The steamdeck-like hardware market is going to explode and they are fools for not putting in even a tiny amount of effort there. Yeah a lot of steamdeck form factor devices will run windows, but idk linux has passed a critical threshold where windows just looks less and less attractive as an OS to base this kind of device around.

It doesn’t really matter how well Valve does or doesn’t do in the near term, the existence of the steam deck right now as a functional, easy to use gaming device irrevocably changes the pc gaming market. In the future kids are going to get these things before their parents shell out for a gaming pc, they are the clear gateway step into pc gaming because you can always buy a nice pc down the road and have all the same games to play as you do on your handheld.

It will increasingly matter more and more what multiplayer action game you can pick up and get running most easily on a steamdeck-like linux device to play with your friends. Right now for example Halo Infinite is pretty perfectly situated, it doesn’t have much competition for being the easy to get into steam deck multiplayer shooter choice.

I mean, yes I don’t have a gaming machine but also I just find playing shooters more fun on the steam deck to be honest. I can also play it while in so many more contexts (not necessarily out and about, just even at home) that the loss in computing power and screen fidelity doesn’t really bother me. Do I mostly use guns with scopes? Yes lol… but whatev it works fine.

Gamers have been looking for the next big innovation in gaming, many have fixated on VR as being that thing with $4000 VR goggles…

…meanwhile there are kids and randos everywhere mastering touchscreen + gyroscope mobile shooters on games like call of duty mobile, pubg mobile, farlight 84 etc and other touchscreen games like minecraft fleshing out this whole other realm of gaming that pc gamers as a rule have almost no clue about that will absolutely become a huge part of the future of gaming if not define it.

Simultaneously for the generation of people who grew up playing console shooters with gamepads (who couldn’t afford gaming PCs), gyroscope brings the capacity to finally make gamepads actually GOOD tools to play shooters with.

It is a wild time to stumble into all of this and I gotta admit I love how all the people with super expensive gaming rigs are utterly clueless about how gaming is going to change. It is a wonderful feeling that for once they don’t get to dictate how pc gaming evolves.

I started using gyroscope while playing pubg newstate on my phone with touchscreen controls. At first I was like, gyroscope? That sounds like a dumb gimmick…. so I didn’t try it.

Then I played a round with some teenager who was obscenely good at the game and he got real with me and dispensed knowledge to my lame elder millennial self and was like shut up, turn gyroscope so it’s always on and just give it time.

I realized I like many old people don’t know shit, so I tried gyroscope in earnest and haven’t looked back since lol.

It really is the biggest leap in video games to happen in my life time since console shooters became the huge thing with games like halo and cod. It completely changes what is possible and brings a new sense of tactile immediacy to whole genres of video games.

Ok look don’t give them any ideas

Yeah it is amazing how good some claw players are at touchscreen and gyro, it seems like such a stupid gimmick at first glance. I think the critical element for games like pubg mobile or other similar games is when they let you customize the layout, size and transparency of all the buttons. That transforms touchscreen buttons from the rip-off version of real buttons/keys to a control surface you can perfectly customize to fit the shape of your hand with each finger naturally resting right next to the buttons you need.

It is a very cool experience when you setup a control scheme that works good for you. It feels like learning to peddle a bicycle by sitting upside down and peddling with your hands and realizing somewhat to your horror that it is pretty comfy bicycling like that even though everything seems so wrong.

Hey I know I am going to literally have people throw fusion coils at me for saying this but halo infinite multiplayer is actually really fun now and free (and it works great on the deck).

The economy is doing great didnt you hear?

Well ok the money part not the human part but let’s not get hung up on the fine print.

This is really cool, I wonder if it can have integration with the “threadiverse” such as with lemmy or kbin?

Yeah that is a good point, at the very least lemmy could display a traditional thread but yeah I have no idea about discourse displaying a lemmy thread.