Steam
Kaldaien, creator of Special K deletes his Steam account after 20 years.
Discussion
Claims Epic and game subscriptions is the way to go… ouch
Hope he enjoys discussing his mods with people on the EGS forums. Oh wait…
Kaldaien has always been a clown...but this...this is rich even for him.
Sharing my bias here before sharing my opinion, I hate Epic but like Game Pass.
Thinking Epic is the way to go is one thing, from a certain point of view I can understand that argument, but to say game subs are a way to go is insane. Game subs can be great for the consumer but there are clearly very risky pitfalls to it if it becomes THE way to play games.
I think the other way, I can understand why you would think game subs are the future, but Epic is just worse Steam. Why would it topple it lol
Game subs might be the future, but it's not a future we should want. At least not with game subs being the only/ main way to play games.
I like it how it is now, how is a OPTION. I don't want it to dominate.
Kaldaien fucking loves DRM and screwing the players, subscriptions are the best way to lock people out of a product on a whim
Game subs aren't sustainable.
It will become Netflix 2.0,
Absolutely not. Quite the opposite as in practically free money. It's not like netflix where you have to actively stream terabytes of data.
Account sharing is basically a none issue already due to how game pass works.
Terminally on-line gamers like us reddits make up a tiny part of this market.
My friend plays only chivalry 2 and palworld. He plays VERY rarely so he doesn't want to pay for the game. But he's had game pass for probably 3 years now, enough to buy the games many times over.
Technically neither is the amount of games I’ve bought on steam and never played/returned either.
I spent $5000 over the last 10 years. That’s game pass for 40 years. Certainly there’s an opportunity cost balancing in there somewhere.
That's game pass PC for 40 years.
Also, how many of those games will ever even be on GamePass? How many of them would be on GamePass at the time you wanted to play them? How many will be delisted? Etc.
GamePass, I think, is a lot more valuable if you don't really care about what game you play and just use gaming as a way to kill time.
Netflix is a good way to look at the risks. All great at the beginning. But then suddenly good things get cancelled, prices for subscriptions get increased, ads are introduced and the ad times get increased more and more until it’s as bad or worse than television.
Or look at Geforce Now. At the beginning it was cheap and too good to be true. Now it’s limited to 100 hrs a month, prices have doubled and after 100 hrs you will see ads.
Consumers are allowed good things only for a limited time until it gets terrible with very few exceptions. Capitalism sucks a lot.
I see game subs the same way I see Netflix.
Netflix was good and worthwhile when it was one of the only services that was cheap and offered access to basically everything. The moment other companies jumped in with their on subscriptions and gated content, Netflix quickly went from a good deal to a bad deal.
This is what's gonna happen to game subscriptions like Game Pass the moment people start accepting them as the norm.
It already happened in a similar way with Ubisoft attempting to gate all their games behind the Ubisoft Launcher. As well as Paradox to some degree.
I prefer Humble Choice to game pass as the games stay with you. Once you stop subscribing you do not lose anything.
Granted you do not get access to huge liblary right away. But in a year you even start having backlog and Pause or right away cancelation is there.
The large library is great, it expands the games that I try (Which I likely would have never tried if the only option was to pay for them), however for me that's a bonus. What sets GP apart for me is the day one games, including Microsoft games.
But I do get what you are saying and you are right, Humble Choice is better because you actually get to keep the game.
I’ve got hundreds of free games over the years from epic and don’t even claim them any more.
Game pass is so cheap if you actually use it - especially if you have some staples in your owned backlog for when you’re not running a subscription.
I agree with him completely- from both a player and dev perspective.
I actually feel games should be free first and foremost for a variety of reasons- that is not to say without monetization- but the heart of it lies in the same reasoning of why the community has grown against pre orders. How can you know you like a game without playing it, a lot of games are bad, our time is precious especially juxtaposed to the amount of entertainment out there that IS free.
Gaming exists in this quasi superficial state where their creative content, irrespective of literally the entire rest of the creative content industry, demand a specific baseline amount revenue- individual and as a whole.
Arguably this could be because of the lack of good monetization strategies games can take, along with terrible discoverability- most devs would rather take the shortcut and apply a price they believe deserving of their game. When in reality your game is serving as an advertisement piece to your larger studio, assuming it’s not a means to an end. That is to say, if you’re not a big name player- your sole focus should be on getting your games into the hands of people not charging $60 because you seen some failing studio rerelease a 15 year old game on the switch 2 as ‘new’ for the same $60. List it for $15, take the cut- and win hearts. That’s why Minecraft has been downloaded like 5 times by some people (myself included).
