Valve has done some good things for the game industry: they encouraged modifications, and made some good games.
However, I feel as if the gaming community praises Valve too much.
- The gaming community praises Valve’s monopoly on game distribution services.
That’s about it though.
Valve isn’t a bad company compared to others, but I still prefer to use GOG, because of Steam DRM.
Also, while I mostly blame Blizzard for making them a popular practice, don’t forget that it was Valve that invented loot boxes.
valves (tf2) loot box experiment was the only one such that has been fair to users as well. the true frustration is how blizzard dumbed down tf2 by turning every weapon into its own class. threw everything out the window that made it a great game (such as clever map design with more complex choke point structure), and then marketed it like crazy and took the entire market with an inferior product like overwatch. and of course, as with all things blizzard, with predatory loot boxes.
tf2 is an incredible game by design. it’s truly a shame all these clones are basically cheap copies made for quick profit with zero innovation and were all practically abandoned right after launch.