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

The problem is the lack of quality control on the platform. If you are fine with a platform that facilitates the greatest degree of shit games ever to populate the market then Steam is your place of comfort. I prefer a platform with some level of gatekeeping especially with regards to the quality of the games that is allowed on the platform. If you look at quality control as banning then you have a strange point of view on things which I don't subscribe to.

I LIKE those games you consider shit.

but again...how is your suggested method NOT 'banning games instead of filtering them out from your view'?

If I wanted to play a shit game I would pick a AAA title

and no..I am not joking

if you dont like steam and all its shitty games..dont use it. I dont want to play POS AAA titles, I want to play these games, leave my toys alone you ....

You need to stop taking things so personal. Please stop doing that, it makes the discussion just... weird. I don't care what games you like, I don't care if its on the platform. I do care that the trash games (asset flipping, clones, buggy games, one day developed games etc) are allowed on the system. The games you like that I don't should simply not show up when I don't want to see them but currently it still does.

@tryit: Of course it's my business. It will be my business if it ever happens to me that I buy a game and it doesn't run. :P

It could happen to anyone because as far as Steam is concerned - anything goes, even making bank off of someone elses intellectual property.

dude,

Steam removes those kinds of games, they always have, they might not do it the micro-second the game shows itself hidden deep in the barrel of games you would never normal never come close to, but they do take care of it.

you come off like you are really stretching extra hard to find some gateway to basically put an end to the game Unturned.

if we have a curator system on top of Steam the only person to blame for downloading that game would be you, because you went to steam directly instead of using 'cool games are awesome' curation store

but for some reason a lot of gamers do not like the idea of a curation store on top of steam, they want VALVE to do it, because they do not trust their abilities to curate...very bizzare logic

@tryit: How am I stretching? That game that rips off Knuckles has been on the store for ages. :P

oh so now the standard has already changed from 'games that dont run' to 'game that resemble other games a great deal'

nope...not having it.

you need to go to the curation store and let me access steam directly and not concern yourself with what I am doing.

that is how the future needs to work, you really need to stay out of my business and stop me from playing copy cat games like I want to and just stick to you god damn curation store!!!!!!!!!!

@tryit: It is both I have a problem with. :P

Fan games are one thing but you're advocating a company to lie about their own practices. It's not a matter of resmblence. The game is using Knuckles from Sonic without Sega's permission.

Fan games is one thing but this is a dude selling a product using art that isn't his. Steam can do better to crack down on this stuff.

the real problem is (metaphorically speaking) you want to control what I play.

you need to look for games on the curation store, let me look for my POS copy cat games that I am happy with by searching Steam directly, let Valve take care of illegal games like they always do, stop judging what you THINK is an exact copy of a game and leave that judgement to the legal experts and stop meddinging in other peoples choices.

also...you never use Steam to look for games, you always knows what you are looking for before you open up steam, so stop with this nonsense

also,..you have stated that you support Valves change in policy but you do not have the confidence that they will honor it.

that clearly means you need to stop using Steam because they are not going to be good at what they claim to do anyway.

unless your real desire is to shut down steam completely.

AND! lets not get into how AAA FPS games are basically copy cat games...ok?

@tryit: But they aren't. That's the problem. :P

https://store.steampowered.com/app/788850/Uganda_know_de_way/ That? That's Knuckles from Sonic. It's not what I think. That is Knuckles. It comes from a meme literally called 'Ugandan Knuckles'.

again...

you need to buy games from the curation store and not worry about what other people are buying.

you dont use steam to look for games, likely never have in your life

you have never hit one of those games on your own, only lead there by some hate article you read

and AAA games copy themselves all the time.

just get off the SJW bandwagon and play the games you like and dont worry about the freaks like me...for ONCE! please get off

and its not an illegal copy of sonic and if it was I am sure some legal teams would have already called Valve and taken care of it.

@recloud:

On the first part: Yes, that's why people are happy. They aren't going to try to tell us what we can and can't play anymore. Also, define "exploitive" please.

