Tired of this abusive business model that big companies use on games.

• I see a game on Steam with some decent price
• I click on it
• Dozens of DLCs, "Gold", "Deluxe" "Enhanced" version to enjoy the full game
• Then you decide to pay for this shit anyway
• But then the game is behind a launcher, that needs online connection and account even if it's full single-player
• The game sometimes are just a port from an old console with almost full price, a game that you've paid for before
• The game needs a hell amount of updates do become playable
• And so much more...

Steam did an excellent job keeping me away from piracy, they provide too much good feature, discounts and etc... But not even Steam can make miracles against those abusive practices.

I must say RDR1 port was the last drop to me, It's game I played back on PS3 on my teenager time, I wanted to have some good memories and play it again, guess what, a full AAA price on a port, it's not even a remaster.

I've been avoiding EA and Ubisoft games for years, but still buying from big companies on Steam. Now I just give up, there's no more hope for AAA games, only mercenary companies are left: EA, Ubisoft, Rockstar, Activision, 2K, Bungie etc...

• EA: Games with a hell amount of DLCs, the same FIFA every single year at full price, launcher required, they don't even try to hide anymore
• Ubisoft: Same thing as EA, lots of DLCs, missed some game content from an old Prince of Persia because they shut an old launcher integrated to the game.
• Rockstar: Launchers everywhere, charging a full price for the same game multiple times (GTA V).
• Activision: You pay a full price and it still comes with a hell amount of micro-transactions, killed COD.
• 2K: Out of nowhere decided to add a launcher to every old game they had (Bioshock and others I think) saying it was "QoL" update, now they decided to remove it, too late. The new Borderlands 4 terribly optimized, here we go with some dozens of updates again.
• Bungie: The live service model, removed a lot of old paid contents from Destiny, the game will eventually die.

I'll still pay for small companies games, because I can, but those big ones, honestly, I don't give a shit anymore, they could be erased from existence together with all their games, I really don't care. Some smaller companies I've had a good experience and I think it's worth paying for: Ghost Ship Games, No More Robots, Hello Games, Techland, Frictional Games, Annapurna Interactive.

Some companies are in a limbo to me, I'm not entirely sure about it: Capcom, Bethesda, Warner, Square Enix.

So, that's it, I just downloaded Spider Man Remastered and RDR from FitGirl, it worked seamless, I didn't have a single issue. I could even add as non-Steam game and use Steam input (thanks Steam), I'll probably use some script to move to savegames data to the cloud, and let the packed games on an external HDD (finally, I'll own my games).

Another thing that's hard to ditch to me is achievement tracker, I know we have AchievementWatcher but it doesn't work too well on pirated games. It's something I'll need to get used, not a big deal tbh.

I'll probably use the money I'd spend on AAA games to explore some indie games. And AAA games are now always pirate.

Obs.: The companies I've mentioned here are from my own experience, this isn't meant to be an Wikipedia of good/bad companies, I know there are more decent and bad companies out there.

I'm thinking about paying for a VPN, I currently don't use one.

I'd like to use Mullvad but they don't seem to have regional prices, while Proton does.

I wonder if Proton is still a reliable option, Proton is 60% cheaper in my country, probably because regional pricing (but I didn't check if it's really the case).

If anyone has any other suggestion I'd like to hear it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36657058

I'm just sharing here this app I use always on my phone, and I don't see many people talking about it.

It's similar to DuckDuckGo app feature that block trackers across all the device, but this one is focused only on that, it also allows you to add your custom tracker URLs to block and monitor every request being made.

It's open source and available on F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/dev.clombardo.dnsnet/
GitHub: https://github.com/t895/DNSNet

It enables a VPN to intercept requests, so it can block URLs of trackers across all your apps. The app provides a list of URLs as you open it for the first time, you can choose a few options between less or more aggressive.

Obs.: The app don't tell, but when you add a custom URL you need to disable and enable it again.

I'm just sharing here this app I use always on my phone, and I don't see many people talking about it.

It's similar to DuckDuckGo app feature that block trackers across all the device, but this one is focused only on that, it also allows you to add your custom tracker URLs to block and monitor every request being made.

It's open source and available on F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/dev.clombardo.dnsnet/
GitHub: https://github.com/t895/DNSNet

It enables a VPN to intercept requests, so it can block URLs of trackers across all your apps. The app provides a list of URLs as you open it for the first time, you can choose a few options between less or more aggressive.

Obs.: The app don't tell, but when you add a custom URL you need to disable and enable it again.

So I deleted my 5yo Reddit account and migrate to Fediverse, but then I decided to recreate a new Reddit account just to follow some communities that are only popular there.

I've been trying to create a few accounts and I'm shadow banned in all of them.

I've tried two factor authentication, phone number and verify e-mail, it doesn't matter, Reddit keeps shadow banning my account.

Every time I comment somewhere my comment isn't showed, only for me, I open it in a private tab then I don't see the comment. All my posts says "Removed by Reddit filters" no matter what I write on it, tried posting several times.

They're making it impossible for legit new users to interact there.