This issue hasn’t affected me yet. But I worry that it could affect us if these payment processors keep escalating. Like sure, right now, it’s NSFW. But then it’ll be anything they want. LGBT+ content? Too much violence? Critical of religion? They’ll just keep going
Steam is now blocking NSFW updates for published adult-only games, according to a raunchy RPG developer
Submitted 3 weeks ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@beehaw.org
Comments
Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
jherazob@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
That has been the plan from the start
Quexotic@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
Yep. Because they can’t do it with the law, they’re doing it with payment processing. Maybe crypto will be the answer, gods help us.
SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
Whelp, gog still allows buying such games, take your business there instead.
GrindingGears@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
If they really wanted to comply, they could find a workaround. This Visa excuse is kind of lame. Enable visa payments to purchase steam points (in exact amounts), that can then be used to buy a game for example, and work around it.
It’s not like this really affects my life, as I’m not a horny teenager or old man buying these games, but it’s the point here that matters. Letting a payment processor dictate content is insane.
JackOverlord@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
That wouldn’t work. Visa and the others don’t care what exactly someone buys on Steam. They’re saying that Valve can’t sell certain things on their store, or they will stop processing payments that go to Steam. Doesn’t matter if you pay for “points” or games directly.
The only way to get around that would be to remove the option to pay with Visa, etc. from Steam entirely and only accept other forms of payment. This would include physical Steam gift cards that could then be bought with any payment option, but only as long as Visa, etc. don’t start threatening stores that sell those.
Also, to your last suggestion: I don’t see how that would help. Publishers and developers need to make money somehow and if that involves Visa, etc. at all we’re back to square one.
GrindingGears@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
At some point even visa is going to back off though. I wonder how much money goes through Steam? Maybe if them and some other orgs band together and say fine, we won’t accept Visa or MasterCard at all then, there’s going to be some hell to pay. This can go both ways. Lots of third parties would be caught in the crossfire too, like order payment processors.