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Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

pcgamer.com

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Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#81

Post by benterix »

kasey_junk wrote: post #55
logicchains wrote: post #21

What's stopping a large, profitable company like Valve from starting its own payment processor? Surely the technology part of it can't be an impossible hurdle.

If you believe Steam et al, the payment processors are bowing to the card networks in this. So being a payment processor wouldn’t help. You need to sidestep the networks. In the US that means either dealing with ACH at scale, which is a challenge, building a new card networks (which is hard) or only using alternative payment methods such as bnpl or crypto. Each of those will limit your buyers, which as a merchant is…

> In the US that means either dealing with ACH at scale, which is a challenge, building a new card networks (which is hard)

Which is why someone has big interest in keeping it this way as in Europe practically every country solved this issue a long time ago and people do daily shopping completely omitting Visa/Mastercard. They try to fight back without much success.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#82

Post by CoastalCoder »

p_ing wrote: post #67
perihelions wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The US has some clear laws against government controlling speech and, in the abstract, that makes it pretty much impossible to censor games." For background, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Entertainment_Merchan... ( "Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association" (2011) ( "ruling that video games were protected speech under the First Amendment as other forms of media" ))

First Amendment applies to the _government_, not private entities.

I think the larger point here is that the government is suppressing protected speech by using private sector actors as intermediaries.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#83

Post by chrisrhoden »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #22
roenxi wrote: post #13

The US has some clear laws against government controlling speech and, in the abstract, that makes it pretty much impossible to censor games. Various factions - exactly who it is difficult to pin down - have been working hard to set up a system where they can shut things down without ever explicitly instructing anyone to do anything. This appears to be the system engaging by accident because some crazy from Australia…

Say fuck on TV.

In addition to the sibling comment about safe harbor hours, the FCC regulates not speech but the shared airwaves. Print is irrelevant, and that’s why you can do whatever you want on cable.

Also, the FCC does not directly set standards and instead responds to complaints from the communities in which the broadcast is available. So it’s conceivable that in an environment where nobody cared, you could do this at any time of day.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#84

Post by perihelions »

p_ing wrote: post #58
cedws wrote: post #50

I'm glad the Mastercard-Visa duopoly is finally getting some attention, these companies shouldn't be allowed to exercise the financial control they do. Payment infrastructure is not a free market - you can't just choose to pay via some other processor if they turn you down, they ARE the processors. Therefore, they should be under intense scrutiny when they refuse.

There's no meaningful attention, here. Until it is on the US Gov't radar, this 'attention' is just a collection of upset redditors furiously posting forum messages which will fissile out in a few months, at most. Besides, it's not like you can boycott Mastercard or VISA.

> "which will fissile out in a few months"

A tangential nitpick: it's fizzle out, from a Middle English etymology meaning "to fart"; not to fission (fissile being an adjectival form), from Latin "to split".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fizzle#Etymology ("Attested in English since 1525-35. From earlier fysel (“to fart”). Related to fīsa (“to fart”). Compare with Swedish fisa (“to fart (silently)”). See also feist.")

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/feist#Etymology

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fissile#Etymology ("From Latin fissilis.")

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#85

Post by unsigner »

rs186 wrote: post #64

Dumb question: what if Steam only takes cash or crypto payment for these games, and leave them on the market? Cash is loaded from debit card and can be used for buying any games, while crypto apparently always works for everything. Would they still be on the hook?

how do you "take cash" over the Internet?

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#86

Post by techpression »

dude250711 wrote: post #18

Anti-monopoly laws are good, but how about some harsh anti-duopoly laws? Could also hit the iOS-Android bird with the same stone!

It’s not even a duopoly, look at the majority shareholders of both Visa and Mastercard, Vanguard and Black-rock in both. So it’s effectively a monopoly.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#87

Post by anankaie »

mananaysiempre wrote: post #15
koonsolo wrote: post #12

If only we had some kind of decentralized internet money system.

Or a legally protected right to transact, ideally with cash-equivalent anonymity. I’d take either one.

I'm feeling a little maximalist about this: How about both?

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#88

Post by v3ss0n »

nottorp wrote: post #2

Wrong title. "Mastercard finds out there are a lot of gamers out there, makes an attempt at damage control." would be more appropriate.

Why you care about whatever we do with do with digital pixels at our free time ? Gamers trying to save the game they play and Master card have no business banning the games we play on our own private

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#89

Post by stego-tech »

The payment processor censorship issue backs up a point I made elsewhere about companies being involved in politics: they shouldn’t be, and shareholders should be screaming with rage that these companies have inserted themselves into these discussions on purpose.

They’re payment processors, for crying out loud. Their entire grift is taking a slice of every transaction processed, ergo, the only restriction they should ever have in processing payments is whether or not the transaction is legal under the law, full stop.

If they don’t like processing payments for pornography or adult content (including games), then don’t be a payment processor. They’re a business, not a person, and therefore their “preferences” regarding content are irrelevant.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#90

Post by v5v3 »

unsigner wrote: post #85
rs186 wrote: post #64

Dumb question: what if Steam only takes cash or crypto payment for these games, and leave them on the market? Cash is loaded from debit card and can be used for buying any games, while crypto apparently always works for everything. Would they still be on the hook?

how do you "take cash" over the Internet?

Mullvad VPN takes cash, you post it to them.
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