/publisher is the sole party held accountable here (by Valve), while ads inherently involve and invite a 3rd party advertiser, muddying the situation for everybody. While on the other hand, microtransactions can only be done for content already a part of the game, while ads serve content outside the scope of the game.
So this is much much more enforceable for Valve, while DLC and microtransactions marketing is already subject to the established rules on Steam.
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That's an excellent list, thanks for sharing all that. I'll be sure to check them out. I wish FDroid at least allowed some kind of user rating system to make this a little easier but I can understand some reasons to not include that function. If there's no rating system there's no raring abuse lol.
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Awesome, that's for the recs! I'll be sure to check them out.
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Right on, thanks for the direct links. I'll definitely try them out.
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My pleasure.
