Steam gets all my gaming budget, as I really try to stick to Linux.
If it ain't on steam, I don't play it, and they don't get my money.
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If it ain't on steam, I don't play it, and they don't get my money.
Games don’t need to be on Steam to be good.
If the developers have a native Linux version that I can buy directly from their site, I might do that as well to show my support (but still buy it on steam since it's just too convenient).
In my experience 99% of the games work out of the box with wine-staging, DXVK and VKD3D-Proton (which works with wine-staging just fine). No need to mess around with anything, just install wine-string, install DXVK and VKD3D-Proton and you are ready to run pretty much everything with "wine installername.exe" or "wine gamebinary.exe".
I never had to use winetricks, lutris or anything of the sort.
I also play games on Steam and even got a Steam Deck (on which i also play games i got outside from Steam), so it isn't like i am Valve-free, but you certainly do not have to tie yourself on Steam if you are gaming on Linux nor your experience will be any worse.
That sounds like a fair bit of domain-specific knowledge driven steps that could quickly got awry and lead a novice deep into frustration.
Compared to... Clicking the Play button in the Steam launcher, ideally from your Steam Deck.
It's miles apart.
It isn't something i'd recommend to some random gamer (though judging from what i've seen people do with their Steam Decks i wouldn't underestimate gamers' technical abilities).
[0] like, say, me :-P. In 2020 i used Windows as my main OS after trying to switch to Linux as my main OS in 2018 but having some issues with games, but then i ended up having some visual glitches in a game that were fixed by throwing in DXVK. At that point i thought that this might actually be a sign that gaming on Linux now works fine - and indeed it did and since then i've being using it as my practically only OS because i can both work and game on it without feeling like i'm missing anything.
If it is buggy, they play something else. There is a wide enough offer for this strategy to work really well.
Being driven to install tools to get it to run is an exceptional behaviour and a lot of hassle for anyone, windows or Linux. Nearly noone does that.
You had to go to WineHQ, look at the open issues and workarounds, and often troubleshoot issues yourself.
Lutris made the process a bit easier and then Proton made it absurdly easier.
The problem with Proton is that Steam Input is not well implemented.
I very quickly gave up and just used Lutris, copied someones settings/versions from Reddit and it worked, but I wasn't too happy. I _really_ wanted to try Diablo4, so I put up with it, but normally my patience for such things is pretty low.
I am not averse to messing around with things, I've got a pretty good idea of how things work in Linux. I've written my own .so files to fix bugs in closed source software using LD_PRELOAD. I just don't want to deal with that when gaming.
There's more to Steam than just the pre-configured proton. Their controller support stuff is top notch and so is the stream link/stream stuff. Not using steam would definitely make my experience worse.
I didn't know we got to the point where installing 3 packages was domain specific knowledge, especially for Linux users. I guess it explains why I feel s out of touch with people welcoming walled gardens with open arms.
It's interesting, I hate walled gardens due to their restrictions, but I feel no restrictions regarding Steam. If anything, it enables me to enjoy my purchases more, not less.
I'd never use an iPhone because I hate the restrictiveness of their app store and how you cannot use whatever browser engine you want. I dislike consoles for the same reasons, I hate that I need to buy a switch and play on it (with it's inferior hardware) to enjoy Nintendo exclusives (yes, I am aware I can emulate their games and get a better experience). I hate Discord because they force you to use their client and still use mumble/IRC. There are probably examples of things I avoid because I don't want to support them.
I find Valve a completely different story. They've probably done more for Linux gaming than any other company. I am personally not inconvenienced by any of their restrictions. Like I previously said, in my mind, they add value to my game purchases, not remove it. I will gladly keep giving them my money, it's probably one of the few companies that I have strong positive feelings for.
Granted, I do remember being pissed off when they forced me to install Steam to play Half-life 2 back in 2004. Back then, it was a shit walled garden that provided no value. But since then, things have changed drastically.
experiences are different. I play/read a lot of VN's and Valve's policies for approving those are like throwing darts on a board. I simply got tired of reading one VN and having its sequel mysteriously rejected a few years later. That's frustrating to both me as a gamer and the developers. I don't feel like picking up a pitchfork everytime and simply will avoid Steam whenever possible.
and on a very personal note, I find the Wine workaround as just that. another flimsy point of failure waiting until Microsoft does what it is historically known to do. It doesn't encourage much linux gaming for me nor does it make me feel like I'm supporting linux gaming by using it, because it's at the mercy of yet another conglomerate.
I don't know what most people do as i am not most people, but i already addressed my expectations and assumptions on the first paragraph of the comment you replied to.