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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

#211

Post by infecto »

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.

Whole heartedly agree. I would also rather the discussion be how can we disrupt the problem rather than a mob mentality to take down Visa (which is never going anywhere anyway).

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#212

Post by Ruthalas »

alexvitkov wrote: post #127
krainboltgreene wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but also the crypto option has been tried and absolutely doesn’t work.

It really hasn't. Everything has been tried with crypto, except actually buying things with it.

To be fair, in the case of Steam they legitimately did try. They supported bitcoin purchases for nearly two years before they stopped, citing volatility and processing fees:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail...

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#213

Post by charcircuit »

infecto wrote: post #148
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…

I am quite surprised how wrong opinions like yours are. There is no argument of free speech here, they are a private business and as such can decide what they allow and don’t allow on their network. It’s no different than if cloudflare had a click through that said no adult material. You can hand wave around well they are a monopoly or some related argument but the government does not see it that way. Visa and Master…

Competition doesn't matter if entities have to simultaneously follow all of the payment processors' rules. It means in order to compete you have to find people willing to give up everything else. Which is an impossible proposition.

It's like if a tier 1 ISP only peered with networks that peer with networks that censor XYZ. Allowing for these kind of agreements leads to censorship and is why net neutrality is important from the government.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#214

Post by bcarlet92 »

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.

[dead]

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#215

Post by 15155 »

Spivak wrote: post #209
mathiaspoint wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US also has Discover/Capital One and American Express and if you live in some of the nicer parts people still take checks.

Does that actually help? Because it would send a pretty strong message if the payment screen said, "sorry you can only buy this with amex/discover" (click here for why) but that doesn't seem to be how this plays out.

Because making these products for sale at all in the catalog will cause Visa/MC to pull out for other, "approved" offerings.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#216

Post by polytely »

I wonder if Valve could (threaten to) become their own payment processor if this becomes too big of a threat. They are one of the few companies on earth with enough money to attempt it.

If I remember correctly a big part of Valves heavy investment into linux was Microsoft wanting to lock windows down more, and now in 2025 gaming on linux is a viable alternative to windows.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#217

Post by goopypoop »

ginko wrote: post #78
p_ing wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Honestly I hope this comes under the EU's radar.

"under the radar" means not noticed

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#218

Post by nemomarx »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #205
amiga386 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Click on the article link at the top of this page and find out. Let me quote the article for you: > In a statement provided to PC Gamer, Valve said that it had tried to work things out with Mastercard directly prior to removing the games, and suggested that Mastercard did have at least an indirect influence on the outcome. > "Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so," a Valve r…

This text is also consistent with Valve making a determination, checking with payment processors and not being told no. (Versus the payment processors reaching out to Valve first.) Like yes, there is a problem with Mastercard. But I want to know this isn’t Valve having complied with some activists trying to cover their tracks.

As far as it goes, collective shout claimed Valve didn't respond to them and that's why they complained to MC visa about it. They even mention how many calls they made to them to get the complaint heard.

So everyone would have to be pretty invested in this show for it to have originated from Valve?

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#219

Post by [deleted] »

Spivak wrote: post #210
ethbr1 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like FedNow that was launched in 2023? https://www.frbservices.org/news/fed360/issues/071625/fednow... https://www.frbservices.org/resources/fees/fednow-2025

Not even close the service offered by, as an example, Pix in Brazil.

[deleted]

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#220

Post by dpoloncsak »

perihelions wrote: post #84
p_ing wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"to fission (fissile being an adjectival form), from Latin 'to split'."

Does this mean "Missile" means "to miss"? 'Cause boy have we been using those things wrong :-)

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