Re: Just Another Necessary Reminder That Valve Promotes Underage Gambling

On 31/12/2024 14:11, Xocyll wrote:

Did you see the part where the guy bought a Steam Deck without ever
leaving Steam? It may be a loophole that games are not physical purchased
goods (technically you are purchasing a license), but that Deck may be a
real problem for Valve if they continue to let it be bought in that way.
It's real. It can be sold for real money. No need to regulate anyone. A
12 yo can sell a Deck.
>
That kid just cashed out. Virtual currency for real product, giving the
virutal currency value, which means you're spinning an RNG for some kind
of random compensation. Since letting people cash out is what apparently
defines gambling, I think Gabe may have f-ed up with his shell game.

I just watched the video, and my god this guy is full of shit.
 He doesn't believe Valve can't shut down offshore gambling sites that
are not subject to US Laws.
 The US gov't can't shut down offshore revenge porn sites, etc, because
they have no legal jurisdiction, but Valve magically can, according to
this guy, what utter horse shit.
 They're a fucking gaming company, they can send a cease and desist
order,but that's going to mean jack and shit to some Chechen hosted
website.   All kinds of grey countries willing to sell service to
dirtbags.

I haven't watched the video but the idea that Valve can just shutdown websites because it feels like it is as you say totally wrong. Even governments have problems doing that unless you go down the route of Russia, China or even N Korea. Solutions really need to proportionate to the problem they are trying to solve. It reminds of people on the World of Tanks forums who'd say that Wargaming should shut-down websites offering boosting services without been able to emplain on what legal grounds they could do that.
Now that's not to say that Valve can't do anything at all. So for example get rid of paid lootboxes (I think even if skin betting etc. wasn't a thing they should still do this) and just make it so all the items can be individual bought within the Steam eco-system and just to make sure, you can't sell them in the Steam Marketplace.