I truly don’t understand how Visa/MasterCard/etc can be pressured. They are basically infrastructure.
What’s someone going to do, stop using credit cards if they don’t stop a store that person even patronize from selling morally hazardous goods?
I don’t get how these campaigns are even effective.
Debit Cards, too.
They pressure payment processors through reputation damage and regulatory threats - these companies are terrified of being associated with anything that could trigger banking regulations or get them labeled as “enabling” problematic content in the media, its purely a risk management desicion for them.
Probably just worried Trump will over regulate them if they don’t fall in line with the Christian Radicals.
Supposedly there was a ruling in California that made them responsible.
Do you have any info or links about that?
The thing is they are American corporations who care to much about their public image. I would be highly suprised if they national payment platforms would also accept this. (ideal/bankcontant/wero/etc)
Cryptocurrency is the solution here, and unfortunately that’s an unpopular take here.
Not when exchanges still govern taking money out. They are businesses like everything else and will be just as risk averse
It’s pretty easy to switch between cryptocurrencies, so they can surely find an exchange that is friendly to their business. That’s way better than the credit card situation where there are only four major processors–Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express–and only two of those actually matter.
None of what you said addresses the problem I mentioned.
Then I guess I don’t understand your problem.
Payment processors like Visa and Mastercard control a huge chunk of the market, which gives them a lot of say in what transactions are allowed. Even if you avoid credit, most debit cards go through those two companies, so they can restrict what transactions you can make.
With cryptocurrencies, there’s no restriction at the point of sale. Your problem seems to be that converting crypto to fiat could be problematic, and they’d potentially be stuck with “useless” currency. My point is that’s a much easier problem to solve:
- if their exchange stops converting a given currency, they can convert to one they do accept
- if their exchange bans their account (e.g. due to the nature of their business), they can switch exchanges
- there are ATMs that dispense cash for crypto
- if no exchange will work with them, they can make direct exchanges with regular people (i.e. “launder” the money)
- they can also spend the currency directly
There are a ton of options to convert crypto to fiat, there are far fewer to select a different fiat payment processor.
I’ll bet.
R placing a bad system with a worse system does not solve the problem
What makes it worse?
One benefit to payment processing for crypto is that there’s little in the way of material limitations on processing payments. The blockchain for a given coin already exists, your job as a processor is primarily to convert those on-chain transactions into and out of other currencies. Only requiring intervention at the point of entering or exiting dollars to and from the system changes a lot of the dynamics.
That’s because 90% of cryptocurrency marketing consists of “THINK OF THE GAAAAAAINS YOU CAN MAKE!” instead of “You can use this to buy things without government censorship”.
The entire crypto industry has based itself around being a speculative asset, not a currency.
Which is really unfortunate. If you avoid the most popular coins (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc), you avoid most of the scams and speculation and end up with a decent currency that respects your privacy and has low fees.
Tell me more
Monero is perhaps the best option imo. Here’s the official page about it, but basically:
- not profitable to mine, so most miners are enthusiasts who want the coin to succeed
- privacy-focused - basically creates a ton of fake transactions to mislead snoopers
- relatively popular - seems to be the most popular coin recommended by privacy enthusiasts (e.g. Mental Outlaw, he even gives a discount on his store for Monero)
- not popular among speculators - they mostly stick to the big ones (BTC and ETH), as well as new startup coins
- low cost transactions, fairly short transaction window
It’s far from ubiquitous, but it’s popular enough that if a place accepts any crypto, there’s a good chance they accept Monero as well.
Is it really the best option when no business uses them?
Some do, which is a lot more than GNU Taler. I don’t know of another digital payment system that has more usage that isn’t dominated by a handful of companies.
Here are some examples of things you can buy today w/ Monero:
- gift cards
- Mullvad VPN
- Based.win - Mental Outlaw’s online store
- a handful of other places, and and some more
It’s far from ubiquitous, but it is being accepted today. If any of those places interest you, I recommend putting a small amount of money into Monero and trying it out.
monero?
Yup, Monero is probably the best option. I’ve heard good things about Z-cash, and Bitcoin can work on the lightning network.
Someone should check this groups computer ls and closets because they are projecting and those fuckers should have no impact on what us Americans or any other country wants to buy. This needs to be reversed Asap.
Can we call them ?
Grannies gang who not bang.
This whole thing smacks of the “anyone who has a sexual proclivity I claim not to share must have all sexual proclivities I claim not to share” logic. i.e. the logic that got gay people flagged as child molesters back in the bad old days. And occasionally still today.
