Visa and Mastercard are getting overwhelmed by gamer fury over censorship
Visa and Mastercard are getting overwhelmed by gamer fury over censorship
www.polygon.com
Visa and Mastercard are getting overwhelmed by gamer fury over censorship
You're viewing a single thread.
14 comments
-
Don't complain. Just drop Visa/Mastercard.
It seems like Discover has has the fewest issues with "overseas censorship" so far. In particular, the Japanese network "JCB" has an alliance with "Discover".
I'm still researching my options (Discover vs AmEx vs .... anything else??!??) and its looking like Discover is the best one for me. But I'm all ears for discussion.
EDIT: It looks like "Discover" is also in the Diners Club International network, meaning "Discover" opens up China, Europe and many other countries as well. Hmmm.... Discover really is looking like the winner right now. But please discuss.
-
It doesn't matter what card you drop if the storefronts are delisting the games due to what the payment processors are doing
-
There are other, Japanese or Chinese only, storefronts that accept JCB or Union pay.
Just because you're too lazy to find them doesn't mean they don't exist. What I'm saying is it's totally possibly to buy some of these games direct from China or Japan storefronts using Discover cards with their alliance with UnionPay and JCB.
You're acting like it's impossible to buy a game from a not-Steam location. Well how about finding the same sexy game from Good ol Games and paying for that with a Discover card??
-
Just because you’re too lazy to find them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
That seems unnecessarily rude. What's the point in communicating like that ? People who are making a good point don't usually start randomly insulting people.
-
That requires more than just dropping a card. Especially when dealing with game libraries, platform availability is a pretty big deal for some people. And the net effect of just ignoring this situation and buying elsewhere, is that legitimate speech, and all games devs involved, are being extremely impacted. There's no way devs will be getting the same sales elsewhere as they are on Steam, so if this persists there will be financial pressure against devs of 'objectionable' games. And then we're back to the same situation where a fringe Australian group has decided what morals to hold to for the entire world.
-
Has Discover ever been powerful enough to bully JCB or UnionPay into bullying Japanese or Chinese game developers?
I don't think so. I don't think it's even possible if I'm reading about this alliance system.
Mastercard/Visa doesn't give a fuck about your emails. Just hit them in the pocket book and switch off of them. Visa/Mastercard needs more transactions and to grow like any other company in USA. Deprive them of revenue and they'll notice.
The only way this outrage actually works in the long-term is if Visa/Mastercard loses money over this. So we need to think of how to make that actually happen.
-
The cost of your approach, is guaranteed financial failure for said devs, regardless of the outcome. To succeed, it would require enough users to change their purchase habits that finance companies would even notice. We all know the chances of that happening are miniscule. You'd be giving the crazies exactly what they want.
Mastercard/Visa doesn't give a fuck about your emails. Just hit them in the pocket book
Have you not been paying attention to the campaign? That's exactly what they're doing, they're tying up the customer support systems in a way that will be noticed and can't be ignored. It's having an instant effect on their bottom line since they'll have to be scheduling more shifts right now to deal with the increased workload. Nobody's suggesting emails.
-
Have you not been paying attention to the campaign? That’s exactly what they’re doing, they’re tying up the customer support systems in a way that will be noticed and can’t be ignored. It’s having an instant effect on their bottom line since they’ll have to be scheduling more shifts right now to deal with the increased workload. Nobody’s suggesting emails.
That's not how any of this shit works.
Visa/Mastercard aren't even known for good service (that's AmEx who cares about that). More realistically, Visa/Mastercard customer service declines during this protest period and 3 months from now everyone forgets about today's campaign.
And Visa/Mastercard can then feel big and powerful as we didn't actually do anything to stop them.
Switching to a different card actually deprives them of their fucking revenue. The thing Visa/Mastercard actually cares about.
Which is why I'm pushing either Discover or AmEx as the serious protest options. It seems Discover is better for this particular protest as we can still pay for stuff internationally for the international creators. (AmEx is not as good at that but is still a valid protest option if you prefer their customer service and/or travel lounges).
-
More realistically, Visa/Mastercard customer service declines during this protest period and 3 months from now everyone forgets about today's campaign.
Keep in mind that this started because of a small telecall campaign by said Australian fringe group. There's no reason the finance guys would have upset the status quo on their own. If a few hundred people could annoy them enough to do this, what makes you think thousands of people wouldn't impact them?
Switching to a different card
As I noted, that guarantees financial death for the impacted game devs. Steam and Itch aren't just a point of sale, they're a discovery service. Wouldn't be surprised to hear 80-90% of sales for these devs come from a couple main platforms.
-
Keep in mind that this started because of a small telecall campaign by said Australian fringe group.
What? No.
Visa/Mastercard have been doing this shit for literally years. Then some small Australian fringe group knew they had allies in Visa/Mastercard to ban some porn so they emailed Visa/Mastercard.
As I noted, that guarantees financial death for the impacted game devs.
The warnings were literally years ago. Pretending that Visa/Mastercard are allies or even neutral on this issue is naive.
Visa/Mastercard have been pushing Sony and other video games to be less sexy for several years now.
I don't expect Visa/Mastercard to cave on anything here. They've already made themselves a reputation on the more prudish side of things.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
UnionPay (Chinese operator) has 3rd best coverage AFAIK. If you don't need an international card, you can always go with a regional one (India's RuPay, Turkey's TROY, etc)
I'm waiting for WERO to get there, EU has been the least bad option recently.
-
https://www.discoverglobalnetwork.com/our-network/global-cardholders/
Discover claims some kind of alliance with UnionPay, RuPay, and Troy.
I'm still trying to figure out the whole situation. It seems like "Discover" is more of an alliance system, rather than a "one person controls the whole network" deal (like Visa or Mastercard). It means that they cannot give as strong guarantees, but members of the alliance seem to be largely compatible.
-
-
14 comments