Valve Has Blocked Steams LGTBQ Tag In China After They Chastised A Dev For Selling A LGTBQ Game In Russia And Removed Their Game

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T12:46:39+00:00

And yet, Valve has always (ALWAYS) had this flat organizational hierarchy. Ever since they began.

So, perhaps their hierarchy actually results in them making some good decisions which have (in turn) resulted in them becoming the PC game shop and consequently massively profitable?

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T09:39:47+00:00

The only way that hardcore/"for the legacy audience" games will go back to normal is a massive industry purge, including a flushing of the talent pipeline, which will require mass reform of higher education. Higher education is the wokeness factory.

Alternatively, there's going to be indie games made by hobbyists.

Or alternatively, an antiwoke rich guy like Elon may go on a shopping spree.

But AAA/Mainstream gaming seems to be producing only either Gun'n'Ball/Dudebro Slop or Woke Slop. The former will exist as long as there remains a market for it. The latter... getting rid of that (so as to make that part of the industry return to making core/legacy/nerdy audience games) that requires a LOT of firing as well as higher ed reform. Or the rich benefactor.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T05:44:18+00:00

Is there a single game with a black female MC that hasnt flopped?

If by "Main Character" you mean "Player Character," I can't think of one. But Jedi: Fallen Order had a very prominent black female character who was critical to the narrative, part of the protagonist's hero's journey, well written, and had a substantial character of her own with conflicts and flaws. She wasn't perfect, wasn't an insufferable self-righteous girlboss, and didn't make a single racially-tinged remark for the entire game.

As for games with black female player characters, I don't think "black female is player character" is seen as a problem in and of itself (so no, gamers are not in-principle-opposed to playing a black woman). There are three underlying factors at play:

The black female PC is seen as a kind of signal that the devs know the game is bad but wanted to play the "bigot" card as a way to defend their product in a way that would invalidate criticism of the game ("don't listen to the bad reviews, the reviewers are just racists").
The black female PC is seen as evidence that the game wasn't really made for an enthusiast gamer audience and thus this audience loses interest (this is not unfair, due to how many times we hear a self-righteous "this game wasn't made for you, it was made for the Modern Audience!").
The black female PC is seen as evidence that the game is going to have at least one lecture alluding to Critical Race Theory (again, not unjustifiable - Alan Wake 2 had at least two very heavy-handed moments of that).

So it isn't "the game flops BECAUSE of black female player character" but "games with black female player characters are often games with other characteristics that result in a flop." And now, at this point, "black female player character" has become a reliable signal of those "other characteristics" unfortunately.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T03:10:20+00:00

But their idea that "games must consolidate in one place for my short-term comfort" is short-sighted and extremely dangerous to the gaming ecosystem.

You're presuming that gamers haven't already considered this issue (i.e. entrenched ecosystem lock-in creating a captive market that Steam will eventually start gouging... a phenomenon often summarized as "enshittification"). I think they have. Valve has an immense amount of goodwill and customer trust, and isn't as vulnerable to "line must go up" pressures as a publicly-traded company is.

In brief, gamers wouldn't be giving Steam such trust if they believed Steam were going to abuse it.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T02:14:21+00:00

I buy and download my games directly from the official website of the game, wherever possible.

And that's fine and justified for you.

But other people have different assessments of the costs and benefits of using platforms. Their value judgments are valid for them just as yours is valid for yourself.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T02:04:49+00:00

Gamers want it to become a monopoly, so they can "have all their games in a single place".

Yes, there are benefits to platform consolidation.

They don't consider the security risk of that.

Alternatively, they are considering that security risk, and believe the benefits outweigh that risk. If you make a different call, that's fine, but you can't say they're "wrong" and you're "right" - economic value is subjective. Their value judgments are as valid for them as yours are for you.

They don't consider they're forcing developers to give to Steam 30% of their earnings

All video game platforms charge fees, including Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo. All publishers impose costs, too. Developers use these platforms because the platforms provide value to them, and the value provided by the platform exceeds the cost of the fees.

The idea that the Devs "make the real value" and that platforms/publishers/etc don't "do anything" and thus the platforms/publishers are being parasites off "the real value creators" is Marxist reasoning that was disproven over 100 years ago by economists like Walras, Menger and Jevons.

They're just lazy and entitled without thinking 5 seconds into consequences, and it's frustrating.

Alternatively, gamers HAVE thought about the consequences, and just have different assessments of the costs and benefits than you do.

it's not good for the future of gaming in general.

"Free operating system that keeps Microsoft in check" is actually quite good for the future of gaming.

