Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

pcgamer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 967 posts

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

#221

Post by tptacek »

cperciva wrote: post #218
maxbond wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean I wouldn't do business with them, I think the supplements industry is infrastructure for grifters, quacks, and pyramid schemes to fleece the desperate, but what's the problem for Visa? Is it a brand safety thing? My presumption would be that payment processors are amoral and have no problem processing payments for Consolidated Baby Kickers if it were legal to do so, is that a misconception?

"Not as advertised" chargebacks. That industry is also full of subscription scams (e.g. someone thinks they're ordering a supplement for $5.99, but they're actually getting signed up for $39.99/month...).

Also the products don't work!

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

#222

Post by raincole »

mulmen wrote: post #168
raincole wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practically impossible. To replace visa/mastercard you need to have thousands of banks support ValveCard across the world. It's hard to imagine how it's going to happen. Players will not switch to another (probably foreign) bank just to buy Half-Life 3. They'll pirate it. By the way, Gabe has a very famous quote: > Piracy is a service problem. He knows it very well that if it's hard for players to buy something they'…

Why does ValveCard need to work anywhere other than Steam? Privacy.com manages to issue card numbers somehow. How does that work?

It needs to work with banks in different countries. It doesn't need to work everywhere, like being able to pay your dinner with it, obviously.

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

#223

Post by guidedlight »

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…

Another factor is that credit providers (i.e. banks) are increasingly using customer transaction data to assess customer behaviour as part of its risk scoring.

If a customer is regularly purchasing adult material that would be definitely be a red flag.

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

#224

Post by 8note »

mulmen wrote: post #172
xyst wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam gift cards are funded by traditional banking products and partnerships. They can’t live without the invisible hand of the banking and credit card industry.

I like this (ab)use of the invisible hand meme. But in economics the “invisible hand” is more of a benevolent deity than a predictable mechanism. I propose “hidden hand” for what credit (card and rating) companies do.

it really is the same invisible hand. the economics invisible hand is doing whatever the capital owners want the economy to do. weighing influence by capital is what makes visa have that power

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

#226

Post by j_timberlake »

throwaway071625 wrote: post #58

The article calls out “certain adult games” which is vague. It is interesting to note that most of the delisted games were themed specifically around incest. https://bsky.app/profile/steamdb.info/post/3lu32vdlsmg27 Wondering if this will be a slippery slope towards pulling more anodyne stuff.

Nekopara and Sabbat of the Witch are safe... for now.

Hopefully they don't know about the little-sister route in Making Lovers.

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

#227

Post by tmcz26 »

mulmen wrote: post #168
raincole wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practically impossible. To replace visa/mastercard you need to have thousands of banks support ValveCard across the world. It's hard to imagine how it's going to happen. Players will not switch to another (probably foreign) bank just to buy Half-Life 3. They'll pirate it. By the way, Gabe has a very famous quote: > Piracy is a service problem. He knows it very well that if it's hard for players to buy something they'…

Why does ValveCard need to work anywhere other than Steam? Privacy.com manages to issue card numbers somehow. How does that work?

Visa and Mastercard are called card _networks_ for a reason. Wherever you are in the world, or in any site anywhere, if your card says Visa and the merchant’s POS machine (or payment gateway) take Visa, both parties know the transaction is good. The merchant gets his money and you get the product.

You get your card from your issuing bank, so the consumer’s last mile is the bank’s problem. The merchant get their POS/gateway from the acquirers. Your bank and the merchants acquirer don’t know each other.

Visa and Mastercard are intermediaries. There’s no way a NatWest card in the UK is connected to whatever POS is in Chile or whatever. They all route through the card brands.

This is why it’s so tough to break this monopoly.

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

#228

Post by 8note »

amelius wrote: post #139
bji9jhff wrote: post #59

It is sad that in 2025 this needs to be repeated: fiction is not real. This statement imply that: * Simulated violence is not violence. * Simulated sex is not sex. * Simulated sorcery is not sorcery

Violence is still considered ok in games, last time I checked. Which is possibly because violence is not as awkward to watch with your family as sex is.

i think peoppe would probably have much better sex in general if it wasnt so taboo, and so people could get outside feedback on how theyre doing

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

#229

Post by pazimzadeh »

Ancapistani wrote: post #111
pazimzadeh wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because "anti-abortion/pro-life" removes a right from women. Trading the rights of a developed adult for the rights of a hypothetical future person. What does ancapistanism have to do with it? Is there a non-religious reason to be against the right to choose abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy?

> Because "anti-abortion/pro-life" removes a right from women. Trading the rights of a developed adult for the rights of a hypothetical future person. Their perspective is that abortion is killing a human being. Given that, it’s entirely consistent. > What does ancapistanism have to do with it? Nothing, other than that I was providing some context on where I’m coming from. > Is there a non-religious reason to be agai…

[dead]

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

#230

Post by pazimzadeh »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #85
pazimzadeh wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because "anti-abortion/pro-life" removes a right from women. Trading the rights of a developed adult for the rights of a hypothetical future person. What does ancapistanism have to do with it? Is there a non-religious reason to be against the right to choose abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy?

> Is there a non-religious reason to be against the right to choose abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy? Of course there is. It's not hard to construct an argument to that effect either. For example: let's agree for the sake of argument that a newborn has moral rights, and that gametes do not. It doesn't make much sense to give the fetus moral rights only based on its physical location, therefore at some point betwe…

cool, then sperm and eggs have moral rights
Post reply on HN