Email: Re: Steam controller still a bust

Sometimes I don’t feel like sitting in front of my keyboard and mouse to 
play PC games, but that usually requires unplayable analog stick 
controls. I always figured that a controller with a trackpad or 
trackball would be so much better.  Unfortunately, Valve is probably 
going to charge way too much for the controller, and I don’t want to pay 
much for something I’d use occasionally. I don’t buy into the whole 
Steam Living Room trash that they’re pushing either.

Your comment about the Wiimote reminds me that the Wiimote is perfect 
for anything requiring a cursor, and with the right game programming it 
works great in first person shooters. It pisses me off that this 
potential was squandered. At least it motivated Sony to create the Move 
and support it for some of their big releases. If they keep supporting 
it I might eventually buy a PS4.

The Valve Corporation is deliberately removing options away from Steam in order to sell this crappy controller. I have been wondering why we have to either buy a Xbox 360 controller or use Xpadder or some other device instead of Steam providing a Joy2Key or Xpadder feature within itself as it does for microphones and other devices. As a game browser, a controller interface is expected. Instead of doing that, Valve Corporation has deliberately not done anything so they can force everyone to buy the ghetto controller.

Ghetto Steam Controller is the equivalent of Microsoft Internet Explorer while third party controllers are like Netscape. Valve Corporation will integrate its controller, and only its controller, with everything and deliberately put obstacles to make other controllers hard to use (as they already are except for Xbox 360 controller).

“Why should I care about this?” the reader might ask. “I don’t care about controllers as I use keyboard and mouse.” It is because Valve Corporation can and likely will try to push people from abandoning the keyboard and mouse for the ghetto controller. This isn’t about Steam offering more options but a move to transition the business away from the PC (because PC sales are shrinking).

Instead of standing up for PC gaming, Steam is doing the opposite. It is trying to turn PC gamers into console peons.