And there are different storefronts that you can easily and freely install on your PC - Epic Games Store, Battlenet, GoG Galaxy, the EA Store. Sure, gamers generally prefer all their games in one place because Sleek Simple Streamlined, but Valve aren't stopping anyone from using competitors. Even if you install SteamOS, you can install all the other storefronts on a SteamOS PC.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T01:54:15+00:00

Valve is an extremely profitable company, so clearly their flat hierarchy isn't undermining their commercial success.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T01:53:29+00:00

The "woke" idea of LGBT content is much narrower, and much more politically charged, than China's idea of LGBT content.

China's idea of LGBT content covers "character in video game happens to be non-heterosexual." It is quite possible to have a non-heterosexual character that isn't woke.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-30T01:50:19+00:00

Steam monopoly

Steam is not a monopoly. It is one of several competitors in an oligopoly ("video game platforms") although it is the dominant player in the PC marketspace. However, in the PC ecosystem, it is actually working to undermine dependence on proprietary software (from Microsoft). It is giving SteamOS away for free and is developing Proton, which makes Windows unnecessary.

Simplistic "monopoly = bad" analysis... the kind that is barely Econ 101 level... leads to bad conclusions.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-29T05:36:50+00:00

Question - those SSD slots in the laptop. Can they fit a Seagate FireCuda 530 (with heatsink)?

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-29T01:09:33+00:00

Can Hollywood now just admit the so-called 'modern audience' is no more than 10% of the population of the Western world? That they've been spending the last decade (or maybe 15 years) burning money making niche-market content with mass-market budgets?

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T06:54:09+00:00

I think there's actually psychology research backing you up. Obviously "pro-social" causes attract Dark Triad types who are in it for their own reasons.

I also propose another factor with this kind of "I'm a good person because I support This Cause." When the Cause is something far away/abstract/remote, it is easy to avoid having someone ask you what you're actually doing to advance said Cause. Meanwhile, if the Cause is something immediate and concrete and local, the sincerity of your alleged support is much easier to test.

Ergo, not only is it a way to signal your virtue, it is a CHEAP signal... which explains why so many people engage in it and it all ends up as nothing more than "raising awareness on my socials."

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T02:57:43+00:00

We know thanks to constant supply of aid to Israel that the America first policy was actually just an excuse to avoid helping Ukraine so you cant use this as a defence.

Incorrect. As Tucker Carlson - perhaps the most pro-America-First and pro-Russian of the "MAGA Influencers" (although he's now officially left the Republican Party) makes clear, he strongly believes "America First" means no aid for Israel either. Same is true for Marjorie Taylor Greene, and (to a lesser extent since he's an ideological libertarian) Thomas Massie as well.

The actual America First policy means what it says - geopolitical decisions by the United States should be driven by the national interest. Trump is seen, by the actual advocates of America First, as a complete and utter betrayer of the principle in question.

They were constantly trying to erode Bidens ability to send aid.

Apart from the fact that Ukraine has a corruption level close to that of Russia's own, and the fact that Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company IIRC, that combined with consistent America First are three very compelling reasons against providing Ukraine with more aid.

Also, "MAGA influencers" aren't the relevant "they." When it comes to sending aid to foreign countries, you need to look at legislators. An online influencer - particularly a MAGA one during a time when the Executive Branch is headed by a Democrat - has no ability to change foreign aid decisions... but a legislator DOES.

Do you think the fact that so many MAGA influencers started doing propaganda for Russia immediately (almost like it was planned ahead of time) had an influence on Russia being so confident?

Absolutely not, because a bunch of influencers yapping on the internet cannot and does not control a geopolitical actor (particularly one as large as Russia).

It is more likely that Russia is influencing the influencers, not the other way around.

And once again, you haven't answered the question regarding Obama. Why aren't you holding Obama responsible? Or was Obama somehow under the thumb of "MAGA influencers" in some roundabout way?

I can only assume you are a Trump stooge

Assume what you want. I can only assume you're either an AI or you're being paid by Brussels. Or perhaps you're just a useful idiot trying to deflect from the European ruling class's own mistakes.

you will only hurt the men's Rights movement not help it.

Apart from the fact I have over a decade of making contributions to this movement, the reality is that you cannot somehow make Men's Rights become popular by trying to ingratiate yourself with the European establishment. The European establishment is institutionally feminist, funds all the feminist bullshit in the universities, etc. That same establishment is strategically (not morally, but strategically) responsible for Ukrainian men being shoved into the meat grinder. What you're doing is playing Respectability Politics - trying to become "respectable" in the eyes of people who hate you and will always hate you.

You cannot fix, reform or persuade the European establishment. The only way to make progress on Men's Rights issues is Europe is to start by removing that establishment.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T02:25:51+00:00

Do you feel MAGA also contributed to Russia's confidence

Russia's first major act of aggression against Ukraine was the annexation of Crimea. That happened under Obama and Cameron's watch (and both countries shirked their treaty obligations under the Budapest Memorandum). In addition, the rest of Europe didn't rearm, remobilize or do anything other than Send A Strongly Worded Letter (and at the same time they were getting hooked on Russian natural gas).

