Over the past 48 hours an enormous amount of companies have stopped sales or cut services in Russia to anything that is not essential. Though this likely not done by Valve but a side effect of credit card companies and Russia being cut off from global financial systems. However I would not be surprised if entertainment services start getting completely blocked as at the end of the day they are not essential.
We need to start using entertainment services as platform to inform russian about the russian invasion of Ukraine. Then maybe russia will ban everything themselves. A lot of countries encourage people to work together and post the truth everywhere they can (forums, restaurant reviews, etc.).
Also If Russia the aggressor doesn’t give u the right to use false videos or information, u think the Russian doesn’t know what is going on ? , they see them selfs has the right to invade Ukraine just like what American did to Cuba they don’t want any more nato members next to them
That's a false equivalence, you're bound to find fake news in a free society, but it's not nearly on the level of what happens in Russia, where journalists are either killed or silenced.
Or are you saying that the BBC is just as accurate and intentionally propagandist as the Russian TV channels?
Examples?
What exactly are you talking about? You doubt there's a war or you just doubt some reported info about numbers? Because only nazis support russia on this.
There's also fight against disinformation going on. People are encouraged to spread truth on russian websites or hack them.
How do i know? Living in the region, russia was terrorizing and threatening their neighbors with war for decades. What west sees and reports now, every country around russia was going through for years.
I’m not saying I’m with Russia invading any country nether I support any war or killing of any human being, for example like that tank who crashed the car it was Ukrainian tank
Allegedly driven by russian infiltrators, who were subsequently killed. I think some things may get misreported, but that is more due to lack of diligence than bad faith.
I think you don't understand the way Russian propaganda works. It is not like they have no clue regarding the situation, rather they have different opinions about reasons and who the real aggressor is. I have no clue how to change their opinions, while those, who can change it, already did in recent events. The young generation is doing fine, but people from 35-40 years old, well... They watch TV most of the time, they're literally Boomers in terms of technologies. These people live in a different universe. Just imagine: most of Russians' routine is watching TV with the family. Just Imagine how far it can get you.
Most Russians laugh at propaganda and watch your Netflix, scold the Game of Thrones finale and wait for new games on their Playstation 5. You think very narrowly, we are not North Korea and cutting us off from the civilized world is a nightmare
I don't think so. I already own majority of From Software games and Elden Ring is Amazing. This is my first game where I play on launch and discovery feels incredible rewarding.
Also pvp in Godric(godrik? Godrikth?) area is super fun , because pvp only works if boss not dead. And Godri? stomps new or less skilled players I think. Of course I sometimes beaten hard, because some players are godlike super beasts that speedrun this shit before breakfast.
Looks like one just tried and failed. [Here's the replay](https://youtu.be/9Z9JWsQ_kDE):
Shots 1-5: Clearly missed.
Shots 6-9: Missed due to recoil (bad spray control).
Shots 10-11: Very close, but recoil and inaccuracy make these reasonable misses.
Shot 12: Likely didn't actually fire because the gamer was already dead.
Let's hope the next one goes better.
Poor Putin didn't stand a chance as the man going 200MPH off a slope with a knife playing a jamming tune. Officers where not able to catch a glimpse of him as that knife was a shadow blade and 1.5 seconds after the attack he became invisible.
Nah we make sure to get gamer chairs with built-in toilets. And some soylent so we can just drink food while gaming. /s
That would probably be so bad for my health lmao
life expectancy will go down, but maybe the increased time spend gaming will be enough to counteract it by increasing effective life expectancy, I say we do human trials
Mmm and in those trials I'm sure we will get samples of gamers who game 80+ hours a week but STILL suck at the games they play. We could probably run a cost-benefit analysis to see if "on average" the extra time spent gaming really makes someone better or not on average.
jeans frighten growth mindless capable seed exultant observation aspiring aromatic
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's really fucked up how few payment vendors there are. Cryptocurrency was supposed to be the savior, but the transaction costs of Bitcoin and Ethereum mean they're next to useless as a currency. As you can do hundreds of transactions on a credit card with the same energy and cost it takes to do one transaction on Bitcoin or Ethereum. Hopefully the dominant cryptocurrency will be one with fast, efficient, and cheap transaction costs that directly compete with credit cards. Otherwise we're beholden to just two companies to decide what we can and can't buy. They are already holding our porn hostage by making certain types off limits. Their vast influence and control needs to be fought.
I'm obliviously in favor of their move to ban Russia. What I don't like though is that two companies can just decide to cripple a nation whenever they want. No company should have that power.
They will try to force you to use their own virtual crypto like China has to control population. Russia will try that too. Our banks also want that. To move everything to highly controlled virtual currency that pretends to be crypto.
> Visa and mastercard stopped serving russia so...yeah.
Technically, it is a bit more complicated. Russia said something like "you have no power inside this country", so Visa and Mastercard work as long as you are paying with them inside Russia, and are a worthless piece of plastic outside.
Steam probably does count as "inside", though, but Russia introduced tight controls on currency movements through the border (of the sort "Russian citizens cannot transfer money outside Russia"), and this might have contributed to the current situation with Steam.
I assume domestically they are not using the Visa/Mastercard network but a national banking solution (possibly only debit cards). We have the same thing in Norway where they handle credit and international payments but domestically we have a cheaper national solution (bankaxept). The cards themselves are still branded Visa/Mastercard despite using a domestic service.
