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drmike: I wonder if they're going to return 'Active shooter' and/or the publisher.
I don't think so. In the announcement Valve specifically told they won't allow something illegal or "straight up trolling". And "Active shooter" dev was exactly called a troll, who btw actually had a history of appearing on Steam under other aliases and with other provocative and shady projects before.
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drmike: I wonder if they're going to return 'Active shooter' and/or the publisher.
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LootHunter: I don't think so. In the announcement Valve specifically told they won't allow something illegal or "straight up trolling". And "Active shooter" dev was exactly called a troll, who btw actually had a history of appearing on Steam under other aliases and with other provocative and shady projects before.
Man that guy was doing his best it seems
"This developer and publisher is, in fact, a person calling himself Ata Berdiyev, who had previously been removed last fall when he was operating as '[bc]Interactive' and 'Elusive Team'," a Valve rep explained.

"Ata is a troll, with a history of customer abuse, publishing copyrighted material, and user review manipulation. His subsequent return under new business names was a fact that came to light as we investigated the controversy around his upcoming title. We are not going to do business with people who act like this towards our customers or Valve."
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Pheace: Man that guy was doing his best it seems
Exactly. Making a game on controversial topic is one thing, but abusing customers and employng varous con tricks for publishing is totally unacceptable, not to mention illegal.
Post edited June 07, 2018 by LootHunter
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I know what you mean, but I think there are two levels of 'bad'. I didn't enjoy Game of Thrones (the books, never bothered with the show because I didn't like the books) but I can see that there is something there that others might enjoy. I think it's bad, but it's not objectively bad.

On the other hand there are books I've read were the author was barely literate and everything was a bad cliche, every twist predictable etc. They are objectively bad, badly written. I don't think we need 100s (if not 1000s) of books, games, movies etc. that don't pass that basic talent mark.

TV and Movies don't suffer this issue (yet anyway, probably never) because the bar to entry is far too high. You might be able to make a pilot for your badly written awful idea but it will never likely see the light of day as a full series unless you are a millionaire who can fund it personally. Sure, there is bad TV still, of course there is, but not in the same way there are bad books and bad games.

More importantly, no matter how hard GOG tries, Steam is still pretty much the main marketplace for PC gaming, which means that it's the first place people want to release and the first place most people look for games. With tens to hundreds of new titles released every day it becomes less and less likely the good games get spotted and make money and their developers go on to make sequels.
If there were a few decent curated alternatives than I'd say this was a great idea, but when Steam corners the market so much I think releasing even more shit can only be a bad thing for gamers and developers.
Am i the only one that wonders why Hunniepop had to be censored to be on steam, but not TW3? Or was i missing something?

That said, it's their choice not to house a game like that. I say the dev should go elsewhere. I doubt gog would sell, either, so the dev could try self-hosting. I could give the dev some ideas on how to make it work, but i doubt they'd listen to little old random gamer over here.
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kohlrak: Am i the only one that wonders why Hunniepop had to be censored to be on steam, but not TW3? Or was i missing something?
TW3 doesn't show genitalia or sperma. HuniePop (uncensored) does.
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adaliabooks: While I can see the merit to a 'release everything regardless' approach I personally really dislike it.
One of the main reasons I hardly buy books any more is because publishers lowered the bar as to what was decent fiction and I've been burned with a number of new authors whose work was a load of tripe.

Steam is pretty much the same to me, there is so much rubbish put forward by anyone who thinks their idea is brilliant that wading through it to find the gems isn't worth my time. And if I have to use other sites to inform me of what games to buy then the store is not doing it's job. I'd rather buy Nintendo games or games from here and know that there is at least a good chance the game is decent if not exceptional.

