Steam says NO to censorship. Gamers are happy. Journalists are not

Here's the announcement:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1666776116200553082

Ben Kuchera / Polygon - "Valve new Steam policy gives up on responsibility": https://archive.fo/iEU6N

Brendan Sinclair / Gamesindustry.biz - "Valve's new content policy is a gutless attempt to dodge responsibility": https://archive.fo/S0TBJ

Mark Serrels / CNET - "Valve still lives in the waking nightmare of Web 2.0": https://archive.fo/Msec2

Tyler Wilde / PC Gamer - "Steam's new 'anything goes' policy is doomed from the start": https://archive.fo/lLTe8 (Ha ha, so much for the self proclaimed "global authority on PC games")

etc.

Finally, it the time when we, as gamers, decide what we want to play and what we don't want to. We won't tolerate anyone going full nanny state over our hobby. Funny how the times changed. A decade ago we were on the same side with gaming journalists against people like Jack Thompson. Now they are no better than him in their crusade against gamers.

You will never decide what you want to play.

Valve can decide whatever they want, until the goverment steps in and forced valve. Valve isn't above the law and never will be.

You didn't bother to read anything on this matter did you? Of course, illegal stuff isn't allowed. The thing is, some people do consider themselves above the law and want to prohibit perfectly legal things that might hurt someones feelings.

I really don't get why we should control what kind of games people are playing.

So thumbs up for Valve.

I've been all over Twitter and realized all of those blue check market pseudo-game journalist whining about this while writing hit piece after hit piece on Kotaku, PC Gamer and every other mainstream "game review" sites where they hope to have clueless and curious readers fall for their dumb narratives. Valve is allowing their market to be more of open minded instead of continuing Police it in there favor of these prudish whiners who don't buy many games. If they see a game they don't like, all they have to do is not buy it, plain and simple instead of jumping on Twitter and bitch about it. Also, they have no power taking games off of Steam just because they don't like it. Their pathetic feelings don't come first before everyone's else enjoyments and they never even understand that. Let's be real, Valve never really gives a damn what goes into Steam anyways.

Buuut anyways. Monster Girl Quest confirmed from Steam XD

Steam is already a garbage pile, may as well go all in. Here comes the Chan board of PC distribution.

Gamers are all the way for no censorship in games. Until they see a woman in a game that they don't approve of and then the shit hits the fan.

Go Valve . Show them whos the boss and let em cry

Let hope we see more stuff like this AID simulator.

As long as it making money for them that's all that matters.

@boycie: it's classic human behavior. You see it all the time in American politics too.

"I support total freedom!"*

*unless you believe or do something I don't like, then I'll raise hell like a big fat hypocrite

It's great to keep giving governments more and more power and money to force your morality onto others, until the governments decide to clamp down on a freedom(s) that you enjoy, eh Komrades? (Not directed at anyone or "side", just an observation)

@boycie: As long as Steam has what I'm looking for, I really don't care if they add Superman 64. I don't have time to bitch about Steam has hit a new low.

Censorship or not, Steam quality control is moved from barely existent to non existent. This just makes the platform more prone to even more garbage and Steam really doesn't need more garbage.

Fair enough. I just remember when Steam was the go to place to find new and quality indie gems. Now you're more likely so come away with an AIDS sim or a school shooter sim than something you want to play.

As long as you're happy though, that's all that matters.

Good thing the first amendment is part of the law, then.

I don't even bother looking for gems in Steam because its too much of a witch hunt.

More like bobbing for apples in a cesspit.

I actually have zero problems finding interesting looking games on Steam. To the people who complain about getting offers for shitty games all the time: Stop buying or watching shitty games on Steam. It will result in you getting more recommendations of shitty games, since Steam then believes you want those. It's not really rocket science.

#IStandWithValve

Never bought a survival game but I am recommended survival games in all of my recommendations. Never bought those anime dating games yet, its always in my recommended games. Steam recommendations rarely recommends games based on what I play thus the reason finding "good" indie games is a witch hunt.

That's odd, cause that doesn't happen to me. If it did, I'd be sure to click the "not interested" button, so that such games would stop popping up. Are you doing that?

Also, stop using the recommended thing? You're probably better at finding games you like yourself than Steam is at doing it for you, don't you think? Take a game you like, then search for similar games. Again, not rocket science.

I currently don’t game on PC so what Valve does with Steam isn’t going to affect me however in my opinion having no level of quality control just leads to the platform being flooded with garbage which tends to drown out the good stuff.

have you tried filtering out visual novels, anime and survival?

Is that an option for recommendations?

You would think that "not interested" would trigger something in their algorithm but it doesn't for me. Thus the reason I don't use recommended games any more cause its useless.

I don't find their tags and filters to be as friendly as I would like it to be especially when games can be tagged liberally. At the end of the day, I simply don't use Steam as a way to explore games cause its not only filled with so much garbage but the filtering system is not particularly good.

It’s a ballsy move for Valve, given that they previously discontinued distribution of games and mods that were highly disturbing and offensive (I recall a sprite-based Columbine simulator that used the names and photographs of actual victims in its depictions that was pulled once it was brought to Valve’s attention - that was around 10 or so years back).

I get the free market thinking, but now I’m curious to see how this impacts Valve’s ability to enforce its distributor contract since its policy may reshape it’s legal obligations, in the US and internationally (in various jurisdictions).

And lastly, I am somewhat eager and resigned to see the kinda of deplorable garbage Steam will play host to. I know people well enough that they are going to take every possible inch out of the mile Valve is giving them.

Gaming is to play games. Take your politics somewhere else. Don't they have an Ocean's 8 movie to watch or something.

