The Devil's Advocate

So first of all... this is the STEAM forums, i am of course expecting a heavy bias given that this platform is a direct rival of Epic Store and it houses most of the Anti-Epic subscribers.



I would like to argue that people don't empathize with the independent developers enough, and the idea of them making a deal with Epic.



I think crowd against Epic are a bit too dismissive. Once i see games coming from Epic now available on Steam, many, if not most discussion boards of those games resort to name calling and dsimissing the devs as hacks and sellouts.



The reason why i am claiming the people against Epic (some, not all, i believe they are just the vocal minority) are not only a bit dismissive, but also a bit impulsive regarding their negative AND positive feedbacks, is that many keep praising the DARQ devs.



I think there is a common misconception here. The DARQ devs refused Epic's offer merely because they promised their fans first that the game will be on steam, and they kept that promise. It wasn't because they choose to fight on whats best for the gaming industry or making a stand against Epic. They made a promise, they kept it. They did not knew that Epic would contact them with an offer in the future.



This sets a dangerous precedent for incorrect ideas regarding the DARQ devs, even if they are overly positive. I'm saying this because this instantly creates a comparative mindset.



This sets a very faulty comparison that if someone takes the Epic deal, they are automatically greedy, they can't keep promises, they are anti-consumer, and they are constantly compared to that one dev that did not take the deal, which is an incredibly unfair accusation to make.



While i am against Epic themselves and pretty much most of what they do, i am trying to compromise the contempt on them by siding with the Indie developers taking's Epic's deal. That is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a good buck. And it comes to steam anyway, probably even more polished due to the higher budget they got.



It's not like the Indie developers who took the deal treat the steam users as 2nd rate consumers. This mindset prevents meaningful discussions regarding the ethics of an indie developer trying to make their end in the business.



All of that combined, this sets a very combative community on Steam, where developers would be less inclined to be on steam anymore due to the animosity that the community has against the parties that are merely associated with Epic and come back here, making their presence on Steam feel very unwelcomed and unappealing, and i find that very unfortunate and not right :(