This doesn't really do anything to the first issue. They didn't say they weren't going to deal with those. As for "potentially" illegal, that's a non issue because IF, and when, it is proved to "actually" be illegal, it'll be dealt with. (this is an argument that gets thrown around a lot with this type of topic and is more than somewhat of a red herring 98% of the times it is.) Morally grey is EXACTLY the kind of stuff they themselves don't want to, nor should they, play arbiter to. (nor should we want them to either.) And again on the last part, they never said that broken games and such would get a free pass because of this.. You yourself even said, this is about censorship of content.

@tryit: I haven't passed any comment or opinion regarding the morally grey games that appear on the Steam store. If you want to play those games, it's none of my business. This is about Steam's policy that I do not feel they are enforcing.

@James_xeno: For context, I was trying to explain why the simulation games Tryit is a fan of are not up for contention, that this topic has to do with Steam's policy regarding pornographic content, broken games and illegal content.

It's a long process and Valve to actively remove asset flipping games, games with illegal content etc. Right now we still have a game using Knuckles from Sonic without SEGA's permission. These things naturally take time but man... I can only imagine it's an uphill struggle, especially since Steam first allow a game on the store to be sold before they inspect the content.

then

do

not

use

it

no matter what they claim they plan to do, if you do not have the confidence that they will then that is a full stop answer to all your problems.

dont use steam

which you likely are not using anyway

how do you know that?

how is it that a clever gamer like you noticed this but friggin SEGA knows nothing about it or cant do anything about it?

trust me, if its an issue, they are on it.

and by the way, that game you linked is remotely close to anything related to Sonic.

did you link the wrong game?

I have no idea what you are saying about that game you linked that doesnt look remotely like Sonic

@tryit: Come on. You're trolling now. :P

That's Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog. Using a character that does not belong to you without permission is illegal. I guess neither of us truly know whether they are aware or not. Certainly, it's not common for companies to allow others to profit off their property.

no actually its not. not even REMOTELY. I think you are just trolling now

so this is exactly the reason why I do not support heavy curation. this is exactly why its a bad thing

@tryit: Copyright infringement is illegal, Tryit. :P

What age are you?

dude there is literally nothing at all in any of those videos that even remotely looks like anything from the Sonic IP

you think its a copy because they used the same name?

this is exactly why I dont want curation, shit logic like this

@tryit: Except that is blatantly Knuckles based off a meme called "Ugandan Knuckles." which is openly based off the Sonic character of the same name and appearance. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ugandan-knuckles

It's literally the same character. If that isn't Knuckles to you, I don't know what to say other than... I hope you're okay.

oh that is really really lame, you need a meme to be able to translate that the images in that game is actually knuckles?

how much sleep do you loose exactly fearful that someone is playing that game and SEGA is just suffering from it.

give me a break

you are illustrating exactly why I feel like curation would be a horrible thing for the industry

Ironically all this taalk about Steam I decided to jump in and see what is up in Early Access.

I just found a great VR title I think I am going to buy

https://store.steampowered.com/app/698260/Star_Shelter/

@tryit: Oh darling, you are something else entirely. :P

I'm just going to go ahead and step outside of the system warrior for a second because this posting is seriously unhealthy. Between screaming in your work setting and now what seems to be disassociation with reality.

One person to another, no systems, no games; you doin okay friend?

@Vaasman: I mean, he might be right.

And this obviously isn't a picture of Mario.

https://abduzeedo.com/sites/default/files/originals/cover_1_1.jpg

I mean it looks like Mario but it's clearly different and totally not Mario at all.

Far-Leftist Polygon is pro-cencorship .. what a shock.

yeah. your examples just strengthen my entire point.

You need take ambein or whatever and try not to loose sleep over me buying a game that has a possible sonic meme that doesnt remotely look like any sonic I have ever seen but because there is a meme behind it there might be a link.

I will call SEGA and let them know, just sleep it off and please keep your fingers out of my games please

boring,

whenever you want to talk substance i might enage

@tryit: Nice trolling but usually the goal is to irritate someone. Not look silly. ;)

I did and you couldn't give a proper rebuttal and instead tried your hardest to flat out ignore everything I was saying. But anyway, should we Good Will this?

