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Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

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81–90 of 145 posts

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#81
post #29

After closing the huge sign-up popup, dismissing the Medium-App-suggestion and closing the cookie-banner I lost all interest in reading the article, which is a shame. I sometimes hate the internet. At least the HN comments were insightful, unlike my rambling. Sorry about that.

Reader View on Firefox (CTRL + ALT + R) is a blessing!

Nah, fuck them. If they're gonna be that hostile to users users should just leave.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#82
post #19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to watching TV?

I think they’re roughly the same... if you spend four hours a day playing video games or watching TV most people will judge you negatively for it

I am skeptical, given that the in the US the average household watches more than 8hrs per day[1] (kind of an odd measure, but it seems likely that most members of the household are at least making it to your 4hr threshold, unless there's just one doing some real binge-watching).

1: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/when-...

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#83
post #38

the numbers tossed around in these articles always amuse me. I have worked extensively in the adult industry and can guarantee its no where near $97B. Print is dead, the internet and PPV in hotels and satellites bring in the bacon and it's not much.

> guarantee its no where near $97B

Worldwide? What if you include brothels, strip clubs, "used" items (ie panties, gamer girl bathwater,) etc.?

Here's the source for $97B, puts US at $10-12B - https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/things-are-lo...

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#84
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "firearms industry" is a subset of the "arms industry." "Firearms" are rifles, pistols, and shotguns. "Arms" include those, plus tanks, fighter jets, artillery, nuclear weapons, etc.

there is crossover but you might as well lump together stealth bombers and SUVs. the vast, vast majority of firearms produced by US companies are for civilians.

Completely agree, that was my point. The parent comment lumped them together, including a Wikipedia link to an article on "the arms industry." But the arms industry is so vast that high-level conclusions about government purchasing have almost nothing to do with the grandparent comment about credit card fees at local gun stores.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#85

I’ve mentioned this before, but the firearms industry has a similar issue, caused by the same clauses. Local gun stores often pay very high fees for credit card processing relative to other retail stores - and unlike gambling and pornography, this doesn’t seem to be supported by a higher chargeback rate as best I can tell. They’ve just been “lumped in” because of the regulated nature of some of their products. I say…

Such denials of service are due in part to the politics of the financial bigwigs, but are also due in large point to government programs [1] specifically designed to suppress "undesirable" business. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

I doubt the current administration is targeting gun dealers.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#86

There are well-established benefits of CBD use in some patients covering a wide variety of symptoms, but pushing skin care pseudoscience is wrong. Isolated evidence like that of anti-inflammatory effects is not the same as an extensive clinical trial. This is why we need an actual healthcare system: to allow people to see doctors rather than falling victim to the junk CBD products that this person is excited to fund.

Walking around my neighborhood in NYC, I wonder how human life expectancy got beyond thirty-five years before the arrival of CBD based on the claims being made in shop windows and on sandwich boards obstructing sidewalk traffic.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#87
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because it's kinda like gambling as a good portion of it can be down to chance, also "We try to keep the definition relatively broad..."

Are you thinking of Fantasy Sports ? I mixed the two initially as well. I see why Fantasy Sports (assembling virtual teams of real athletes) would be there, it's purely gambling, but e-sports (competitive gaming)… it's just like any other non-physical game, like chess or scrabble or whatever.

The difference is the chance involved. Chess involves no chance. Scrabble involves the chance of the tiles you get, there's still a lot of skill involved. E-sports is more like scrabble than chess.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#88
post #70
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If it's sex or drugs or any sort of addiction, the user is victim. With weapons, other people are the victim. At least in the US, a majority of deaths by firearm are suicides. And as for potentially addictive drugs (e.g., alcohol), the user can cause great harm to other people, as in drunk driving.

No. A plurality of the gun deaths are suicide (%33). Accidents and homicide add up to more.

I think you have your stats reversed.

Fivethirtyeight says about 2/3 of gun deaths are suicides. Around 1/3 are homicides. A surprisingly small percentage (to me) are classified as accidents.[0]

[0]: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#89
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would expect that the classification is due to some combination of the gambling mechanics surrounding many popular videogames and the moral panic of today's youth spending time indoors engaging in virtualized violence.

It’s probably because there’s an actual gambling industry related to esports. Just like betting on horses at the track, or gambling on football, or whatever.

Afaik it's also a (the?) major source of funding for esports companies as well so if you're going in to the esports space then there's a very good chance you're going to have to dance with that devil at some point. Football at least - I don't know about horses - seems to be able to support itself off of viewership. Whereas the last dota tournament I watched had "Betway" at the start of its name.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#90
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet sex/porn and esports are both addicting. How does that math add up? Games maybe not so much by nature, but the publishers are trying everything they can to increase your time in game.

"Esports" typically refers to professional competitive gaming, not to video games in general -- the focus is on viewership, not participation. There are some related side industries which might fit that description (like esports betting sites), but the industry itself isn't particularly "addictive", at least no more than traditional sports. The classification of sex and pornography as "addictive" has been controversi…

People say they get addicted to porn, what does science have to do with what they say?
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