Valve to begin moderating game forums on Steam next week

What do you think to Valve increasing their presence in the forums for each game?

They only delete posts that violate rules. So you won't see a Valve moderator in the forums. It is simply a service for publishers and developers. They pay at least 30% of their revenues to Valve.


Last edited by 0aTT on 21 September 2018 at 9:42 am UTC

That's great.

I already love the first "full nudity" game released on Steam.
But I also love them helping control the culture of other games. They actually now imply moderating is mandatory, which I think it should be. But handing that over to a 3rd ("independent") party is the best way, unless you already have a big moderation team.
And of course: you cannot make the same comments in a full nudity game forum as in a my little pony forum.
.

That's great.

I already love the first "full nudity" game released on Steam.

The game was, of course, immediately banned in Germany and many other countries. In the past, you could buy it and then simply apply the nude patch. What Valve (and the publisher) did there is just totally idiotic. Even moderate people are really pissed off. At least that's how the German community sees it. And more countries will follow. England is at the top of the list, because they also have very problematic laws there.

Valve must finally introduce age verification. Every cheap porn site has that, but for Valve it's obviously a thing of impossibility. Censoring cartoons/hentai is really poor.


Last edited by 0aTT on 21 September 2018 at 10:04 am UTC

What do you think to Valve increasing their presence in the forums for each game?

They only delete posts that violate rules. So you won't see a Valve moderator in the forums. It is simply a service for publishers and developers. They pay at least 30% of their revenues to Valve.

I am aware of that, having a presence doesn't literally mean they will be posting all over forums.

Off topic - re: nudity...

I don't know which game(s) anyone is referring to and I probably wouldn't be interested anyway but I have to chuckle at the outrage to nudity when no one bats an eyelid at the gore, mutilation and violence in so many games (which I like playing btw!).

Off topic - re: nudity...

I don't know which game(s) anyone is referring to and I probably wouldn't be interested anyway but I have to chuckle at the outrage to nudity when no one bats an eyelid at the gore, mutilation and violence in so many games (which I like playing btw!).

Censorship is always arbitrary. You don't know what will happen next.

In Germany we thought for a long time that only violent games like Dying Light or Left4Dead would be affected. But in the meantime the censorship is spreading to other areas as well. And the reason is always protection of minors, even if they are not interested at all, but compulsively stick to Minecraft.

And what's so bad about a 14-year-old jerking off at a Hentai game? I'm too old for this garbage, but I want to live in a free country that doesn't get lost in bigotry.

In Germany we thought for a long time that only violent games like Dying Light or Left4Dead would be affected. But in the meantime the censorship is spreading to other areas as well. And the reason is always protection of minors, even if they are not interested at all, but compulsively stick to Minecraft.

I'm in the same boat as you - live in germany.
Im 42 years old and cannot buy Dying Light because of censorship - what a BS!

Soon Kalypso will release remakes of Commands 1+2+3 pretty sure.
But even the original versions for windows you cannot buy over Steam SHOP in Germany - heh? I still have Commandos 2 in my shelf I bought as a teen - what the hell is going on? Because of swastika???

Valve is actually paying people to moderate things? Well, there's a first for everything, I guess.

Here's hoping they do it right, but I won't be holding my breath.

The game was, of course, immediately banned in Germany

Nope, the game isn't banned in Germany. In fact, Germany (and many places in Europe) is way laxer than the US in terms of nudity and sexuality. The US is kind of...prude.

These games are perfectly fine and not-banned in Germany. They are, however, age-restricted. And there's the rub: it's just that the Steam age gate is, well, useless and not up to the German standards. Regulations in Germany require Valve to verify the age of buyers. Just saying "Yes, I'm 18" is not enough.

One way to do this for digital goods (for physical goods, our postal service offers age verification) would be, I guess, Postident, which is used for opening bank accounts, getting a mobile phone SIM, and things like that.

Nope, the game isn't banned in Germany.

A typically German translation error. When I write banned, I just mean locked not forbidden.

I am also allowed to own games confiscated by the courts in Germany. But I can't buy them, at least not on steam.

There are no games in Germany that are really forbidden. In practice, however, it is very difficult to come into the possession of a game. The Steam key of Wolfenstein2 (uncut) for example cannot be activated in Germany. Even a game like Portal2 is censored in Germany. Fortunately only mild.


Last edited by 0aTT on 21 September 2018 at 11:55 am UTC

The Steam key of Wolfenstein2 (uncut) for example cannot be activated in Germany.

That is on Bethesda and their ridiculous overkill self-censorship. Games are now recognized as art and of course they could try bring out the game uncensored... But let's be honest, in the end they are mostly just lazy and don't care. They rather make this ridiculous BS version and don't let people use a uncut version for no fucking reason. And that is why I don't buy their Wolfenstein shit at all.