But while I have a small but decent Steam library I have yet to be tempted to buy anything directly from them, not when Humble usually provides the same keys without me directly supporting a shop whose policies I dislike, so I doubt this will effect me much.
Pareto distribution.
high rated
I actually agree with Steam on this, I would prefer "everything except illegal content/trolling is allowed" rather than moralistic censorship. There are many people, whether they're SJW "ban this transphobic/homophobic trash!" or right-wing "think of the children!" types, who want to see video games censored, if not by the government then unofficially by private actors.
Post edited June 07, 2018 by Crosmando
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kohlrak: Am i the only one that wonders why Hunniepop had to be censored to be on steam, but not TW3? Or was i missing something?
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toxicTom: TW3 doesn't show genitalia or sperma. HuniePop (uncensored) does.
Wait, Geralt lost his.... So that's why witchers can't get people pregnant.
I think we're basically watching Steam transition from mainly Games Store to mainly Games Supplier. It's going to keep the store aspect of course but it won't be as efficient as it used to be. But mostly, they want to make sure you can buy it with them if there's a game you want.

It's probably a smart idea. There's tons of ways to discover games beyond the Steam Storefront, I usually know which games I want to get before I've even seen them in the store (E3 this weekend!)

Here, racism is not defined as "bad," but as a "controversial topic." It is grouped with other "controversial topics," such as sexuality and identity and even the quality of a game. So it seems that in Valve's view, a customer's anger over an overtly racist game is exactly the same as a customer's anger over a game about gender identity or sexual orientation. This is a categorically absurd view. It defines hate speech and being the target of hate speech as the same thing. It defines hate speech and being mad about bad Early Access releases as the same thing. It is ridiculous.
https://www.pcgamer.com/steams-new-anything-goes-policy-is-doomed-from-the-start/

You can feel the seething butthurt of "You're not allowed to make games that don't have political views I disagree with!" through the words, lel.
Post edited June 07, 2018 by Crosmando
Victory! Always triggered lunatics, will be no longer able, to ruin the fun of normal gamers... YAY!!!

That's one up against the fascistic proponents of censor in art, those propaganda adepts, who even accuse other groups for the chaos that they themselves create!

FREE EXPRESSION IN ART!!! YAY!
FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!! YAY!
DEMOCRATIC RULE OF MAJORITY!!! YAY!

SJW Rhetards and other oppressive, vandals for art(istic expression), hateful minorities!!! BOOOOO

Steam had been a traditional stronghold of those freaks and inflammatory elements; up until now. I actually started LIKING Steam, after this! A little. I will spend some money on it, actually, to say "Thank you"! Just 5 bucks, to get the basic account perks, or something!
Post edited June 07, 2018 by KiNgBrAdLeY7
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kohlrak: Wait, Geralt lost his.... So that's why witchers can't get people pregnant.
No, they just don't show it. To protect all males from their inferiority complex and all females from fainting.
This is an incredibly stupid article. It has exactly one paragraph that makes sense:
There are other problems with Valve's proposal. For starters, the company says that "trolling" will not be permitted on Steam even after this policy change takes place. You can bet that developers are going to test that claim in creative ways. And what constitutes trolling? Making low-quality games? Making parody games? Discerning between parody and malice requires some interpretation of a developer's intent, which, being impossible, only allows Valve to make more value judgments while pretending not to.
This basically destroys the argument (or rather rant) about "games addressing racism" they made above - because it's the same situation: If someone publishes a game which contains heavy racism, does this make the game "racist"? Maybe the dev wants to expose racism, maybe it's meant as a parody, maybe it's an historical/fictional setting where racism is part of the time and place?

Of course there will be stuff where the intent is pretty obvious, but there's also a huge grey area - and who's there to judge?
Steam obviously decided that they don't want to be judge anymore. It's a bold move, I give them that.
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toxicTom: But the reality is, that Steam enforces - often even unnecessary - censorship on games in "preemptive obedience", esp. in Germany. "Low violence" versions of games were forced on German customers although there really was no need for it.
How do you know it's Steam enforcing this in "preemptive obedience" and not the publishers playing it safe? I find the latter much more likely than Steam actually caring enough to censor games.