this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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Won't even take their free 'gifts', worse than Origin when it comes to spyware and data collecting. I can't understand anyone who willingly puts EGS on their device but complains about advertisers on other platforms collecting info about them.
Yeah let's not forget this is the client that went through your Steam-installed files on your drive to see what it could offer you.
Because ads are something I dont want to see in general. EGS is something I knowingly use and want on my pc to play games. The choice is what makes it different.
Free games be damned, I’m not using it while they pay for timed exclusives and limit consumer choice.
Right? Can you imagine what they could have been if they just sold the same games as Steam but tried really hard to just be a really good platform? lol
The free games are 80% shovelware not worth playing, 15% indie experiments that have the potential to become a full game with another development iteration, and 5% AAA games that can be bought on sale for a fiver anyway.
I doubt much of their Fortnite money is actually being spent on licenses for these games. They likely negotiate some kind of "do it for the exposure" deal with the smaller developers in order to keep the flow of free games going.
Chances are the games given out for free will end up in a Humble Bundle at some point anyway. Which is when you acquire a steam key anyway.
Hold on, a platform-agnostic solution to mod integration (mod.io being one example) is now a bad thing compared to the platform-exclusive one (Steam) we usually get? Isn't it inherently better if I can get games wherever I want and still get mods instead of them being of course all locked to Steam after Steam Mod Downloader got disabled?
Curse you for offending Lord Gaben!
So that's why they're giving away all that free stuff. 🤔
Probably people who understand how to make their computer do what they want it to? You control who your software talks to.
Well, at least at the application level.
I'm going to guess the majority are people that don't care that much, rather than people with such good security knowledge that they can stop a games distribution platform from spying on them.
Also, Epic is inherently online. Like, it needs an internet connection to distribute the games. Is it even possible to use it for that whilst also stopping it from phoning home?
Well yes, they don't care that much, so I'm not see the hypocrisy you implied.
The Internet is a series of tubes. The tubes that deliver you file content are rarely the same tubes that carry usage and telemetry data. You can also open or close these tubes at will. Like a Valve!
In order to decide if they want to send you the games, they need identifying information in the form of your account, otherwise they won't give you the games, which may well be in a different "tube" (it's okay, I know they're called ports, you can use real terminology).
Any programmer worth their salt will know that the way to prevent this kind of tampering is to make the phone home data go through the same port as the account data. That way you can't block it and keep using the service. This especially makes sense since the phone home data will necessarily be tied to your account.
It's nothing to do with ports. Teach yourself how to use a hosts file and you'll be a happier user
Okay, so you're saying they can't also bundle the authentication and data collection to the same host?