Such logic might actually be rooted in projection, which is a deeply disturbing thought. Deeply closeted people desperately clinging to heteronormativity and traditional gender roles because they think that if they don’t they they’ll do something abhorrent. Maybe even to someone who can’t consent. Or they already have and they desperately want to hide away from it.
Yes, for the love of all that’s holy and secular too, ban the games with apparent child sexual abuse. Children can’t consent. Leave everything else the hell alone.
I don’t even play video games with sexual themes, but I do play ones that contain 18+ violence. I assume those will be next on the chopping block.
Digital violence causes school shootings, don’t you know? Ignore the non-American rates, they don’t matter.
Reminder that child beauty pageants are A OK.
Sponsored by Visa 🤔
Thanks for saying it. What kind of fucking parent puts their kids on display in an event that will invite actual pedophiles to start actual concoctions that would cause permanent harm on them? Ah, but fictitious media that may actually help keep those urges in check needs to be removed.
And then there’s the bullshit thought that a service that serves as a replacement for cash transactions can decide what I buy?
I need to get off of this fucking world.
me watching clearly adult humans doing consentual sex things
some religious zealot chud: this makes you a pedo somehow
This comment and many like it are a product of only reading the headline. Also shame on the authors for the ragebait headline.
The tweet the quote comes further classifies that they’re talking about games that include rape, incest, and/or child sex abuse. I’m not sure if people are just knee-jerk reacting to headlines without understanding what’s actually happening, or if they are legitimately upset that rape fantasy games are being removed. In both cases, you’re stating that you are vocally in support of rape media, which is not OK.
Sure, that’s the plausible deniability reasoning. But the end result, whether you agree with the on the surface reasoning or not, is the removal of all adult media whether or not it is offending. This coupled with the lumping in of LGBT issues with Adult media (and often lumping in with egregious media like rape and abuse fantasy) means that the end result is removal of adult games AND games which feature LGBT characters and storylines.
and uh, if you actually did read my comment, I did say consenting. me saying I enjoy content where clear adults are consentually enjoying sex is not endorsing rape fantasy games, and is a bit of a Twitter ass conclusion to come to.
and uh, if you actually did read my comment, I did say consenting. me saying I enjoy content where clear adults are consentually enjoying sex is not endorsing rape fantasy games, and is a bit of a Twitter ass conclusion to come to.
The article you commented on is explicitly referencing media where consent cannot be given. So, I’m not sure why you commented about consenting adults in the first place, because that had nothing to do with the topic.
Because that’s the net result of their actions: removal of consentual media and grouping of consentual media consumers with pedophilia.
Trump doing actual pedo and rape shit and being a convicted felon
Religious zealot chuds in the US: “there’s no proof”
trump be like “I’m innocent here’s the proof”
hands over Epstein docs, of which he’s mentioned all over
What a world we live in
Collective Shout claim it’s about harm reduction, but then push an agenda that functionally amounts to moral panic.
Their approach is identical in logic to the “GTA causes school shootings” hysteria: loud, pearl-clutching, and utterly unmoored from data.
If Collective Shout want to argue these games cause harm, then show us the harm. Not correlation. Not outrage. Not hypothetical downstream consequences. Show causation. Peer-reviewed. Reproducible.
Otherwise, they’re just moralizing bullies using the banking system as a cudgel.
They are religious nutjobs, they don’t care about causation.
I thought they were a feminist group
Feminism isn’t a religion?
In what way is Feminism a religion? Do feminists pray to Lilith? Is there a Woman Church? Is International Women’s Day the Christmas of this religion?
Think before you say silly things.
Feminism increasingly displays an in-group out-group dynamic characteristic of religions.
They’re increasingly dogmatic with their teachings, a feminist will spout party lines without thinking about them precisely the way a christian will.
A god hasn’t emerged yet afaik but a canon of saints is emerging, to include Marie Curie and Amelia Earhart.
Unironically yes, who else has any use for International Women’s Day.
They’ve even got unhinged extremists, like these assholes in Australia.
I believe they’re a religious group under the guise of feminism and child protection. If you look at their affiliate page, they list quite a few religious groups.
TERFs are as feminist as Nazis are socialist and North Korea is democratic. It’s in the acronym; that’s it.
Furthermore…
Their decision to target the payment processors - not the developers, or itch.io, or steam, is some of the most cowardly and authoritarian things I’ve ever seen in the gaming space.
It’s economic coercion; a playbook used by religious bigots and authoritarians for decades. Financial censorship by proxy. IMO: they should fuck off.
Even Furthermore…
Wanna censor it? Good fucking idea /s
Shoving that shit into the shadows doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it untraceable, unmoderated, and unaccountable.
