☆Luma☆

I apologize as I seem to have made myself unclear. I’m not disagreeing or saying these security measures aren’t useful, I was just stating the fact that people can and do get through these systems and players in this case can detect them even when security measures can’t.

To your point, as that $$0.01 makes a difference, VAC bans also make a difference by preventing kiddies from jumping back in with their purchased cheat program. That’s great. However, there are ‘whales’ that don’t care for the cost, and even though they’re a small number they have an influential contribution to the negative experience these people can bring.

I’m not a security researcher or a developer so I don’t know what security measures are ever in place or what the hackers do to get through. I mostly play lots of games and once-upon-a-time would dig up free (likely infected) cheat programs that got through anti-cheat and contributed to the cycle that’s ongoing today.

I think you’re missing the point of why they’re buying cheap game keys. In fact, it sounds like you think a ‘ban’ is something bad to these players or will stop them. If it did, I’d probably be enjoying Rust still.

Not even VAC bans are perfect, although it typically stops the poor unfortunate kids who truly don’t know better at least.

Minecraft anticheat won’t be perfect either. It is a necessary and functional safe guard as is usually the case with anticheat (minus rootkits, fuck those useless tools), but people will always slip through. Note what other people in this thread are saying.

Curious - why? I’ve played LOL and the Blizzard one, but I never tried Dota 2

By the point of ‘superhuman’ gameplay, it’s less about physical reactions and more about mental foresight or gamesense. Ducking, sliding, bhopping and any tech involved to navigate… planning how your opponent will move around your positioning in relation to their own objectives… Individual players have quirks by this point that can be discovered and exploited, and you are both playing a game to discover & exploit; Deceive & switch-up.

When someone is exclusively reacting to you perfectly rather than incorporating the above, you know. It’s wildly demotivating because now we’re not playing this high-skill game, we’re playing a game of endurance since they always know player locations and will almost always get the first shot… The only two winning moves is you leave or the hacker leaves. It’s a waste of everyone’s time just for some narcissist to feel good (I can say that, I used to do it so I get the power thrill).

It sucks and anyone who’s pushed their competitive gameplay to the edge will recognize a hacker when they see one. So yes, players can tell the difference (including chess players!!), it’s the anti-cheat that can’t. Kind-of like how that one MS guy discovered a backdoor due to a 500ms delay, but a virus protector sees everything hunky-dory.

Source: used to religiously/no-life play competitively

Also, no, matchmaker will not separate these people appropriately. The cheaters will smurf just to dunk on lower-skill players. You can buy game-keys on russian websites for dirt cheap, so it’s very worth it if you have the $$$ to burn. Path of least resistance to feeling power.

Maybe my subjective take of sudden is different, but is it sudden? (aka I progressively succumb to madness over a title)

There’ve been many fantastic roguelike deckbuilders out since 2020, a little after Slay teh Spire’s official release date. It feels more like people have became aware of how fun the subgenre is after the hype Baltaro generated on streaming platforms. If anything is sudden, it’s the second-wind of attention we’re getting thanks to the above-mentioned game.

I know I’m continuing to split hairs over nothing down here, but 861 games is a little misleading once you get to the end: “Surprisingly, deckbuilders are still an underserved market”

You never know when you’ve reached the peak of a trend, but deckbuilders seem like they’re not quite there yet. Games-Stats tracks 527 roguelike deckbuilders, and Dev_Hell’s Westendorp suggests their higher-than-average revenues, wider revenue spread, and demand make them “relatively underserved as a market.”

So, there’s not 861 games, but 527 games?

If you investigate why there’s a large gap in reported game listings, it’s because Steam is including packs like [Slay the Spire x Backpack Hero] and DLC where Game-Stats is tracking the individual games (i.e, bloatless). This ties back to the title - ultimately we’re not trying to answer the literal question, “Why are there 861 roguelike deckbuilders on Steam”, because OP never answers that question. Instead, we are answering an alternative interpretation: “Why are there so many roguelike games appearing on Steam in a short amount of time?” The answer, may shock you:

While I’ve taken those answers from the article, I find it further interesting that they conclude a different question all-together: “Why are roguelike deckbuilders taking off?”

Buh, I’ve lost it. Ultimately I really liked the core article and their enthusiasm, but I’ve driven myself to madness here.

Awwh damn, sorry you lost your group of homies to a goober :( I’m glad you had other friends at the time though~ Losing everyone because of one goob sucks.

