6 ms·

Steam is going to become the worlds most profitable, largest distributor of hardcore pornography overnight. I'm really not sure how to feel about this. On one h

Steam is going to become the worlds most profitable, largest distributor of hardcore pornography overnight. I'm really not sure how to feel about this. On one hand free speech is obvious. But allowing porn fundamentally changes the nature of your online service. Not being prude, it just tends to discourage a certain type of person, and encourage another.

ben174 8y ago
Clearly it's their mistake to make. I'd hate it if legislators stepped in and told them they can't do it simply because their store didn't sell it before. I have a feeling they'll use tasteful judgement on segmenting that section of the store and it's not going to turn into a big smut-house overnight.
- jschwartzi 8y ago
  Judging by how the game feed has rapidly filled up with creepy Japanese dating simulators and stuff, assuming that they'll segment VR porn appropriately is pretty naive.
  - imchillyb 8y ago
    > "Judging by how the game feed has rapidly filled up with creepy Japanese dating simulators and stuff, assuming that they'll segment VR porn appropriately is pretty naive." @jschwartzi Prior to this announcement, Valve was taking a -hands off- approach to erotic games. Now, Valve has a plan for segmentation. I think naivete would be overlooking an emerging and highly profitable market. There are vast incentives for Valve to segregate the pornographic material from the general games feed. The incentives quite outweigh the -hands off- approach of the past.
lev99 8y ago
> Steam is going to become the worlds most profitable, largest distributor of hardcore pornography overnight MindGeek's (online porn conglomerate) annual revenue was $460 million in 2015. Steam has 125 million active users. I doubt they will make an average of $3.68 per user on porn next year, considering the VR install base is small, and there is so much free online porn.
- wyred 8y ago
  VR install base is small, until Steam starts selling VR Porn video games. Porn has a huge influence on technology. I won't be surprised if within the next few days, there's a huge surge on VR headset sales.
- aphextron 8y ago
  >MindGeek's (online porn conglomerate) annual revenue was $460 million in 2015. I'm pretty sure that's literally in the realm of how much Valve makes selling hats and skins for CS:GO [0]. Porn is definitely bigger than Counterstrike. They're doing this for the money. [0] https://www.hltv.org/blog/11798/how-much-money-valve-is-making-from-csgo https://www.hltv.org/blog/11798/how-much-money-valve-is-maki...
  - lev99 8y ago
    Sure, but they aren't going to overnight take 25% of the pornography business and become the largest porn distributor.
krapp 8y ago
They're not streaming porn videos, they're allowing VR porn. That's not entirely outside their wheelhouse, since they already have a lot of Japanese games with "erotic" content.
casualjudgy 8y ago
"Not being prude, it just tends to discourage a certain type of person, and encourage another." Not going to be racist, it just tends to discourage white people and encourage blacks. Not going to be sexist,it just tends to discourage men and encourage women.
hellbanner 8y ago
Allowing murder simulators fundamentally changes the nature of your online store. Not being squeamish, it just tends to discourage a certain type of person, and encourage another.
- darepublic 8y ago
  Sex simulators are more subversive than murder simulators
  - cortesoft 8y ago
    Care to elaborate?
    - adventured 8y ago
      A strong majority of the population derives direct pleasure from sexual stimulation. And you can physically act on that stimulation, frequently, in all sorts of ways. A very small minority of the population literally derives pleasure from simulating murder. And you can't act on that / do it in reality to drive the stimulation further, unless of course you want to murder someone and take on the very high risk consequences. Or put simply, sex is radically more popular than murder. The difference in popularity between the two is over 10000x. A sex simulator will typically have a direct, considerable physical consequence to you in real life. Murder simulation very, very rarely will have that - at least until or unless VR gets hyper realistic.
      - DoreenMichele 8y ago
        I find this explanation amusing given the endless articles about how little sex is happening IRL for youth today. The more movies, games etc we have to meet such needs, the less we seem to want the real thing. This actually strikes me as reducing the risk of pregnancy and STDs. On top of that, actual studies show that increased access to porn correlates to reduced incidence of sexual assault.
        8y ago

ben174 8y ago

Clearly it's their mistake to make. I'd hate it if legislators stepped in and told them they can't do it simply because their store didn't sell it before. I have a feeling they'll use tasteful judgement on segmenting that section of the store and it's not going to turn into a big smut-house overnight.

