Valve ban advertising-based business models on Steam, no forced adverts like in mobile games
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common Valve W
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Haven't seen a game that uses ads like this, but very good that it's strictly prohibited now. That shit should never have taken off on mobile, but alas. At least we can prevent it on PC.
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Let me guess: Valve was not getting their cut from the ad money?
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They are not, but they could have made it so. Instead they chose the win for everyone.
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That's nice and all,
but when will they tackle loot boxes?That shit has pushed plenty of minors into gambling addictions, but they don't crack down on it, since they get a sweet cut of it all.
Valve in general isn't the worst company,
but they're far from innocent as well. -
Two things can be true at once:
- valve so far took tremendous care of the people using their product. They have outclassed afaik every other billion dollar company in the world in terms of listening to their customers and not exploiting them to hell (as others do).
- billionaire companies are cancer. If gabe ever gives up valve (through death or whatever), we are at the mercy of a monopolist that can extract as much as they want.
My conclusion: force companies to behave like valve does now, but forever. Let them make money without exploiting people. And in case if valve: break any monopoly.
Down with shareholder value.
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Related: https://timsh.org/tracking-myself-down-through-in-app-ads/
Unity games on mobile send your location to Unity servers every couple seconds through the Unity ad network.
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something like this would also harm their business in general, like letting someone take a shit on the bakery floor.
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I agree with the overall sentiment, however:
Lootboxes are at least a conscious action you must take. They definitely have the same problems as gambling (because that's what they are), but you can also choose not to engage with them. Ads however, are forced upon you, and do things that you cannot see (track you) and cannot turn off.
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They won't, because loot boxes are their main source of income.
And this is exactly why "good companies" like Valve cannot save us. Good companies will never be a substitute for good regulations.
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There’s a very good bill for achieving this result by a senator from my state, which requires companies to elect their board members through employees.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2018/08/15/warren-co-determination-capitalism-act
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Garbage like that has no place anywhere.
If app developers can't get money from paid apps, then it makes sense to run ads. Especially if they do offer a paid (ad-free) version.
But if it's a paid app already, like in Steam, it should definitely be ad-free.
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I just deny most mobile games the network permission, though obviously this doesn't work if you actually need any internet access (and I don't think all devices give you control over that permission)
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That would be a great solution. Another would be to put quotas of employees, customers, owners and the community (people living around a plant for example) in there. Just an idea though.
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I just don't play games that have ads (most of the games on my phone are from F-Droid).
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I get the hate for lootboxes, but as a casual who hasn't played PC games in forever...what makes the lootbox mechanic any worse than CCGs?
Couldn't it be said that MtG and other CCGs have been guilty of the exact same thing since their inception?
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I read that games with ads were already banned from Steam a long time ago. That explains why we don't have more junk in the Steam store. Judging by how many never completed early access asset flip games there are, it would be a complete cesspool with ad-supported games. Good decision by Valve.
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She's my senator as well, and I love what she's doing - but THAT bill is ~7 years old and dead in the water given the current administration.
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There two big differences to me are scale and value. A ccg has rare cards, but they aren't actually that rare compared to loot boxes. Loot boxes tend to have both lower drop rates and pollute their drops with lots of garbage, even for rare drops. Secondly, physical cards have value, you can sell or trade them, you can buy singles of cards you want. You can use them for things other than the game as well.
