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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

#831

Post by scott_w »

k1t wrote: post #411
scott_w wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, these films usually get rated 15 or 18 in the UK, so I’d not say it’s “OK for children to watch.”

I think that's the classic US/UK culture split though. US is strict on language and nudity, but comparatively lax on violence (except blood). UK is lax on nudity and language (comparatively), but very strict on violence. UK being the country that considered the word "ninja" too violent for children, for example.

I’m pretty sure GTA has never been rated below M which, as I recall, is 17+. Not a massive difference between that and BBFC’s 18 rating…

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

#832

Post by vladgur »

Oreb wrote: post #797
vladgur wrote: post #722

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same this year - I went through Spain, France, and Portugal last month and did not have to take money out of ATM for anything including eating, shopping for groceries, paying for gas or sightseeing. ApplePay connected to my no forex transaction credit card earning 3% cashback covered 95% of these transactions and a few times I had to use that credit card directly.

How did you manage without cash in France? Many places here don’t accept anything but cash for amounts less than 5 or 10 Euros. If I just want to buy a coffee or a baguette, I often need cash.

I spent a few days in French Basque Country and restaurants and fresh markets all accepted credit cards and Apple Pay.

I was traveling with family so spending limits were higher than 5 euros

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

#833

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#834

Post by saghm »

hollerith wrote: post #764
parpfish wrote: post #643

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re looking at the geographical distribution of their influence, isn’t it weird that the place where the puritans settled (“New England”) is arguably the least puritanical region of the US?

New England is perceived as less religious than the South, but one reason for that is that New England's moral perceptions had a strong influence on US political beliefs. In other words, the Puritans morphed into the Congregationalists who morphed into the Unitarians, who basically took over (in the 19th Century) US political thinking (or at least the Left side of it), giving the appearance that New England does not…

That's a good point. When something is within the usual for someone's experience, it's not going to be as obvious, so it becomes the baseline that's used to compare other things to. For stuff like religion, it's easy to assume that your amount is normal, and having more (if you don't feel like you have much) or less (if you do feel like you have a lot) is unusual.

I don't have any experience living outside of the northeast (although not New England specifically since high school), but I definitely agree that there's certainly more religion in New England than might be obvious from the outside (more Catholic than the rest of the country, which also might explain some of the differences).

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

#835

Post by boredhedgehog »

munksbeer wrote: post #622
bornfreddy wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say what you want about crypto, but it does solve this problem at least.

Yes, stable-coins do. But if you have a crypto where the entire point seems to be "it should be worth more tomorrow than today", then it is stupid to use it to transact in rather than to hoard. On the other hand, stable-coins suffer the same problems as visa. They're centralised, and subject to zealous regulations.

> They're centralised, and subject to zealous regulations.

The currency wouldn't have to meet any particular definition of a stablecoin as long as it is inflationary. It could be exactly like Bitcoin but with a different mining algorithm.

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

#836

Post by LorenPechtel »

guidedlight wrote: post #223
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.

Red flag for what?

A regular purchaser of adult entertainment almost certainly has enough cash flow to pay their bills. And they'll have a hard time claiming it's not them when it matches their previous activity. Having an interest in sex doesn't in the slightest suggest a person is bad--if anything, the apparent lack of interest would be more worrisome. (Not that purchase history can be used to discern this.) Some of the ones who don't are asexuals, but some are those who are repressing their sexuality--and that's more likely to show up in unacceptable ways.

A first time purchaser of adult entertainment is another matter--that's going to have a lot of spouse-found-out chargebacks.

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

#837

Post by LorenPechtel »

Arch485 wrote: post #830
raincole wrote: post #773

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so funny that people think it's about chargeback. If you buy smut game on Steam, your bank statement won't show the name of the game. It looks exactly like any other transaction you make on Steam. > "Hunny what is this transaction on our account for BigBussomsCom?" .. "Oh must be some kind of fraud" "then let's call the bank and straighten it out" This is a scenario that literally can't happen in the Steam case.…

To add: AFAIK most adult content websites bill under a different, innocuous name as well. You don't get a charge on your credit card from BigBussomsCom, you get a charge from SuperCard or something like that. (uh... I know because of a friend...)

Yeah. Never dealt with an adult content website, but in my admittedly limited experience adult products always come in innocent packaging and generally bill under innocuous names.

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

#838

Post by gigatexal »

This is the kind of thing that crypto gets around. Surely the CC companies will allow folks to use their cards to buy crypto then in the same 1 minute that newly bought crypto could be used to buy the game and valve if they converted the btc to usd at the same day or very quick could mitigate the volatility of the asset

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

#839

Post by ghaff »

mr_mitm wrote: post #651
yorwba wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At least in Germany in particular older people prefer to pay cash if possible Sure, but that's for small, everyday amounts. For values upwards of 500€, I think the familiarity of paying cash would be swamped by the nervousness of carrying way too much money with you, what if it gets stolen? > this gives the banks also less leverage with respect to abhorent fees The only time my bank has ever charged me a per-transa…

When I bought a piece of furniture in Germany, I had to pay 1/3 right there in the store. They accepted various cards. When it was delivered, I had to pay the remaining balance (four digits) in cash. No other option. Also, I believe when buying used cars and such, most people still prefer cash transactions.

That's pretty common in the US too though the cash balance is usually in the form of a check. Historically you'd often get a cashier's check from your bank but I was surprised the dealership accepted a regular personal check a couple years ago. I guess there are control systems in place these days that provide assurances for places like dealerships.

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

#840

Post by 9dev »

achierius wrote: post #814
9dev wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a single western democracy has really turned yet, so I’m not convinced this is imminent danger. Besides, I’m not advocating for the abolishment of cash, but against dramatic claims of an evil scheme to control and spy on citizens. That’s a right-wing narrative in Germany, but nonsense nonetheless.

Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Argentina -- most within living memory. Hell even France, everyone's just lucky that de Gaulle wasn't much into dictatorship.

Germany, Spain, and Italy were no western democracies in any sense of the word before the rise of fascism, Japan, Brazil, and Chile are no western democracies per definition.

I’m talking about the post-WW2 order, which has been remarkably solid. Until Trump showed up, that is. But even the USA are still a working democracy, despite all the fear of an authoritarian regime. So I would at least argue for a bit of calm and reason before proclaiming the end of freedom due to discontinued 500€ notes.

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