Epic Game Store - Epic's Steam Competitor

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Achtung Englander
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Achtung Englander » Fri Mar 08, 2019 10:55 am

I started Oxenfree just this week. Its OK. I am in two minds. I dislike the whole teenager angst as that is more than a half a lifetime ago for me now. The style is more interesting than the story.

I started Rime instead, which plays a lot better
Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4

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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by DjchunKfunK » Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:58 pm

Turns out Epic are secretly scrapping your friends and recently played list from Steam and storing all the data. Not good.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/develo ... ry.105385/

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Sly Boots
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Sly Boots » Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:34 pm

I read Epic has ties to the Chinese government and as recently as December was having to deny selling them data... this is pretty bad, right?

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Lee
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Lee » Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:39 pm

Tencent is behind the social program in China that is currently in the news about spying on everything the Chinese population does and blocks you from travelling and other nefarious stuff.

They currently own 40% of the shares in Epic. Now you got to ask yourself do you trust with this leak about being data mined by Epic themselves.
Mr Annoyed and Proud of it.

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Sly Boots
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Sly Boots » Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:44 pm

Yeah, this seems to go beyond misplacing people's credit card info "because we're new at this lol" and into the territory of pretty shady shit.

I'll never be installing their client, perfectly happy to wait the extra year for any games that sign up for exclusivity.

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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:33 pm

Epic tried to clarify what they were doing and initially said they were not taking stuff they shouldn't. This was then challenged by people and Sweeney stepped in and said that yes they had been taking people's Steam data without asking and that they would be working to remove this. His reasoning behind this, in their rush to implement social features in Fortnite they had done this back then and hadn't removed it since. Sounds a lot like they wouldn't have bothered to take this out if people hadn't noticed.

He was also challenged as to why they don't use Steam's API to get the data they need and said it was more secure to go rooting around in your PC. That's like saying 'We hacked your bank account instead of going through the payment system because we feel it is more secure'.

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Sly Boots
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:37 pm

Shady as fuck.

My stance upgraded from "not until their sort out their security flaws" to "fuck Epic and EGS".

Maybe Valve did need a new kid on the block to shake them out of their complacency a bit, but this isn't how it should be done.

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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:57 pm

Their whole response to this has been pretty poor. The coverage hasn't been much better either, sites appear to have taken the stance that Valve = bad, Epic = good and anyone complaining about Epic's practices is just a Steam defender.

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Sly Boots
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:02 pm

DjchunKfunK wrote:
Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:57 pm
Their whole response to this has been pretty poor. The coverage hasn't been much better either, sites appear to have taken the stance that Valve = bad, Epic = good and anyone complaining about Epic's practices is just a Steam defender.
You're not wrong, really disappointed with this piece by RPS (and PC Gamer's wasn't much better):

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/0 ... legations/

Basically saying that anyone who doesn't like this is a tinfoil-hat wearing racist is pretty shocking to see on a mainstream site.

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Mantis
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Mantis » Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:30 pm

I imagine that the Epic Store terms of service that people agree to when they make an account makes farming their other PC folders perfectly acceptable so it's unlikely that Epic face any GDPR breaches for it. But for the author of the article to essentially say "Epic spokesman said they weren't spying and I believe them" and take the whole thing at face value and then suggest that concerns about a Chinese state owned company potentially spying on your data are 'racist' is just about the moronic level to be expected from RPS.

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Wrathbone
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Wrathbone » Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:44 pm

Given that RPS claim to wave the banner of games journalism transparency and integrity, that article has crushed any credibility they had left in my eyes.

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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Mar 15, 2019 3:55 pm

Mantis wrote:
Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:30 pm
I imagine that the Epic Store terms of service that people agree to when they make an account makes farming their other PC folders perfectly acceptable so it's unlikely that Epic face any GDPR breaches for it. But for the author of the article to essentially say "Epic spokesman said they weren't spying and I believe them" and take the whole thing at face value and then suggest that concerns about a Chinese state owned company potentially spying on your data are 'racist' is just about the moronic level to be expected from RPS.
I think I read that someone has gone through their terms of service and it doesn't say it in there, additionally I believe part of GDPR is you can't bury these kinds of data mining in terms of services, they have to be front and centre for consumers to see.

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Achtung Englander
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Achtung Englander » Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:37 pm

Free games

free games

now - give us your data :twisted:

Chinese man spy "haha I see Achtung Englander likes to play Total War"
Chinese man spy 2 "good good - what shall we do this data ?"
Chinese man spy "er...."
Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4

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Medicine Man
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Medicine Man » Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:58 pm

Taking the high ground would be a good start surely.

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Achtung Englander
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Re: Epic Games launch their Steam competitor

Post by Achtung Englander » Fri Mar 15, 2019 9:28 pm

The fact our data is being tracked, spied and logged is not surprising as it is so easy in this digital age. If Epic are really that interested in knowing my Steam library and my Steam friends I really cannot get worked up about it because...this (2 mins in)

Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4

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