If you care even remotely about preventing harm, you don’t force taboo communities off the grid. You keep them where they can be seen, tracked, and contained… preferably behind legal firewalls, age gates, and content filters.
If you push them into the dark web… then congratulations… you’ve just built a Petri dish for escalation, radicalization, and actual predation.
We have examples today of the real harm of this, like in Afghanistan. It’s interesting that western societies are overall less religious as ever, yet religion keeps getting shoved down our throats… and winning.
If I’m not mistaken it’s not a religious group doing it because Jesus, it’s a feminist group doing it because they blame porn for the existence of transpeople
Porn and prostitution do have historical correlation with the existence of trans people. Namely that when we’re kept from all other means of making money these industries help us continue to afford food and shelter.
That’s one of the things that pisses me off most about all this. By calling us pornographic they’re calling for us to be forced back into an exploitative relationship with the porn and sex industries.
I love them
Anyone want to argue why porn video games are a benefit for society, or even a single persons health?
I couldn’t care less… I care about what will be the next thing someone unaffected by me consuming it, would ban it and deprive me of it
I would say they aren’t as bad as alcohol and gambling, which are pervasive…some of them are just…art…some aren’t :D I could ask you the same about lots of other things, from music to literature. I just don’t like book burning. If someone put their effort into creating something that they thought was worth creating, why is it up to anyone to ban it for any adult?
If someone wants it then they should be allowed it right? Great moral system you have there. Call it the “why not?” gospel.
Nice strawman.
No, but you might want to take a step back from that ledge advice a steep much huddy hill.
Frankly I think a lot of modern games are fucked up in their portrayal of the human body, and those relationship sim dress up games are kinda gross.
But I don’t think this should be too to credit card companies to unilaterally decide.
It’s not about porn games. It’s about allowing third-party private interests to engage in censorship.
If Valve were to ban porn games from being sold on Steam because they find them distasteful, I wouldn’t have a problem with this. But it wasn’t Valve’s decision. It was the payment processors who did it on behalf of interests that are apparently allowed to determine what is permissible on other people’s platforms.
That’s not okay.
So this is basically the same as the argument that drugs shouldnt be illegal? Is this just purely based on freedom?
Ah yes, now anyone who enjoys wanking themselves off in private, is also a Pedo, because they ran out of mean words.
It’s been wild watching that word lose every last bit of meaning over the past few years
Almost like it’s the goal. It’s not, they’re just hacky idiots, but it’s almost like that…
It is, and we need a counter-force.
Not just any pedo, but a brain-rotted pedo.
That’s presidential material !
Its more perverted to want to control what other people are jacking to than it is to jack it to porn games. Keep your perversions to yourselves weirdos.
This is the exact thing I’ve always thought about homophobes. It’s pretty gay to get obsessed about what other men do with their dicks.
Sounds like they need a good skull fucking.
Really goes to show people. It doesn’t matter the religion. They all are bullshit machines for people to act superior than others. Fuck these twat waffles.
Are we wagering this absurdity is built on projection?
cause I’m wagering this absurdity is built on them projecting.
Definitely. Always is. And I do mean always.
It always is. These are the type of folks who have that feeling of shame wash over after they bust a nut to something they “despise.”
That literally all these types of groups are. They want us to feel the same shame, too. I wish folks could just keep their shit to themselves. Have rules for your own home, sure, but eat shit and rot if you think you should be able to tell me how I should live my life.
I draw the line at abuse, but yeah, otherwise agree.
Totally. I just mean if you don’t want porn or violence in your home more power to ya, but keep your rules to yourself. Let me live and enjoy my life.
Aren’t these the same people with links to Purity Ring ceremonies?
Honestly, my steam algorithm started showing me alot of that garbage out of nowhere about a year ago and I had to keep telling it to stop. Like to each their own but some of that shit was pretty gross. I’m not complaining it’s gone.
Groups like this never say “Mission Accomplished” and go home, they will escalate until you are sent to jail for playing Mortal Kombat or GTA
There’s a toggle for the store that hides porn games. They’re not visible unless you yourself actively click on it saying you want to see them. The default is to keep them hidden. The feed also adapts to what you click on. If you see garbage it’s on you.
That second part is kinda annoying though. It doesn’t know the difference between a view because of curiosity and one because of actual interest.
It’s what ruined the YouTube suggestions for me. I liked being able to do completely unrelated and random dives. Now it’s just a collection of videos related to previous ones I’ve watched, even when I’m not logged in and have viewing history turned off. If I want to watch another chess video, I know how to use the search function. That’s how I found them the first time.
Though steam does also have a “stop showing me games like this” where it gives options about what you mean by “this”.
