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Cake day: May 28th, 2024

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  • But, they could, anything could happen, and then you don’t have that library anymore. Physical is the only way to truly own.

    That’s exactly my point. Steam has allowed me to OWN Half Life longer than I would have been able to with physical media. Those CDs don’t last that long. I’m not that careful.

    So the balance is “own my own stuff and all the problems that come with keeping it pristine so that it continues to work, taking up space in my house” - or the infinitesimally small chance that STEAM goes belly up. Steam has allowed me to own my games for a lot longer than I could have kept them myself. So the argument of “oh they could go away!” doesn’t really hold any water for me. Especially for games with an online component (which is all of them now) – What’s the use of physical media when the game requires some servers that vanished long ago anyways?












  • It’s not really the number of companies that determines this, but rather the lack of any real competition. A small enough number of companies makes this more likely, so there’s not likely a hard number of say…over 5 companies isn’t an oligopoly, they can still be - so long as they’re all focused on each other. If you see 1 company raise it’s prices and all 4 others do too, then it’s still an oligopoly. Because even though they aren’t actively getting together, and saying “hey let’s all raise our prices!”, (collusion) - the effect is the same.

    It ceases to be that when barriers to entry don’t stop new competition from entering, and competition is active. (at least, that’s the simplified answer; there’s some more nuance to it, but that should at least give an overall understanding)


  • I’m complaining about the lack of something real ever happening to these companies. Just because you’re too ignorant to understand what is(n’t) going on here, doesn’t mean that I’m complaining just for the sake of it.

    Duopolys aren’t any better than Monopolies, except for the illusion of choice. They’ll move lock-step in line with one another, just like duopolys do, they’ll still use the same anticompetitive practices, but instead of getting fucked by one dick, now you’re getting fucked by two.

    I’m glad you like being fucked so much that you’re rejoicing over this news, but I’d rather there be real competition.



  • kitnaht@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.worldWhat's with all the hate for Chinese phones?
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    2 months ago

    Well, when Russia is killing people who say mean things about them in other nations and not just on their territory, and China has a similar history…

    Then you’re talking about putting a device with questionable intentions that you can’t verify on your home network? On your work network?

    China has been specifically caught in the past, installing things on their devices meant for out-of-country shipment, specifically for the purposes of espionage.