Steam gave in to Corporate censorship

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76561199228824681 9 Aug @ 11:18pm

Steam gave in to Corporate censorship

So I'm looking at a data sheet right now that bans have been increasing and as I did my research I notice that people get banned for the smallest things in the Discussion Forums especially in games that are own by big gaming corporations(EA, Ubisoft etc...) Even the petty squabbles or meaningless arguments will get you banned. Ever since Steam bent the knee to the Credit Card Mafia they seemed to have shown weakness that others seem to be exploiting and there seems to be a gun pointed directly at Steam as if it's being held hostage. Is this just the beginning of truly something worse?

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Showing 1-15 of 22 comments

datCookie 9 Aug @ 11:30pm

Steam never "gave in", they simply made a smart business decision that ensured they stayed in business.

76561199228824681 10 Aug @ 12:46am

Originally posted by datCookie:
Steam never "gave in", they simply made a smart business decision that ensured they stayed in business.

Honestly can't blame em. I'm hoping people get another alternative payment. One that will make make the Credit Card Mafia obsolete. The censorship in the forums still suck tho. Even banning people who didn't break the guidelines.

Knee 10 Aug @ 12:49am

Sometimes censorship is good.

76561199228824681 10 Aug @ 1:18am

Originally posted by Knee:
Sometimes censorship is good.

bruh. what next? we start burning books too?

datCookie 10 Aug @ 1:27am

Originally posted by XIAONESE:
Originally posted by Knee:
Sometimes censorship is good.
bruh. what next? we start burning books too?

If they start going after normal, reasonable and socially accepted games, then we'll know they've gone too far. Right now, no one cares about the loss of a few rape/incest games. It was either lose them, or lose the entire business. Valve made the obvious choice.

rawWwRrr 10 Aug @ 1:45am

Originally posted by XIAONESE:
So I'm looking at a data sheet right now that bans have been increasing and as I did my research I notice that people get banned for the smallest things in the Discussion Forums especially in games that are own by big gaming corporations(EA, Ubisoft etc...) Even the petty squabbles or meaningless arguments will get you banned. Ever since Steam bent the knee to the Credit Card Mafia they seemed to have shown weakness that others seem to be exploiting and there seems to be a gun pointed directly at Steam as if it's being held hostage. Is this just the beginning of truly something worse?

There have been complaints about moderation since moderators were recruited to handle the task. Nothing's changed in that regard.

76561199228824681 10 Aug @ 2:45am

Originally posted by datCookie:
Originally posted by XIAONESE:
bruh. what next? we start burning books too?

If they start going after normal, reasonable and socially accepted games, then we'll know they've gone too far. Right now, no one cares about the loss of a few rape/incest games. It was either lose them, or lose the entire business. Valve made the obvious choice.

True but it really didn't have to go that way innit? When what happened was basically racketeering. As for the censorship? It's kind of a slippery slope really. Steam has a content filter that's already on the moment you make your first log in.

Last edited by XIAONESE; 10 Aug @ 3:09am

On Vacation 10 Aug @ 3:37am

Moderation has been problematic well before anything with payment processors, but it is funny to me that I received my first community ban for "advertising" a couple weeks ago for a post that wasn't even deleted. It was about the most unreasonable interpretation of my post you could have come away with and it strongly suggests the post itself wasn't read.

They've always struggled with context though, whether that be a time constraint , not caring, or reading comprehension issues. Don't really think it's linked to the credit card business or anything like that.

Last edited by On Vacation; 10 Aug @ 3:38am

Nx Machina 10 Aug @ 3:42am

Originally posted by XIAONESE:
So I'm looking at a data sheet right now that bans have been increasing and as I did my research I notice that people get banned for the smallest things in the Discussion Forums especially in games that are own by big gaming corporations(EA, Ubisoft etc...) Even the petty squabbles or meaningless arguments will get you banned. Ever since Steam bent the knee to the Credit Card Mafia they seemed to have shown weakness that others seem to be exploiting and there seems to be a gun pointed directly at Steam as if it's being held hostage. Is this just the beginning of truly something worse?

You agree to the Discussion Rules and Guidelines plus Online Conduct when posting on these forums which has zero to do with Visa and Mastercard.

Pocahawtness 10 Aug @ 3:48am

It's not an issue with Steam or the banks.

Protesters have learnt that companies have to give in or their sales can be greatly affected by boycotts and bad press.

The only way to stop protesters doing this is to change the law to stop companies denying service to other companies for political reasons.

Hopefully, then, protesters will get the idea that what they SHOULD have been doing was protesting in government, not by camping outside a bank.

#10

Start_Running 10 Aug @ 4:23am

Originally posted by datCookie:
Steam never "gave in", they simply made a smart business decision that ensured they stayed in business.

Steam had two choices.

1. COmply and a c few dozen games get affected. keep in mind the dev/pubs were not barred or banned from steam. They have the option of reworking their games to be copmplient at which point they can resubmit.

2. Valcve fights, resists, and the payment processorts cut them off which affects ALL dev/pubs. and ALL games.

Yeah. This is a cut the pinkie toe to save the leg scenario.

#11

Knee 10 Aug @ 5:12am

Originally posted by XIAONESE:
Originally posted by Knee:
Sometimes censorship is good.
bruh. what next? we start burning books too?

Didn’t take you long to miss the point.

#12

Kikinaak 10 Aug @ 5:09pm

Originally posted by datCookie:
Originally posted by XIAONESE:
bruh. what next? we start burning books too?

If they start going after normal, reasonable and socially accepted games, then we'll know they've gone too far. Right now, no one cares about the loss of a few rape/incest games. It was either lose them, or lose the entire business. Valve made the obvious choice.

You mean GTA 5 which CS got banned? Or GTA 6 they are going after? Or Detroit become human for depicting parental abuse as a villainous act? Or maybe the sex education book they actually went in and terrorized brick and mortar bookstores for carrying?

People talk about first they came, but CS was already several steps ahead.

#13

datCookie 10 Aug @ 5:13pm

Originally posted by Kikinaak:
Originally posted by datCookie:

If they start going after normal, reasonable and socially accepted games, then we'll know they've gone too far. Right now, no one cares about the loss of a few rape/incest games. It was either lose them, or lose the entire business. Valve made the obvious choice.
You mean GTA 5 which CS got banned? Or GTA 6 they are going after? Or Detroit become human for depicting parental abuse as a villainous act? Or maybe the sex education book they actually went in and terrorized brick and mortar bookstores for carrying?

People talk about first they came, but CS was already several steps ahead.

They got two retailers here in Australia to stop selling GTA 5 back in 2014. Who knows what will happen to GTA 6, but CS didn't get far with the previous title. DBH is still on Steam, so no issues there.

I don't condone them terrorising, or allegedly terrorising, anyone. But you give them far more power than they actually have. They were lucky to get a win on the most fringe type of games on the store here.

#14