Short story about my Steam Deck | Hacker News Reader

Short story about my Steam Deck

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I don't feel like owning a gaming rig anymore and that caused my sizeable Steam library to be locked away from me. Until I got the Steam Deck... The killer feature for me is the portability. I can take it with me on vacations and that's exactly when I have time to play games.

When do you play games on vacation? I feel like I'm usually much more present and either out doing things or at home spending time with friends/family when on vacation (meaning no time to game except when on an airplane).

This so hard!

I can’t imagine, e.g. - going up to the cottage and bringing a console or handheld with me…

The idea of a vacation is to disconnect, no?

A possible reason for taking a vacation is to disconnect from your daily life. If gaming isn’t part of your daily life, isn’t playing games on vacation disconnecting?

Probably the bigger takeaway for you is that everybody’s reason for vacationing is different — not everyone has access to a cottage for example.

I'd say the idea of a vacation is to de-stress and have a good time.

If games help someone do that, it sounds fine to me. Just don't bring any F2P skinner box games.

> Just don't bring any F2P skinner box games.

Unless your vacation is to Las Vegas?

When I've walked around a new city for a good twelve hours taking in the views, sights and culture, I really like to just zone out at the hotel and not interact with anyone.

...and my whole family is the same :) We just grab some snacks and a light snack from a shop and hole up in different corners of the hotel room to just relax and unwind.

The time on an airplane or in other transport or general waiting can still be significant.

I generally don't play games on vacations, but travel time is an exception, and I sometimes carry a console just for that reason. The (3)DS is perfect for that: compact, robust, good battery life.

Portability and the fact I can just turn it off and my current game will pause where I left off immediately.

Then I can continue just by tapping the power button.

Something that appeals to me about this device is its potential durability. New versions of the Steam Deck will come out, but the supply of new games for older versions such as the first-gen won't stop coming out in the Steam store. This is not really the case with other devices like the Switch, which is eventually going to be out-phased.

I feel like the durability of the Steam deck will lead for it to fill a niche in data collection, or some role controlling a drone or robot.

The overall niche-ness, the heat, and the battery drain all don’t scream durability to me.

But how long does someone want to have the same Deck anyway? Even if it still works perfectly after 5 or 6 years, you probably want to buy a new model at that point anyway, just because it’s better and you have the money.

Same reason people still play old or low-tech games: they're still fun and games will continue to have low settings.

At my current rate of playing, I'll still have a list longer than my arm filled just with AAA-level PC-games from 2000-2015. Currently playing through Quantum Break, which I managed to completely miss on release.

Now add to that all of the systems the Deck can emulate _today_ and I'll never be done with it.

My Steam Deck should arrive in the next few weeks and once I use it a little I'm planning on selling (or donating, it's 7+ years old) my gaming PC. It's a tower case that takes up a lot of room under my desk, only serves one purpose and gets used a few hours a week. I've got a list of 20+ games I've been wanting to play but just didn't want to be stuck in front of the same monitors I use for work (I'm remote). I wonder if the Steam Deck and devices like it will change how (or more specifically where) people play PC games in the next few years.

If your desktop is windows, you might have games that don't play perfectly or at all on Steam Deck. I haven't had major issues yet, but I've seen some glitchiness and text that is hard to read on the small screen.

Thanks. That’s one of the reasons I’m not immediately selling the gaming PC. I have a few older games that may not play well. I might still sell most of the gaming PC but keep the GPU (GTX 1070) and see if I can put it in my Proxmox server and stream it via Moonlight to my Steam Deck. I can use the Windows license from the gaming PC for a Windows VM.

I believe you can stream natively/directly from your PC to the Steamdeck using Steam. No need for other software.

People have successfully installed Windows 11 on the Deck and played games through it.

I've still got a good two dozen "Deck Verified" top-tier games to play through before I even think about it. And even then I'll rather go with a launcher that supports my Epic and GoG game libraries before resorting to Windows.

Steam play streaming from every screen I own has been really nice though. That’s what my gaming rig does, it’s not even got a primary display attached unless my remote access isn’t cutting it.

