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Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

polygon.com

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Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#161

Post by pixxel »

Arrowmaster wrote: post #151
nimbius wrote: post #4

If valve can escape the Microsoft store, it can handle a few payment processors. what would happen if Valve accepted Cryptocurrency? in turn, what might happen if valve decided to become a cryptocurrency exchange exclusive to the gaming community? EDIT: another solution is to use a load-wallet based system to shroud transactions from your financial nanny. money in, money out, no explicit evidence of a purchase.

They used to but removed it because nobody actually uses crypto currencies as currency. They also already let you load funds onto a wallet for use later.

[dead]

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#162

Post by Jach »

teamonkey wrote: post #113
Jach wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GOG is in bed with Amazon. I have over 130 games via GOG, only a handful I paid for -- right now I can only think of the Yakuza 0-6 collection that was priced so low I had to do it even though I played them all on a friend's xbox before. The rest are from Amazon's gifting of them to me via having a Prime account and Twitch account. Many are games I already bought and played on Steam, they're good games they're not ju…

Honestly I find “they give away free games so I won’t use them” to be a weird take. In any case, often with these free deals the developer is compensated according to how many installs the game gets. Number of installs during sales is also a metric that helps gain funding for future titles. So if Epic/GOG give away a game you already have and like, taking the time to add it to your collection, installing and running…

I'm not sure if the misunderstanding is on my end or yours, but I don't see how you get "I won't use them" from my comment mentioning I have over 130 games on GOG alone. I just added 3 more. I've even played some because sometimes they give away a game I don't already have and wanted to play! But it's not a sustainable practice, it's not particularly healthy for the ecosystem, that's a problem. (Amazon's free Prime Gaming giveaways give the games on a mix of GOG, Amazon directly, Epic, or Legacy Games. I have no idea how much revenue GOG gets from the deal but I'd bet it's > $0 and it would probably hurt to suddenly go away.)

Valve doesn't feel the need to shovel free games at me to get me to use their services, they're right not to do so because their services are still the best and I'm not begrudgingly using them but happily using them. And again, especially for Linux, where they've given a great deal back to making it a viable gaming platform. For launchers, I use Lutris and Heroic to manage my non-Steam games from Epic, GOG, Amazon directly, Humble Bundle, and Itch.io. I tend to configure these to use the GE fork of proton, again something that wouldn't be where it is without Valve.

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#163

Post by inemesitaffia »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #131
diath wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the fact that these payment processors are still happily processing payments from PornHub, OnlyFans and other big real porn platforms, I don't think your explanation about the networks not wanting to be associated with porn holds any ground. They're targeting video games specifically.

The games they are targeting are primarily pornographic. It unfortunately was used to also cast a wider net. But at its core that is exactly the content that was being brought up.

Maybe the hub can distribute them

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#164

Post by bigyabai »

ipaddr wrote: post #154
noman-land wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it fixed today? I'm not in the bitcoin game but doesn't the transaction have to be mined and that takes at least 10 minutes?

The landscape of third party companies who offer transaction insurance has increased. With bitcoin you have the lightning network.

The lightning network is a "solution" to Bitcoin in the same way that buying a new car fixes the old one.

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#165

Post by kasey_junk »

diath wrote: post #118
kasey_junk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 3 issues being commingled within this. First, the networks have brand protection stipulations for any partner that uses the network. None of them want to be known as the porn brand. Second, porn (and other similar categories) have a different risk profile than other charges. Specifically chargeback risk goes through the roof. None of the members of the network want to deal with sales of things that spike ch…

Considering the fact that these payment processors are still happily processing payments from PornHub, OnlyFans and other big real porn platforms, I don't think your explanation about the networks not wanting to be associated with porn holds any ground. They're targeting video games specifically.

Payment processors don’t happily process pornhub payments they’ve been largely cutoff from the networks.

