They should be *reigned in as a monopoly*. That’s how it’s fixed. Nothing drastic either, just stop Valve from (say) dictating prices outside their platform, and do the same for Amazon and Walmart while they’re at it.

It's all of it. He takes too much for the services he offers. He gives too little to his employees. He isn't taxed enough for what remains. It makes sense that people can earn a few multiples over the median for working hard and maybe also for taking risks. It makes no sense that people can earn a million time as much as the median by not working hard and never facing actual risks.

Yeah, I want such giants (that are basically core infrastructure of a sector) to be regulated. \ Just whip up a law saying their margins can't be over 5% of a game's sale price (the reason is to boost smal devs & market competition). Worst case 10 ppl don't get richer. What, are they gonna quit the business bcs making only 100 million a year in net profit just isn't worth it & would rather go do manual labour in the mines instead? (Same logic as with taxes - if there was a 90% tax over 10 million ppl would still do the same things they do anyway, we were just taught to believe that someone earning 1bn per year would say *'no, it's not worth it for those 100m after taxes, I quit and now you can't buy my good overpriced phones anymore so you lose'*. It would never happen. The only difference would be in their wealth concentration, ie in their power over government/lobbies/public media.)

You didn’t say anything about where the money goes, you just said you can’t recall a Valve game with microtransactions or a battlepass. Dota has both. If we want to have a discussion about how they spend that money, then I agree, Valve does a much better job than EA or Blizzard or similar

Nah, they would be restored to perfection and upgraded with modern tech

They had to be forced into allowing refunds. They're pretty shit with dealing with hacked accounts. Their forced price parity rules effectively raise prices across the industry. Other companies being worse doesn't make this one defacto good.

That's a pretty significant pivot from the discussion about Steam's operating costs and revenue share.

As a NOT millionaire (technically I am homeless though in far better shape than some) boats are enjoyable and even fun. Paddle boats, row boats (my favorite), canoes, small and medium powered craft can all be a blast. I've never been on a yacht and wouldn't choose to the same as never having chosen to be on a regular tourist cruise or in a casino except for work. I don't like people that much. That cramped cabin and constant earthquake is only on a ship really. Even choppy seas aren't too bad. It sounds like you mostly hate water, which I understand. My gf is the same. Do you use swimming pools and if so, do you avoid the deep end? For me, I grew up around water, lakes and beaches, and my grandfather was in the coast guard auxiliary and had a cabin cruiser. Even a good summer weekend involves climbing into an inner tube and floating down a river all day.

Because not everyone is young enough to have just gotten into computers at a time when there's actual Linux compatibility with a significant percentage of software...

Doesn't make this one _good_

The point is a very small percentage of that 30% is being reinvested in the company and the vast majority is going into Gabe's pocket.

I don't misunderstand your point, I reject it. When have we *ever* seen a government care more about taking care of its people than gaining power for its rulers? The more money and responsibility you give to a government, the more corrupt it becomes. That said, I do think something like UBI makes sense. Make it a simple cash pass-through where everyone is brought above the poverty line. I personally would prefer to structure it as a negative income tax, so you qualify if your income is below some amount, and everyone is brought between the poverty line and a "living wage" (say, 2X poverty line). It's equivalent to UBI, just with less sticker shock and a clearer paper trail (need to file a tax return). Look at the government shutdown, social security is still going out, I want NIT to be the same (and ideally replace SS). I say we replace all welfare programs with a UBI-type system. Charities would then exist to help people manage that money, get out of addictions, etc... If people are mistreated at work, they'll have the option of leaving. If a child is mistreated, child protection services (could be a charity) can move the child and those tax dollars to a better home. UBI would solve a ton of problems just by ensuring everyone has enough. If we touch billionaires' money, it should be with inheritance laws. I think we should tax all assets as if they were liquidated if they aren't donated to a qualifying charity. That's the biggest loophole I know about, and it should be closed.

That's a very specific and bold claim about Valve's internal finances. Do you have access to their private balance sheets and investment budgets? Unless you do, we're both just speculating. Factually speaking: Valve provides a massive, global storefront, handles all payment fraud and chargebacks, provides cloud storage for games, and maintains the entire friend/community network. The 30% is the price for that bundle of services. Whether that's a fair price is debatable, but the personal wealth of the CEO is a distraction from that debate.

$500 million that could have gone toward the development of Half Life 3...

Yes and before Steam the Publisher kept 60%, 30% is fine

That's Gabes money, not Valve's and you know it

Brother, go back and read the OP. You cannot claim that 30% is fair while the man camps on an Armada of yachts worth over a billion dollars. This is not a distraction, *this is the problem*. There's just no way that makes any sense.

Aren't it the devs who offer sales? Either way you just not buy something you don't need.

No, just less bad.

We're just at the point where "basically fine" is hands down better than the majority. Even if they were forced by regulation, they *followed* the regulations instead of ignoring them and fighting an insane court battle to nit pick it for the next decade. Like, valve doesn't seem to be trying to undermine democracy or somehow bring about an actively worse world. They seem to mostly obey the law and keep orderly as regulations change. If you said you wouldn't mind living Gabes life, I wouldn't think you're a sociopath. People saying that valve is great says a lot more about the rest of the companies than it does about valve, but it still leaves valve near the top of the pile.