Ask HN: What happened to modern computing?
When did everything become such a massive data grab?
It's nearly impossible for me to use any modern game or software without giving away more and more data - even when I've already paid for the damn thing.
There are attempts to grab data at every stage, every turn, often by multiple parties.
I remember when I could double click a game's icon and start playing within two minutes.
But recently, I bought GTA 5 on PC and my user flow looks like this:
- Sign into Steam - Sign up for GTA 5 "Social Club" (even though I don't want to be "social" or play online) - "Verify" I'm not a Robot before signing in. If that fails, I have to click on little images for Google.
My single "one click" experience has turned into a "three click" experience with multiple sign-ins and attempts to grab even more data.
Why can't modern software simply respect me and understand that I just want to do stuff, not deal with a gazillion sign-ins. I don't want to give you any more information about me. I don't want to be a little monkey clicking away at squares in your ML algorithms. I don't want your newsletter.
I just want to use my damn computer and I want all your sign-up forms, pop-ups, and "social clubs" to get the hell out of my way.
- A frustrated user Yes, that multiple-step launch experience sometimes present in Steam games is absolute dogshit. With a Ubisoft game that one owns in Steam, it's possible that clicking it will in-fact launch an entirely different application, uPlay, which is itself a large-scale clone of Steam, and the game is launched from that. Because you keeping buying/using their products and clicking "Agree" to their EULAs. If you don't like it, divest yourself from it. What good is complaining if you still show up to feed on their pastures? Nobody forces you to participate in society. Yes, our bodies do. We're social animals.