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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

#131

Post by mpalmer »

scotty79 wrote: post #57
mschild wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adoption. You'd have to onboard hundreds/thousands of banks and terminal providers so they accept/give out your card. I excpect the underlying technical stuff isn't that hard compared to getting people and companies to actually use it.

Aren't cards last century technology? I'm paying with my phone anyways. Seller can use phone as well. Why does it need to involve incumbent banks and terminal providers at all? If Valve started something like that the banks would bang on its door relentlessly just to not be left out of the loop. Gaming is the business bigger than movies, music and books combined and Valve is Google of games.

You should maybe look up how paying with your phone works.

And what in your mind is the thing banks will be begging Steam to be let in on? This reads like payment processing fan fiction.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#132

Post by makeitdouble »

> Mastercard's Rule 5.12.7 relates to "illegal or brand-damaging transactions," and states:

> A Merchant must not submit to its Acquirer, and a Customer must not submit to the Interchange System, any Transaction that is illegal, or in the sole discretion of the Corporation, may damage the goodwill of the Corporation or reflect negatively on the Marks.

I didn't expect they had such clear rules expliciting they can ban any kind of transactions they don't like or would make them look bad, regardless of the legality of it.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#133

Post by ascagnel_ »

ddtaylor wrote: post #33
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.

I mean they kind of do. Most of the time I would hand wave away any company offering gift cards or credits, but Steam has created an economy / structure that I think warrants mentioning here. I have sold a few items on Steam because I don't care about cosmetics in games. I'm also lazy and because of that "sat" on items for a while that appreciated. I mention this because Steam credit is very fungible: it can be easil…

On the other hand, I'm absolutely amazed some US states hasn't yet gone after Valve for running an unlicensed casino with no age verification.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#134

Post by alexvitkov »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #95
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?

Debit cards still go through MasterCard and/or Visa. They could take crypto, but crypto is far too volatile for the types of transactions Valve wants to be handling.

Volatility isn't an issue for the merchant - prices can be adjusted in real-time based on the cryptocurrency's value at the time of purchase, and if they don't want to be exposed, they can sell it immediately on purchase.

Whether or not Valve would want to encourage people to pay with crypto and expose their customer base to its volatility is another matter.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#135

Post by yetihehe »

scotty79 wrote: post #57
mschild wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adoption. You'd have to onboard hundreds/thousands of banks and terminal providers so they accept/give out your card. I excpect the underlying technical stuff isn't that hard compared to getting people and companies to actually use it.

Aren't cards last century technology? I'm paying with my phone anyways. Seller can use phone as well. Why does it need to involve incumbent banks and terminal providers at all? If Valve started something like that the banks would bang on its door relentlessly just to not be left out of the loop. Gaming is the business bigger than movies, music and books combined and Valve is Google of games.

> Aren't cards last century technology?

I don't pay with credit or debit card for steam, I can use Blik, which is paying with my phone or one other payment processor, but I'm not in USA. This is USA problem.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#136

Post by makeitdouble »

khalic wrote: post #130

Before getting all worked up, I would advise people to look at what games exactly were banned, and see if it’s a case of power abuse or simply a case of “we can all agree that rape and incest games are disgusting and have no place in an entertainment web site visited by kids”.

You should bark at Steam if you want more curation.

What people are pissed at is a card payment network abused for moral regulation.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#137

Post by weberer »

koonsolo wrote: post #12

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

We have privacy focused crypto systems like Monero, but the EU effectively banned them last year through "money laundering" laws, and they're moving to completely ban them within the next few years.

https://www.bitcoinsensus.com/news/altcoins/eu-to-restrict-m...

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#138

Post by Hamuko »

makeitdouble wrote: post #132

> Mastercard's Rule 5.12.7 relates to "illegal or brand-damaging transactions," and states: > A Merchant must not submit to its Acquirer, and a Customer must not submit to the Interchange System, any Transaction that is illegal, or in the sole discretion of the Corporation, may damage the goodwill of the Corporation or reflect negatively on the Marks. I didn't expect they had such clear rules expliciting they can ban…

I called MasterCard twice and both times they a) guessed that I was calling about content on Steam without ever mentioning Steam b) said that they only restricted "illegal adult content" and have "standards based on rule of law". Said absolutely nothing about protecting the brand. Also couldn't say if said "standards" were actual laws or MasterCard's own (legal) standards.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#139

Post by meinersbur »

giantg2 wrote: post #44
Jensson wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they would just get removed in Australia, not worldwide.

My guess is that Steam wasn't able to adequately block the games in Austrailia. If people use a VPN to access the content, could Steam still be liable?

They absolutely do have that infrastructure. They implemented every country's content rating system, such as PEGI, ESRB, ... . Games are regionally banned, such as in Germany [1]. Games can also have regionally censored games, typically for violence/gore in Germany [2]. With the strange effect that if you change your account's region, it re-downloads some of the games.

The legal situation with VPNs and traveling between regions is the same as with any internet service.

[1] https://steamcommunity.com/groups/foruncut/discussions/17/41... [2] https://steamcommunity.com/groups/foruncut/discussions/17/39...

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