Considering that landscape is not the case, and games, along with their unique creative demands, continue to price gouge and ask the highest prices. That being so, give your money to epic or game pass who are actively working on a better consumer market through lowering the cost of games by offering them at an effective lower price- subscription/free.
I actually feel games should be free first and foremost for a variety of reasons- that is not to say without monetization- but the heart of it lies in the same reasoning of why the community has grown against pre orders. How can you know you like a game without playing it, a lot of games are bad, our time is precious especially juxtaposed to the amount of entertainment out there that IS free.
I would rather we get Demos back, but since it actually takes development time to make demos a easy solution that doesn't require extra work from the developer is timed access. Like Steam's 2 hour return period. Sure some developers might make sure the stuff you can do in the 2 hours is polished while the rest of the game is crap or they could artificially gate you from the real game so they can hide the real condition of the game, but those companies would be quickly identified and made known to do this. With a timed access ability you would at the very least be able to know that the game runs on your hardware and how well it runs, you would also be able to tell if a game is completely broken. The game from a gameplay/story side might still turn out to be total garbage but at least you will know that it functions.
The issue is that for the companies that this is needed the most, the EAs and Ubisofts of the world they have little incentive to do this because they want you to buy their broken mess and be stuck with it. From smaller companies 2 hours might be a very large part of their game and after you have tried it out you might just feel like you have had your fill and don't need to go back. So it ends up hurting small companies while not helping against the abusers in the gaming industry.
I am fine with giving my money to GP/MS (Though I disagree with your opinion on Epic) as things stand now, but I am afraid of what could be in the future if we keep heading that way. Things could get worse for us, by us owning our games even less and the prices going up (Ala Netflix). And things can also get worse for developers as customers get accustomed to this system which could mean that they earn less money, since MS/Epic/Others aren't giving the developers/publisher the full price for their games, but also developers being forced to make games for a sub system.
As long as it doesn’t turn into a situation like movies where you literally CANT buy licensed movies online then I’m hoping consumers prevail!
As for your 2 hour idea I think that is wholefully ingenious! If games do it themselves I think that would be so ingenious- going forward I’m going to implement limited time release betas going forward. Thanks for that!
In light of some better news, I like how some places are trying to make it easier for smaller devs to create games! Like the team behind terraria and such!
Cheers
Epic is more generous with developers who use their storefront, but that's the only thing they really have going for them. Even with the greater revenue split, most devs prefer either the exposure on Steam or the more-or-less total freedom of Itch.io
If you looked at the offered number then yes, Epic is better for developers/publisher, but if you look at the ACTUAL numbers (as in what you get from sales) then Epic is terrible because very few people are actually spending money on EGS. Most of them are just there for the free games. Sad thing is that the free games aren't even helping the developers/publishers.
Sometimes you might give away your (aging) game for free so that people try it and are hooked and want to get the sequel (or another game made by you), but that sequel isn't free. So the people that want to play it that now love what you have made are that much more likely to spend money on the new game, but with how people have been using EGS that doesn't happen because a majority of people on there claim the games but then never even play them, so they never get to that hooked state that makes them more likely to spend money on the sequel.
So all that developer/publisher has done is given away their game for free (yes Epic pays them a percentage/large share of money of what the game might have made normally, but it's nowhere near the "actual" amount and in exchange their game just sits in the library rotting away never creating new customers.
That is until the game later releases on another platform, when it finally makes some money, but again nowhere near what it would have made because a certain share of the gamers would have just written your game off for being exclusively released on EGS initially, then another share expects the game to be sold for less because it's no longer new, a share would have just moved on and forgotten about your game and is instead playing whatever else is the new hot game and then FINALLY you have a share of people that will buy and play game game.
What’s wrong with epic
I have their installer for the trails games I think. Pretty random and crazy to see this.
He did trails too? I thought he just did tales
Ah it was for tales lol. Sometimes I mix the two up.
Both great series lol
I’ve never beaten a game for either one. Every time I start playing the first trails and tales of symphonia I get distracted with other games. Maybe I should try a different tales game but I’m Not sure.
Tales great JRPG series, and yeah I also lose focus too, which I should go back play few others to finish. I beaten symphonia on gamecube, wish I beaten sequel on the Wii got sidetracked with x360 and work back then.
Try a different tales then like arise I wouldn't recommend playing trails games out of order since all of those games are an interconnected epic but the 4th game in their series is considered the best
Yeah I’ve seen people say you should either start from the beginning or the cold steel games. Maybe the remake will be better for me
Maybe I should try a different tales game
You should try to concentrate, lol.
