That was then, how about now ? When will Valve and Steam stop with their shitty behaviour and start giving back to the PC gaming community ? 

I could forgive their dumb moves that they made these past years if they started making AAA games again for PC but they are both a shitty game developer/publisher and digital retailer so there's literally no excuse for the crap they are pulling ... 

Valve is more harmful to PC gaming than the likes of either EA or Ubisoft since the former actually holds a monopoly in at least one aspect of PC gaming and maybe even more harmful than Microsoft because those guys can be held accountable to the public unlike what some Steam addicts like to think about how Gabe Newell is malevolent ... 

On another note, LG has announced three new displays featuring HDR 600 and what they call "Nano IPS technology", describing it as:

"Nano IPS technology involves the application of nanometer-sized particles to the screen's LED to absorb excess light wavelengths. This greatly enhances the intensity and purity of on-screen colors for a more accurate and life-like viewing experience."

The monitors are:

+LG 32UK950. This will be a 32", 4K UHD (3840x2160 resolution) monitor, able to reproduce 98% of the DCI-P3 color space. It also features Thunderbolt 3 docking display to support 4K daisy chaining and a 4-Side Edge Borderless Design.

+LG 34WK95U. It's an Ultrawide 34" monitor with a 5120 x 2160 resolution. It also features Thunderbolt 3 docking display to support 4K daisy chaining and a 4-Side Edge Borderless Design.

+LG 34GK950G. This one will be a 34", 2560x1440 gaming monitor with G-Sync.

Valve does not strike me as the type of company that strives to bring employees into its main unit temporarily.
I could see them hiring a third party company to fill that kind of a role.

Valve has that per game, gate fee to play around with.
Currently set at 100 USD per game, if increased to 250 USD per title.
The problem could, just, disappear.
All without needing to hire and train employees that don't improve the overall production capacity of Valve.

In my mind Valve are currently in the observation phase of their plan.
Set the cost of entry to the minimum, observe and gather data.
They could then use the data gathered to inform further actions.

What is this "giving back" you speak of?.

It's vague and doesn't really specify anything. We know they are still working on their store overhaul. They've been talking about that since before summer. Not everything is instantaneous, especially an entire store and client overhaul. 

Valve has basically stopped making AAA games. They know the store makes them money and they have pretty much bowed out of the AAA space. The last of the HL2 writers are gone now, the dream is dead, let it lie where it once stood. No amount of newly hired writers is going to get the dream of a new HL game, the series is now dead and it will stay that way, because hiring a new set of writers is going to get so damn ugly at the unrealistic expectations, that it will become a pointless endeavour.

If they go for another TF2/L4D2, I can guarantee you it'll be met with complaints and hate, or they will be met with high expectations, for game modes that cannot be evolved any further than they already have been. A new portal will just amount to a new big bad and a few new puzzles, hardly anything brand new or truly inspiring.  

Shitty retailer?. They offer refunds, MS only just recently got onto that and Origin pulled it off first, but they had to or someone else would have before them.

It's cute that you think EA is better than Valve, despite the horrible shit they've done towards the industry in general, as well as PC gaming. I'd put EA on the last of the "Great amazing PC support" list, same with MS.

Sadly, rising the fee to $250 wouldn't solve it. Many of those garbage games exist for the sole reason of achivements and cards, which people use to earn more money from the market.

If they want to keep things under control, Valve should use a scale system. Something like publish a game, pay $100. From game 2 to 10, pay $500. After all, if you come back with more games it means that you've had success so you can pay that higher fee. From game 10 to 25 pay $1,000, and so on.

Of course, there needs to be some balance to that scale, and it can be something as simple as time. If you only publish one game or less per year, then the fee could be kept at $100, but if you publish more than 10 games per year (imho, a clear sign that something smells fishy), then rise that fee to something like x2 or more.

At the end of the day, what Valve should try to do is, if not reinforcing their system to try to keep the garbage out of the store, at least make it harder for those publishers to make money from their "games".

Well at least EA and Microsoft both still make good AAA PC games ...  

What can Valve be proud of their recent accomplishments ? Steam has double standards and sub par customer service still compared to the rest of the lot ... 

And offering refunds isn't special to begin since Amazon offered before Steam did but it also stopped being one of the more exclusive positive points about Steam since other digital retailers now offer refunds like you mentioned ... 

EA has downsides but they have their own upsides too like making new AAA games but Valve on the other hand just has nearly all the downsides of the gaming industry and they aren't special to PC gaming anymore ...

So my trusty Logitech G19 keyboard decided to give up the ghost and now I am using a $5 keyboard from Kmart. *Shudders*.

Just wondering what keyboards are other people are using? Pro's and Con's of it?

Currently looking for something with full RGB backlighting, volume nob/dial/wheel and would like mechanical switches.
The LCD display on the logitech was handy, but it just wasn't supported in enough games, so it often just gave me temperature and CPU/GPU utilization levels, happy to give that feature the flick.

Currently contemplating the Corsair Gaming K70 RGB Rapidfire Mech Keyboard Cherry MX Speed as it fits the bill nicely.

But then the Razer Blackwidow X Chroma has caught my eye, it lacks the volume wheel thingy though.

So many choices on the market.

So, I've been trying to play Quake on PC, and being used to twin-stick controls in FPS games, I must say that I am having a bit of difficulty getting used to WASD and mouselook. Do you guys have good suggestions for me to adapt to the controls?

It could just be me but my last keyboard was a Corsair K70 and the LEDs died within 2 months and I didn't even use them heavily. It really made the keyboard look ugly and I really hated that. Those were Brown switches in case you wanted to know and they feel really good and don't make a whole lot of noise which is something that I like. My old G15 lasted 7 years without a single light dying.

I am currently using a The Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum and it is a god send compared to the Corsair one cause if nothing else, the RGB Leds have yet to die and knowing Logitech, they probably never will. It uses Romer G switches which while doesn't have the satisfying click the reds do, they are still really good. It also has this docking thing sorta deal where u can put your smartphone in and download the logitech app and use your smartphone as an LCD display like the old keyboards.

So that's my recommendation. The key with the Logitech G910 is that there are two versions. One where all the keys are weird and the other one where only the WASD/G-keys are weird. Not uncomfortable but they aren't the shape of the normal keys. You will see what I mean if you take a look at the pictures but the Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum is the one you want to get if you go for logitech.  Certainly try out the Romer-G switches before you buy it though!

As some of you may know there is currently a small legal scuffle for Star Control between Stardock, who own the trademark and distribution license, and Paul & Fred, the designers of Star Control I & II, they own the IP of the lore, who claim that license expired. More info here. The classic games were removed from Steam and GOG, but now they are back on Steam.

Also in Star Control related news. There is a ship design contest going on. The prizes consist of Stardock games for the winners.

Some not so good news. Activision has removed some games and DLC associated with them from Steam.

Transformers: War for Cybertron
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
Transformers: Devastation
The Legend of Korra

A shame they didn't give a warning in advance, I was interested in Fall of Cybertron and Devastation. 

More bad news. Psychonauts 2 has been delayed and will no longer release in 2018, can't say I'm surprised. Also there is some art there for the Aquato family members.