I know this will inevitably come to Australia so it looks like I'll be limited to kids games as I have no credit card. The joke is if I was underage I'd have had to set up my Steam account when I was a toddler. But I doubt that will count for anything.
There are tons of games that are only available on steam. Hundreds of thousands of them. The issue, as it’s always been, is that the UK isn’t a big enough market for these companies to care. They have no incentive to spend the time implementing anything more complicated and/or in the case of Valve here they’ve said they’re unwilling to use methods that violate the privacy of their users either by taking selfies etc. themselves or by trusting a third party to do it. We’re trying to police something that we have no jurisdiction over and companies will inevitably just go “ok then” and we’ll be cut off or as in this case, the poorest people in society who don’t have the income to be accepted for a credit card will be cut off.
Careful now you’ll be called a predator by the government for suggesting that this law isn’t perfect.
Ok what major games with age restrictions specifically are only on Steam? What game would you lose out on today?
Are these certain games over 18 games? If so, the law already exists that games should only be sold to over 18s. Policing that is what should have happened right from the start. Rather than being appalled that it is happening now, it should have been stricter all along. Are you advocating that shops should sell the games to under 18s because it’s just ‘a virtual boob’? Or do you think they should continue to ID people? If so, then you agree with the law but Steam’s implementation of it is what you disagree with.
Why does it have to be major games? There are many indie games that i’ve played in the past that are only on steam and could very well be classed as adult content for various reasons such as swearing, blood etc. The fact is there are gonna be kids and adults that are going to be unable to play games with their friends because of this law because they or their parents don’t have a credit card, but there will be tons of kids who will be able to borrow their parents credit card and play anyway. Yet another flaw in this pathetic law that will do less than nothing to protect kids.
Are you trying to suggest that they don’t exist? There are millions of games on steam. Hundreds of thousands that are only available on steam. Lots of these will be classed as “adult”.
I think the pearl clutching over video games is pathetic. I disagree with all of it, but especially the implementation from Steam. I don’t blame them for that though, I agree with their reasons when it comes to not being willing to violate the privacy of their users like so many other websites have and continue to do while being cheered on or excused by people that know nothing about technology. Yet again, it is the job of parents to ensure that kids aren’t doing anything they shouldn’t be. The fact that so many are incapable of doing so doesn’t mean it’s the job of the state to attempt to censor the entire country.
Just off the top of my head i can think of Cyberpunk 2077, Baldurs Gate 3, Witcher 3, Expedition 33 which are all classed as adult. Now before you come back and say they’re also available on some obscure store, those stores most of the time just provide steam keys anyway. And in the case of multiplayer games they often don’t allow games to be played together by people across different stores.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/baldurs_gate_iii https://www.gog.com/en/game/cyberpunk_2077_ultimate_edition https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt_game_of_the_year_edition https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/expedition-33-b3240d As far as I'm aware only online multiplayer there is BG3 which has cross platform multiplayer... and all are full game purchase not Steam keys. Gog is actually far better and you actually fully own the game and can play offline. Steam exclusive is pretty much a thing of the past. There are probably a few that start out early access on steam only but I can't actually find one right now.
Again though, there are hundreds of thousands of indie games that are only on steam. That’s what i’m more bothered about than the triple A titles.
The total Steam Catalogue is barely 100k. Again I can't find any confirmation of Steam exclusive Indie games or how many of those are age restricted
It’s the job of the retailer to not sell adult content to underaged people. Do you think shops should be able to sell aged 18 games to kids and it should be up to the parents to follow them around all day and intercept them from going in the shop to buy one? I do think parents should be monitoring what their kids are doing online but it’s always been the case that the retailer gets in trouble if they sell products to underaged people. The only new thing is that they’re finally enforcing it, it’s always been the law and if they haven’t been doing checks then it’s a loophole that needed closing. Whether you agree with how they are going about or not doesn’t change the fact that they always should have been.
There’s never been anything stopping parents buying 18 rated games or movies for their kids. It’s always happened and personally i don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. The age rating should be a guide for parental guidance. Online the only way it can possibly work is with an expectation of parental oversight. That’s the only way anything on the internet is able to run. I’ll say it for the millionth time, the UK does not have jurisdiction over the internet and attempts to try and control websites is just never going to work. The only solution is giving parents the tools and education to block at a device level or monitor what their kids are doing. There’s literally no other alternative to this but you would seemingly prefer to try and achieve the impossible and make the situation significantly worse in the process by sending kids to unregulated websites. What i’ll never accept, but you’re all too willing to turn a blind eye to under the guise of “child safety” is allowing and even forcing companies to censor content specifically for poor people.
Ok i got my numbers wrong i honestly thought there were more games on steam than that. But I guarantee there are many games on steam that aren’t on any other platforms. I’ll get you some indie games that are if you really want, but i really don’t see the point in trawling through steam pages trying to look for them. Logically there’s no question they exist. Many indie games made in things like Unity and Unreal use steam servers for online play so they will only work through steam.
And if they contain adult content then they should require age verification to be sold (and always should have). This is a store we're talking about not free content on the web. The fact that Steam chose to only use Credit Cards is on them. I've used them for 20 years and they have never been a user friendly company. I get that you don't like this act but I strongly advise you stop using online articles to further your opinion without looking at them objectively. You are slipping into the gamergate alt right pipeline with stuff like this.
No, he isn't. He's having a disagreement with you, that's all. That doesn't make him any form of right wing. Its a stupid law. All it means is political speech of a certain side will shrink, genocide hidden and kids will go on page 2 of Google and click dodgy sites for porn. Thats it.
The article he quoted is very much alt right in nature. He isn't but basing his opinions on stuff like that is literally falling into the pipeline. This is exactly the kind of situation they target. Steam is a store that sells adult content and has gotten away with not verifying user ages for decades. This isn't something problematic. It's common sense and easy enough for a multi billion dollar company to enact. I appreciate some of his other points about the free web but this isn't that. The reason there are so many alt right articles on this subject right now is they want all the focus the blame on laws set by the left wing UK government and to ignore the very similar laws rolled out by right wing US states that were both conceived and brought into law before ours. He's perfectly capable of forming his own opinion without the help of politically motivated articles.