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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

#81

Post by Jach »

immibis wrote: post #37
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…

For desktop gaming, GOG should be prioritized above Steam.

GOG is in bed with Amazon. I have over 130 games via GOG, only a handful I paid for -- right now I can only think of the Yakuza 0-6 collection that was priced so low I had to do it even though I played them all on a friend's xbox before. The rest are from Amazon's gifting of them to me via having a Prime account and Twitch account. Many are games I already bought and played on Steam, they're good games they're not just gifting trash. In any case, just like Epic and their mass of freely given games, it all but guarantees I never give those platforms a dime especially if I think a game will be gifted eventually. (It makes me hesitate sometimes on steam purchases too, which is probably part of the point, but I've got a giant backlog so buying can wait anyway, and it's a rare game that I want to buy and play right now.)

I'll continue supporting Steam over GOG for PC gaming, especially as a Linux user.

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

#82

Post by mrguyorama »

ecshafer wrote: post #50
creaturemachine wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how we got here. Anyone with a 20 year badge remembers the hatred in the community over being forced to use it.

I love steam. A big part of my complaints 20 years ago was that I barely ran these games in the first place! Nowadays computers are a lot more powerful compared to games. Proliferation of credit cards, increased internet stability/speed, and more powerful computers have taken the warts away. Steam has also repeatedly shown to be on the side of the consumer, and also very offline friendly.

>Steam has also repeatedly shown to be on the side of the consumer

Except when they only added any sort of return mechanism after violating consumer rights laws in all sorts of jurisdictions for like a decade.

Though that was significantly less painful back in the day when a steam sale was actually meaningful.

Steam's pro-consumer-ness is absurdly overblown, but the rest of consumer facing corporations are so fucking awful in comparison that they look like angels. They're also mostly just trying to keep anyone from looking at the closet full of profits explicitly from enabling underage gambling.

Not that I'm a hater, but people need to keep perspective. Valve is just a company that is slightly less abhorrent in it's practices.

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

#84

Post by rpcope1 »

immibis wrote: post #42
kasey_junk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ch…

None of this has to be about extending credit. People are trying to buy games with money they have. Why do you say credit has to be involved? They could try cash-by-mail, like Mullvad.

What exactly do you think "credit card" means?

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

#85

Post by Forgeties79 »

tracker1 wrote: post #66
Forgeties79 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is far from a hot take, but I really think people need to be more weary of what will happen with Valve once Gabe passes. No amount of profitability seems to stop people from demanding more even at the cost of longterm viability. Imagine a world where a PE firm gets its hands on valve

Kind of a terrifying thought... Not familiar enough with Valve/Steam's corporate structure to know if they have a governance model in their founding documents to help prevent this.

There isn’t a document in the world that can’t be overcome with enough cash incentive unfortunately lol

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

#86

Post by ranger_danger »

kasey_junk wrote: post #56
immibis wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this has to be about extending credit. People are trying to buy games with money they have. Why do you say credit has to be involved? They could try cash-by-mail, like Mullvad.

If you are taking electronic payments you are extending credit. The rails (currently) require it. Cash by mail would be either the merchant extending credit to the purchaser if they allowed the game download before receipt or the purchaser extending credit if not.

How is sending cash in the mail equivalent to the purchaser extending credit?

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

#87

Post by [deleted] »

kasey_junk wrote: post #33
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 ch…

[deleted]

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

#88

Post by bornfreddy »

nilslindemann wrote: post #73

Indeed, PayPal is not gone for everyone, luckily. I am from Europe and can still buy games using PayPal, just did. This makes me happy, as I am trying for over two weeks now to buy credits on Open AI, just to be able to translate texts from the FastAPI docs to German. Open AI and others do not support PayPal and not even a prepaid credit card, which my local bank sold me as "works everywhere". It is frustrating.

Maybe N26 / Revolut would work in your case?

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

#89

Post by catsma21 »

lenerdenator wrote: post #34
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 .

nobody would be able to see what you bought with the coins, only that you sent them to steam

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

#90

Post by TulliusCicero »

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.

I have a six digit friend code and yeah, people were very annoyed by Steam and not being able to use, what was it, won.net anymore?

That's true, but Valve put in the work to make Steam really great.

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