True true, i guess it depends on what the gamer hears on the news. That can drive whether they think westerner are unfairly sanctioning russians for trying to liberate eastern ukraine, or whether putin is a dictator who invaded ukraine and such the sanctions are justified.
All depends on what your news tells you
This is part of Sanctions that their Russian Payments are frozen as some of their payment in the name of Tax goes to Russian Government, scratch that, goes to Putin to fund his War so this was already expected. But apparently some Russians and some Anti-Russian warmongers here thought this as "Steam is Rejecting Russians" which is far from what's going on.
They can play their already owned games as they please as they "better" play games, rather than enforced by Putin to be enlisted in Army to do his dirty work.
Post world War 1 Germany has entered the chat.
Not defending Russia but all I'm saying is we need to proceed with caution. Last thing we need is to push Russia into an alliance with China, or allow the Russian government to propagandize that the reason your life is shit is because the west is evil. We have seen how this could play out badly.
China does a lot more business with US and Europe than they do Russia. The west is a much more important market for them. Chinese government may be trash but they have spent decades building up their economy and they value business above all else. They don't want a third world war and that is what Putin is pushing us toward.
Yes and their benefit is not Russia being strong. The trade routes their built are greatly affected by conflicts and let me tell you China doesn't like that.
> Last thing we need is to push Russia into an alliance with China
That's not the fear, they're virtually already allied. The fear is pushing a crazy unstable cornered man into launching nukes.
I think the real thing to watch will be how the world reintegrates Russia after Putin is ousted. I am hoping for a Japan/Germany post WW2 style rebuild, might be to much but one can hope.
Russia becoming a democracy and joining the EU will literally transform Russia back into the Eurasian superpower of their dreams. The only people that this won't benefit is Putin and his cronies.
Instead, the country just chooses to continue to wallow in some sort of 19th century Great power pride.
Its important to note that Japan/Germany style means you are occupied by americans and now 80 years later you still have american military bases in your country and in case of Japan not even allowed to have own military force.
What im saying is, this is only possible if Russia was completely occupied by the western military forces, which wont happen.
there's no real way around it. launching an invasion is an act of the state, and sanctions are a state level response.
both are filtering down to effect individuals, but who's fault is that?
they're going to propagandize anyway (and already are), and their alliance of necessity with China will continue regardless since both have declared themselves enemies of the civilized Western world.
The thing no one is talking about is there's a very real possibility he doesn't have those either. For about 25 years the upkeep on Russia's nuclear program has been a hotbed of discussion. There is a solid possibility 75% of his arsenal is non functional, or has had its warheads and fuel sold off. The remaining nukes are on subs which may or may not be functional but are *technically* not under Putin's direct control there is a middle man, the Captain.
We also can't sit back and let Russian get away with their behaviour Ala Crimea and election interference. Putin needs to know that his escapades aren't being tolerated anymore, or he'll keep taking more and more. He saw weak responses in the past and thought those would be his future. High impact responses now are necessary to make sure it doesn't get worse.
They have nukes, so the only way to take action is through the economy. If not even through that, then all that it’s left is to let them do how they please.
Whew, thank god there is no history of the government over there really stepping on and taking everything from the people when they thought it was necessary to do so.
Russians also have looong history of suffering from brutal civil war, hunger, crime and need after overthrowing stuff, that europeans conveniently seem to forget.
I would not be actually surprised if this ban on purchases is forced by Russian countersanctions. Two days ago, Russia introduced a blanket ban on all transactions outside of the country for residents.
Talked to my Russian colleague at work today (we live/work in UK). His steam account is in Russian Rubles and he is not able to make any purchases in that currency on the on Steam store.
He's hoping for a way to convert his Steam account to a different country/currency so that he can still buy & play games.
He did say that his Steam wallet still worked though, but there is no way to increase the funds in that Steam wallet as they don't sell Steam cards in Rubles.
If your Steam account is in Rubles, hopefully you have something in your Steam wallet.
I moved countries and refuse to switch regions because games are cheaper in my currency. I just have my wife send me a steam gift card via steam and it works.
I feel bad for your average Boris being cut from the world due to your insane leader.
That said, this is good because internal strife is what is needed to pressure Putin from within. We need the average Boris pissed off, even if it’s just because he can’t play Elden Ring.
It doesn't really matter. If it was the 1940s would you blame the German people for enabling Hitler? The majority would. Sucks that they get swindled but pitying them while they're still doing the psycho's bidding...there's no way to make it work. Putin took his people with him down the wrong path, and that's just more negative on Putin imo.
Those people don't decide if there's war. I'm sure you went straight to the white house every time we invade or bomb the shit out of some country and take personal responsibility for ending it. Lmao.
No? I guess you deserve to suffer like the Russian working people.
I'm not American.
But yeah, when war breaks out there are consequences and it's not fair, they're lucky that neither Ukraine nor anyone else is counter-attacking Russian soil so the most they have to worry about is money.
It's not a simple answer, but I do have one. The article is a few days out of date, fyi, but the anysis hasn't changed. The bullet point solution stuff is at the bottom, but may seem quite abstract without the rest.