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#166

Post by southernplaces7 »

lenerdenator wrote: post #34
nimbius wrote: post #4

If valve can escape the Microsoft store, it can handle a few payment processors. what would happen if Valve accepted Cryptocurrency? in turn, what might happen if valve decided to become a cryptocurrency exchange exclusive to the gaming community? EDIT: another solution is to use a load-wallet based system to shroud transactions from your financial nanny. money in, money out, no explicit evidence of a purchase.

Load-wallet would probably be better. Crypto is almost as bad as handing over your ID to see "adult" materials, because both require you to trust two parties (government ID stores and the general crypto community) that have shown themselves to not be trustworthy at all .

This presupposes that we should have to hand over ID to see "adult" materials, which is by itself an idiotic and deformed notion that should be killed dead before it gains more ground. Porn is not the same as buying a goddam gun or a bunch of liquor in a store, and I don't see why people should have to digitally identify themselves because they want to look at MILF porn or whatever..

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#167

Post by teamonkey »

Jach wrote: post #162
teamonkey wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I find “they give away free games so I won’t use them” to be a weird take. In any case, often with these free deals the developer is compensated according to how many installs the game gets. Number of installs during sales is also a metric that helps gain funding for future titles. So if Epic/GOG give away a game you already have and like, taking the time to add it to your collection, installing and running…

I'm not sure if the misunderstanding is on my end or yours, but I don't see how you get "I won't use them" from my comment mentioning I have over 130 games on GOG alone. I just added 3 more. I've even played some because sometimes they give away a game I don't already have and wanted to play! But it's not a sustainable practice, it's not particularly healthy for the ecosystem, that's a problem. (Amazon's free Prime G…

Having read your post again, it’s my misunderstanding.

But I disagree that it’s unsustainable or unhealthy for the ecosystem. It’s clearly a loss-leader designed to keep you engaging with the platform, yes, but it’s not necessarily worse for the developers or the platform than, say, a hugely-discounted Steam sale (or a subscription service like Gamepass).

Also if Steam started giving away games like Epic do I’m pretty sure they’d be adored for it.

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#168

Post by mcv »

creaturemachine wrote: post #36
trenchpilgrim wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than love - I have friends who will actively refuse to buy games on other stores, even for significantly better prices. (To be fair - I think some stores like the Epic Games store actively make playing games on them worse, e.g. I played Alan Wake 2 through Epic and the achievements notifications were massively distracting, ruining many scary and dramatic moments, and they turn themselves back on every time…

Funny how we got here. Anyone with a 20 year badge remembers the hatred in the community over being forced to use it.

Steam's massive investment into Linux support has gained them an incredibly amount of goodwill in the Linux community. Before Steam started supporting Linux, playing Windows games on Linux was incredibly unreliable and buggy. Now, almost every game just works, unless the creator puts in specific effort to sabotage it.

That said, I still prefer to buy from GOG when possible.

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#169

Post by lesuorac »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #157
lesuorac wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

half-joke. The difference is that it's not "seeing" a murder. It's committing a murder vs watching pornography. Killing somebody in a video game isn't real murder. Seeing a nude character is still pornography.

> Killing somebody in a video game isn't real murder. Likewise, having sex in a video game isn't real sex. It's still pornography, okay, sure, and..? And..?

> It's still pornography, okay, sure, and..? And..?

That's the point. Many people don't like pornography. So much so that they've collectively grouped together to demand payment processors make changes.

Re: Steam can't escape the fallout from its censorship controversy

#170

Post by mcv »

overfeed wrote: post #132
immibis wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For desktop gaming, GOG should be prioritized above Steam.

For Linux desktop gaming, Steam bests GoG all day, everyday. Before Valve sponsoring/partnering with Code Weavers on Proton, running anything-but-old-and-stable games via Wine was a fraught affair, now even games that update weekly/monthly run perfectly, without having to fiddle with config files or downloading specific DLLs. For the large and growing library of supported games, Steam made Linux gaming painless.

GOG does not support Linux, and Steam does, but the Heroic launcher is great for running GOG or Epic games on Linux.

And if that doesn't work, you can still import the game into Linux, while also still owning it independently from the platform.

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