Valve Is Making All Their Games Free To Debian Developers

[Vim_User]

In Germany, we don't ban games. Very, VERY few games get "indexed" and are not allowed to be advertised then, but they are not directly banned. Also, I can't remember when that happened for the last time. 10 years ago maybe?

It doesn't happen very often because developers and publishers know about that and publish censored versions in Germany, so that exactly this does not happen. For that reason usually people that care about getting the original games import them from Austria.

But unlike other (non-European) countries, sexual content is not really a problem here, usually it is excessive violence or violence against civilists or children that get games on the index.

[V10lator]

It doesn't happen very often because developers and publishers know about that and publish censored versions in Germany, so that exactly this does not happen. For that reason usually people that care about getting the original games import them from Austria.

But unlike other (non-European) countries, sexual content is not really a problem here, usually it is excessive violence or violence against civilists or children that get games on the index.

That's only half of the truth. Yes, publishers are censoring here in germany, but they don't need to. They just fear the past but things changed.

[Cann]

Ah, yes, forbidden fruit.

Interesting way to gather developers, considering how they are in the polar opposite corner regarding DRM. I'm interested to see how many accept these "gifts" and how many stand by their code regarding DRM.

[Luke]

Ratings not only way to deal with truly offensive content

Hell, why do I even bother hanging around Phoronix?

What a load of dung. Isn't most of the Internet already enough for your pornsickness? Thank Dog Steam is not like other stores full of crappy, woman-hating sexploitation shit disguised as "games" and that Valve wants to keep it that way.

There are other ways besides government to deal with truly offensive content. Porn does not offend most people-or it would not be a limitation on removing Flash from browsers, and would not be a reliable way to sell something. Truly offensive content can be pornographic, but neither is a condition of the other. I will cite the game "Custer's Revenge" from the 1980's, considered by many the worst videgame ever written. In it a white man crosses a field under archery fire to rape a Native American woman. In other words, the content was racist and pro-rape, the complaints were not simply because the game had sexual content. I don't know what people did about Custer's Revenge at the time, but the developers surely had names and addresses, as did any stores selling the game. Promoting rape and racism, by any means over any media, can draw protesters to one's home. Sex and violence in media by themselves rarely do, thus we see what the TRUE community standards are.

Yes, a racist can distribute his trash as a FOSS game, just as he can put fliers on people's cars. The problem with having a government (defined as a "monopoly of violence) control this is that this sort of thing becomes the thin end of the wedge, and the government's political opponents are usually next in line. That's why distributing KKK fliers in the US is legal, but for KKK racists to march means being hammered in the streets by ten to 1000 times their numbers in furious anti-racist protesters. The First Amendment binds the government but does not restrict the protesters or any other agency not an arm of government, Steam included. The FBI is a lot more dangerous than anti-racist activists DDOS'ing a racist server, due to their use of guns and prisons,

If Steam refuses to carry content you want to distribute, you are free to distribute it yourself or by means other than Steam. Steam is not a government, being neither violent nor a monopoly. They can do what they want with their own servers, and so can you.

[profoundWHALE]

Hell, why do I even bother hanging around Phoronix?

What a load of dung. Isn't most of the Internet already enough for your pornsickness? Thank Dog Steam is not like other stores full of crappy, woman-hating sexploitation shit disguised as "games" and that Valve wants to keep it that way.

I agree that he's just spewing crap and has issues, but generally I just ignore it rather than respond.

[philip550c]

It doesn't happen very often because developers and publishers know about that and publish censored versions in Germany, so that exactly this does not happen. For that reason usually people that care about getting the original games import them from Austria.

But unlike other (non-European) countries, sexual content is not really a problem here, usually it is excessive violence or violence against civilists or children that get games on the index.

Many years ago I went to an internet cafe/LAN gaming shop in Hamburg and we played half-life. I remember that when you killed a character they didnt actually die, they sat down and said they werent going any further and there was no blood. I also remember playing GTA3 and there was no killing or blood and Turok had green blood if I remember correctly. It did take a lot of the fun out of the games but still in the end I would rather live somewhere that prefers nudity to violence. Also had to sneak a copy of Wolfenstein 3d from the States for my cousins in Germany.

[Kano]

@d2kx

It is not fully correct, some games can not even bought in a low violence version in Germany via Steam - is it then banned or not - try this url:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/237110/

Team Fortress 2 is low violence version in Germany, also L4D2, but for this game you can find a hack to play it with full gore - even for Linux. Btw. Australian gamers get low violence L4D2 as well. TF2 is too boring for me and somehow more realistic games like Battle Field 3/4 are completely uncensored. Other games which contain forbidden symbols are censored as well, to work around that the Doom 3 BFG edition had those symbols replaced for Doom 1+2 which was playable from that game as well. The game was the same world wide after that change, a few changes were made to Resurrection of Evil as well, this was never sold in Germany before (also part of D3 BFG). Something that is kind of funny is that now you can buy MK 1-3 in a bundle via Steam completely uncut but MK 1 and 2 was forbidden - well even the magazines with a MK 2 tests got censored (with black pages). MK 2 was sold a few months for SNES before the PC release, but this was the time to forbid it. Well you are too young to know that

[Detructor]

Hell, why do I even bother hanging around Phoronix?

What a load of dung. Isn't most of the Internet already enough for your pornsickness? Thank Dog Steam is not like other stores full of crappy, woman-hating sexploitation shit disguised as "games" and that Valve wants to keep it that way.

Heaven, why do I even bother hanging around Phoronix?

What a load of shit. Isn't most of the Internet already enough for your violencesickness? Thank $powerfulEntityThatMayOrMayNotExist Steam is not like other stores full of crappy, human-hating violenceploitation shit disguised as "games"/"movies"/"news" and that Valve wants to keep it that way.

Or more detailed:
fuck off you stupid troll. You are an idiot if you think that porn has anything to do with woman hating. Those woman are adults and making their own decision, and their contribution to human society (not limited to males) is much greater than yours. Also there are man porn actors, too. Are they exploited, too? Yes? Why? No? Why are woman exploited then? Double standards ftw! Not to mention the entirety of the 'everything in between and around male and female' group.

tl;dr
porn > violence.