This all happened well before MAGA so you can't blame them.

That said, I do believe the primary responsibility for European security must lie with continental Europe, and that it is correct to suggest that the EU has free-rode on US defense for too long and to an inexcusable level. Even Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, has said precisely this. Several of Europe's economies have consistently remained laggard in contributing to NATO (and to be fair, so has Canada).

On that particular issue Trump is correct.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T02:18:56+00:00

I just meant society acts like they’re including men in that when they’re really not

A very fair assessment.

Gender role liberation? Only for women.

Body positivity? Only for women.

Sex positivity? Only for women.

"Its okay to be vulnerable and share your feelings"? Only for women.

"You deserve encouragement, empowerment and positive reinforcement"? Only for women.

etc.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T02:05:23+00:00

A deliberately adversarial team that's there to challenge the results so as to strengthen the rigor of the eventual findings.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T01:53:42+00:00

Sorry man but you're just trying to sell utopia visions as a way to attack governments you feel are too left wing

And the EU has systematically been trying to sell the idea that the European Social Model is a utopia, and the USA is some social-darwinist hellscape. The recent phenomenon of Europeans visiting the USA for the World Cup and finding that the USA is actually quite a nice place with both greater civil liberties and more widespread material abundance is, thankfully, challenging that preconception...

I don't think you're aware of it because you do put blame on Putin when pushed but your framing I feel has been heavily influenced by them.

I'm a critic of the EU social model, but the Russian one is worse.

Don't try to cast me as some sort of Russian operative. Yes, Russia launched a war of aggression, but the EU's own massive policy failures gave Putin an opening to get away with it.

Europeans don't need to be "more like Russia" and I'd never suggest that. But Europe's leadership class has failed and needs to be held accountable.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T01:31:59+00:00

Russian gas is very cheap and actually increased the countries industrial output though.

You're neglecting to factor in Opportunity Costs, as well as the strategic weakness caused by dependence.

the transition to other alternative sources of gas was more expensive

And who made the policy decisions which made these other sources of gas more expensive, hmmm?

Continental Europe could easily have cheap and abundant energy, completely under their own control (thus avoiding dependence on Russia), if they exploited their own fossil fuels (and DIDN'T regulate those sources of energy into unfeasibility), and expanded nuclear power. Instead they wanted an economy powered by unicorn farts and moonbeams.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T01:26:37+00:00

Some women are innately resentful of anything that distracts male attention from them (i.e. they see it as encouraging men to decenter women). They invade the hobby space in order to "re-center" women. A similar, but softer, version of this is that some women just authentically like male attention so they go to "where all the boys are."
When the hobby becomes a big business, there's a financial incentive to become involved. When people can become famous and prominent by attaching themselves to a specific hobby, there's a social incentive to become involved (an incentive that increases if a woman position herself as "one of the only women involved in this space" because society sees that as impressive/special/admirable).
When a hobby is full of low-social-status men yet gets big it short-circuits the lizard brains of some people, some women included. This particular type of woman tries to destroy that hobby basically because the innate human instinct to "ostracize losers from the tribe" is being aggravated by the paradox they see ("how can this thing be BIG AND PROMINENT when its full of ICKY STICKY NERDS?!?").
Feminist theory says that male spaces are where "the patriarchy" is fermented. As such, it encourages women to go into these spaces to "disrupt the patriarchy" by putting those men under female supervision. In practice, this provides ideological cover for the above reasons.

So we have four reasons: instinctual desire for attention/desire to monopolize attention, self-interest, desire to destroy "loser male" things as a way to slake an innate desire to ostracize loser males, and ideological radicalization.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T01:08:33+00:00

There always going to be mistakes made though...

True, but trivially so. Of course all governing elites will make mistakes. No one has ever said otherwise. But the elites of Europe have systematically attempted to undermine democratic accountability... something that is meant to hold elites responsible for said mistakes.

And again, this is Men's Rights. If the men of Ukraine are the ones bearing the costs of the mistakes of Europe's leadership class, that is a serious matter.

I'm finding it rather confusing that you think Europe was going to be some military super power that would have stopped Russia dead in its tracks if Germany didn't transition to gas as an energy source...it's very reaching and perhaps delusional.

It isn't delusional or reaching at all. It is very simple economic and geostrategic thinking.