To your other point. I'm pretty sure that this "uncensored adult" game has more than just nudity in it, right? And than the talk about Pornography. Sucks but because Steam will never implement a real age verification system (since countries like the USA and GB have no id card system and their user would run amok if you enforce this on them) such games are risky. If I buy pornography, I have to verify my age somehow. This isn't censorship (like some people screaming) this actually pretty common sense around the world. You also can't buy beer or cigarettes as teenager in the supermarket.. well legally I mean.

Even a game like Portal2 is censored in Germany. Fortunately only mild.

Whoa, what? It's been a while since I played it, but isn't the game free of both nudity and violence? Does German law have something against paint?

Valve is actually paying people to moderate things? Well, there's a first for everything, I guess.

Here's hoping they do it right, but I won't be holding my breath.

The game was, of course, immediately banned in Germany

Nope, the game isn't banned in Germany. In fact, Germany (and many places in Europe) is way laxer than the US in terms of nudity and sexuality. The US is kind of...prude.

These games are perfectly fine and not-banned in Germany. They are, however, age-restricted. And there's the rub: it's just that the Steam age gate is, well, useless and not up to the German standards. Regulations in Germany require Valve to verify the age of buyers. Just saying "Yes, I'm 18" is not enough.

One way to do this for digital goods (for physical goods, our postal service offers age verification) would be, I guess, Postident, which is used for opening bank accounts, getting a mobile phone SIM, and things like that.

Although surely the US has much "better" legal protections for games than Germany. Plenty of games in Germany are either banned or somehow legally restricted and AFAIK games are not covered by the freedom of expression in Germany since they are not considered "art". Not so much in the US.

No, Portal 2 is not censored in Germany. At all.

The first Portal game was lightly censored for a while, with blood generated when turrets hit you painted gray instead of red, but even that has been removed years ago.

Stop telling lies.


Last edited by DrMcCoy on 21 September 2018 at 1:02 pm UTC

No, Portal 2 is not censored in Germany. At all.

The first Portal game was lightly censored for a while, with blood generated when turrets hit you painted gray instead of red, but even that has been removed years ago.

Stop telling lies.

I think he meant Postal 2... :)

Ah, yes, that would make more sense. Postal 2 is completely unavailable on Steam in Germany, yeah

I think only game owners should be allowed to post on each game forum...
General discussion forums, that is another thing...

I think only game owners should be allowed to post on each game forum...
General discussion forums, that is another thing...

That feature does exist but the devs have to turn it on.

Tripwire turned it on for Killing Floor 2. It's pretty infuriating. You can't ask for status reports (e.g. on Linux builds) and you can't ask specific questions about a game before you buy. I mean, fair enough, their forum their rules, but I tend swerve away from any dev/game who actually does it.

Valve is actually paying people to moderate things? Well, there's a first for everything, I guess.

Here's hoping they do it right, but I won't be holding my breath.

The game was, of course, immediately banned in Germany

Nope, the game isn't banned in Germany. In fact, Germany (and many places in Europe) is way laxer than the US in terms of nudity and sexuality. The US is kind of...prude.

These games are perfectly fine and not-banned in Germany. They are, however, age-restricted. And there's the rub: it's just that the Steam age gate is, well, useless and not up to the German standards. Regulations in Germany require Valve to verify the age of buyers. Just saying "Yes, I'm 18" is not enough.

One way to do this for digital goods (for physical goods, our postal service offers age verification) would be, I guess, Postident, which is used for opening bank accounts, getting a mobile phone SIM, and things like that.

Yeah Germany is quite strict with their age limits. If a game or film is FSK18 then you have to prove without doubt that you are indeed 18 or over. Have had to mail in a picture of my drivers license on several occasions when ordering DVD:s from Germany and Holland back in the day when I was trying to get hold of some unrated films that where only released cut in my country due to how hostile our censor system was back in the 80:s.

The problem now is that even though we no longer have any censorship of films or games here in Sweden we are such a small market that distributors tend to group us together with the Germans and they sometimes want to get a FSK12 or 16 in order to wider the audience and thus releasing the same cut version also here.

Fun fact is that film censorship started in Germany 1906 due to police reacting to police officers being ridiculed in movies at the time. Here in Sweden it started in 1911 when a police officer (the police again) reacted with disgust on a movie where the kitchen aid was disrespectful to a landlord and woe if this kind of behaviour would get a foothold in the society as a whole... Thankfully the state censor-board got a CEO that had a secret plan to disband the whole thing, which she finally managed to do in 2011 but the last movie that was cut in any way was Casino back in 2009 (so much for the myth that Sweden is run by SJW:s).

Be nice if they moderated Early access games that get abandoned.
Only really see this as a way for devs to remove posts that tell people to stay away from their games for very legitimate reasons.

Sure there is some toxic stuff out there, but it's usually triggered by some BS problems in the games to begin with.

But... but... but... my toxicity :(
It is often so amusing to browse Steam forums and see the frothing masses at work.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 22 September 2018 at 6:47 am UTC