Let’s just ignore whether there’s any moral or ethical arguments about legal compliance: What law is this man complying with? This is not a law that governs him. He is volunteering, and not compelled. There is no sanctity of law at play here.
Sorry, I’m a bit too used to the average take everyone has that Steam somehow gets a pass and Epic is the peak of tyranny. Pardon that, I largely agree.
For what it’s worth, usually devs use one of a handful of telemetry solutions to track achievements and the like. There’s some plumbing needed to hook those systems to a platform like Steam, but it’s the same idea for Xbox, PSN, etc.
Most major platforms have the same general pieces on the backend, though all laid out a bit differently.
This is kind of a wild take on the fediverse. If Epic is a megacorp, then what is Valve? I get that fracturing the marketplace could lead to a worse outcome for consumers, but surely praying for benevolent billionaires isn’t a winning strategy.
Steam is just as much of a problem as EGS.
There’s no subtext. This man has no obligation to this law, so “How dare this person follow the law. ;(” isn’t relevant. This man is not following a law, he is simply going about his day. He is volunteering, and not compelled. There is no sanctity of law at play here.
But, to play ball, yes. If a person who would otherwise receive punishment were to do this, I would take that into account. That is not the case here.