I haven’t set up moonlight or anything else except shadow, ps plus (nee now) and GeForce now, and ps remote. I have chiaki set up but sees little use except from my gpd handhelds

Damn, and that’s latency-free enough for things like FPS online multiplayer?

I can’t imagine using a wireless display for gaming. It’s bad enough just for remote access via VNC.

This should be the product for me, someone who used to be super into PC and console gaming but is losing interest over time so the portability is appealing. However, it’s a tough sell for me without Nintendo games. A lot of the value I get out of my Switch is Mario Kart at family gatherings.

Yo ho yo ho…

Keep those backups of your Nintendo games archived somewhere.

Why? I'm also a Mario Kart fan, and it's got new DLC. How to back that up?

Emulators.

But how to backup the download from the switch? Or put the account on Emulator then archive from there? I've got more searching to do.

You do know you can own both a Switch and the Deck at the same time? =)

I'm considering the Deck more of a single player device. What the Switch does well is local multiplayer games.

Mine just died with a faulty Left Bumper switch. I'm hoping Steam will RMA it or send me a replacement board.

Cause like the poster, it's the best way to play my PS2 game collection.

I like my Steam Deck, but I've found it only works for games that were designed for controller input. Controlling the cursor with the capacitative pad never clicked with me. Unfortunately that rules out most of the games I like to play most.

E.g. I tried Rimworld, which even makes special affordances for the Deck, and it was just painful compared to keyboard and mouse.

I guess I'll try connecting a mouse, but that kind of defeats the purpose.

You're surprised that the handheld console with controller inputs, only really works well for games designed for....controller inputs? I don't really know how you expected anything different? Obviously playing games designed for keyboard/mouse is gonna have to make compromises to work on a device with controller inputs, it's the same way when playing games designed for controllers on PC. You either plug in a controller or deal with the (usually slight) jankiness. Same goes in reverse for the Deck.

Where does the post you reply to express surprise?

It’s how they phrased ‘I’ve found’, as if they hadn’t expected it to be that way to start.

Obviously I and the above commenter expect that if you are interested enough to purchase the device, you probably should’ve thought of that to start.

I’ve somehow found Crusader Kings III bearable on my Steam Deck. Trigger buttons as zoom/scroll made a big difference, as did remembering I could use the touch screen whenever I wanted to.

Yeah, the capacitive touch screen feels really tetchy and imprecise. Frustrating to use, even for simple card games with large touch targets (ex. Dicey Dungeons).

But I've found the dual thumb pads to be surprisingly good for mouse input. And with the inbuilt controller mapping software (WASD etc), I don't even need mouse all that much. I've been playing a little bit of Guild Wars 2, which doesn't even support controller input in the options. With a community-made control mapping provided in Steam, it works surprisingly well for casual adventuring (probably not for PvP).

My experience is similar. I’ve been playing through the original Deus Ex on my Steam Deck using the touch pads. Of course the game has no controller input and the input scheme is generally pretty dated, but it works well enough on the Steam Deck to be enjoyable.

Me too. It probably isn't precise enough for multiplayer FPS or RTS games but for single player experiences I've been pretty impressed.

I ordered the deck last year, then they told me it would get even more delayed, then I got a notification it's ready three days ago while on a vacation, I didn't respond in time and they just refunded me. I'd say they first couldn't get manufacturing capacity for it and once they got it, the market cooled down. Bad timing on their part.

You can talk to support about missing the notification about your reservation and they'll still let you put in an order.

Kudos for being on vacation and not checking even your personal email for 3 days (seriously).

Man the ads on that site really take away from the ambiance/feel of an otherwise very pleasant site.

Which ads? Even after disabling my ad blocker I can't spot any.

On mobile.

https://ibb.co/RY6HBPF

Is this just Google placing ads on any page I go to outside of the control of the destination site? If so, holy bejeezus I had no idea this was a thing.

I just checked, it's embedding the Google Ads tag so you are right. I probably just didn't see it because I'm using NextDNS, forgot about that. Google does not just inject ads without the page owner setting it up.

