Stats from walled gardens

When I looked at my Goodreads stats this year, for the first time in well over a decade I saw this:

I didn't realize it's been over a year since I stopped using it, moving completely to my homebrew thing (here):

There's a similar trend with my Steam usage, even though it's not as clearly visible. These are some of my Steam stats:

That's a lot of games played. In fact, about twice as many as the year prior. However, none of my top 3 games - Tametsi, Hexcells Infinite and Surviving Mars - are new to me. They're familiar games that I return to when I want to unwind for a bit, maybe while listening to a podcast or a video essay. And together they make up a whopping 78% of my total playtime, leaving only 22% for all the other 18 games combined.

That already surprised me - but the other stats are even more telling. I've unlocked one sixth of the achievements compared to the year prior.

So while I've tried many games on Steam, the overall percentage of time spent in games on Steam vs other platforms was comparatively lower. I've played some on Itch, and I've played even more on GOG. (And my RG35XX, which emulates multiple console platforms.)

I've always been wary of DRMs and always-on requirements, but it's getting to the point where I even hesitate to buy games on Steam. Why would I, if getting it on GOG gives me actual ownership of the thing I buy? That's something I am willing to pay a few more euros for. 💸

That's not to say I don't like using online services - part of why I still prefer GOG over Itch is Galaxy, their "optional game client". Emphasis on optional.
It represents exactly what I want: I get time and progress tracking and achievements, but I'm  not stuck with the client.
Situations where that would be a limiting factor (thankfully) don't come around often, but when they do, GOG and Itch are far superior to Steam or Epic.

I can't really say I dislike Steam the way I dislike Goodreads - but I do like this trend of moving more towards more 'open' platforms.