I support the idea and I agree with the reason they are doing it.

Filtering is better than censorship

if you are seeings anima games and you do not want to then the clear solution is NOT to ban anima games but rather to get them to fix the code so that you do not see what you clearly do not want to see.

and that is exactly what they said they are going to do

What about for racist, hateful and homophobic games do they have a filter to git rid of that stuff.

those games should not be censored in my opinion.

The default of many people (such as yourself) to solving a problem is always to jump to censoring isnt?

why is that?

I just don't want to play stuff like that and would like to filter it out.

Many times this!

You can't filter out the garbage yourself? Last time I've checked it was pretty easy. Friends recommendations, Steam curators and Youtube reviews are for the help.

The opposite is true. The good stuff stands above the sea of mediocrity, as long as it's actually good. The only real victims here are lazy developers whose half-assed games will be less noticeable among numerous other half-assed games.

Well, if gamers are so desperately in need of playing shitty dating/sex games, it's on them, no reason why anyone should censor them.

It's really a sad genre for sad people, but... Well, let then have it. ??‍♂️

so I will say again...

--------------

if you are seeings anima games and you do not want to then the clear solution is NOT to ban anima games but rather to get them to fix the code so that you do not see what you clearly do not want to see.

and that is exactly what they said they are going to do

@tryit: I agree, the games should be there on a +18 area.

And I disagree about homophobic and racist games, unless those are used for a narrative reason, it's ok, but when the game is trying to be racist/homophobic, then they should be censored.

@Orchid87: I disagree. It’s so much easier to pump garbage out that it will just continue to overwhelm and ultimately tarnish the Steam marketplace. Also you just know that there will be a number of people out there that will take this opportunity to put out some absolute filth on there and the news media, politicians, and lawmakers are going to jump all over it. Mark my words that this is going to be a bad move for Valve.

that is something others can debate on. I tend to have an admittedly unrefined extreme view on free speech that I would agree doesnt work in all cases but I let others in society hammer that out.

In general I try to avoid censorship AND I do not try to go far out digging in the most extreme cases to try and justify it just so I can get my censorship hard on fix.

So, what I've gathered from this thread and some "journalists" writing about this is that people who complain about Steam are very inept and think Steam should fix their problems for them. Steam obviously can't do that, and thus they complain. Not sure if hilarious or sad.

basically

Steam: 'we want to improve our filters instead of censoring games'

Others: 'we do not want you to improve your filters, we want you to censor games and we trust you to make the choices of what we we will or will not ever be able to see'

No, I think people would just like to see less shite on Steam.

The irony, of course, is that there have been dozens (hundreds?) of studies proving that video games are not responsible for violent, misogynistic, and otherwise antisocial behavior for decades.

When the media, especially gaming media, decides that it is wrong to not censor things, what does that say to society? It says we bow to peer pressure, that maybe the fear-mongerers are right, and we should not push the envelope for the sake of artistry.

And games are art. I don't care if there is some big-boobed chick in a chainmail bikini storming a school with a staff and killing young apprentice mages and people want to go "It's like a school mass shooting"...it's still art, warts and all, and deserves to exist.

In the end, the decision and responsibility lies with the consumer.

To the naysayers: grow some balls, and realize the world is filled with things you dislike and can do nothing about. Make peace with it, vote with your wallet, blah blah blah you get it.

Ageed, people should choose for themselves.

Valve continues to be a unique and positive voice during this time of censorship, kneejerk reactions, criticism, and so forth.

Are you sure about that? What a multibillion dollar company with influence does can impact other markets as well. This might inspire other publishers and distributors to not censor as well, or the opposite.

Think bigger than PC gaming; after all, it's gaming in general this concerns.

Cowards all, and traitors.

CNET owns Gamespot iirc (or rather, CBS owns CNET and Gamespot), wonder how it will play out on Gamespot :P

Hyperbole much?

You can to an extent currently, and if you had actually read Valve's press release, you'd see that they are working on a better, more visible filter.

With that said, I've never seen a game show up on the store page or recommended games page that was highly offensive. Shooters and creepy anime games, sure, but nothing like a school shooting sim or anything like that.

There might be 10,000 of those kinds of games on Steam, but you won't see them on there unless they're incredibly popular and appear on the top sellers list. Then we have bigger problems than Steam, that's a societal problem.

@mrbojangles25: 'Cowards all, and traitors.'

Hyperbole much!

I feel the opposite, which is why filtering is a good idea

the LAST thing I want Steam to be is a representation of what game journalists think are good games..holy balz that would be catastrophic for me

haha fair enough, but still appropriate.

With that said, do you have anything constructive and original to say? Or are you just going to keep whining and hope the government steps in and takes your rights away?

I'm thankful I live in the US (shocking, I know...) where we can still purchase things like you posted and object to, if I wanted to. We could be Australia or Germany, with their censorship laws.

@mrbojangles25: Meh. I realize that it could ultimately affect me if other companies follow suit but I simply mean that what Valve is doing isn’t affecting me in the here and now. I’ll cross that other bridge later on if I need to.

Might be too late at that point, but then again, I've been accused of exaggerating...

Sure. And I'd like to see less shitty music, less shitty movies, less shitty books, less shitty people. What are we gonna do about that?

I think Valve should treat their store and platform as separate entities - keep the platform open, like Windows, but take the time to inspect and decide on what's a bad image for their storefront. If other sites want to sell more controversial games for STEAM, let them be the ones to take the heat for that. Personally I'm happy with effective filters and companies deciding for themselves what to sell, as long as it's legal.

Good response from Valve. The market can decide for itself. The trash games will continue to get buried, and good, fun and well designed games will continue to flourish as they have done before.