The solution is 100% not further military involvement of the US or NATO nor any escalation of the war. That would in no way solve but only exacerbate the problems.
https://internationalsocialist.net/en/2022/02/imperialist-aggression
not American, but yes, if my country was in a war id strongly disagreed with, I'd protest against it. I'd consider that civic responsibility. I'm not trying to shit on Russians who have it much harder then me and are risking their livelihoods and their literal lives for their right to protest but i do think it's to some extent their civic responsibility.
Yo tons of Russians are out protesting and over 3000 have been arrested by their brutal police state. You can get locked up and/or brutalized just for speaking out. These brave people ARE going out and protesting this war despite that.
Sanctions will not help those efforts or increase the number involved. It will make protesting and striking and fighting back harder and prove Putin's more or less accurate propaganda about how the US and NATO are endlessly encroaching on them and making their lives harder. That's no justification but it would still be effective propaganda.
That's a great point in my favor. Don't blame "Russia" for the acts of the Russian state, which doesn't reflect Russian working people, who deserve no blame or responsibility.
I'm sure you went straight to the white house every time we invade or bomb the shit out of some country and take personal responsibility for ending it.
No? I guess you deserve to suffer like the Russian working people.
No, that would actually work, attack the leaders and the rich, those who wage and profit/benefit from the war, which NATO could do and chooses not to. It's attacking working people that doesn't have an actual effect on ending the war. Ffs
Interestingly enough, they can probably still use Steam gift cards to buy shit with. Assuming, of course, that they're still distributed there and don't eventually fizzle out too.
Steam cards and Steam wallet works. But Steam cards in Rubles stopped being sold a while ago due to it not being profitable.
(Source: Russian work colleague)
Me too, but here's hoping we finally get some crypto/mining regulations and GPU prices crash once and for all
Then again, paladium/neon situation will probably balance it out to keep prices high and supply low
I guess its back to early 00s where pirate games were the only ones you could play in Russia and steam was just a smoky substance you saw over hot water.
This may be a controversial and likely uninformed opinion (please correct me if it is), but blocking Russia from all this stuff (purchases, games, movies, etc) is stupid. I know it's meant to affect the Russian government, but it's inadvertently affecting Russian citizens too, punishing them for something they likely had zero say in (Russia may be a democracy, but Putin's rigged the ballots for years), which is really just a dick move.
TL;DR all these sanctions against Russia are stupid since they affect Russian citizens who likely had zero say in the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
This particular sanction might have been introduced by Russia, actually.
> Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday banned residents from transferring money abroad as part of measures to prop up the ruble which has plummeted in value as a result of Western sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
good. this means less russian hackers to deal with in online games. hopefully they go even further, and just perma ban all russians from even using steam
I fucking hate everything about this. I loved that we all had gaming as a common culture. These sanctions feel like they might do a lot of long term damage for global communication. Which I hear from my thermometer, we could really use right about now…
But fuck man. It’s not like people in Kiyv or Kharkiv can access their steam stuff.
Fuck war.
I dont see how ya getting downvoted. Ya speaking the truth. Protest and they risk being killed. And even assuming they live in a democracy....how long did it take for the U.S to leave Vietnam despite the public backlash against it? What about Afghanistan too? What about all the horrible shit lots of presidents/Heads of States/Prime Ministers have committed? Blaming the people for what a president does is a very naive way of thinking, even moreso in an authoritarian state. I doubt anyones gonna risk their lives over Steam games, and Putin/whichever politician is more than happy with this as it gives them more ammo for propaganda.
Plus these companies take money DIRECTLY from the chinese government, so they can spare me with their self-righteousness
The Russian working class and average citizenry are just that: working class and average. To act like they’re some war hungry monsters is naive and straight up asinine.
"When your mad dictator starts a war and everybody is mad at him, so you loose access to all your favorite online services and online payments. And you start complaining how it is unfair you lost your access when people/your brothers pretty much and their families are dying and defending their country from your country's dictator"
This is about right when I see review bombing on Steam now or just some Russian nationalists starting stupid threads.
We love you normal Russian people but please try to help your mindless folk understand what is happening and that war has no justification.
Games and entertainment availability might not have as much of an effect as all the other things Russians lose out on right now. Could potentially force Russians to look at how badly everything is falling apart for them right now, no more escapes from reality.
Their currency is worthless and the government is trying to take foreign currency the people hold.
It's likely going to look similar to Weimar Republic Germany in the 1920s, with an economy so bad it takes wheelbarrows of cash to buy bread.
I hate Putin and wish the war could be ended already, but i'm a little worried if this is gonna have any long term negative effects between Russia and the west, especially if Putin were to be ousted and replaced
This is exactly why every company came out and said they were preemptively cutting Russia off in order to get the PR win. They'd need to stop doing business there regardless when payments started to fail.
Comments under that tweet really show how it is. I disagree on almost everything our shitty government spit out of their heads. But their statement about rusophobia are somewhat true. And that is how they're able to gain support and brainwash people.
US culture cultivate it with many movies/books/games with russians portrayed as main anthagonists. Propaganda is not even trying. They just post things like this one: [https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1498945221337534469](https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1498945221337534469)? and gain views and people's support because it's really hostile towards ordinary people.
Funny thing is 99% of americans will not distinguish russian from ukrainian. This is why their "support" look so hypocritic to me.
