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

Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

pcgamer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 621 posts

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#401

Post by switknee »

roblabla wrote: post #96
CoastalCoder wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the larger point here is that the government is suppressing protected speech by using private sector actors as intermediaries.

Is there proof the government actually uses this apparatus? I don't think there's any government involvement necessary here - Mastercard has some censorship apparatus (which they claim to be necessary for their brand's reputation), and they used it (apparently through pressure from an Australian group) towards video games. This is really bad but I don't think it makes sense to believe a government was ever involved h…

There are laws in place to regulate this behavior, but the government has chosen to protect mastercard from enforcement in this instance. That's the smoking gun.

Mastercard could simply refuse service for those games in particular instead of demanding (through proxies) that the games be banned from Steam. There's a clear antitrust violation.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#402

Post by jabroni_salad »

yupyupyups wrote: post #305

[flagged]

Have you ever read fundamentalist christian reviews of films or books? They will absolutely go for the stuff you value. It is not actually possible to make them happy. They invented graham crackers because they thought normal foods were too sexually evocative.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#403

Post by shagie »

nemomarx wrote: post #367
0983736882 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If they don’t like processing payments for pornography or adult content (including games) Pornography and adult content is fine—the real issue is that gaming storefronts refuse to moderate their platforms for child pornography and rape material and would rather kill their entire NSFW catalog, all while painting themselves as the victims. > If they don’t like processing payments for pornography or adult content (inc…

I'm pretty sure child pornography is actually illegal in all jurisdictions valve operates in, and they would be charged with real crimes for selling it. Maybe you mean anime characters or something? And is there any law about roleplaying rape? It's common in romance novels and online videos so I don't see how it could be illegal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_in_Australia#Illeg...

> Some types of pornography (both real and fictitious) are technically illegal in Australia and if classified would be rated RC and therefore banned in Australia. This includes any pornography depicting violent BDSM, incest, paedophilia, zoophilia, certain extreme fetishes (such as golden showers) and/or indicators of youth (such as wearing a school uniform).

Fictitious violent fetishes and BSDM would likely be illegal in Australia.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#404

Post by thomastjeffery »

EgregiousCube wrote: post #242
pchangr wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany actually uses their own card system .. or cash. They are very much against visa/mastercard due to their “high commission fees” and “privacy concerns” Girocard charges a 0,3% fee vs visa/mastercard 3% See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girocard

You're comparing a regional debit network to an overarching network that includes lots of different fee structures. The USA has debit networks (STAR, etc) with similar cost structures too - Germany is not unique in this regard.

My debit card is a VISA.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#405

Post by bobthepanda »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #294
egypturnash wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a payment processor operated by the Federal Reserve good enough? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedNow Well, it probably would be, except guess who killed it in favor of a crypto scheme? https://www.jitumaster.com/2025/06/us-president-signs-execut... I agree about the PO though. Social media shouldn't be a for-profit enterprise either.

I think the federal reserve is too close to the status quo to be effective for this. It is owned by the federally chartered banks, the same ones that all have longstanding relationships with the current payment processors. A government organization like the mint should be in charge of the layer 1 of money transfer. Let the current providers adapt and sell their other services on top of it. It could be crypto, copy th…

The banks have longstanding relationships with payment processors but they aren’t stupid. The duopoly has fat margins that the banks want a cut of, hence earlier initiatives like Zelle.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#406

Post by armada651 »

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…

> This appears to be the system engaging by accident because some crazy from Australia accidentally said the right thing to the right people.

This has been happening for years already, this is not an accident caused by a crazy lady from Australia complaining to the right people. She simply took advantage of Mastercard already engaging in censorship and challenged them and their payment processors to take on an even broader interpretation of Mastercard's obscenity rules.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#407

Post by nemomarx »

shagie wrote: post #403
nemomarx wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure child pornography is actually illegal in all jurisdictions valve operates in, and they would be charged with real crimes for selling it. Maybe you mean anime characters or something? And is there any law about roleplaying rape? It's common in romance novels and online videos so I don't see how it could be illegal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_in_Australia#Illeg... > Some types of pornography (both real and fictitious) are technically illegal in Australia and if classified would be rated RC and therefore banned in Australia. This includes any pornography depicting violent BDSM, incest, paedophilia, zoophilia, certain extreme fetishes (such as golden showers) and/or indicators of youth (such as wearing a school unif…

Fair enough for the Australian market, but I'm not sure why the rest of the world should have to line up with that. Just block it for Australian accounts or such?

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#408

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

lesuorac wrote: post #326

Do people think USD being accepted at kink stores gives the USA a reputation risk? I just don't see the argument that a payment processor being able to process payments legitimately gives them reputation risk. I don't doubt that people write in to MasterCard to claim it does but people write about everything.

If there were a law that MC had to be an impartial utility, like a phone or electricity provider, then it wouldn't hurt their reputation. But since there is no such law, they have the choice to deny transactions, which also means they can be blamed (by puritans) for allowing them.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#409

Post by anonymars »

jug wrote: post #345

> Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down, but Valve says payment processors 'specifically cited' a Mastercard rule about damaging the brand Who in heaven’s name associates a credit card company with the image/ethics of the transactions it’s processing as long as the businesses are legal?? What I think of when I hear Mastercard? A plastic card with numbers on it, connected to my bank account and off…

Heh, ironically we do now, don't we?

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#410

Post by shoxidizer »

MarioMan wrote: post #324
master-lincoln wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that was when Steam freed the users from actually owning any game and instead gave the users limited licenses for using games. I am looking forward to the day when they shutdown and everybody realizes this.

Steam has famously gone on record that they will provide a DRM removal patch for everything they’re legally allowed to, if/when they go under. If they don’t do this and it’s all just lip service, then it makes a strong argument for ethical piracy at that time.

This is a very persistent rumor. I forget the details but it comes from a customer support email, not some official statement or promise from Gabe, and even that was originally posted on a long gone forum which you can only find quotes of. Even if there was first hand proof of an official statement, I wouldn't expect it to be upheld. Minecraft's website used to have a line from Notch saying he would make it open-source in the future.
Post reply on HN