Steam - The 'Anything Goes' Policy

To be honest I don't 'browse' the steam store - I only go there when there's a sale or I'm looking for something specific. as far as I'm concerned, there's already a huge amount of rubbish on there.... I think forgottenlor covered my main concern: as long as the only allow legal content, I don't care really.
 
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I think forgottenlor covered my main concern: as long as the only allow legal content, I don't care really.
Is something like "School Shooting Simulator" ("Active Shooter") legal? It was pulled just before the release only because of the serve criticism from many different directions (including parents of victims of the mass shooting in Parkland). It sure looks to me like Valve wouldn't have a problem with releasing it but for those pesky parents...
 
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No. Technically it was pulled because the developer had been kicked off of steam before for various serious issues. The developers changed name but 'investigation' revealed the issue. While I suspect the sever criticism cause the investigation it was not technically the reason the game was pulled.

Furthermore the new policy was announced after that game was pulled.

Is something like "School Shooting Simulator" ("Active Shooter") legal? It was pulled just before the release only because of the serve criticism from many different directions (including parents of victims of the mass shooting in Parkland). It sure looks to me like Valve wouldn't have a problem with releasing it but for those pesky parents…
 
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Steam can't even figure out how to make their text a readable size on anything more than 17-inch monitors with 1080 resolution, after 10 years of complaints. But they're raking in cash, so…

What? I have a higher resolution and have no issues....perhaps new glasses?;)
 
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A few more things like this and I might even buy a game on steam if it's not worse than steam DRM on it.

The way to remove junk from steam is to not buy it but I guess adult toddlers can't make an informed purchase these days.
 
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What? I have a higher resolution and have no issues….perhaps new glasses?;)
Steam didn't handle scaling worth a shit until very recently, so if you have a very high DPI monitor (I use a 24" 4K) then the text was tiny. It was finally fixed, but only this year. Amazing it took that long. Not sure if that's what he's referring to though.
 
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I use a 27inch 1440p which is not quite the same as 24inch 4K but none the less I never had a problem with steam fonts. While my vision is not horrible it is hardly as good as it was when I was a kid.

Steam didn't handle scaling worth a shit until very recently, so if you have a very high DPI monitor (I use a 24" 4K) then the text was tiny. It was finally fixed, but only this year. Amazing it took that long. Not sure if that's what he's referring to though.
 
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Is something like "School Shooting Simulator" ("Active Shooter") legal? It was pulled just before the release only because of the serve criticism from many different directions (including parents of victims of the mass shooting in Parkland). It sure looks to me like Valve wouldn't have a problem with releasing it but for those pesky parents…

It probably is legal. It doesn't matter, it will be pulled anyway. Facebook has pulled content that was technically legal if it caused a big enough sh**storm. These companies look out for themselves. Valve will pull anything if they fear getting too much negative press. That is to say if the impact of negative press on sales is worse than the profit they make on a given product.
 
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I agree, they'll still pull stuff that offends people.

This new policy is just for them to cover their asses.
 
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I'd rather not have some kind of censors (be that left or right wing) to decide what kind of content is proper to be sold in digital market place such as steam. As long as it isn't illegal, I think it is best to let the customers decide. There are quite many options which help customers to make an informed decisions such as metacritic, youtube, steam reviews etc. And isn't there the refund policy? You're not happy, you'll get your money back.
 
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Personally, I'm kinda torn on this... I guess we'll see how it pans outs. My 12 year old has access to Steam and the filtering controls are only so-so.

I'd rather see more effort put into more tools to tailor what you see as I like browsing occasionally but there's a lot of crap on there that doesn't interest me that still shows up even after years of taking the time to train Steam on what I like and don't like. Right now, I think Steam does an ok job but it could be improved.

Anyway, I guess I'll finish up that Gabe Newell Torture Simulator I've been working on and post it to the store and see how that goes. :evilgrin:
 
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Well I look forward to buying more VR Porn and Hentai games.:cool:
 
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For me, part of the value of any good store is that they do some curation and quality control. If it's just a warehouse full of any old crap that someone might have deposited on the shelves, I'd be much less interested in going there. Of course, Steam has pretty much been that for a long time, and I'm very happy to shop elsewhere.

I would have no problem with Steam booting School Massacre Simulator and similar trash. That's not to say I want it censored, but I'd be happy if Steam had higher standards, and that stuff was sold on the digital equivalent of a grotty back-alley den in Soho.
 
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I think it's also a cultural problem.
Members of some cultures feel more offended by some things than members of other cultures. Like Germans & Shooters, or U.S. citizens & sex.

In the end, what we will see is the product of the mind set of the people working for Steam. If they are of an U.S. based mind set, then we'll see that - more shooters, even of the grossest violence, meanwhile very little or no sex in games at all.

The opposite would probable be seen if Steam was run by games of a … let's say German mind set. It would even be different if Steam was run by people of an Mexican mind set (death is an not unimportant part of their culture). Or if Steam was run by people of an Morocco mind set (which also shows how little we still know about other countries).

However, even if Steam was run by people of a German mind set, the U.S. cultural imperialism has trained gamers all around the world even so far that they nowadays see shooters with even a very high degree of violence as something so much natural. So natural, in fact, that masses of gamers would very violently protest against shooters being withdrawn from Steam.

Face it : The international community of gamers has been very effectively trained by U.S. based - and by u.s. domination - of game development studios,
that problem solving through nonviolent diplomacy is considered as something weak and unmanly,
meanwhile problem solving through violence is all around the world an totally NORMAL and accepted way of solving problems. Even if a person is having a problem with a whole school.

U.S. based cultural imperialism in gaming was frighteningly effective.
 
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