The mark of every get comment system is the ability to let users bury things they don't agree with, like if an article talks about how wrong it is to let little kids live and you comment that's immoral, you need to have your evil comment buried so all the other comments about how great that is don't get detracted from. Or, if there's an article talking about how a company screwed over thousands of people, pointing out that the same people they “screwed” over always complained anyway and should of never done business with the company in the first place, needs to be hidden from the general masses for the untamed evil it promotes.
So, here's my ways to get your comments buried!
1) Don't lick steam's code sacks. If you verbally say you don't like steam and list a legit reason, you can start shoveling dirt on yourself. Remember, it's ok to support steam even if the conversation isn't about it, but if you're a zombie trying to get a good nap, start not thumb-upping Steam.
2) Ditto with Valve's... Valve. It's like they are both parts of a religion and people will defend them to the death. That napping zombie could get a concrete roof if any mention of Valve is in there.
3) Talk about GPL/free engines. People want engines with royalties, big limits on what you can, and NAME BRAND. It's like your hotdogs: recycled pig snout with brand A is much better then recycled pig snout with brand C, especially when brand A charges you and brand C is being given away free. No, I'm no GPL fanatic and I don't consider it "freedom", just a different set of terms, but when you need to learn and want to "break out", the best idea is to pay $$ to someone else if you don't need to vs invest that $$ in your own lively hood. If you DO insist on paying some $$ to have a brand name, send me some $$ and I'll send you some labels.
4) Mention that "New" game that was originally a free mod isn't an original game. Why? Well, people love an underdog story and when a group of rag-tag modders band together, make an awesome mod then get the ability to convert that mod to a game and sell the same thing, just standalone, that's awesome. It's like David standing up to Goliath, except that David was a boy who who spent the previous part of his live listening to his older brothers and parents, learned how to defend himself against wild animals while watching the family flock, then stood up to the champion of an invading army who mocked his God, then offered to help the king and eventually took over the kingdom and treated his subjects with great respect.
A group of modders who makes a mod, then gets paid/charges for nearly the same thing but with some new features (like not requiring the game it was written for) and never goes on to anything else is nothing like David vs Goliath. It's more like the Chinese spy who steal a companies secrets and sells as their own, with a few changes.
So don't except great things from people or you'll be digging UP to our zombie friend.
5) Don't blame others for things they didn't do. Like EA. For shutting down their online servers for a ton of games. On a service they didn't own. That they had no control over. And most people claim they don't like EA or it's games anyway.
Really, it is EA's fault. It's a conspiracy from the beginning. See, back in the early 80's when it was Electronic Arts, they had a plan to make mad mad MAD $$, get every game to buy their software and services, then, and only THEN, convince Gamespy to sell themselves to IGN, then convince IGN to sell themselves to FOX, then, years later, convince enough games to not buy the games and play on the servers Gamespy ran JUST so they could shut it down and piss off the couple hundred people left playing on a regular basis. On “official” servers. And still let you join non-official servers.
That. Is. So. Evil.
So there you have it, if you want your comments buried follow these examples. And don't forget to comment. 8)
Well, EA is responsibile for not updating their games and replacing them with their own multiplayer/server solution, and the only "why" given by EA are excuses, which means they do not wish to spend a few nickels on it because they do not give a single damn about quality of their services and the image of their company. (It is what they do that matters, not what they say.) It is kinda like Micro$oft that drops support for their OS early while milking everyone to maximum (which is very easy for a monopolist that rules over the PC market, because Macs/Linux distros are not real competitors, and consoles are still a different issue). There are many others who do not care at all as well, it is not just EA or Micro$oft.
Good devs may provide 'lifelong' support for their works, but there is not a whole lot of such devs who sometimes come after a few months or years and bring an updated version of their game (or software piece), just for the sake of players.
EA responsible for GameSpy shutdown? Nope.
EA responsible for not sacrificing a couple of their developers to replace that GameSpy system with one of their own to deal with this 'crisis'? Totally.
* * *
Possibly agreeing with most of the rest. Some people treat mods and games as two separate things, so maybe that is where that confusion of originality comes from.
The only good thing about Valve is that it is a private corporation and it does not answer only to men in suits. Also probably the best thing.