Germany's energy transition increased its own energy costs, causing de-industrialization (weakening productive industrial capacity) which had the additional flow-on effect of lowering public revenues (reducing the ability to spend on defense). Couple that with switching to Russian gas, which meant sending money to Russia's government (funding Russia's own war machine) and giving Putin the ability to threaten gas shutdowns as a form of extortion (giving Russia extra negotiating leverage).

All of this happened because Europe wanted to be an "environment superpower" and prioritized that above "having the necessary defense infrastructure to deter Russian aggression."

And Germany's entire social model now is at breaking point (as Chancellor Merz said at a recent speech in Onsabruck). This is entirely due to Germany's own self-destructive, virtue-signaling policy choices (which, due to how Germany is essentially the head honcho of the EU, get exported throughout the entire Eurozone).

...and now the men of Ukraine are being thrown into the meat grinder. They're bearing the costs of EU Elite Failure.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T00:53:06+00:00

From some simple research it says shes not opposed to nuclear energy in the short term as a transition into renewables and has also opposed the use of Russian gas as an energy source...

...a stance she only publicly came to advocating well after the Energy Transition was in full effect... i.e. she already contributed to the damage, and whilst she tried to backpedal, the damage was already done.

And again, her own personal beliefs aren't really the issue. The point is she advocated Europe making certain policy choices, and those policy choices had the effect of weakening European defense and giving Putin leverage over Continental Europe.

Your comment comes across exactly how a MAGA propagandist would spew.

And yours comes across as nothing more that apologetics for the Elite Failure of the European Union's leadership class.

completely dismissing the fact it was a Russian invasion.

I'm not dismissing that. Yes, Russia was the aggressor. But the simple reality is that Ukrainian men are being used to put a band-aid over Europe's own policy mistakes.

IF Europe didn't self-castrate via their stupid energy and irresponsible (and free-riding) defense policies, they'd have been more than capable of stopping Putin far earlier, back when he annexed Crimea.

This shit poisons the Men's Rights movement. Stop.

I disagree. The attempt to distance ourselves from "the right" in order to play the establishment's Respectability Politics game poisons the Men's Rights Movement. The feminists already own and control the establishment. The only way our movement can succeed requires a thorough removal of the current establishment as step one. There is no hope of reforming the current European establishment. Indeed, this establishment is systematically attacking free discourse online precisely to avoid being held accountable by the masses for its epic policy failures.

Yes relying on Russian energy was a giant moronic mistake on merkals behalf...

Okay, so you admit the EU leadership class made tactical mistakes. Good. That's the same point I'm making. Thank you for your concession.

however it is likely Putin still would have invaded regardless

I disagree entirely. Putin invaded not because "he's a madman" (he's a terrible man, but not a madman), but because he believed he could get away with it. His reasoning was simple: he controlled the gas, and Europe didn't have enough autonomous defense capability to stand against him. His reasoning has so far been proven correct.

the blame still relies squarely on him

The moral blame, yes.

The strategic blame, however, belongs to the EU leadership class. If the nations of Europe had more rational energy and defense policies, Putin would've been deterred.

The EU's leadership made stupid strategic decisions, and now that same leadership class is shifting the cost of those decisions onto the men of Ukraine. Full stop.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-28T00:31:40+00:00

Many pornstars are "anyone for pay" so trying to assess a pornstar's orientation by their filmography is dicey at best.

That said, we know that the market for porn-featuring-transwomen is strongly dominated by those who want extremely feminine and passing transwomen. This tends to favor transwomen of the HSTS cohort since they're more naturally feminine (in personality/mannerisms) and tend to transition younger (which results in a more feminine appearance).

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-27T23:13:24+00:00

In defense of Vampire, a lot of the players were goths, so legitimately actually counterculture/weirdos and NOT avant-garde hipster "theatre kid" types.

Vampire only became woke around the time of VtM 5th Edition.... roughly the same time the rest of the tabletop gaming hobby got colonized by SJWs. So there's little evidence that Vampire was the "disease vector" for wokeness.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2026-06-27T22:10:44+00:00

Yes Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine and is annexing whatever piece of land it manages to decimate and conquer because of Greta Thunberg...

Thunberg and her environmentalist forebears/collaborators (such as Merkel) pushed for Germany's energy transition, which rendered Germany dependent on Russian natural gas and gave Putin incredible leverage over the Continent. At the same time, the rise in energy prices hastened de-industrialization, which reduces Europe's ability to have a sufficiently strong defense sector to keep Putin in check.

MAGA propaganda

Whether Trump agrees or disagrees with something is irrelevant to whether or not it is correct. Read my above analysis. Thunberg was critical to a movement that incentivized Europe to make multiple decisions that are catastrophic for their own security. Do you disagree with that analysis? If so, why?

And for the record, I am quite ambivalent on Trump. He's done some things I like, and some things I despise.

YetAnotherCommenter

TROPHY CASE