‘This isn’t “wokeness”, it’s basic human rights and equality and nothing more,’ he added. ‘If Steam can’t support free speech of LGBTQ+ people, then at the very least they should be transparent about this.’
What a bizarre response. Neither Roskomnadzor nor Valve claimed this had anything to do with “‘wokeness,’” and Steam was in fact transparent about this.
I don’t really get what anyone expects Valve to do here other than comply with the law. Still, I’m surprised they’re even able to operate in Russia given all the sanctions.
They ignored (legitimate) youth protection laws long enough, they could ignore this one, too.
? Curious, any good places to look into this?
Pull out. And the same every country, including the one we both live in if need be
I don’t really get what anyone expects Valve to do here other than comply with the law.
Lol.
There’s a thin red line that tie both Putin’s oligarchs and Trump’s oligarchs: “wokeness” is a concept fabricated by the latter but is completely compliant with Russian’s 2006 federal law. They can’t formalized that freedom of people doesn’t matter, they need to make-up a blurry concept of “tradition” and a vague concept of something that may corrupt the aforementioned joke (“traditional values”: the one between the traditional human ape rape cave and matrimonial rites after human ape pack raided another pack and took their females)
I mean on the literal level, “‘wokeness’” was used quotatively by Masters, as though somebody else had actually said that exact word. This is what strikes me as bizarre.
But also, the ‘woke’ thing is a new layer to the culture war that emerged in the late '10s. It was precipitated by similar disagreements over issues of social justice and affirmative action, of course, but not to the same extent or precision. However, Russia is acting consistently with how they acted a decade ago. So this is my weak argument that ‘wokeness’ is indeed not relevant here even in concept.
Your choice as Valve here is to either delist or not be in Russia. It is easy for me, as someone not in Russia, to cheer Valve to fight the good fight. But, it would suck if I were in Russia and suddenly lost access to my games.
But, it would suck if I were in Russia and suddenly lost access to my games.
Another reason not to rely on steam as a central point of failure.
When “the right thing to do” enters in conflict with “what maximises profits”, businesses almost always pick the later.
What makes this decision particularly stark is the response from other tech giants. The same censorship notice was sent to Apple and Google, as the game has been available on their Russian mobile stores since 2020. Both companies reportedly ignored the request, leaving Flick Solitaire available for download.
It’s a matter of relative power.
What’s the alternative? They have to obey the law, right? What should they have done? How is this “bowing to Kremlin” as if they’re kneeling, waiting to suck their dick or something.
Genuinely curious about these questions.
Because MS, Epic and Sony are scared shitless that valve will dominate gaming market after major hardware announcement and had begun digging dirt on them.
Only in last 2 weeks there been like 3 “major” anti Valve news. I find them to be astroturfing. All these news are nothingburgers.
My tinfoil shines on top of my head
You know what, I believe that. 👌 Wouldn’t at all be surprised.
Pull out.
Yes, I’d still say this if it was America
What would that accomplish though?
The alternative is to stop doing business with Russia.
They can be part of the problem, or part of the solution.
They chose the problem.
I don’t see how it advances any objective like Ukraine or identity politics issue by Valve not being in Russia. On the contrary, the more people buy from valve puts currency strain on Russia and exports western culture to them.
How is valve doing business with Russia? Are they selling games to the government? Games are for the public, right? The public isn’t at war, Putin is.
Let me know if this is a bad take, what am I missing.
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I wonder if the same people who say Steam should pull out of Russia would agree that Steam should also pull out from the US. I mean, that’s what should happen given the basis of the arguments being used, right?
If the US opposes values Valve has then they should.
I’m not going to pretend Valve cares about these causes though.
Yes. Maybe then people will blame the ones actually responsible. If it makes overthrowing a magat government more likely, it’s good on principle
Yes. Once the bread and circuses are gone, people will have lots of hunger and free time to ruminate on how hungry they are.
Which steam games have been removed by the US government?
There was the whole thing about payment processors raising a stink because of Steam, which is comparable and I have no evidence Dementia Don simps were not somehow involved, since this was started via some republican christofascist Karen association. But even if that does not suffice it for you, I’m not wondering about to the present situation, I’m wondering about the situation of when (not if) it happens in the future.
That was done by Australians and had nothing to do with the US government. Stick to the facts.
This had nothing to do with the USA. It was triggered by an Australian group of christofascist Karens, called “Collective Shout,” leading to adult titles being removed from steam. Steam already region locks titles, so it would be easy for them to block titles for sale in countries with laws about NSFW matierial. What’s unique about this is the christofacists put enough pressure on payment processors to shut down Steam’s ability to sell anything in any country. The title pulls weren’t the result of government pressure.
So, human rights stuff aside, how/why the fuck do we need a genderised solitaire?
Because the dev wanted to make it and other people wanted to play it.
it’s art. the question should be “why not” and the answer is “no reason”.
It seems to be one set of cards, as a part or a deck. Its pretty much a nothing burger.
And besides that, who the fuck cares other than rabid homophobic assholes?
Its a free card game with paid or grind to get skins. One of those skins is a rainbow camelion.
Someone wanted to play a game like it, and someone else coded it and decided to sell it. Capitalism. You may as well ask the question, “Why does porn exist.” People can’t have sex whenever they want, with whoever they want, so a wank with some NSFW material solves the problem. A demand results in someone realizing they can make money meeting the demand.
I mean, if you want to operate in a country, you follow their laws when in the country?
These comments are shit. Who said that you should comply with Russia’s laws???
Money, I guess. GabeN needed a new yatch
Surprised to not see it linked. Warning: despite being free, recent reviews point out how they’re pushing a monthly subscription to get all the cosmetics.
no good sides huh
I fed up to see the discourse about steam being the best thing since sliced bread. Its a shitty company, pro censure, anti lgbt, anti owning game, with another oligarch ceo . I exclusively use GoG now
If I’m looking to buy a game online, the prices are comprable and one is DRM-free on GoG, I go with GoG everytime.
