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

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

#511

Post by johnisgood »

globular-toast wrote: post #471
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…

Control. People get a kick out of controlling others and stopping them doing things that don't effect them in any way. It's like how being a practising gay was illegal or how using certain drugs still is.

So true. People love meddling into other people's lives, control their actions, etc.

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

#512

Post by sigmoid10 »

johnisgood wrote: post #508
sigmoid10 wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit cards are much less heavily relied on in Europe than in the USA. Europe basically runs on debit cards that every kid can have and where the fees are minuscule. There are countless banks providing the service and everything is highly regulated. On top of that, Europe still curbed Visa and Mastercard several times for antitrust behaviour. And the idea that physical money primarily aids social fraud, money launde…

Where may I read about anything supporting your statement "cash is primarily used for illegal activities"? I highly doubt that this is the case, unless there are more illegal activities out there than legal ones.

Here for example: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash...

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

#513

Post by ninalanyon »

It's about time that credit cards were treated like money and this kind of behaviour forbidden. When you pay with cash the notes and coins don't refuse to be handed over because the issuing bank has an opinion about what you are buying, it should be the same for all payment methods.

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

#514

Post by nottorp »

0dayz wrote: post #476
kjkjadksj wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So are they banning erotic fiction books too or what? I guess the tradwifes actually secretly read that stuff though…

If you read the founder of the "feminist" group she thinks that 50 shades is the equivalent of the book of Satan but about raping women.

So she read it? I tried but stopped at 10% or so :)

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

#515

Post by williamdclt »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #488
p0w3n3d wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbh that's quite alarming what you've just said, and I'm not saying about government. I'm saying about an additional huge sales tax. I understand that wiring money or sending them in an envelope is the thing of past, but e.g. in my country and in whole EU the digital payment is promoted as the only righteous, because "cash is only used by gangsters and human traffickers" etc. And this is really playing against us and…

Credit cards are much less heavily relied on in Europe than in the USA. Europe basically runs on debit cards that every kid can have and where the fees are minuscule. There are countless banks providing the service and everything is highly regulated. On top of that, Europe still curbed Visa and Mastercard several times for antitrust behaviour. And the idea that physical money primarily aids social fraud, money launde…

> the idea that physical money primarily aids social fraud, money washing and other illegal activities is pretty well established

I think that's very hyperbolic. In france most people I know carry cash and use it regularly (not as much as cards), the gen X and older tend to find it strange to pay for small sums (eg bread) with card. Germany is infamously almost cash-only. In many Central Europe countries, shops taking card is not a given (Bulgaria, Hungary).

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

#516

Post by nottorp »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #124
egypturnash wrote: post #108

Okay so is Steam enough of a money printer for Valve to say "well fuck you guys, we'll make our own credit card with hookers and bingo"? And hold out Half-Life 3 (only purchasable with the ValveCard) as a carrot?

I am genuinely curious who can actually threaten Visa (I do not think it is Valve). Amazon, Walmart, Target and then increasingly unsure.

> Amazon, Walmart, Target

Those are all US companies so subject to the same puritan pressures. Their cards would still be good for buying ultra violent games but not sex games...

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

#517

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#518

Post by aleph_minus_one »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #488
p0w3n3d wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbh that's quite alarming what you've just said, and I'm not saying about government. I'm saying about an additional huge sales tax. I understand that wiring money or sending them in an envelope is the thing of past, but e.g. in my country and in whole EU the digital payment is promoted as the only righteous, because "cash is only used by gangsters and human traffickers" etc. And this is really playing against us and…

Credit cards are much less heavily relied on in Europe than in the USA. Europe basically runs on debit cards that every kid can have and where the fees are minuscule. There are countless banks providing the service and everything is highly regulated. On top of that, Europe still curbed Visa and Mastercard several times for antitrust behaviour. And the idea that physical money primarily aids social fraud, money launde…

> And the idea that physical money primarily aids social fraud, money washing and other illegal activities is pretty well established. They even killed the 500€ bank note, because it was almost exclusively used by criminals and most normal people never even touched one, much less used one for legit transactions.

At least in Germany in particular older people prefer to pay cash if possible - this gives the banks also less leverage with respect to abhorent fees. Since many people in Germany neither trust the banks nor the government anymore, acting this way is very rational.

Also the arguments concerning cash restrictions are seen very differently by the population: since there existed two oppressive regimes on German soil in the 20th century, a lot of people realize that the restrictions on cash are just another step towards restrictions of the citizen's freedoms (thus I am honestly surprised all the time that a lot of US-Americans who are so freedom-loving and distrust the government concerning the restrictions of civil rights are not in love of cash).

Thus, in Germany there exists the saying "Bargeld ist gelebte Freiheit" [cash is lived freedom].

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

#519

Post by nottorp »

AraceliHarker wrote: post #310
nottorp wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is: has "kill in the name of Hitler" also been banned, or is that okay with Visa/MC?

I don't need your 'what ifs' and 'could haves.' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is actually available on Steam, and that's good enough.

Looks to me like you read the opposite of what i wrote though.

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

#520

Post by Affric »

Payments companies successfully got valve to stop purveying weapons grade incest/child-porn/rape themed smut that is barely a game?

Nabokov was a great author and Lolita was the work of a great author who turned his pen/typewriter to a detestable subject leading to innumerable questions about art.

These guys are just z-graders who get off on non-consensual sexual interactions involving children.

Valve absolutely should not be publishing this stuff.

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