I almost never buy into these kind of things but man does the way these PC gamer guys been harping on Steam seem suspect
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PC Gaming Era | March 2019 - The Ides of Smarch
- Thread starter MRORANGE
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I get it, actually. No game with rape in its title should get an immediate green light. This isn't a hard rule. It's frankly insane that Valve doesn't already operate on such a basis. I don't give a fuck how expensive it is to get that much manual oversight into the system. You're Valve, you own the biggest digital PC Gaming platform of all time, and rightfully take a 30% cut, you can afford it. The more I think about it, the weirder Valve's position on this seems. At the end of the day, their desire to open the flood gates, but also be aggresively open to everything, is a terrible mix. And I'm not talking about the quality of games here, not even about any actual tests of the game itself. Just stuff that any human can check in 5 minutes of looking at the Store page.
"Oh, Rape Day, hmm, yeah, that's no from me dawg. *click reject* "
This isn't about how hard it is to detect it, about complex moral quandaries. It's about a game that might as well be called "Rape Simulator 2019" and if Valve wasn't so dumb about this stuff, those headlines would never have been made, which wouldn't have lead to Steam bringing up such terrible search results on Google.
"Oh, Rape Day, hmm, yeah, that's no from me dawg. *click reject* "
This isn't about how hard it is to detect it, about complex moral quandaries. It's about a game that might as well be called "Rape Simulator 2019" and if Valve wasn't so dumb about this stuff, those headlines would never have been made, which wouldn't have lead to Steam bringing up such terrible search results on Google.
not sure about those but the bolsonaro game that was presumably (based on the screenshots) about beating up women and queer people was sold as I remember reading the user reviews
I don't think this happens very often though
PC Gamer has been shit for quite a while now, and its community is YIKES.
Sorry. Still online. And ofc they werent called "Kill Muslims". It was always something with "Isis" or "Terrorists".
One of them is still on, together with blackface:
Then there was ISIS Simulator:
https://steamdb.info/app/705600/
Not surprising the PC gaming/PCmastrerrace subreddits are so toxic as well. It's a shame so much bigotry attached to PC gaming
That kind of thing is rife in all areas of gaming, not exclusive to PC at all.
This is sadly very true. The pcgaming stuff seems to take it to a whole another level though
Absolutely, I think we'd all agree this title shouldn't have been able to get as far as receiving a store page, but that a PC Gamer journo would use search results, which are heavily influenced by 'coverage' of the issue itself by sites including their own, to 'make a point', is just cheaply opportunistic, and reeks of an agenda of sorts.
Yeap, people seem to forget the whole shit storm with BF5, or with Ellie from TLoU. Sadly, gaming being targeted to white, hetero males for a long time has not helped cultivate a good audience now that (thankfully) game companies were forced due to market changes to target a more broad spectra of players.
If you have strict rules and still allow yourself a leeway to judge content on an individual level, then you don't actually have strict rules but just suggestions and the end result is the same as if you were only employing vague rules to begin with.
And to take your example Zkylon, formulations like that will mean people try and work around them in any way they can, "all character totes consented to this and are just acting, we don't endorse sexual violence blabla". Like how many AAA games and movies are already doing with a message at the beginning that reads "All similarities to people and organizations are purely coincidental", we all know it's bullshit, but this makes the influences "technically legal" in case they get sued by one of those people and organizations.
To use your words Wok, i don't see the point in having strict rules; when it will force them to still add exceptions and asterisks onto the rule to catch people trying to bypass them, just leave it vague at "trolling" and "harmful content".
The only thing i can see coming from having strict and specific rules is people saying "This is technically legal", like 1000 year old dragons.
It's kind of disgusting how pc gamer is taking every opportunity to shit on Steam - and on people complaining about Epic's moneyhats. Several sponsored articles about EGS exclusives may have something to do with this.
Yeah i was getting sort of silent hunter type feelings playing it. Its a good unique game.
I don't see it being any greater on PC. Perhaps the added "PC master race" snobbery amplifies the general toxicity or something.
Again, I dont think the reason is EGS money, it is just that those articles get clicks. In the current media environment, articles need to get clicks to be profitable so you end up searching for the article that sells. System wars sell and PC "finally" having some competition just opens the case. Epic being better at talking just makes it a one sided argument because Steam just stays quiet (and when they make a small comment about the anti competitive practices they get lambasted).
It was similar to how we got a long season where Jim Sterling was making videos about Steam trash (and now not so much), those videos got a ton of coverage and where easy to make, so why not keep making them until you just dried the well.
I fundamentally disagree with it being the same
you have leeway with the explicit purpose of dealing with bad actors trying to work around the rules and you make the rules updatable so they can be improved to better serve the ideals they were written upon
enforcing rules is always an involved matter, you can't expect to write them and forget, but you also need some sort of guide or else there's nothing stopping from this happening
you have leeway with the explicit purpose of dealing with bad actors trying to work around the rules and you make the rules updatable so they can be improved to better serve the ideals they were written upon
enforcing rules is always an involved matter, you can't expect to write them and forget, but you also need some sort of guide or else there's nothing stopping from this happening
Sorry. Still online. And ofc they werent called "Kill Muslims". It was always something with "Isis" or "Terrorists".