I did but maybe the game wasn’t interesting enough for me when I was playing so I should try another.
Trails in the Sky is getting a full remake, so that should help some with the fact that the original has... "not aged gracefully".
I heard about that. Hope it’s good.
I kid you not. I read his whole wall of text thoroughly.
I don't know why but skilled "volunteer developer" like him or Empress (the last person who can crack Denuvo) are unhinged and throwing tantrums here and there?
Back in the day when I have lowspec PC, I used his Nier Automata "mods/fixes". But, the way he responds to almost anyone on steam discussion on every games that have his "SpecialK mods" whether that person was polite or not, he always responds with passive aggressive tone or should I say being a dick. Leaving a bad taste in my mouth to this day.
It's almost the same like Empress (mind you, I never pirate any games since 2010 or something, but watching her tantrums was a sight to behold).
What "creating something for free to some community" can do to your mental health and social skills.
I don't know why but skilled "volunteer developer" like him or Empress ... are unhinged and throwing tantrums here and there?
You only hear about the unhinged ones.
There's plenty of skilled people doing amazing things you don't hear about.
There's no one else cracking denuvo games, that's why people put up with empress
Empress isn’t cracking denuvo anymore. Hasn’t been for a while now.
I know, but it's the only reason people put up with their crazy rants when they were.
Not really, Denuvo games haven't really been cracked since Empress disappeared
No there isn't. Empress is the only person that can actually crack these.
Isn't there a dude who comes out of there hole every year to crack FIFA and/or football manager
He has always been a dick
His mods gave him such a overinflated sense of self. As time went on he became more and more full of his own shit.
Any minor slight he would throw full blown nuclear tantrums.
His “fans” kept giving him passes for his unceasing childish behavior. This just kept fueling his stupidity
This is 100% his ego and nothing more. He’s a man child and always has been. He’s just making more echo chambers for himself to make himself more self important than he really is.
This isn’t a loss. It’s just a child breaking his console to spite his parents and then whining back at the kindergarten playground his parents made him do it
I've been on his Discord for a while but I don't think I've ever seen any of the mods doing that, infact, I'm pretty sure I saw most of them, including the creator of the Frontend giving him flak for that problem of his(the latter which has left the ""team"" since they didn't wanna deal with Kal anymore).
Imo there's very valid concerns being put here, but he really, really needs to fix his behaviour.
Note when I said mods I meant the programs he’s making. That these programs made him think he was some king shit and that we should all worship the ground he walks on because of them
K has always been a man child who literally thinks the world owes him to be crowned king of the universe because of a few programs he made.
This is just more of his unhinged behavior and further isolating himself into tiny enclaves where he can he is “god”. Anyone who slights him gets yelled at. So they leave. This means anyone left further becomes just yes men in fear of retribution. As you yourself pointed out, his own moderation team can’t stand this man child and people are leaving because of it. This will result in more of what you thought I meant over time.
He will just as quickly throw Epic or any other platform under his own bus the nano second they do any changes that minorly inconvenience him.
His programs don’t give him a pass for being a grade A asshole. There’s a reason no one who is “above” him cares about his stuff. It’s because he’s an insufferable twat. There is a reason no one listens to him.
A lot of Skyrim modders seem to have had similar issues. Arthmoor and his Unofficial Patches comes to mind. Though, like the other replies have mentioned, most people don't end up like them.
You should see the shit Final Fantasy XIV (paid) modders get up to. Doxxing, suicide baiting, racism, the list is endless
A switch flips in people's minds when they get a large audience for a niche hobby sometimes it seems
Oh yea. Ego tripping is insane.
Someone people reason that, because they're doing something that is helping others, they can be mean to those people (or in general).
I see it all the time in tech/gaming forums/subreddits/discords. Just vile people who, if you confront them about it, respond in a manner of "This is why I shouldn't be helping people, nobody appreciates it".
Seen it so many times.
I see, dude had a big ego. Reminds me of pirate software
Clever people are usually insane.
Dr House?
But at the same time his mods did fix a lot of games. I didn’t fault his behavior, dealing with people is hard.
Cherry picking 2 people is a bit silly mate, there’s thousands of people who don’t throw tantrums for every one that does
It's not actually free if you account thousands of dollars they make from donations .
Sometimes when you are the master of your own — even niche — domain, you can attract a group of devotees that encourage and feed into any mental instability or sense of self importance.