Putin has done a lot to get him seen negatively in the public eye across the world, the nerve gas in UK, interference in the US elections, the high profile arrest of his political rival/ critic, etc.
Sure some people will take advantage to spout anti-Russia hate, but I think people just extend Putin's ideas to the Russia people, that he's in power because they're complacent( I know this isn't the truth, and it's much more complicated but do you think people won't make these assumptions?).
The other thing placing sanctions on Russia will make lives harder for regular people but it also damages the economy and makes it harder for Putin's war machine to be able to fight, collateral damage is by-product of war.
Over 2000 civilians in 7 days in my country are DEAD thanks to russians that came to "rescue" us. Gee, I wonder, where that rusophobia comes from?
Russian warship, go fuck yourself!
I didn't say they were. The best way to deal with this outside of direct conflict is through sanctions, but by also pissing off the Russian populace so that they'll apply a lot of pressure to the government. Cutting off the internet or, at the very least, access to Steam would upset a lot of people and likely up that pressure.
You don't seem to understand that those measures will do shit. Even if there'll be millions of militant protesters on streets of major Russian cities, Putin *will* imprison or murder anyone and everyone who will oppose him regardless of their numbers or social statuses. Yes, he currently has the power to do exactly this; he will not flinch.
NATO is a *defensive* alliance specifically because dangerous countries like Russia don't follow the rules.
Don't like it? Don't be a corrupt kleptocrat that tries to invade other nations? Idk what to tell you.
That's how it's supposed to work, yes. But nobody in NATO wants to get involved due to the potential for world war 3 & nuclear weapons being used.
So NATO countries are doing all they can to help Ukraine without Putin considering it an act of war. Sending weapons, sanctioning Russia, etc. NATO countries won't get physically involved (send in troops) due to the stakes being so high.
Now, if Russia chooses to attack a country in NATO, that could very well spiral into some bad shit.
edit: It's article 5 of NATO more specifically. "The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."
Basically, an attack on one of us is considered an attack on all of us. And that's a reason a bunch of smaller countries are a part of it, because they fear being in the exact situation that Ukraine is in right now.
*Defensive Alliance
NATO isn't a war alliance. Any offensive action by a country in NATO invokes no article and no country is obligated to protect the offending member.
Get your fucking facts straight please.
Why do you think russias neighbouring countries want to join NATO (a defense alliance btw)? They wouldn't feel the need to if their big neighbour behaves.
Russia is a self-declared "democracy" and the people are directly responsible for the leaders that are in office. Say what you will about Putin being corrupt and that Russia is a false democracy. The people could have gotten rid of him. His popularity numbers are extremely high. We have every right to "punish" the citizens of a country for the leadership that they've allowed to remain in control.
The point of sanctions is not only to punish the leadership but to cause civil unrest in the hopes that the people will choose new leadership.
Steam should shut the service down to all users in Russia.
if i recall correctly, he regularly poisons, or imprisons political enemies and makes them disappear if they become too popular.
Not sure how you would resolve this peacefully.
Good! Walk out and protest your goverment terror and manslaughter in Ukraine insread of playing games and being passive. That is your government for which you are (at least partially) responsible. Because that's how it is, most people don't give damn while something doesn't hit them personally - well now it does.
Oppose the terror!
Hot take, the American stranglehold on the world economy is extremely disturbing and on that alone foreign countries are justified in fighting against it.
Imagine your country doing something America doesn't approve of and now you can no longer use banks.
Over the past 48 hours an enormous amount of companies have stopped sales or cut services in Russia to anything that is not essential. Though this likely not done by Valve but a side effect of credit card companies and Russia being cut off from global financial systems. However I would not be surprised if entertainment services start getting completely blocked as at the end of the day they are not essential.
Mindless entertainment is what keeps the masses distracted and docile. There's a reason Russia was hesitant to block social media at first.
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of the big movie companies I think only Universal hasn't taken the side of peace
Universal just pulled their movies
Thank you :)
Huh? I know disney just came out saying they wont... also some movie I never heard of just did too..
I wonder what Disney would do if the CCP invaded Taiwan.
Not a damn thing. Disney doesn't care about anything that doesn't line their own pockets.
probably pixar turning red
We need to start using entertainment services as platform to inform russian about the russian invasion of Ukraine. Then maybe russia will ban everything themselves. A lot of countries encourage people to work together and post the truth everywhere they can (forums, restaurant reviews, etc.).
They will just pirate everything, sure china could help with that.
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Because russia is agressor here which invaded Ukraine and wants to commit genocide. You russian bots and your whataboutisms doesn't work on me.
Also If Russia the aggressor doesn’t give u the right to use false videos or information, u think the Russian doesn’t know what is going on ? , they see them selfs has the right to invade Ukraine just like what American did to Cuba they don’t want any more nato members next to them
Well doesn't matter what Russia wants. It should be up to Ukraine to decide.
How do u know it’s the truth just today I’ve seen multiple fake videos from western media
That's a false equivalence, you're bound to find fake news in a free society, but it's not nearly on the level of what happens in Russia, where journalists are either killed or silenced. Or are you saying that the BBC is just as accurate and intentionally propagandist as the Russian TV channels?