It's not your fault.

the thing is (and think on this really closely)

you said that you do not have the confidence of Valve to do their job.

so what is the actionable here? shut down Steam because Valve cant handle it?

also..I am positve that if that game is something Sega or whoever owns them now needs to know about ,they do and are on top of it.

but its likely not, because a game based on meme reference to an IP would not be a violation of copyright

That's called a parody and is legal.

Hes doing that in the WW2 woman thread too.

I havn't seen it this bad previously, somehting is up... this Recloud and Geo level mental-gymnastics.

tryit ... what are you doing?

@jereb31: Well the first issue is that this game was developed using the artwork created by someone else. That he is selling it and the nature of the parody itself (fairly certain SEGA would have a good case), SEGA could probably pursue defamation in court.

FYI: The meme itself was actually welcomed by SEGA with open arms.

that is a HUGE stretch and even if they could, on ethical grounds I would not support such a move regardless of the law. we need the freedom to do that.

@tryit:It's not that much of a stretch. In fact if the parody is done for commercial use, then proceedings sway in SEGA's favor.

"Has the new work been created for commercial or noncommercial purposes? Although not every commercial use is presumptively an unfair use, and therefore conclusively determinative against fair use, this criterion emphasizes a preference that fair use will be granted to those works that are created for noncommercial or educational purposes rather than for commercial purposes."

https://corporate.findlaw.com/intellectual-property/parody-fair-use-or-copyright-infringement.html

If the game was free, then it would be fair use.

Nah, it's totally legal and not a stretch at all. Drawn Together did a lot of parodies protraying characters in a negative light. Same with South Park depicting Mickey Mouse as a flat out psychopath. Satire and parody are completely legal and this would fall right in the center of that realm for completely obvious reasons.

@jereb31: You know what? I think you're totally right here then.

Even in the case of commercial gain - it seems even in a comedic context it is totally fine so long as the brand isn't totally raked through the coals, it seems which I don't think the meme goes that far. I also doubt there is any way for this game to undercut or compete with the sales of SEGA's work.

It really baffles me that some people believe that hate speech is free speech, worse, that it's fine to be used on any sort of media whatsoever.

@recloud: It is free speech but of course hate speech should be met with consequences.

I remember there was huge legal struggle regarding the Westboro Baptist Church and their right to picket and protest during funerals. Regardless of whether it's recognized as free speech or not, it's still a crappy thing to do and globally everyone is going to notice that.

@jumpaction: it's free speech only in semantics, on a societal point of view, it isn't, since free speech is supposed to be respectful and allow people to have opinions and hateful speech are not opinions, they're prejudices and shouldn't be allowed. They should be completely suppressed.

I don't care about dating or porn games, but games with hateful speech? They can all go to hell for all I care.

Actually I was only saying there is a possible alternative to Steam that you may or may not find some games you like playing.

You know a little bit of advice to a fellow gamer. It's entirely up to you if you want to go have a look or not.

@recloud: What games have you seen with hateful speech?

its not an alternative if the ONLY reason I am using the service is because of its games.

unlike many games I am hyper focused on one thing, the games

@jumpaction: none, actually, I was referring to people before that said it was fine for games to have hateful speech.

Valves response was mature, admitting they don't like much of the content but believe in an open platform regardless.

Per usual, Polygon and other progressives put up a tabloid level hit pieces, as they always do when people don't do what they like.

the thing about that line is this, those thoughts and those views do not go away because they are hidden.

So where is the line? between speech, knowing what people think, and actually encouraging and promoting a view and who gets to determine which views can be encouraged and which ones cant.

So its a slipperly slope that needs to be address on each highly offensive level.

however, people are using this to justify censoring anything they deem as not good.

trying to monitor hate speech, and curating for quality games is not equivalent comparison.

people should learn to be more honest with themselves and others when it comes to what they want, instead of trying to find excuses so that they can make the square peg fit

I have to agree. It can be a waste of time looking through their store.

Yeah, this is great. I'd rather have all the games possible than restrict certain games. Obviously illegal stuff should be banned from Steam, but anything else goes, I say.