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

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

#251

Post by TkTech »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #124
egypturnash wrote: post #108

Okay so is Steam enough of a money printer for Valve to say "well fuck you guys, we'll make our own credit card with hookers and bingo"? And hold out Half-Life 3 (only purchasable with the ValveCard) as a carrot?

I am genuinely curious who can actually threaten Visa (I do not think it is Valve). Amazon, Walmart, Target and then increasingly unsure.

Any coalition of banks can. Replacing Visa is a daunting task, but rolling out PoS support and the technical challenges are peanuts compared to actually getting banks onboard. Visa itself was started by a single bank, and Mastercard was started by a coalition of banks. They can do it again.

Interac[1] is Canada's debit system, originally created as a non-profit by our largest banks way back in '84, and these days is supported everywhere. The large banks are already used to bullying their way through political or bureaucratic challenges, and a single Canadian bank typically has trillion(s) in managed assets - they _can_ bully Visa.

Zelle[2] (2016) is a limited (etransfer only) clone for the American market, UPI (2016) in India, UnionPay (2002) in China, carte Bleue (1967) in France, etc etc. What's missing is cooperation between national systems like these, as well as lending as they typically only do debit instead of credit.

Any cooperation between these systems would likely get spun out as a separate entity, which would eventually just turn into a new Visa or Mastercard - but 3 choices is better than 2.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelle [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Payments_Interface

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

#252

Post by tptacek »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #244
tptacek wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no trouble seeing why a payment processor would want to avoid doing business with dietary supplement companies.

No issues buying Marlboro reds with the credit card of course.

Have you ever returned a pack of cigarettes? They basically do what you expect them to do.

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

#253

Post by mafuy »

nerdsniper wrote: post #243
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the problem though. The risk means the market for those riskier credit transactions is literally categorically not a great market. You think JP Morgan gives a shit about Japanese titty games? Hah. No. They care that these games get charged back way more often. If there is a market opportunity, it's probably in a processor for debit-based transactions that are harder to reverse. But then that makes fraud harder…

With the CFPB under threat, there may be room for payment processors which don’t protect consumers from fraud. (Regulation is only as strong as its enforcement)

Might be a good idea. This is so curious.

The US has a weird fetish with privatizing things that the government should handle, like consumer protection. If there were a reasonably robust infrastructure for this outside of payment processors in the US, there would be far less pressure on porn providers to comply with fucked up morals about porn. What we have here is an instance of late stage capitalism, and half the people are too narrowminded to see how it hurts their freedom.

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

#254

Post by Shekelphile »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #156
nkrisc wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet it is possible to make simulations extreme enough I would not opposed to banning them. There are some things that should not be normalized in society. It shouldn’t be payment processors doing it unilaterally, I’ll grant that. But I’m not (and I’m sure a great many more of a silent majority) wholly opposed to the outcome.

For the people who disagree: would you really be interested in seeing Child Grooming Simulator 25 on steam? I think we can almost all reasonably agree that at least this sort of content should not be sold on there.

there are already hundreds, if not thousands of anime lolicon porn games on steam.

the people making a stink about this know this but are pretending that they don't because it would overtly out them as pedophiles.

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

#255

Post by mapt »

ijk wrote: post #183
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…

One factor is the ongoing campaigns from number of moral crusading groups who lobby them to cut off payment processing for things they don't approve of. NCOSE has been working for decades on the project, and targeting credit card companies has been a successful tactic for them for a decade or so. [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/visa-and-mastercard-ar... [2] https://www.newsweek.com/why-visa-mastercard-being…

Targeting them with what?

What could possibly hold enough leverage that Visa would jeopardize their sweet gig as an ideology-neutral, essential piece of American infrastructure siphoning 1-2% off of every dollar of consumer spending?

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

#256

Post by uamgeoalsk »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #156
nkrisc wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet it is possible to make simulations extreme enough I would not opposed to banning them. There are some things that should not be normalized in society. It shouldn’t be payment processors doing it unilaterally, I’ll grant that. But I’m not (and I’m sure a great many more of a silent majority) wholly opposed to the outcome.

For the people who disagree: would you really be interested in seeing Child Grooming Simulator 25 on steam? I think we can almost all reasonably agree that at least this sort of content should not be sold on there.

I don't have to be "interested" in seeing something on steam to disagree with nkrisc. I don't care about 99.9%+ of the games on steam, that doesn't mean I want them gone.

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

#257

Post by terminalshort »

SJC_Hacker wrote: post #239
ijk wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One factor is the ongoing campaigns from number of moral crusading groups who lobby them to cut off payment processing for things they don't approve of. NCOSE has been working for decades on the project, and targeting credit card companies has been a successful tactic for them for a decade or so. [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/visa-and-mastercard-ar... [2] https://www.newsweek.com/why-visa-mastercard-being…

They tried to do the same to OnlyFans, but lost that battle

Onlyfans actually made financial sense, though, because chargeback rates are very high. This move makes no financial sense at all.

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

#258

Post by Jackson__ »

j_timberlake wrote: post #225

They went after no-name games instead of Summer Memories or Treasure Hunter Claire? Weak. They should have at least aimed at Living With Sister: Monochrome Fantasy.

Hey, Summer Memories got an official shout out on their twitter once, someone must have a real weak spot for that one at valve.

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

#259

Post by mulmen »

bdangubic wrote: post #133
1970-01-01 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically yes, but the money game was CBS losing a massive lawsuit to POTUS.

I would agree with this if this was factual, the money cbs paid via 60 minutes nonsense is same if you were fined a dime for something you did today. so not “massive” but whatever is the exact opposite of massive The show itself was losing viewership cause who the F watches late night TV these days?

Interesting, do you have a source for that claim? Mallen Baker [1] says it was gaining viewers.

[1]: https://youtu.be/KMLZAE4okWs

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

#260

Post by FireBeyond »

akerl_ wrote: post #250
kjkjadksj wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No issues buying Marlboro reds with the credit card of course.

Cigarette purchasers aren’t filing chargebacks when their partner checks the billing history, claiming their card got stolen.

Are dietary supplement purchasers doing so?
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