For many years I didn't use any ADS on that blog. From some time I am using Google ADS and I don't make millions, however, the profits from these ads, although small, cover server maintenance costs and pay off the time spent on writing. I was convinced that everyone uses blockers and only bots make me profitable ;) If there are more negative comments about the ads, I will opt out of them.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes Google Ads are implemented :( On PC you can avoid it by installing uBlock Origin plugin and on the mobile phone you can setup private DNS from AdGuard or NextDNS. I was using both and for me AdGuard is great solution. You don't need to install any aps in Android or iPhone there is a field in settings called Private DNS/DNS. Google ADS cover my server maintenance. Maybe in the future I will remove ads from the website. I tried to arrange them so that they were not too intrusive, but this is Google and squeezes them everywhere :)

My steam deck almost arrived before the delivery person marked it to return for damage inspection. It’s still there, but I’m almost certain I’ll never receive it. Steam support has been silent and not responded since Friday.

It's the weekend. Give them a few business days.

How dare they take weekends off.

They don't seem to.. I got a reply on my steam support ticket Saturday afternoon.

Their weekends must start on thursdays then, haha. Everyone has great stories about how prompt steam support is, but I got nada

You’ll be fine. My experience with their support has been great. Seems to be the case with others as well.

It will work out, just be patient and courteous. I've interacted with Steam support a couple times about VR hardware, and they went above what I was even asking for.

Now I see why the Steam Deck have sold less despite the hype and boosting of the product in many tech circles compared to the Nintendo Switch.

Not sure if you can draw that conclusion yet. The deck has been perpetually sold out since launch and is still a 6 month wait to get a device, they are selling them faster than they make them at the moment.

I don’t think this product will ever compete against the broad marketing effort of Nintendo however, it’s sort of a niche product in the end. With that said the comparison itself is odd.

Full disclosure: I do NOT own a deck and I do not intend to buy one.

I also see it as the two products also focus on different areas. The steam deck is going to appeal to the more graphic game crowd (as in something like Dyling Light), probably older audience. Even though Nintendo has release some of their restraints on M-rated games and such, Nintendo still markets to a younger crowd that graphic games don't appeal to. Sure there are games designed for a younger or more light hearted crowd on Steam, but Nintendo still dominates this space and probably will continue to. The steam has the ability to emerge a new market in hand held gaming for darker games and such, such as Elden Ring. My guess is the overlap between the Pokemon/AnimalCrossing/Zelda crowd with the Elden Ring /Metro Exodus/DyingLight crowd is not huge.

Some more nuance, there are also older people who enjoy the switch to. I am 28 playing the switch, Zelda games always have a special place in my heart for me.

I also don't see much competition of Nintendo Switch vs Steam Desk. I see the Steam Deck mostly competing directly with Gaming PC and Console gaming (xbox/playstation).

Those are my two cents, could be totally wrong.

Pretty sure it sold less because it’s a smaller company, less well known, targeting a smaller audience, and lack of marketing. Just because it sells 1% of the volume that Nintendo sells doesn’t mean it’s not successful. If they sell 1 million units that would be amazing and hopefully give them the funding to create a version 2.

Sources? "Sold less"? The thing has been on backorder since it was revealed, it's impossible to get one right now and that's apparently not going to change until the end of this year. They only sell via their storefront.

What do you feel the reason is that it’s selling less? (If it is.)

Note that it doesn't need nearly as high sales to be profitable. With a traditional console, you can only play games specifically made for the console, so if you don't sell 10s of millions of units, there won't be games for it. The steam deck can play anything on steam that works on linux (well over 50% of the total catalog) so the necessary volume to break even is way lower.

According to Gabe Newell, they're making a profit on the Deck since day 1. And it's still by far the cheapest in the category (portable PC-compatible gaming devices).

Wouldn’t surprise me at all if it’s selling less than the Switch, which is obviously a more mainstream machine. I like playing games on the Switch with my kids but it has little to offer for my tastes, and even if it did I’d have to buy another pair of controllers to replace the current set which have yet again broken.

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