Saw a thread on AMD on /v/ and that just kinda reminded me about this sort of shit.
I feel that a thread should be made on this sort of thing, as what GG should be doing now that journo's influences have been vastly diminished, is convincing people to become ethical consumers. To be vocal with companies that they are middling in their feelings towards, to not buy anything from a company that has thrown away their goodwill, and most importantly to support companies that are willing to be ethical, and/or support gamers and GG. Other good attributes:
>Anti-censorship
>Anti-DRM
>Quality products
>Ethical behavior
>Supports communities and fanmade projects
>listens to actual consumers, doesn't give SJWS any quarter
and whatever else you can think of. If its a limited market, just say why you should support the alternatives, or at the very least why you shouldn't support the biggest (and oftentimes most unethical) taker of said market. I'd recommend providing archives for claims that not everyone might not be aware of.
I'll start with my own general set-up, let's try to keep this gaming, internet and gaming-tech related to keep the focus narrow for now; other mediums can wait till we've established something good here:
Storefronts and Retailers
>Itch.io
Basically just an indie store that has no significant issues as far as I'm aware. No real problems. Good enough, worth keeping in your rotation of stores to check out.
>Humble Bundle
Now owned by IGN. Not the best, but it seems to be okay(?). No significant issues besides that but (like anything else on this list) if any anons wants to point out something wrong with it or why it might not be worth using be my guest
>GoG
Basically a Steam alternative. Not great, but DRM-free commitment and a lack of shovelware makes them better than Steam, and much less censorship present as well, though heavy curation is involved there. Best large alternative to Steam as far as I'm aware, as many other storefronts just sell Steam Keys.
>Play-Asia
Anti-censorship attitudes along with actually supporting Japan, they also seem to lean more towards GG and actually pander towards gamers. High-ish prices though, but they're worth using.
>Mangagamer
Basically the GoG of VN storefronts and whatnot. They are staunchly anti-censorship and have a better relationship with Nippon and fanslators than Sekai Project and other places. They also give larger cuts (citation needed) of the money than other alternatives like DL-site which is known to be hyper-jewy (but DL-site is the second-best one in this regard afaik)
Don't use Steam if you can avoid it -
<They have their own DRM
<They have censored numerous titles
<They have pushed for paid mods
<They have incredible amounts of power in terms of online gaming storefronts, you'd be contributing to a near-monopoly
Try not to use Amazon for obvious reasons
<Jeff Bezos is a slimeball
<Amazon owns WaPo which is aGGro as fuck and part of the media conglomerate
<largest online storefront, don't contribute to near-monopolies
<anti-Trump (not a real reason but its more of a litmus test in this case)
<up to general sketchy shit and takes over small companies all the time, like the online space's equivalent of a Wal-Mart
Ethical and/or Good Web Browsers
>Pale Moon
Doesn't track you, is open-source, isn't SJWFox who fucked up functionality with Firefox quantum and basically gave the middle-finger to their power users.
>Waterfox
Literally a fork of Firefox before quantum that works with all plugins and add-ons and whatnot. It uses Ecosia and is open-source
>Iridium
Don't know shit about it but its supposedly an unpozzed fork of Google Chrome(?)
Sketchy.
Don't use Chrome if you can. Google needs no explanation at this point if you can't figure this one out.
Don't use Firefox, they're on a quick and slippery slope down to SJW hell. Quantum and update 57 fucked over countless users and they don't give a flying damn about it.
Search Engines
>Searx.me
Good enough search engine, respects privacy, is open-source, no major issues found.
>Ecosia
Supports tree-planting. Uses Bing infrastructure which is kinda sketchy, doesn't datamine outside of what is pretty much required for a search engine to operate, seems reliable and "good enough" again.
>Startpage
basically anonymized google, use it if the others don't give good results. Good enough results.
Gaming Tech and Peripherals
Gonna need some help filling out this one, since I don't keep up with all the companies.
A lot of the situation with these are unknown for me, if anyone has more information on MSI, AMD Asus, Acer, EVGA, Nvidia, Razer, Intel, Dell, etc. it would be helpful.
(cont. in next posts because of the shit text limit)