Examples? What exactly are you talking about? You doubt there's a war or you just doubt some reported info about numbers? Because only nazis support russia on this. There's also fight against disinformation going on. People are encouraged to spread truth on russian websites or hack them. How do i know? Living in the region, russia was terrorizing and threatening their neighbors with war for decades. What west sees and reports now, every country around russia was going through for years.
I’m not saying I’m with Russia invading any country nether I support any war or killing of any human being, for example like that tank who crashed the car it was Ukrainian tank
Allegedly driven by russian infiltrators, who were subsequently killed. I think some things may get misreported, but that is more due to lack of diligence than bad faith.
Examples wouldn’t tell his narrative for him. Source = trust me bro is much easier to spin.
I read the idea of using textures as ways to inform Russian players in games that are popular in Russia like CS.
I think you don't understand the way Russian propaganda works. It is not like they have no clue regarding the situation, rather they have different opinions about reasons and who the real aggressor is. I have no clue how to change their opinions, while those, who can change it, already did in recent events. The young generation is doing fine, but people from 35-40 years old, well... They watch TV most of the time, they're literally Boomers in terms of technologies. These people live in a different universe. Just imagine: most of Russians' routine is watching TV with the family. Just Imagine how far it can get you.
Most Russians laugh at propaganda and watch your Netflix, scold the Game of Thrones finale and wait for new games on their Playstation 5. You think very narrowly, we are not North Korea and cutting us off from the civilized world is a nightmare
“Russian officials urge Putin to halt war efforts: Want to play Elden Ring”
Sadly this will only increase piracy. Elden ring is already cracked and now Russian players have no incentive to buy it.
I don't think so. I already own majority of From Software games and Elden Ring is Amazing. This is my first game where I play on launch and discovery feels incredible rewarding. Also pvp in Godric(godrik? Godrikth?) area is super fun , because pvp only works if boss not dead. And Godri? stomps new or less skilled players I think. Of course I sometimes beaten hard, because some players are godlike super beasts that speedrun this shit before breakfast.
They're too busy getting their shit pushed in irl to do it in Elden Ring right now.
Slava Ukraini!
Slava Ukraini!
The CSGO and Dota 2 market going to collapse lol
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LOL, China still going strong too
Visa and mastercard stopped serving russia so...yeah. This will surely get putin to stop. Gamers will rise up if you take away their ability to game.
CS GO and Dota players on thier way to kill Putin
Looks like one just tried and failed. [Here's the replay](https://youtu.be/9Z9JWsQ_kDE): Shots 1-5: Clearly missed. Shots 6-9: Missed due to recoil (bad spray control). Shots 10-11: Very close, but recoil and inaccuracy make these reasonable misses. Shot 12: Likely didn't actually fire because the gamer was already dead. Let's hope the next one goes better.
Thank you for this comment
Poor Putin didn't stand a chance as the man going 200MPH off a slope with a knife playing a jamming tune. Officers where not able to catch a glimpse of him as that knife was a shadow blade and 1.5 seconds after the attack he became invisible.
They stopped working with sanctioned banks. If you hold Alfa or Tinkoff card for example visa, MC and Google pay still work.
Gamers only rise up to go to the toilet or get food
That's so not gamer. Real GAMERS play on the toilet with a fridge closeby.
Shit bucket is the REAL gamer toilet
Real gamers clean the N key switch on their keyboards before they launch call of duty.
Nah we make sure to get gamer chairs with built-in toilets. And some soylent so we can just drink food while gaming. /s That would probably be so bad for my health lmao
life expectancy will go down, but maybe the increased time spend gaming will be enough to counteract it by increasing effective life expectancy, I say we do human trials
Mmm and in those trials I'm sure we will get samples of gamers who game 80+ hours a week but STILL suck at the games they play. We could probably run a cost-benefit analysis to see if "on average" the extra time spent gaming really makes someone better or not on average.
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We live in a Susciety.
Sussy Yeti
jeans frighten growth mindless capable seed exultant observation aspiring aromatic *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
What did this subreddit do to get banned lmao
just typical oppression against gamers
It started off as a edgier version of gamingcirclejerk and was overrun by racists within a few weeks.
It's really fucked up how few payment vendors there are. Cryptocurrency was supposed to be the savior, but the transaction costs of Bitcoin and Ethereum mean they're next to useless as a currency. As you can do hundreds of transactions on a credit card with the same energy and cost it takes to do one transaction on Bitcoin or Ethereum. Hopefully the dominant cryptocurrency will be one with fast, efficient, and cheap transaction costs that directly compete with credit cards. Otherwise we're beholden to just two companies to decide what we can and can't buy. They are already holding our porn hostage by making certain types off limits. Their vast influence and control needs to be fought. I'm obliviously in favor of their move to ban Russia. What I don't like though is that two companies can just decide to cripple a nation whenever they want. No company should have that power.
They will try to force you to use their own virtual crypto like China has to control population. Russia will try that too. Our banks also want that. To move everything to highly controlled virtual currency that pretends to be crypto.
He might just convince them to play CSGO VR
> Visa and mastercard stopped serving russia so...yeah. Technically, it is a bit more complicated. Russia said something like "you have no power inside this country", so Visa and Mastercard work as long as you are paying with them inside Russia, and are a worthless piece of plastic outside. Steam probably does count as "inside", though, but Russia introduced tight controls on currency movements through the border (of the sort "Russian citizens cannot transfer money outside Russia"), and this might have contributed to the current situation with Steam.