I'm currently treating my mental issues, I was a gifted kid in school and I gotta be honest, the peak of my performance was when I was the worst person I've ever been.
Guy felt the need to clarify he doesn’t pirate anymore
who?
Idk who that is
Who and what and why?! I mean...delete your steam account is a big step. He could've just didnt log into it anymore, right? Right!?
As far as I remember when he setup shop on Steam with his tool, he got himself community banned, not sure what it was for, or why but things went south from there years ago. His tool was also removed from sale as well.
I don't see main complaint with the ps5 controller aspect which, if Steam overlay issue for ps5 controller he has the option to tell client not interfere with game own controller support, or can disable overlay as a whole for said game.
Also to add he talk about Steam not following on promise giving end of life DRM free pass which is odd because when look it up the past that wasn't promised at all for any OS.
The Steam Input complaints are just kind of nonsense. Nothing even comes close to the functionality of Steam Input. I have issues with it being baked into the Steam API and not its own system, but that's not what he's complaining about.
When native support provides additional features (like how the Dualsense has adapative triggers) then developers can mark the game as such, and it'll disable Steam Input for the Dualsense for those games. That's the default behaviour too. Plus you can still disable it (or even force it on) per game yourself.
The Steam Input complaints are just kind of nonsense. Nothing even comes close to the functionality of Steam Input.
He is sharing his view from a developer standpoint, because Steam hooks all controllers by default, which can sometimes break controller support for non-Steam games. It's why he said this:
Without those stores adding unwanted code that requires patching the store's client to properly disable, open-source projects like DS4Windows operate free from interference from obnoxious proprietary software.
Ideally Steam's interference shouldn't affect end users negatively, since Steam Input is useful for people playing games on Steam, but sometimes it can result in undesirable side effects. I browsed his Github post and saw that he linked to his ValvePlug project, and while he uses ranty language there too, he has points. Valve should just offer an option to disable controller hooking altogether (on a technical level, not toggling Steam Input for games after the fact, that is different). Such an option does not exist yet in the Steam client.
Valve should just offer an option to disable controller hooking altogether (on a technical level, not toggling Steam Input for games after the fact, that is different).
They did, specifically in response to him asking for it on the forums. It was added last year, May of 2024.
If you launch steam with the option -nojoy on your steam launch arguments, it disables all hooks that grab a controller. His mod even utilizes it.
However: using `-nojoy` is going to break games that only ships with Steam Input API (that includes Valve's very own selected games) in the process.
i know Kalden and some wanted it to be a toggle, but that toggle is considered a dangerous one that probably need a safetynet. there's a reason PopOS added a safetynet after LinusTechTips unintentionally broke Pop_OS.
I think it's more he's complaining when there is a lack of choice, or it's the thing games default to. For example, Street Fighter 6 supports XInput, cool. However...it still uses Steam Input.
For. Every. Fucking. Controller. Doesn't matter if you have an Xbox controller, it'll use Steam Input, not XInput.
Then there's the games where the XInput support is there, but the sole fact Steam Input is there breaks the fallback to XInput, and even if you end up disabling Steam Input(or can't use it) you have no choice but...not use a controller.
what exactly is the problem with steam input? There are two types of steam input from what i know. One is implemented on the game (marked as steam input icon on the store page) and the other is normal steam input from the steam client that makes every controller into xinput device (for dualsense support on old games with only xinput)
Okay I'll put an easier to digest example of what he's complaining about:
The game uses Steam Input. Cool. That's awesome! But...maybe I don't want to use it, maybe the Steam client broke and suddenly doesn't wanna work properly, or it fucks up with the controller for no reason... Cool, let's disable Steam Input! I'll even use my Xbox controller to make sure it still works!
Except it doesn't. Because Steam Input is a requirement to use the controller, and either the fallback code broke, or the developer didn't implement one. There.
okay got it. Thanks.
Xinput doesn't work even when you disable when input?
I think the problem with that is that there's two instances, FROM WHAT I'M UNDERSTANDING at least: - It's ALWAYS gonna interfere with his controller, even with the option disabled. The command line that disables Steam Input(yes, that exists, I forgot what it was) entirely is probably what he needs, BUT, that causes a problem for instance B. - ...Some games doesn't let you use a controller without Steam Input. No. Really. There's no fallback to any API. Not even XInput which has been a standard for YEARS.
That very weird because the games with controller support I seen allows you use controller without overlay unless game dev never added support, or game dev chooses not support PlayStation controllers to begin with which why have to use ds4windows.
