Okay? I don’t care how much money he has, I only care what kind of person he is and what he does with he resources he has.
He’s the ceo of a company that promotes gambling to kids through a proprietary app and he uses their resources to stroll around in a fleet of mega yachts.
If that’s your idea of a fair reasonable human you are a villain yourself.
I assume you’re talking about Counterstrike skins, but CS:GO and CS:2 are both rated M in the US, and 18+ in the EU. Team Fortress 2 is M in the US, and 15-18 in the EU AFAICT. That in no way is “marketing to children,” and parents can absolutely limit their kids’ access to things like the Steam marketplace even if they allow their kids to play those games.
I hate microtransactions of all kinds, but Valve is by far nowhere near the worst offender here. Fortnite is rated T and had a PEGI 12, along with a bunch of merch at stores like Target (Fortnite branded nerf guns and whatnot). I could point to a ton of other games actually marketed to kids with MTX. The main difference is Valve allows Counterstrike skins to be traded, which IMO is better than just having to be stuck with a skin you don’t like and being able to buy the ones directly that you do want (least unethical version of loot boxes IMO).
That said, I refuse to let my kids play any game with MTX, and I think other parents should as well. But if this is your biggest criticism of Valve, then I guess your argument is pretty weak.
There are multiple comments in the thread that point out the gambling problem including the top comment.
I hate microtransactions of all kinds
With you putting so much effort in defending a company that makes billions off microtransactions and promotes gambling to kids it sounds like you love them.
but Valve is by far nowhere near the worst offender here.
Your comparison should be lemmy and open source platforms not other companies like valve.
CS:2 are both rated M in the US, and 18+ in the EU
Do you really want me to believe there aren’t kids below 18 playing CS in europe? Steam collects your data https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/steam they are fully aware of the actual age of their users and ignore it in the name of profits to allow it’s ceo buy mega yachts.
With you putting so much effort in defending a company that makes billions off microtransactions and promotes gambling to kids it sounds like you love them.
That’s a non sequitur. Correcting misinformation does not imply agreement with all policies of the company I’m correcting misinformation about.
Your comparison should be lemmy and open source platforms not other companies like valve.
Why? That’s not a fair comparison, because they’re in completely different markets.
Do you really want me to believe there aren’t kids below 18 playing CS in europe
No, I want you to understand that the rating is part of marketing. A rating of ESRB M or PEGI 18 means the intended audience is adults. If parents let their kids play those games, they are responsible, not the publisher or developer of the game.
they are fully aware of the actual age of their users
Not true. I’ve never told Steam my real age, they just know I have access to a credit card and claim to be somewhere between 18 and 100, and probably born on Jan 1. I lie because its none of their business how old I am, I’m old enough to view whatever they have on their website. My account is <18yo, so that won’t help as well.
I fully appreciate that kids can do this as well. But parents should be aware of what their kids are playing, that’s just basic parenting. And the marketing should give them enough pause to look into it a bit more.
I don’t blame Valve here, the marketing is accurate for their target audience: adults. I still don’t like loot boxes, but adults should 100% be allowed to make stupid decisions. I blame other companies that actually market their MTX-ridden crap to kids, like EGS with Fortnite, which makes me utterly sick so I’ve completely banned Fortnite in my house.
He’s the ceo of a company that promotes gambling to kids through a proprietary app and he uses their resources to stroll around in a fleet of mega yachts.
If that’s your idea of a fair reasonable human you are a villain yourself.
Yeah, no.
I assume you’re talking about Counterstrike skins, but CS:GO and CS:2 are both rated M in the US, and 18+ in the EU. Team Fortress 2 is M in the US, and 15-18 in the EU AFAICT. That in no way is “marketing to children,” and parents can absolutely limit their kids’ access to things like the Steam marketplace even if they allow their kids to play those games.
I hate microtransactions of all kinds, but Valve is by far nowhere near the worst offender here. Fortnite is rated T and had a PEGI 12, along with a bunch of merch at stores like Target (Fortnite branded nerf guns and whatnot). I could point to a ton of other games actually marketed to kids with MTX. The main difference is Valve allows Counterstrike skins to be traded, which IMO is better than just having to be stuck with a skin you don’t like and being able to buy the ones directly that you do want (least unethical version of loot boxes IMO).
That said, I refuse to let my kids play any game with MTX, and I think other parents should as well. But if this is your biggest criticism of Valve, then I guess your argument is pretty weak.
There are multiple comments in the thread that point out the gambling problem including the top comment.
With you putting so much effort in defending a company that makes billions off microtransactions and promotes gambling to kids it sounds like you love them.
Your comparison should be lemmy and open source platforms not other companies like valve.
Do you really want me to believe there aren’t kids below 18 playing CS in europe? Steam collects your data https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/steam they are fully aware of the actual age of their users and ignore it in the name of profits to allow it’s ceo buy mega yachts.
That’s a non sequitur. Correcting misinformation does not imply agreement with all policies of the company I’m correcting misinformation about.
Why? That’s not a fair comparison, because they’re in completely different markets.
No, I want you to understand that the rating is part of marketing. A rating of ESRB M or PEGI 18 means the intended audience is adults. If parents let their kids play those games, they are responsible, not the publisher or developer of the game.
Not true. I’ve never told Steam my real age, they just know I have access to a credit card and claim to be somewhere between 18 and 100, and probably born on Jan 1. I lie because its none of their business how old I am, I’m old enough to view whatever they have on their website. My account is <18yo, so that won’t help as well.
I fully appreciate that kids can do this as well. But parents should be aware of what their kids are playing, that’s just basic parenting. And the marketing should give them enough pause to look into it a bit more.
I don’t blame Valve here, the marketing is accurate for their target audience: adults. I still don’t like loot boxes, but adults should 100% be allowed to make stupid decisions. I blame other companies that actually market their MTX-ridden crap to kids, like EGS with Fortnite, which makes me utterly sick so I’ve completely banned Fortnite in my house.