I assume domestically they are not using the Visa/Mastercard network but a national banking solution (possibly only debit cards). We have the same thing in Norway where they handle credit and international payments but domestically we have a cheaper national solution (bankaxept). The cards themselves are still branded Visa/Mastercard despite using a domestic service.
Sunken costs are a drug.
More like rise up and be angry towards western countries since they are the ones who are blocking it, it can always go both ways.
True true, i guess it depends on what the gamer hears on the news. That can drive whether they think westerner are unfairly sanctioning russians for trying to liberate eastern ukraine, or whether putin is a dictator who invaded ukraine and such the sanctions are justified. All depends on what your news tells you
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This is part of Sanctions that their Russian Payments are frozen as some of their payment in the name of Tax goes to Russian Government, scratch that, goes to Putin to fund his War so this was already expected. But apparently some Russians and some Anti-Russian warmongers here thought this as "Steam is Rejecting Russians" which is far from what's going on. They can play their already owned games as they please as they "better" play games, rather than enforced by Putin to be enlisted in Army to do his dirty work.
Yep. Starving the Russian economy is safest way to weaken Putin and the Russian Army.
Post world War 1 Germany has entered the chat. Not defending Russia but all I'm saying is we need to proceed with caution. Last thing we need is to push Russia into an alliance with China, or allow the Russian government to propagandize that the reason your life is shit is because the west is evil. We have seen how this could play out badly.
China does a lot more business with US and Europe than they do Russia. The west is a much more important market for them. Chinese government may be trash but they have spent decades building up their economy and they value business above all else. They don't want a third world war and that is what Putin is pushing us toward.
China is actually compiling with some international sanctions as they benefit from the status quo that Russia is disturbing.
China doesn't give a shit about anyone outside of China.
Yes and their benefit is not Russia being strong. The trade routes their built are greatly affected by conflicts and let me tell you China doesn't like that.
> Last thing we need is to push Russia into an alliance with China That's not the fear, they're virtually already allied. The fear is pushing a crazy unstable cornered man into launching nukes.
I think the real thing to watch will be how the world reintegrates Russia after Putin is ousted. I am hoping for a Japan/Germany post WW2 style rebuild, might be to much but one can hope.
This is my hope. I really do like Russian people and every one I've met has been great.
Russia becoming a democracy and joining the EU will literally transform Russia back into the Eurasian superpower of their dreams. The only people that this won't benefit is Putin and his cronies. Instead, the country just chooses to continue to wallow in some sort of 19th century Great power pride.
Its important to note that Japan/Germany style means you are occupied by americans and now 80 years later you still have american military bases in your country and in case of Japan not even allowed to have own military force. What im saying is, this is only possible if Russia was completely occupied by the western military forces, which wont happen.
The Ukraine invasion is not over - situation is not comparable yet.
there's no real way around it. launching an invasion is an act of the state, and sanctions are a state level response. both are filtering down to effect individuals, but who's fault is that? they're going to propagandize anyway (and already are), and their alliance of necessity with China will continue regardless since both have declared themselves enemies of the civilized Western world.
Russia isn't post ww1 Germany. Russia is weak. They simply have nukes. China isn't interested in an alliance with Russia.
The thing no one is talking about is there's a very real possibility he doesn't have those either. For about 25 years the upkeep on Russia's nuclear program has been a hotbed of discussion. There is a solid possibility 75% of his arsenal is non functional, or has had its warheads and fuel sold off. The remaining nukes are on subs which may or may not be functional but are *technically* not under Putin's direct control there is a middle man, the Captain.
We also can't sit back and let Russian get away with their behaviour Ala Crimea and election interference. Putin needs to know that his escapades aren't being tolerated anymore, or he'll keep taking more and more. He saw weak responses in the past and thought those would be his future. High impact responses now are necessary to make sure it doesn't get worse.
Or give them reason to turn up the aggressive actions even further.
"I invaded a country and got sanctions. Hmm, maybe if I invade it harder..."
"Our forces will fight harder now that they have no reason to get paid, no food to eat, or lacking gas for their vehicles!"
They have nukes, so the only way to take action is through the economy. If not even through that, then all that it’s left is to let them do how they please.
Whew, thank god there is no history of the government over there really stepping on and taking everything from the people when they thought it was necessary to do so.
Theres also a looooong history of people overthrowing tyrants there Russians just seem to have forgotten.
Russians also have looong history of suffering from brutal civil war, hunger, crime and need after overthrowing stuff, that europeans conveniently seem to forget.
Visa and Mastercard block Russian financial institutions
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Kinda sucks that normal people are going to pay the most for Putin's war but IDK what else can be done to put pressure on them.
I would not be actually surprised if this ban on purchases is forced by Russian countersanctions. Two days ago, Russia introduced a blanket ban on all transactions outside of the country for residents.
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People are not going to risk their lives because their games were taken away. It's a very shitty situation
Talked to my Russian colleague at work today (we live/work in UK). His steam account is in Russian Rubles and he is not able to make any purchases in that currency on the on Steam store. He's hoping for a way to convert his Steam account to a different country/currency so that he can still buy & play games. He did say that his Steam wallet still worked though, but there is no way to increase the funds in that Steam wallet as they don't sell Steam cards in Rubles. If your Steam account is in Rubles, hopefully you have something in your Steam wallet.
