Collective Shout Purge Sees Horror Games In Crosshairs
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I don't get why the gaming platforms are removing games instead of removing the objecting payment providers as a payment option for purchasing those particular games.
If visa doesn't want people to purchase game X with Visa, then remove Visa as payment option for buying game X.
This is what Steam will probably do in the future, and Itch.io is already looking into it. There's a reason all this garbage hasn't splashed GOG. GOG is based in Europe, where protection laws would slap silly any financial entity trying to pull this stunt on an European company (pressure groups have weaseled censorship and moral panics with other strategies though, just not this one), and they have so many more payment processors that PayPal, Visa and MC would just be dropped entirely and immediately for any of the other dozen or so alternatives. The issue is that in the US and Australia, the three headed shit dragon already lobbied governments to pull the ladder behind them, so no other payment processor could take their place or compete with them, establishing a legal oligopoly of the old money finance club. They won and have this power due to systemic and political failures decades in the making.
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If people had used cryptocurrency as a currency instead of as a "it's totally not a security, we swear, even though we're only saying that to evade SEC regulations a little longer" there'd be a lot fewer people calling it a scam.
For sixteen years, crypto's only use cases seemed to be buying illegal goods and securities fraud. Finally, we have another use case presenting: perfectly legal transactions that credit card companies have gotten cold feet about.
The only thing I've ever used crypto for was to buy totally legal goods and services.
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The issues are layered but the core aspect is that everyone can get scammed and banks have protections for getting your money stolen while crypto doesn't.
But the more visible issue is just how the unregulated aspect of it being used to scam people predominantly has marred the topic for so many people to the point where people just want to stay away from it all. If anything I think it ends up being a good example for how people need regulation and we can't just have anarchy because people will take advantage of other people.
To add a metaphor, sure it's not the gun that does the killing it's the human, but regulating how the gun gets used does help with gun deaths a lot.
The bank's protection often looks like not being able to use your own money on things you choose because of a set of criteria you can't see and don't have to agree to. It's the main reason I started using crypto to begin with.
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I think the biggest problem is getting any crypto which usually involves an exchange which is also dependent on the payment processors you are trying to avoid
There's also p2p sources like Bisq and Haveno.
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Agreed. Fear and Hunger has it's issues and I would not broadly recommend it to anyone. I would also say that the FREQUENCY of sexual assault in the game, and the presence of some weirdly sexual status effects like anal bleeding are a bit overboard. That being said, when one of the earliest enemies can sexually assault you, or maim your character in a way that leaves you able to keep playing, but effectively crippled, it really nails home not just that the world is dark, but that your assumptions about what is in the game don't apply here. Anything could happen. REALLY anything. And exploring a harsh, hostile world with that expectation set is one of the best parts of the game, because it's a unique experience that you just can't get at that quality anywhere else.
This sounds really good. I've never heard of the game before, but now I want to look for it.
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The bank's protection often looks like not being able to use your own money on things you choose because of a set of criteria you can't see and don't have to agree to. It's the main reason I started using crypto to begin with.
I honestly haven't had any such issues, any specific limitations you've encountered that you can reference?
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Collective shout seems to have expanded its scope: games like cult classic Fear And Hunger have been removed from Itch.io, while horror game VILE: Exhumed has been delisted from Steam just a week after launch.
One thing I'm hearing a lot of is that this is a Christian lobby group. I did not see obvious signs of that on their website, though some of the language felt like an intentional alternative to how I (social worker) would discuss issues of women's empowerment. Like they were holding space to later include "LGBTQ+" in their definition of problematic content. I am more than willing to believe an activist group from that demographic would lie to push their true agenda. Who has a good news source discussing their ideology?
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I don't get why the gaming platforms are removing games instead of removing the objecting payment providers as a payment option for purchasing those particular games.
If visa doesn't want people to purchase game X with Visa, then remove Visa as payment option for buying game X.
