Online Safety Act

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.

 

So you can't name one?

 

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.

 

Which ones?

 

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