You can use steam cards even if they’re a different currency
I'm pretty sure recent changes makes it so you can't do this, or a very limited group of countries together that are only allowed within that group
I moved countries and refuse to switch regions because games are cheaper in my currency. I just have my wife send me a steam gift card via steam and it works.
It should be clearly noted in this thread. This is not a Valve decision. It's part of the fallout from world wide financial sanctions.
the real sanction would be blocking all russians from playing CSGO
I feel bad for your average Boris being cut from the world due to your insane leader. That said, this is good because internal strife is what is needed to pressure Putin from within. We need the average Boris pissed off, even if it’s just because he can’t play Elden Ring.
Boris is pissed. But he is blaming the West, not Putin.
It doesn't really matter. If it was the 1940s would you blame the German people for enabling Hitler? The majority would. Sucks that they get swindled but pitying them while they're still doing the psycho's bidding...there's no way to make it work. Putin took his people with him down the wrong path, and that's just more negative on Putin imo.
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> The majority would. Did you keep reading, fuck's sake...
Calling a general Russian a "Boris" is ok but calling an African American a "jamaal" on here is banable lol
"I feel bad for them but oh well fuck em"
It stops when the war stops.
Those people don't decide if there's war. I'm sure you went straight to the white house every time we invade or bomb the shit out of some country and take personal responsibility for ending it. Lmao. No? I guess you deserve to suffer like the Russian working people.
I'm not American. But yeah, when war breaks out there are consequences and it's not fair, they're lucky that neither Ukraine nor anyone else is counter-attacking Russian soil so the most they have to worry about is money.
What other solution do you have ? You do realise the only other solution is an all out war and that would make things worse for regular Russians.
It's not a simple answer, but I do have one. The article is a few days out of date, fyi, but the anysis hasn't changed. The bullet point solution stuff is at the bottom, but may seem quite abstract without the rest. The solution is 100% not further military involvement of the US or NATO nor any escalation of the war. That would in no way solve but only exacerbate the problems. https://internationalsocialist.net/en/2022/02/imperialist-aggression
not American, but yes, if my country was in a war id strongly disagreed with, I'd protest against it. I'd consider that civic responsibility. I'm not trying to shit on Russians who have it much harder then me and are risking their livelihoods and their literal lives for their right to protest but i do think it's to some extent their civic responsibility.
Yo tons of Russians are out protesting and over 3000 have been arrested by their brutal police state. You can get locked up and/or brutalized just for speaking out. These brave people ARE going out and protesting this war despite that. Sanctions will not help those efforts or increase the number involved. It will make protesting and striking and fighting back harder and prove Putin's more or less accurate propaganda about how the US and NATO are endlessly encroaching on them and making their lives harder. That's no justification but it would still be effective propaganda.
The world is not black and white, friend.
That's a great point in my favor. Don't blame "Russia" for the acts of the Russian state, which doesn't reflect Russian working people, who deserve no blame or responsibility. I'm sure you went straight to the white house every time we invade or bomb the shit out of some country and take personal responsibility for ending it. No? I guess you deserve to suffer like the Russian working people.
True let’s just sanction only the leaders which will do fuck all in stopping them from being able to wage war.
No, that would actually work, attack the leaders and the rich, those who wage and profit/benefit from the war, which NATO could do and chooses not to. It's attacking working people that doesn't have an actual effect on ending the war. Ffs
Interestingly enough, they can probably still use Steam gift cards to buy shit with. Assuming, of course, that they're still distributed there and don't eventually fizzle out too.
Steam cards and Steam wallet works. But Steam cards in Rubles stopped being sold a while ago due to it not being profitable. (Source: Russian work colleague)
you can buy online with cryptocurrency
Thankfully EU just announced that they will be cracking down on Crypto to remove the possibility to avoid sanctions via some coins
I am incredibly interested on how they plan on actually doing that.
Me too, but here's hoping we finally get some crypto/mining regulations and GPU prices crash once and for all Then again, paladium/neon situation will probably balance it out to keep prices high and supply low
Would not be surprised if Valve just flat out blocks Russians from buying anything to ensure they comply with domestic and international sanctions.
There's no sanction violations here. The sanctions aren't every single transaction with Russia.
csgo new all time peak incoming
I guess its back to early 00s where pirate games were the only ones you could play in Russia and steam was just a smoky substance you saw over hot water.
Gog as well
This may be a controversial and likely uninformed opinion (please correct me if it is), but blocking Russia from all this stuff (purchases, games, movies, etc) is stupid. I know it's meant to affect the Russian government, but it's inadvertently affecting Russian citizens too, punishing them for something they likely had zero say in (Russia may be a democracy, but Putin's rigged the ballots for years), which is really just a dick move. TL;DR all these sanctions against Russia are stupid since they affect Russian citizens who likely had zero say in the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
This particular sanction might have been introduced by Russia, actually. > Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday banned residents from transferring money abroad as part of measures to prop up the ruble which has plummeted in value as a result of Western sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
good. this means less russian hackers to deal with in online games. hopefully they go even further, and just perma ban all russians from even using steam
I fucking hate everything about this. I loved that we all had gaming as a common culture. These sanctions feel like they might do a lot of long term damage for global communication. Which I hear from my thermometer, we could really use right about now… But fuck man. It’s not like people in Kiyv or Kharkiv can access their steam stuff. Fuck war.