I don't get why the gaming platforms are removing games instead of removing the objecting payment providers as a payment option for purchasing those particular games.
I think the issue isn't that the payment providers don't want to support the purchase of those games with their card. They want to stop offering their services to a platform that sells those games.
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One thing I'm hearing a lot of is that this is a Christian lobby group. I did not see obvious signs of that on their website, though some of the language felt like an intentional alternative to how I (social worker) would discuss issues of women's empowerment. Like they were holding space to later include "LGBTQ+" in their definition of problematic content. I am more than willing to believe an activist group from that demographic would lie to push their true agenda. Who has a good news source discussing their ideology?
The founder is a well-known Christian "pro-life feminist" from Australia.
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Itch has come out and said it's not Visa, it's PayPal and Stripe.
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Removing those payment options would cause a massive loss of revenue.
If this is true, all gamers who care about this issue of censorship should collectively boycott those payment processors. PayPal should be especially easy to disconnect from since they already suck.
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I don't get why the gaming platforms are removing games instead of removing the objecting payment providers as a payment option for purchasing those particular games.
I think the issue isn't that the payment providers don't want to support the purchase of those games with their card. They want to stop offering their services to a platform that sells those games.
It appears that in the future, Itch will allow creators to opt out of payment providers, meaning that it's probably on a per game basis, not per platform. That Itch and Steam are not making a per game solution now, is most likely because their current software doesn't allow it and they need time to rework it. Itch has promised various changes already, Steam has been mum afaik.
Source for Itch: "For NSFW pages, this will include a new step where creators must confirm that their content is allowable under the policies of the respective payment processors linked to their account.". https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content
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I honestly haven't had any such issues, any specific limitations you've encountered that you can reference?
I've been blocked by fraud protection when trying to buy pet food at a pet store next to my house, trying to buy fast food while visiting a friend in another city, trying to buy two cell phones in one day because the first one was out of stock and was refunded, trying to buy software from any company headquartered in another country, trying to buy crypto, trying to buy health supplements from a friend's company.
Supposedly, when they suspect fraud, you get an automated call where you can indicate a charge is legitimate and they'll let it go through, but I rarely got a call, and when I did, purchases that I marked as legitimate still wouldn't go through.
I talked to a real person with the fraud department, and she had no idea why the charges were being blocked, since, according to her, they should't have been. But also, there was nothing they could do about it.
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Why cant the payment processors just fucking ignore them oh my god
Or you know, try bitcoin instead?
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The founder is a well-known Christian "pro-life feminist" from Australia.
She was the founding director of Women's Forum Australia, [...] It also promotes a trans-exclusionary ideology and campaigns against transgender rights.
Right so assuming she's not Lesbian, then her being anti-LGBTQ+ is a safe bet. If she somehow is Lesbian, she's going to be anti-BTQ+ at the very least.
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Why cant the payment processors just fucking ignore them oh my god
I think all the higher ups are afraid to admit they consume adult content so they will act as if it's wrong.
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If this is true, all gamers who care about this issue of censorship should collectively boycott those payment processors. PayPal should be especially easy to disconnect from since they already suck.
Yeah I already stopped using them years ago haha
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Collective shout seems to have expanded its scope: games like cult classic Fear And Hunger have been removed from Itch.io, while horror game VILE: Exhumed has been delisted from Steam just a week after launch.
God, I'm getting flash backs to that lawyer who hated video games and wanted them all banned. He had a hardon for the gta series. Jack something.
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The founder is a well-known Christian "pro-life feminist" from Australia.
So she's savvy with her words so people don't recognize the true anti-gay crusade. A true wolf in bitch's clothing.
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The founder is a well-known Christian "pro-life feminist" from Australia.
Pro life feminist is an oxymoron
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Collective shout seems to have expanded its scope: games like cult classic Fear And Hunger have been removed from Itch.io, while horror game VILE: Exhumed has been delisted from Steam just a week after launch.
Gotta love the Collective Cunts.