Valve is a corporation, not your friend.

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Dom 18 hours ago

Valve is a corporation. Valve is not your friend.

What does this mean? It means that a partnership with payment processing service is more important to them from the standpoint of making money than giving you the freedom to play any game you want. The financial losses from such partnership ending are much higher than restricting individual player's freedom of choice on a very case-by-case basis.

That's just a mathematical fact.

Any company that cares about its own interests (and that's all companies are supposed to do) would make the exact same decision and be fine with the content restrictions.

If a company can make more money, at the expense of your convenience, in vast majority of cases they will do exactly that. It's the reason why Google search results have become worse - because Google is prioritizing revenue above your convenience and user experience.

This is a very fundamental part of business that people need to understand. Companies are not part of whatever utopia people have created in their minds. They exist in a circle where money dictates. Your "freedoms" are irrelevant.

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Originally posted by Grendalcat:

I hope by now everyone understands that the point of business is to make a profit.

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Showing 1-15 of 57 comments

SirKnechtalot 18 hours ago

Well bots don´t generate valuable and sellable data. So they´re effed?
Their "requirements"´re irrelevant. But thx for the update.

xDDD 18 hours ago

Originally posted by Dom:
Valve is a corporation. Valve is not your friend.

Absolutely.

I think Valve is a very good corporation when it comes to consumers (they really don't have much competition tbh) but they absolutely are a massive one that has immense wealth and a near-monopoly on PC gaming.

They are at the behest of the payment processor duopoly of Visa/Mastercard though. Now THOSE are viscous and evil corporations right there. Interesting they are trying this stuff now considering that crypto is threatening to completely blow their whole profit scheme up.

Last edited by xDDD; 18 hours ago

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Grendalcat 18 hours ago

I hope by now everyone understands that the point of business is to make a profit.

Rio 17 hours ago

The rich 1% with power should decide everything, huh?

Its not your money, to spend how you'd like. It's their money and you need their permission to use it

I thought you were left leaning Dom, this is a very right wing and rational perspective.

This is not the perspective of "Get those teslas until the companies bend the knee". that the left is so hip with.

Last edited by Rio; 17 hours ago

Dom 17 hours ago

Originally posted by xDDD:
Originally posted by Dom:
Valve is a corporation. Valve is not your friend.
Absolutely.

I think Valve is a very good corporation when it comes to consumers (they really don't have much competition tbh) but they absolutely are a massive one that has immense wealth and a near-monopoly on PC gaming.

They are at the behest of the payment processor duopoly of Visa/Mastercard though. Now THOSE are viscous and evil corporations right there. Interesting they are trying this stuff now considering that crypto is threatening to completely blow their whole profit scheme up.

The problem with this analogy is that it may be an issue for a specific user (that Valve is at the behest of the payment processor duopoly) but it is essentially a non-issue for Valve.

The losses from removing few games from Steam when you take into account the overall revenue of Steam are almost non-existent from Valve's point of view.

There is no true motivation for Valve or any corporation to do anything about this, as there is literally no impact on them.

People can criticise it but I'm quite sure it will fall on deaf ears.

Dom 17 hours ago

Originally posted by Rio:
The rich 1% with power should decide everything, huh?

Its not your money, to spend how you'd like. It's their money and you need their permission to use it :hp_audrey:

I thought you were left leaning Dom, this is a very right wing and rational perspective.

This is not the perspective of "Get those teslas until the companies bend the knee". that the left is so hip with.

It's just realism, it's how companies work.

And I don't really believe in the left/right spectrum, and that's why I very rarely talk about it. I don't self-identify with such labels.

xDDD 17 hours ago

Originally posted by Dom:
The problem with this analogy is that it may be an issue for a specific user (that Valve is at the behest of the payment processor duopoly) but it is essentially a non-issue for Valve.

The losses from removing few games from Steam when you take into account the overall revenue of Steam are almost non-existent from Valve's point of view.

There is no true motivation for Valve or any corporation to do anything about this, as there is literally no impact on them.

People can criticise it but I'm quite sure it will fall on deaf ears.

What do you mean? The issue for Valve is that one (or both) of this payment duopoly could cease to do business with Valve and essentially ruin them. And they can't do anything about it, at least not yet. Later they could just accept cryptos and no longer be at the behest of these payment processors, although it would take a long time for that shift to fully happen.