I don't have PS5 controller personally, I do have PS4 & PS3 controller, and not sure what game he could possibly be having the issue. I see he mention Capcom, but hard to say, I have very few friend with ps5 controllers, but I could give a shout out to them in particular for game in question about it. But I don't doubt his complaint as Capcom has done things before that mess with things.
For instance B, that is unfortunately very real...the most famous instance of this was Tales of Arise, but the most recent that I can at least think of is Inazuma Eleven Victory Road.
I was trying to archive some stuff from it given the Beta was taken down, and since I didn't have Steam open I realized that...my controller just didn't work like it did when the beta was still up, so I automatically assume that, like I said, there's no fallback, to something AS BASIC AS XINPUT.
So yeah, I don't blame him for having concerns. Sure, maybe a majority of users may not notice it or be oblivious to problems happening but...it's definitely there.
I downloaded Tales of Arise, it just works with my xbox one, and gamesir g7 se controllers.
- Disable & enable Steam overlay.
- Switch between borderless, and full-screen no changes.
- Started game up 1st then connected my controller which game pick it up after few seconds.
I don't have INAZUMA ELEVEN: Victory Road, don't plan buy it either at full price, plus not even out yet for 6 more weeks, there pre-access but that doesn't start until 18th of aug. Is there a chance I might be doing something wrong to not replicate the issue, or it strictly just PS5 controller issue? Just let me humor you, got an ideas I should try besides ps5 controller?
When you said beta you mean game demo by chance? I want to dig into this bit more out of my own curiosity.
As far as i remember, you can use the steam CLI to install and run games on Windows 7. It is merely the Chromium based Pc App that was discontinued there, because Chromium itself was discontinued on Windows 7/8. And the promise of End of Life plans that i know of always talks about steam permanently going offline, not having support for an out of date, dead OS cancelled
Not tryna be an asshole but a tip, learn the past and future tense for certain words, it’ll make your paragraphs a little bit easier to understand. Like “he talked about” instead of “he talk about”
Seriously I’m not trying to be mean, so I hope no one takes it that way.
I find that Special K is mostly placebo, but people claim it's really good. Don't know, any of the game I've tried it with didn't improve anything, and worst it always crashes at some point, no matter what. Dude's a dick though, and defending EGS and Microsoft Store over Steam is outright stupid. But whatever, good riddance...
I hate defending assholes in any format, but I'm not sure why you'd think they were placebos, when one of the main reasons I'd ever use SpecialK was to fix aspect ratios for ultrawide monitors on games that didn't have ultrawide support natively. Although there's usually better alternatives out there these days and I haven't touched anything from them in nearly a decade around the time of Nier Automata launch. Dude is a dick though like you said and totally wrong about EGS, Game Pass and Steam.
My bad, I was mainly referring to the performance part of Special K, don't have ultrawide so never used it. Still, the thing crashes on me all the time, no matter the game or computer, that's why I never use it.
Yeah, that makes sense then. I also never noticed any performance boosts or anything like that.
Not placebo at all, way back then it was the only way to make NieR Automata run decent because Square Enix didn't give a fuck. It was specifically the LoD and such that thanks to him, you could turn it down and finally be able to run proper especially on poop PCs. It took literal years till SE fixed it.
I never liked the guy, he always had this superior morality about everything but it was the only available tool. He'd call people who pirated pure garbage and whatnot, and when given the but there's people from the third world argument, he didn't give a fuck lol. In fact he put special stuff in his mod so people who pirated wouldn't be able to use it. Which was dumb anyway cause it had quick fixes but still.
Don't know anything about the creator or how it affects other games, but for a few years Special K was the only way to play NieR:Automata without constant stutters, bugged resolution, or a 60FPS cap. It also served as the framework for most mods, but the game was updated a few years ago and no longer requires Special K.
Mate try that setting with that latent sync inside there's this two percentage setting that reduces latency so much in cases where you have a little extra fps. If you tried that I guarantee you will be surprised.
Bought out by Epic. Gross
I don't know why we should care that the creator of some Kellog's cereal deleted his Steam account !
I'm more surprised that the guy behind that cereal has had a Steam account for 20 years
Even if the body knows they’re just sugar flakes they can still work.
The only instance I used Special K was while playing Nier Automata - and I didn't use it much at all because immediately after I first tried it, the game was patched to make it on par with the Gamepass version.
I know that some mods for different games use it as well, but I won't be bothered by this development very much.
Though his attitude reminds me of the BwE guy Louis Rossman has been railing against.