One of them is still on, together with blackface:
Then there was ISIS Simulator:
https://steamdb.info/app/705600/
I don't think Isis Simulator qualified. It was just random shovelware using generic unity assets. Wasn't really more offensive than, say, CoD 4.
The "PC gamer master race" shit always rubbed me the wrong way. Like, how powerful of a PC do you need to join the "Master Race"?
Yeah I think the elitism present in PC gaming adds to it, But to be honest it could be that it's the portion of the gaming market I pay the most attention to and thus what I see the most. But yeah long before GG gaming has been very toxic and it makes me so sad that something I care about so much can be that fucked up. I am glad that gaming in general is moving to a better place for inclusivity and understanding. Though there is still a lot of work to be done.
Valve is big enough to solve most of these problems. They've been pioneers on a lot of things, it's just a shame they don't feel the need to even try on this kind of social / toxicity stuff. Just opening the floodgates while washing your hands of the consequences is a total cop out.
It started as a jab to people that took the "PC is always the best one" too seriously and then they actually liked it and used it. It is like saying gamer, you are supposed to note the sarcasm but people take it seriously.
(To join the Master Race , your pc needs to run Crysis in Full HD)
This is nice, I look forward to MS to actually fix their store and more devs publishing their games there.
Ultimately, it's valves own store, so they don't technically need rules anyways and can just do whatever they want and ban any game for any reason.
I think we're both agreeing in principle, i just believe there is no point in having set rules that you need to constantly amend and make exceptions to when you can just be vague to begin with.
" The new fee structure excludes all games and any purchases on Xbox consoles. "
The new fee structure is applicable to app purchases made on all Windows 10 PCs, Windows Mixed Reality, Windows 10 Mobile and Surface Hub devices. The new fee structure excludes all games and any purchases on Xbox consoles.
The PC Master Race stuff is mostly satire, a lot of PC gamers I know are a bunch of fucking cheapskates lol
I read the link and somehow missed that, shit.
God, Valve's response to the whole thing fucking sucked. Was it so hard to just condemn a game about rape instead of dancing around it with a weak statement about risks?
In another matter, the idea behind pc master race was always funny to me because one of the appeals of playing in pc is the exact opposite - even with weak hardware I can force a game to run no matter the cost if I try hard enough (obviously, exceptions apply)
In another matter, the idea behind pc master race was always funny to me because one of the appeals of playing in pc is the exact opposite - even with weak hardware I can force a game to run no matter the cost if I try hard enough (obviously, exceptions apply)
before people go bananas, i'm pretty sure this is for apps only, it doesn't apply to games. They've announced this a while ago.
I remember how it started, it was amusing at first but as usual, gaming communities got a hold of it and it became nasty real fast.
It was announced year ago at build. I believe it was in "beta" for while too. And yeah games are still 30% and anything purchased that counts as "xbox" purchase.
No problem, I only read it slowly cause I have heard weeks ago that it was changed/going to be changed EXCEPT for non-games. Microsoft isnt also going to decrease the cut in gaming in PC while trying to push for crossbuy to XBOX.
And about the Master Race stuff, yeah. I did enjoy joking about it, but kinda like how I love making jokes about "Spanish Reconquista" there always comes a jerk to fuck it up and made me not use it.
The fact they take 15% when browsing the store is more telling (and that is with small apps). The 5% cut when using the "winget" is pretty similar to HB cut.
Heck, the whole stuff IS HUMBLES CUT (once you take 10% off from charities)
Fallout 76: 99 problems but our end game weapons are stronger than level one
I agree that 12% isn't sustainable long-term, but I don't think this news suggests 30% is necessary. Rather, I suspect the cut for games remaining as-is has everything to do with Microsoft not wanting to lower its cut on the Xbox side of things, where, much like Google with the Play Store, it has no real reason to cater to devs and reduce its cut, as having a digital presence on Xbox = being on the MS Store.
I believe there's some wiggle room to give devs more than 70% while still ensuring running costs, payment processing fees, etc. are covered, but that magic number sure isn't Epic's 88%, let alone Discord's knee-jerk 90%. It's probably whatever CD Projekt has landed on.
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Oh yeah, my respect for PC Gamer has fell off a damn cliff over past couple of weeks
Yes, because Valve clearly don't want to be moral arbiters.
Wasn't sure where else to ask, but I was looking to get back into PC gaming and was going to start with getting a new monitor. Is the PG279Q a good one to go with? Or would there be something in a similar price range (~$700) that is a better option?
Yes it was. When Manhunts etc are there no problem. Or y'all would like German version of steam in your living room?
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