But yeah you're right that removing these games is pretty inconsequential to Valve. I've always found it baffling that Valve platforms this trash at all considering the stigma and (I assume) relatively low sales. If the processor was demanding the removal of Call of Duty or some other huge top-seller game for some reason it'd be a different case and Valve would probably try to fight back.

Maximus10113X 17 hours ago

That’s why they’re called Valve Corporation, duh

Dom 17 hours ago

Originally posted by xDDD:
Originally posted by Dom:
The problem with this analogy is that it may be an issue for a specific user (that Valve is at the behest of the payment processor duopoly) but it is essentially a non-issue for Valve.

The losses from removing few games from Steam when you take into account the overall revenue of Steam are almost non-existent from Valve's point of view.

There is no true motivation for Valve or any corporation to do anything about this, as there is literally no impact on them.

People can criticise it but I'm quite sure it will fall on deaf ears.
What do you mean? The issue for Valve is that one (or both) of this payment duopoly could cease to do business with Valve and essentially ruin them. And they can't do anything about it, at least not yet. Later they could just accept cryptos and no longer be at the behest of these payment processors, although it would take a long time for that shift to fully happen.

But yeah you're right that removing these games is pretty inconsequential to Valve. I've always found it baffling that Valve platforms this trash at all considering the stigma and (I assume) relatively low sales. If the processor was demanding the removal of Call of Duty or some other huge top-seller game for some reason it'd be a different case and Valve would probably try to fight back.

I mean that this is only a problem from individual user's point of view, not from Valve's because the impact is almost non-existent for Valve. So there's probably a real disconnect between some users and Valve. My concern is that some people might not understand the reality of it.

I'm sure we will (at some point) see some movements that say "free Valve!" even though again this has no real impact on them whatsoever.

Ideologically there may be people who are against the censorship and that's to be expected but what's in it for those who aren't ideologically wired about it, such as companies, including Valve itself and others alike? Nothing. And I'm not excusing the censorship, I'm just trying to look at it from a more rational (less ideological) perspective.

Last edited by Dom; 17 hours ago

vkobe 17 hours ago

Originally posted by Dom:
Valve is a corporation. Valve is not your friend.

What does this mean? It means that a partnership with payment processing service is more important to them from the standpoint of making money than giving you the freedom to play any game you want. The financial losses from such partnership ending are much higher than restricting individual player's freedom of choice on a very case-by-case basis.

That's just a mathematical fact.

Any company that cares about its own interests (and that's all companies are supposed to do) would make the exact same decision and be fine with the content restrictions.

If a company can make more money, at the expense of your convenience, in vast majority of cases they will do exactly that. It's the reason why Google search results have become worse - because Google is prioritizing revenue above your convenience and user experience.

This is a very fundamental part of business that people need to understand. Companies are not part of whatever utopia people have created in their minds. They exist in a circle where money dictates. Your "freedoms" are irrelevant.

i know my relation with valve is similar than yuri orlov with andre baptiste

we have mutual interest, but we also have big disagreement, also steam look less friendly than the day i join them

#10

Emperor Prussia 17 hours ago

As long as i can play my games, I dont care what your facts are and what Valve does.

Last edited by Emperor Prussia; 17 hours ago

#11

TGC> The Games Collector 17 hours ago

Wow, thanks for this enlightening announcement. I'm sure everyone was blissfully unaware.

#12

Dom 17 hours ago

Originally posted by TGC> The Games Collector:
Wow, thanks for this enlightening announcement. I'm sure everyone was blissfully unaware.

Yeah, you're welcome!
Based on the criticism that can be witnessed on Steam Discussions forum, there are people who don't get it.

Last edited by Dom; 17 hours ago

#13

76561199479433668 17 hours ago

no more buys in steam, as long as they do bussines with visa mastercard.

#14

TGC> The Games Collector 17 hours ago

Originally posted by Dom:
Originally posted by TGC> The Games Collector:
Wow, thanks for this enlightening announcement. I'm sure everyone was blissfully unaware.
Yeah, you're welcome!
Based on the criticism that can be witnessed on Steam Discussions forum, there are people who don't get it.

They never will.

#15

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Date Posted: 19 Jul @ 11:58am

Posts: 57

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