I haven't taken much of a proper read but: Seems he's spreading his disatissfaction with how decades of troubleshooting, information on game issues, steps/instructions on fixing games, documentation on his tool and more were just completely deleted from the platform instead of just being in a "unlisted" state(despite stating they never would delete the content) – Plus how Valve has handled Steam Input over the past few years in lieu of new problems(this one, I can kind of corroborate((is that the right word?)), given I also have been facing issues with Steam Input as a moderator of the PPSSPP Discord, as users with certain controllers tend to have issues with using their gamepads while Steam is open. But I think that's another completely different problem altogether from his complaints).
There is probably more here, but these were the main things that caught my attention, when I took a quick read, while my ISP was still working a minute ago...
i've read through a lot of it. I think some of his concerns are valid, but honestly im just getting a lot of "old man yells at cloud" vibes from it.
"business models like Ubisoft+, EA Access and Game Pass represent far greater value to consumers."
... unless a game that can't be sold anymore for whatever reason can still be delivered and played if you "bought" it on steam. In game passes, it will simply vanish forever.
"... buying from Microsoft Store to take advantage of their cross-platform license"
... or buying from Valve for their cross OS license ...
I know, by the letter of the rules, I seem to not have bought my games on steam, but for me, Steam is close enough - given that today, physical games are a minority.
Fwiw this person absolute Scizo, even on steamdb discord he got banned
why should anyone care?
Always been a creepy anti-consumer fruitcake and this isn't astray their norm.
This person went out of their way to add malware to software meant only to modify a game's graphics if the mod detected piracy, meaning it needed code to detect piracy in addition to the malware code all additional to what you thought you downloaded it to do; even if you never pirate ever, would you really want their software on your system?
I won't miss them and neither should you.
I didn't know what Special K was until FFX. Honestly it's a game changer and I hope it doesn't mean he's quitting.
I don't think it means he's quitting, just that he's no longer supporting Steam versions of games EDIT: ...As much. The content deletion was a while ago but he has tried to give minimal support from what I recall.
Thanks for sharing. Seems like they have their own issues..
I had a browse at his github. Are the projects still there or not? Or where can I find them. I am not really literate when it comes to this kinda stuff.
More specifically they sure saved FFX for me on steam.
I dunno how I am ever gona play it again for now..
I think he had to make a new repository but it's definitely around. EDIT: by the way this doesn't mean Special K is gone, though
Ohhh alright, gotcha. Thanks for the added explanation.
Alright I will try poke around Google more then for the stuff.
I guess this is what I get for not keeping clearer tabs on stuff I like. I think I had only favourited the steam guide that linked to his stuff. I can't find it now somehow I think.
Other than that, alright thanks once again!
Yeah. You can't find it because Valve deleted it, even though they promised not to do so.
That's why he deleted his account.
Creator of the cereal? Special K?!
Simping for Epic which lobbied against game ownership... what an absolute cunt.
"I buy games from Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store and GOG precisely because those stores have no bloated features unrelated to DRM crammed down your throat" Microsoft Store on the same sentence LMAO
Hey blick twice if you're being hostage by Tim Sweeney
Hope he enjoys the feature rich store that Epic provides. Oh wait. Its shit.
This dude is batshit insane.
Calling Steam "the DRM program"
Saying the vast majority of PC game sales going through Steam has "irreparably fractured" the PC gaming community
Yearning for the days of downloading random patch exe files from shareware sites and trusting they aren't just straight up malware
Raging that he can't play fucking Win98 games "on original hardware"
He's a dipshit, and SpecialK hasn't been relevant for years.
I would rather pay a fraction of the price to play a game for one month than pretend digitally distributed games have the lifespan of a boxed physical product. You can consume the entirety of a game within one month and pay an appropriate amount of money for the ephemeral service offered.
I mean, that’s all I need to hear from this guy to disregard his opinion.
He’d rather own a game even less?
Interesting he has a big enough problem with Steam’s DRM to throw away thousands of dollars and time but was caught in multiple community hubs on Steam slurping on Denuvo. Honestly good riddance.
Isn’t this the same dude that drmed his own mods? He should shut up about bloat. It’s so delusional
He also at times implemented malware into the mod if the mod detected the game itself was pirated.
That's just completely false
I knew him. He has issues, his software was good though
respectfully I don't know who that is......
I just knew him because of DoA mods.. And I no longer play it, doesn't really miss anything actually.
I didn't know they sold cereal on Steam!
Special K? the cereals?
You would think a mod creator would want to be where the gamers are.
