Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

pcgamer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 967 posts

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#331

Post by root_axis »

nerdsniper wrote: post #243
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the problem though. The risk means the market for those riskier credit transactions is literally categorically not a great market. You think JP Morgan gives a shit about Japanese titty games? Hah. No. They care that these games get charged back way more often. If there is a market opportunity, it's probably in a processor for debit-based transactions that are harder to reverse. But then that makes fraud harder…

With the CFPB under threat, there may be room for payment processors which don’t protect consumers from fraud. (Regulation is only as strong as its enforcement)

Not a wise business model. Enforcement can return at any time if the political winds shift.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#332

Post by Dilettante_ »

8note wrote: post #228
amelius wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Violence is still considered ok in games, last time I checked. Which is possibly because violence is not as awkward to watch with your family as sex is.

i think peoppe would probably have much better sex in general if it wasnt so taboo, and so people could get outside feedback on how theyre doing

I could do without Jeff from accounting showing off his latest proud performance with the wife to the coworkers like it's his golf swing.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#333

Post by tptacek »

Aeolun wrote: post #282

I think it’s hilarious we allow stuff like Postal or Soldier of Fortune without a question, where the whole focus is on going crazy and murdering a whole bunch of people. But try to show a sensual human body, instead of one that’s ripped into small pieces, and oh my god, this is going too far!

You could just ask, "why do payment processors pressure content vendors not to offer this kind of content". You're starting from the premise that there's some weird puritan thing happening, but there's really nothing puritan about American business culture. There are other explanations!

You can get a long ways just by assuming that the people involved in these transactions are utterly amoral.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#334

Post by eddythompson80 »

bigyabai wrote: post #324
eddythompson80 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All eyes on you.

Agree or disagree, it won't matter. When you let gamers vote with their wallets, the answer speaks for itself.

I wonder what else we should just keep to voting on with our wallets?

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#335

Post by pazimzadeh »

userbinator wrote: post #278
pazimzadeh wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, is there a non-religious reason to be against the right to choose to abort early during pregnancy?

If you want population growth.

a moral reason

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#336

Post by dilyevsky »

tptacek wrote: post #333
Aeolun wrote: post #282

I think it’s hilarious we allow stuff like Postal or Soldier of Fortune without a question, where the whole focus is on going crazy and murdering a whole bunch of people. But try to show a sensual human body, instead of one that’s ripped into small pieces, and oh my god, this is going too far!

You could just ask, "why do payment processors pressure content vendors not to offer this kind of content". You're starting from the premise that there's some weird puritan thing happening, but there's really nothing puritan about American business culture. There are other explanations! You can get a long ways just by assuming that the people involved in these transactions are utterly amoral .

If by “people involved” you mean folks who consume this kind of content then id totally agree. As soon as you offer crypto or even mildly sexual content your cc abuse rate goes through the roof. Which i suspect is the sole reason for processors getting upset in this case

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#337

Post by thallium205 »

Aeolun wrote: post #282

I think it’s hilarious we allow stuff like Postal or Soldier of Fortune without a question, where the whole focus is on going crazy and murdering a whole bunch of people. But try to show a sensual human body, instead of one that’s ripped into small pieces, and oh my god, this is going too far!

Adult content is considered a high risk merchant category - meaning it is susceptible to high chargeback and fraud rates. This is because after someone pays for and consumes adult content, a certain level of "clarity" overcomes them resulting in the execution of chargebacks against the merchant.

It has nothing to do with any sort of puritanical premise.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#338

Post by Dilettante_ »

nkrisc wrote: post #86
bji9jhff wrote: post #59

It is sad that in 2025 this needs to be repeated: fiction is not real. This statement imply that: * Simulated violence is not violence. * Simulated sex is not sex. * Simulated sorcery is not sorcery

And yet it is possible to make simulations extreme enough I would not opposed to banning them. There are some things that should not be normalized in society. It shouldn’t be payment processors doing it unilaterally, I’ll grant that. But I’m not (and I’m sure a great many more of a silent majority) wholly opposed to the outcome.

There is a world of nuance separating "normalizing" and "banning" something though, that's simply a false dichotomy.

I'd wager most "normal" people would recoil at the idea of eating excrement and, for all my open-mindedness, it's probably not something I'd actively endorse. But banning it is on a whole other leaf. Things can and should be allowed to exist on the fringe.

Otherwise we're moving towards the subject of the T.S. Eliot quote where "everything that is not forbidden will be compulsory, and everything not compulsory will be forbidden."

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#339

Post by thallium205 »

noduerme wrote: post #200
maxbond wrote: post #161

Why do payment processors do stuff like this? Is there some regulation that requires them to? I get that they don't want to process fraudulent transactions, but I'd think the response to a higher percentage of fraud from some industry would be to charge them more. It doesn't make sense to me why they would be concerned about the content of games, as long as everything is legal and the parties concerned aren't subject…

My guess is it's simply a chargeback risk. It's the reason casinos and adult sites have trouble getting credit card processing and are charged much higher basic rates, even under the best of circumstances when the casino or adult site is operating entirely within the law in the jurisdictions it allows. Punters run a lot of chargebacks on casinos, and people whose spouses catch a XXX video or game on their card statem…

This is the correct answer. There are many merchant categories, adult being just one of them, that are susceptible to high chargeback rates which result in payment processors banning them.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#340

Post by boredatoms »

thallium205 wrote: post #337
Aeolun wrote: post #282

I think it’s hilarious we allow stuff like Postal or Soldier of Fortune without a question, where the whole focus is on going crazy and murdering a whole bunch of people. But try to show a sensual human body, instead of one that’s ripped into small pieces, and oh my god, this is going too far!

Adult content is considered a high risk merchant category - meaning it is susceptible to high chargeback and fraud rates. This is because after someone pays for and consumes adult content, a certain level of "clarity" overcomes them resulting in the execution of chargebacks against the merchant. It has nothing to do with any sort of puritanical premise.

They should instead charge a higher transaction fee on those items to cover that risk
Post reply on HN