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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

#31

Post by Insanity »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #8
ectospheno wrote: post #2

Everyone I know personally still loves steam. We hate more than a few banks and strongly dislike the visa/mastercard duopoly but steam is great. Guessing the game drought is causing some news publications to reach for a story.

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…

I'm included in that. Steam is great, I've been using it for 21 years, and I don't need/want another launcher.

Occasionally I was forced into using others, when a game only released on Epic / Origin / Battle.net. But they all felt worse than Steam. So given a choice for the game, I'll buy it on Steam even at a higher price.

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

#32

Post by arprocter »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #8
ectospheno wrote: post #2

Everyone I know personally still loves steam. We hate more than a few banks and strongly dislike the visa/mastercard duopoly but steam is great. Guessing the game drought is causing some news publications to reach for a story.

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 you mentioned Epic - I bought something there and played it for a while, until one day it just...refused to load

Ended up in a loop of support asking for logs ad infinitum, while ignoring the fact that when I installed the client and game on a separate computer it crashed at the same point. Chalked it up to experience and just decided to not give them any more of my money

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

#33

Post by kasey_junk »

wokkel wrote: post #3

It's a stupid situation that banks and payment processors force their ethics upon while other companies take the blame (valve in this case). They should just dommoney transfers and as long as the transfer itself is legal should not have any opinion on the parties or product involved in the transaction.

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 chargebacks.

Third, the federal government and some states have outsourced enforcement of some laws to the banks and payment networks. It’s easier to ban things than to do this enforcement at times.

None of this is a ethics issue and none of this is about money transfers. It’s about extending credit, and there is no technical solution around credit extension with electronic payments.

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

#34

Post by lenerdenator »

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.

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

#36

Post by creaturemachine »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #8
ectospheno wrote: post #2

Everyone I know personally still loves steam. We hate more than a few banks and strongly dislike the visa/mastercard duopoly but steam is great. Guessing the game drought is causing some news publications to reach for a story.

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.

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

#37

Post by immibis »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #8
ectospheno wrote: post #2

Everyone I know personally still loves steam. We hate more than a few banks and strongly dislike the visa/mastercard duopoly but steam is great. Guessing the game drought is causing some news publications to reach for a story.

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…

For desktop gaming, GOG should be prioritized above Steam.

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

#38

Post by randoomed »

mcv wrote: post #28

Ridiculous that a few large corporations get to decide this. The only people who have any business deciding what content is or isn't allowed on someone else's platform, are the People, or their representatives in government. I can accept that some content goes too far and might have to be banned according to some people, but the only groups who should have the actual power to do that, should be the owner of the platf…

i hope that situation (with iDeal) will soon apply to the entirety of europe. Wero rolling out this system to all countries in the EU.

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

#39

Post by nyeah »

ectospheno wrote: post #2

Everyone I know personally still loves steam. We hate more than a few banks and strongly dislike the visa/mastercard duopoly but steam is great. Guessing the game drought is causing some news publications to reach for a story.

Yes we all pray to Gaben that this crisis will pass. I am honored to pay more in His name.

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

#40

Post by trenchpilgrim »

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.

Haha, remember when it was "the weird tray app for playing Counter Strike"?
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