He'll be back in couple of days before its permanently deleted
Corpo sellout, he wont be missed
Why do I care what some cereal mogul has to say about video games?
Yawn...so anyway
Lol what a dumbass explanation
He's technically right, but, as far as practical use goes, it just doesn't matter to me or probably most other gamers. I do sort of agree that it would be good to be able to select which version of any software we want to install. There's plenty of reasons why someone would want to play an older version. But at the same time steam also makes overall security one of their highest priorities. Patching for security reasons is extremely difficult to do if you also have to account for every version of a game, especially games that receive frequent updates. Should we be able to cherry pick every single version even if it's patched multiple times a week? That's a significant increase in server space across the market so probably not. And if they're only going to support some versions of any given game who decides which versions they'd support? One of the goals of steam is to keep things secure and compatible for as many users as possible and since most users are on something much more recent than Windows 98, this is to be expected.
The only thing that kind of stuck out as a red flag is that controller compatibility would get nerfed overtime. But again there may be very valid security reasons for locking down controller support especially if the controller API can be hijacked by a bot to cheat.
It just seemed to me for all his complaints about what valve does, that valve may have a very valid utilitarian reason for doing so.
Who? Most of us never heard of him.
oh ok, anyways ..
I’ll be honest I thought it was special k the cereal brand and thought it was really weird for the creator to have a steam account
who?
Complains about drm. Glucks a subscription thsts requires a drm. ????????
If he didn’t value it after that long then I won’t either.
Dude is unhinged and mentally ill
K
This guy’s so old school he prefers compact disk DRM over steam DRM - whats his problem with it?
Special K? The cereal? Good source of fiber but why does my cereal box have a steam account?
Dude sounds like he spent too much time worrying and whining about DRM and shit instead of just enjoying and playing games.
Special K is the best non-sugary breakfast cereal tbh
Is Steam perfect? No. Is it better than everything else by far? absolutely.
Idk who tf that is, nor do I care. Being mad at valve for not giving actual ownership of games, and praising subscription services like game pass at the same time, is one of the craziest takes I’ve seen in the industry.
I’m not going to pretend like i understand the whole DRM thing whatsoever. But my understanding is valve doesn’t enforce it, it’s the game publishers choice. So I don’t get why anyone would be mad at valve instead of the publishers. And isn’t the basic idea just a method of proving that you’re the one that bought the game?
As far as the whole lack of ownership over digital games thing - I won’t pretend I know what I’m talking about there either. But I hope that things change on that front in the coming years. Seeing movements like stop killing games gaining traction gives a smaller glimmer of hope for change in other areas of the industry. It would be nice if my collection of digital games felt more secure and substantial, and I wasn’t at risk of the thousands I’ve spent on them over the years just going down the drain
Literally who??
I believe that's already a breakfast cereal sir.
The only Special Ks I know are cereal and horse tranquilizers. What is this about?
Thats fucking hilarious
This is a HUUUGE loss in my opinion. I've been using special k for so many years, so many games... Such an awesome tool. For example, I have a 120hz monitor and to run games smoothly at half refresh rate I've always relied on special k to do the job.
I really hope this isn't the end of the story or the project. Maybe people at steam will see this and reach out or something.
I don't think it's the end of him making Special K/supporting it. Just that Steam builds of the games will most likely be ignored/we won't see fixes for games only on Steam.
I don't know, sounds to me like someone's pretty fed up
Someone contributes positively by making games play and run better, and the comments here are a mess of people saying who cares or making jokes. You're all shitheads honestly.
His work is pretty good, but he always interact with people like a grade A asshole, due to which, I honestly don't use any of his stuff, although, again, it's pretty good.
Might wanna refer to this old thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/i3tuaq/steams_moderation_has_responded_to_kaldaiens/
As for my opinion on it, good riddance.
Yeah, it's the main thing I tried pointing out to him, like I realized he doesn't...really see it that way? But it's still gonna affect him. I tried advising him to maybe keep commenting that stuff to someone a bit more professional about it...specially given how someone was trolling/baiting him into being like that to get reports in.
The majority of people don’t seem to know who he is.
Operating on the default assumption that everyone already knows and more importantly cares is the most Reddit thing ever.
I don’t know about this person either but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna be a dick about them lol
Because the majority of people (including myself) here have no idea who or what he is, and a decision to just delete his supposed gem of a product and his account with it over some unresolved issues that majority had any idea were happening is stupid.
