this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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[–] TheGrandNagus 11 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (3 children)

Agreed. I just don't buy anything with launchers. All my friends say RDR2 is an incredible game, and I believe them.

But I've had enough ballaches with Far Cry 3, Civ VI, and GTA:V that I'm out. I've accepted I won't play that game. No more launchers.

Annoyingly, they now often add them months or years after the game releases, so you often don't even get a choice (cough GTA:V cough).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

2k removed theirs on civ6 and no launcher on civ7

I wonder why but I will take it

[–] TheGrandNagus 7 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Really? That's great news

I'll have a go of Civ6 again and pick up Civ7 plus all the DLC in 5 years when it's £4 lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago

Just pirate rdr2 if you really wanna play it.

[–] LePoisson 0 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

You're robbing yourself of an excellent experience. Like, I get how annoying that shit is but RDR2 is one of the best games I've ever played. Still go back to it on occasion.

The world is so well crafted and believable and beautiful honestly there's not many games that get me to just stop and stare at the scenery but RDR2 has that effect on you.

[–] TheGrandNagus 8 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

I know I'm missing out, big time. Everything I hear about it is good, and supposedly attention to detail is incredible. But launchers annoy me to an almost unbelievable extent.

GTA:V is also pretty great and I was really into it. When they added a launcher I opened the game, saw the new launcher/login requirement, pressed X, and never opened GTA:V again. To this day I've still not completed it, and I never will unless I find out the launcher has been removed.

Maybe I have some weird mental quirk, but for whatever reason, when I see stuff like launchers, I completely disengage. It becomes impossible for me to enjoy the content.

I'm the same with ads. On TV, I refuse to watch anything unless it's on a BBC channel (no ads in the UK). If I'm at the cinema, I will literally stand outside the screening room for 30 minutes staring at the ceiling or counting stains on the carpet until they're done. My partner even messages me when the film is about to begin, then I head inside lol.

I'd genuinely be more likely to buy a PlayStation, buy RDR2, then sell them both for a loss when I'm done than go through their PC launcher.

I realise it's not normal and I sound like a right weirdo. There's clearly something... odd with me in that regard, but I can't really shake it off. It's compulsive.

Besides, I already have so many other games that I need to play, so it's not like I'm stuck without anything to do.

[–] foggenbooty 3 points 10 hours ago

I'm very similar to you. It's the principal of the thing. For me you either use Steam as a launcher, because it's a good experience that actually adds value to my games, or you have no launcher. I do not want launchers within launchers. I do not want a weird online account I will never use to come up every time the launcher I forgot existed times out. I don't want to take 10 minutes each new game to figure out how to play with a friend. I want to install this smoothly on my Steam Deck. It's not a good experience and it's not to my benefit.

There's just something slimy about corporations trying to suck more out of you with absolutely zero value, in fact negative value in return. That's advertisments, that's lainchers, that's DRM, microtransactions, etc. All exist to the detriment of the customer and they ask you to pay for the privilege. Once you notice that you start to get a little crazy like you mentioned and avoid the insult at all costs.

[–] JigglySackles 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Honestly, it's not crazy to me. I am not as rigid about those things but I avoid them pretty hard in my own way. I don't buy stuff with a launcher either. Likewise haven't played rdr2. I block every ad I can. I don't pay for streaming unless it is completely ad free and don't habe any regular tv services. If ads are at a theater (i usually only go to ones that just don't play ads) I won't wait outside (gotta get my good seat), but I will ignore them and dick around on my phone till they stop.

[–] LePoisson 3 points 18 hours ago

You gotta be true to yourself but a couple extra minutes, if even, to boot the game because of a launcher that's integrated into steam isn't that much of a biggie.

Shit after you launch if the first time I'm pretty sure you can skip the launcher popping up, may have to use a command line argument in steam not sure but it makes it so the launcher is basically non-existent at that point.

Anyways I don't need to convince you, fine stranger, but I really would be remiss to not at least push another person to play one of my favorite games of all time.