jschwartzi 8y ago
Judging by how the game feed has rapidly filled up with creepy Japanese dating simulators and stuff, assuming that they'll segment VR porn appropriately is pretty naive.
- imchillyb 8y ago
  > "Judging by how the game feed has rapidly filled up with creepy Japanese dating simulators and stuff, assuming that they'll segment VR porn appropriately is pretty naive." @jschwartzi Prior to this announcement, Valve was taking a -hands off- approach to erotic games. Now, Valve has a plan for segmentation. I think naivete would be overlooking an emerging and highly profitable market. There are vast incentives for Valve to segregate the pornographic material from the general games feed. The incentives quite outweigh the -hands off- approach of the past.

lev99 8y ago

> Steam is going to become the worlds most profitable, largest distributor of hardcore pornography overnight MindGeek's (online porn conglomerate) annual revenue was $460 million in 2015. Steam has 125 million active users. I doubt they will make an average of $3.68 per user on porn next year, considering the VR install base is small, and there is so much free online porn.

wyred 8y ago
VR install base is small, until Steam starts selling VR Porn video games. Porn has a huge influence on technology. I won't be surprised if within the next few days, there's a huge surge on VR headset sales.
aphextron 8y ago
>MindGeek's (online porn conglomerate) annual revenue was $460 million in 2015. I'm pretty sure that's literally in the realm of how much Valve makes selling hats and skins for CS:GO [0]. Porn is definitely bigger than Counterstrike. They're doing this for the money. [0] https://www.hltv.org/blog/11798/how-much-money-valve-is-making-from-csgo https://www.hltv.org/blog/11798/how-much-money-valve-is-maki...
- lev99 8y ago
  Sure, but they aren't going to overnight take 25% of the pornography business and become the largest porn distributor.

krapp 8y ago

They're not streaming porn videos, they're allowing VR porn. That's not entirely outside their wheelhouse, since they already have a lot of Japanese games with "erotic" content.

casualjudgy 8y ago

"Not being prude, it just tends to discourage a certain type of person, and encourage another." Not going to be racist, it just tends to discourage white people and encourage blacks. Not going to be sexist,it just tends to discourage men and encourage women.

hellbanner 8y ago

Allowing murder simulators fundamentally changes the nature of your online store. Not being squeamish, it just tends to discourage a certain type of person, and encourage another.

darepublic 8y ago
Sex simulators are more subversive than murder simulators
- cortesoft 8y ago
  Care to elaborate?
  - adventured 8y ago
    A strong majority of the population derives direct pleasure from sexual stimulation. And you can physically act on that stimulation, frequently, in all sorts of ways. A very small minority of the population literally derives pleasure from simulating murder. And you can't act on that / do it in reality to drive the stimulation further, unless of course you want to murder someone and take on the very high risk consequences. Or put simply, sex is radically more popular than murder. The difference in popularity between the two is over 10000x. A sex simulator will typically have a direct, considerable physical consequence to you in real life. Murder simulation very, very rarely will have that - at least until or unless VR gets hyper realistic.
    - DoreenMichele 8y ago
      I find this explanation amusing given the endless articles about how little sex is happening IRL for youth today. The more movies, games etc we have to meet such needs, the less we seem to want the real thing. This actually strikes me as reducing the risk of pregnancy and STDs. On top of that, actual studies show that increased access to porn correlates to reduced incidence of sexual assault.
      - 8y ago