It’s not always easy to accept these behaviours though. Even after my aunt’s radical statement, I needed a lot of introspection in order to find, well, reality lol. Jesus Christ take me back

I concur with your conclusion, but I also love to balance it with a paraphrased quote who’s origin I don’t recall…

Never trust someone who says they’ve never stolen

It has two sides: Humans are corruptable, but we are also redeemable. It helps me put the humanity back on people my brain would otherwise villanize. I’m ever the optimistic ideallist though. :p

If you are exposed to lies and manipulations a lot, maybe you developed a defence mechanism against language.

I have, and for example my boss loves to fist-bump me and compliment my work. This means nothing to me because I know he’s a POS scum human through his actions.

My aunt is one of the loveliest people in the world, yet she let slip once that she befriends people because they’re useful to her. She’s nothing but smiles and good gestures, yet it’s only to use and discard you, as I’ve observed throughout her life. She meant it. Thanks, wine.

My father is in jail for basically being Andrew Tate.

Compliments can be real, and they definitely feel more real when they’re still expressed behind your back, but from my experience humans are generally playing a shitty social game. That’s why rude people are so great - you’re actively putting yourself at a disadvantage in our relationship just to express yourself? Fuck yeah, preach your feelings buddy!

I’m the wanderer.

Terrible story, I went to a foreign city with some friends and got black out on tequila for the first and last time. Apparently I left our motel without letting anyone know to go perform urban parkour. I somehow failed to clear a 2nd floor jump and based on the imprint in my one shoe, landed entirely with my right heel. Clean break.

My phone log showed that instead of calling anyone I was with or maybe medical assistance, I tried to call my boss 3 times before giving up entirely. I only have memory of some nurses later asking if I wanted to go to a hospital, but I denied them and slept it off. Guess I was found eventually, lol.

Mayhaps. My brain becomes mush when multiple people talk to me, so all the laptop information in my brain disappeared. I awkwardly followed the conversation and ended up buying what was suggested since the only thing on my mind I could think was “I need a laptop”

I was looking for a little notebook. I needed something for work that was very portable, but this is clunky and heavy. Good for thwackin’ I guess.

I normally buy online just to avoid this, but I wanted to check out the local store for convenience. It was an ambush I’m telling ya!

That sounds fun, but I was (and still am) an idiot and locked myself out on the bios. I’ve reset locks on bios before, but as I’ve discovered recently, Acer found out you can charge people for the privilege instead.

At that point, I’ll simply use this as a learning experience and continue exploring Arch. Another bevi of copium for me, please.

You can’t ask questions later if you don’t shoot first!

Eww, removing Windows was the first thing I did. It’s running Manjaro and was my first jump into Linux actually.

Revive? No, but it’s the life support it needed.

My $500 laptop I panic bought after an employee started talking to me

It’s incapable of anything and stutters when I start Firefox. I have a freebie laptop I got from Telus 10+ years ago that runs better than this off-the shelf laptop.

I couldn’t in good-conscience sell this to make my money back either… sigh… at least it keeps me focused on work…?

So I’ve been told, but I’ve always done best with brutish force. I’m very habitual, so I don’t want to put myself into a position where I may end up drinking more coffee.

I had a sip of some non-caffeinated coffee once and it tasted bleh so I haven’t bothered looking for alternatives. I’d rather play mental gymnastics in my own gym, if that makes sense.

What’s some good tea to look out for?

I’m trying to cut out coffee and tea is one of my weaknesses. So soothing…

But the whole point for me is to avoid caffeine entirely, so resist I must. And if I may quote the comic,

IT FUCKING SUCKS

I saw overwhelmingly positive so I bought it. It has been a blast!

When the free HD DLC section is filled with people BEGGING to pay someone for their work, you know you’ve found something good

Purchasing it still supports the use of Denuvo so I’ll play someday maybe, but I will not support the practice with my money.

Cool, I caught my first jetragon heavily underleveled at 0.2% with perfect speed passives, I can’t even grab it when it deploys in base.

Where’s my article?

BC budtender. My managers are out-of-touch crazies that enabled tipping (5%/10%/25%) because, ‘they feel bad we don’t make much money’, paraphrased.

That’s great, love hearing that from my lake-house owning mega-rich hippie manager, but I’ve already posted a rant here about how my month’s wage of part-time work is easily paid in a day of work with their ludicrous profit margins. 50% on cannabis where I saw 30% in the liquor industry. They can pay me a livable wage, they choose not to.

I have compounding evidence that they’re shitty people wearing masks of integrity and compassion and I hate it.

Greed sucks :(