Maybe I am just getting grumpier as I get older, but I was popping into a local electronics store when I saw the sign that I am showing in my header image. Many of you will recognise it as the Steam logo and it just reminds me of everything I hate about modern software and in particular...

SUB-F**KING-SCRIPTIONS.

As you can see it really yanks my chain - let me explain. 

Let's start with Steam. Owned by Valve Corporation, it is a major global platform for buying, downloading, and playing PC games, offering thousands of titles, automatic updates, cloud saves, and a huge online community. It provides widespread support for Windows, macOS, Linux, and even mobile apps for browsing and chatting.

What I resent about it is that, and maybe I am being nostalgic here, is that back in the day you could just drop the CD/ DVD game disc into your machine, install and play without having to create yet another account (with another password to remember) and all to often no connection means no game play. What is more is that this also signaled a shift in the gaming industry where you could no longer play games like SIMs or SimCity in an standalone way. While I see the attraction of your city abutting another real player's city it should remain optional and not become compulsory and of course to play a subscription was now required.

I just want to play and not interact with others - that's what I have real friends for!

Although loathe to admit it I must say that Steam does have its merits, for example the downloadable version of the Civilization games do load up much quicker than the disc version (assuming you still even have a disc drive on your computer) and even when it catches a bug you can simply delete and reinstall in just a matter of minutes, but it is the priniciple.

This shift to centralisation is a trend I hate and yes while I know there are alternatives available I am most comfortable with using Micosoft Office. Many years ago I bought Office 2010, an original disk and key, which even as late as 2019 was still perfectly serviceable for what I required but then I needed to buy a new laptop. 

Simples, you would think. I just installed the legacy disc, bearing in mind that I owned it perfectly legitimately, to find that support would only last 30 days and then I would have to upgrade. Frankly why should I? The issue was licencing and not that it was obsolete, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to use it for those 30 days. It wasn't like I was trying to run a Spectrum game on my PC - or even for that matter an older Age of Empires disc from Windows 95.

Alas I found that my only options were to either buy as a standalone Office 2019 or pay £10 a month. I did a quick calculation and figured that the former was the cheaper option but it still set me back £240 for nothing but Microsoft's greed. I am still using it seven years later and the comparible cost of the subscription version (admittedly with updates included) would have been £840 to date.

And that is what yanks my chain.

I think I might have posted about my Microsoft experience in the past, but it still irks me and seeing that Steam logo just reminded me once again of how these software giants and media companies boss us in the name of their profits.

Please tell me I am not the only one!

As always stay safe and well my friends.