I guess, if there is one thing I always tried to tell him is like, no matter how he(Kaldaien) views it, some of his comments or thoughts may come off as rude or "assholeish", even if I think that's not exactly his intention...more that he's an easy person to trigger? So I wouldn't blame if someone commented on that. Though, someone seems to have realized he's like that, and kept trying to trigger him intentionally...to try and get a free report off him.
But yeah, it's a shame to see thats though it sucks more that Valve deleted all of those posts, I wonder just how much documentation was archived.
some of his comments or thoughts may come off as rude or "assholeish", even if I think that's not exactly his intention...
Yes, some other things he said are not helping either:
I buy games from Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store and GOG precisely because those stores have no bloated features unrelated to DRM crammed down your throat.
business models like Ubisoft+, EA Access and Game Pass represent far greater value to consumers.
whether your friends online bought the game from the same store as you did (thank you Epic for partially addressing this).
This is the first time in my life hearing somebody praising the Microsoft Store and EA Games, and defending subscription models for their value to customers...
I honestly think he just had a massive meltdown.
Yeah, guy's gone. Fuck him.
I always knew he was a hacker and couldn't be trusted to install the dll in the computer
If he's against DRM, why not move to GOG? Bro moved from Steam DRM to Epics DRM
[deleted]
Except that is completely wrong, the store nor the devs have anything to do with licensing, it's the publisher who is the sole license holder.
I can agree with GoG being the best place, but then going out and say MS Store or Epic....
Wasn't there even a case with Nier Automata that got him in trouble?
Something with malware he basically baked into his "Special K" so that it deletes "unauthorized copies of the game", or something like that?
Every modder that fucks with your computer that way, no matter the case, can't be trusted anyway. You never know when they have the next meltdown and do something much worse.
Misinformation from people that don't know how to pirate videogames properly. Hell, the ones that do it properly even made a thread showing not only that it works fine, but how to make those faulty cracks work.
This guy has been a bitch for 20 years
What a Klown.
Who? And why should anyone care?
Created well-known fixes for... - NieR: Automata - NieR: Replicant - Monster Hunter: World - Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition - Tales of Berseria
And also for...
- Elden Ring
- Chrono Cross
- Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+
- ELEX II
- Persona 4 Golden
- Secret of Mana
- Tales of Vesperia
- Dragon Quest XI
And a few more...there's way too many to list, and I don't keep track of it.
Nearly doubled my fps on Pillars of eternity 2.
Is Untitled Project X still available for download?
maybe im a dumbass... the cereal right?
yeaa, time for new game plus!
Thanks god for RenoDX
mental illness, it has to be.
never heard of em
Thought this was about special k cereal for a second
The only thing i know about special k is that back in the day brawlhalla players used it to get a competitive advantage (unlock fps cap, lower latency, or something like that)
Like the cereal?
What an interesting way to say "I have been purchased by Epic and associates"
Sounds special
Dudes "Manifesto" read like he thinks PC gameing and computers haven't changed since 1998 and blames steam for all the evil of the world
You can have my fruit and yogurt cereal when you pry it from my cold dead hands
One cereal joke gets massively upvoted and the other gets downvoted for some reason lol
Shame to lose talent but the guy was his own worst enemy endlessly arguing and insulting people that had basic misunderstandings about his work and he was endlessly baited.
Honestly, I hope he can work in an environment that's better for him where he can deal less with people and more with the fixings problems.
This guy is upset he can't use Windows 98 lol
Who? What? So?
Oh noes :( Not a cereal maker :(
My immediate thought as well, like isn't special K a cereal?
We call ketamine 'special K' where I live.
Now that's a good start to an early morning ! With Special-Ketamine, i feel refreshed and full of energy !
Been there, done that.
...the cereal? Who?
Who?
Epic is no alternative for any developer. They are only nice at the beginning, promising things until they have you,... then they just ignore their users and the people that bring them the content, as we've all seen in Artstation, sketchfab, and even their own marketplace. Epic is bs.
On the other side, Steam is a company that listens and cares both for their devs and the players.
Yeah I was gonna buy some games on steam now that there is a sale going on but nvm gonna delete my steam account, send mean things to GabeN and glaze Tim Sweeney
who?
Other comments explain better but since one isn't here, here's a quickie.
10 years ago, back when Devs didn't care if the PC release worked or not, this guy and someone else name Duarte would provide community patches to make these PC releases work.
Now that Devs know there's money in PC sales, their work isn't as necessary anymore since PC games work alot better now.
But back in the dark days of PC gaming and of a certain age, you know these names and for someone like me, this is a big deal even if I haven't had to seek them out for a very long time.
Nobody