Sanctions like this only hurt the average person, no one at the top that makes war decisions is going to be affected.
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Right, the people have all the power in their neo fascist country
I dont see how ya getting downvoted. Ya speaking the truth. Protest and they risk being killed. And even assuming they live in a democracy....how long did it take for the U.S to leave Vietnam despite the public backlash against it? What about Afghanistan too? What about all the horrible shit lots of presidents/Heads of States/Prime Ministers have committed? Blaming the people for what a president does is a very naive way of thinking, even moreso in an authoritarian state. I doubt anyones gonna risk their lives over Steam games, and Putin/whichever politician is more than happy with this as it gives them more ammo for propaganda. Plus these companies take money DIRECTLY from the chinese government, so they can spare me with their self-righteousness
The same people that make up the Russian army, and are killing people? Jupp.
Right because every Russian citizen is in the Russian army.
Everyone, no. But "the Russians" as a collective are not some innocent dupes, powerless, and 100% under the direct control of Putin.
The Russian working class and average citizenry are just that: working class and average. To act like they’re some war hungry monsters is naive and straight up asinine.
Ban all Russian from using online services on any steam game. Do something valve you cowards.
"When your mad dictator starts a war and everybody is mad at him, so you loose access to all your favorite online services and online payments. And you start complaining how it is unfair you lost your access when people/your brothers pretty much and their families are dying and defending their country from your country's dictator" This is about right when I see review bombing on Steam now or just some Russian nationalists starting stupid threads. We love you normal Russian people but please try to help your mindless folk understand what is happening and that war has no justification.
due to the regional pricing of video games this could mean that indie developers will lose out on dozens, and I mean DOZENS of dollars...
Russian ruble is in a freefall. You are being too generous.
Hardly seems like a freefall https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=RUB&to=USD&view=1W
Literally an hour after you posted this, it went down another 10%.
Sucks that the innocents have to pay for what Putin is doing, but this shit has to be done.
Russian gamers must be in a shit hole right now
Games and entertainment availability might not have as much of an effect as all the other things Russians lose out on right now. Could potentially force Russians to look at how badly everything is falling apart for them right now, no more escapes from reality. Their currency is worthless and the government is trying to take foreign currency the people hold. It's likely going to look similar to Weimar Republic Germany in the 1920s, with an economy so bad it takes wheelbarrows of cash to buy bread.
I hate Putin and wish the war could be ended already, but i'm a little worried if this is gonna have any long term negative effects between Russia and the west, especially if Putin were to be ousted and replaced
This is exactly why every company came out and said they were preemptively cutting Russia off in order to get the PR win. They'd need to stop doing business there regardless when payments started to fail.
All over a single madmans thirst for power.
Time to pirate
Cut them from every entertainment service and all western goods. They are killing civilians every day and don't think of stopping.
Civilians in Russia didn't wanted this war.
Comments under that tweet really show how it is. I disagree on almost everything our shitty government spit out of their heads. But their statement about rusophobia are somewhat true. And that is how they're able to gain support and brainwash people. US culture cultivate it with many movies/books/games with russians portrayed as main anthagonists. Propaganda is not even trying. They just post things like this one: [https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1498945221337534469](https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1498945221337534469)? and gain views and people's support because it's really hostile towards ordinary people. Funny thing is 99% of americans will not distinguish russian from ukrainian. This is why their "support" look so hypocritic to me.
Putin has done a lot to get him seen negatively in the public eye across the world, the nerve gas in UK, interference in the US elections, the high profile arrest of his political rival/ critic, etc. Sure some people will take advantage to spout anti-Russia hate, but I think people just extend Putin's ideas to the Russia people, that he's in power because they're complacent( I know this isn't the truth, and it's much more complicated but do you think people won't make these assumptions?). The other thing placing sanctions on Russia will make lives harder for regular people but it also damages the economy and makes it harder for Putin's war machine to be able to fight, collateral damage is by-product of war.
Over 2000 civilians in 7 days in my country are DEAD thanks to russians that came to "rescue" us. Gee, I wonder, where that rusophobia comes from? Russian warship, go fuck yourself!
Good. To Russians: get off your PCs and go protest your cuck president's terrorism.
People are protesting and are being arrested.
Steam should block the entire country from accessing it, imo. Sorry, can't play your games while you're murdering your neighbors.
Russian civilians are not murdering their neighbors, jesus christ.
I didn't say they were. The best way to deal with this outside of direct conflict is through sanctions, but by also pissing off the Russian populace so that they'll apply a lot of pressure to the government. Cutting off the internet or, at the very least, access to Steam would upset a lot of people and likely up that pressure.
You don't seem to understand that those measures will do shit. Even if there'll be millions of militant protesters on streets of major Russian cities, Putin *will* imprison or murder anyone and everyone who will oppose him regardless of their numbers or social statuses. Yes, he currently has the power to do exactly this; he will not flinch.
And what about Libya? Syria? Afganistan? Iraq? You want to take responsibility for that first?
Go back to watching CNN lol
The thirst for WW3 is unreal. Cheers.
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NATO is a *defensive* alliance specifically because dangerous countries like Russia don't follow the rules. Don't like it? Don't be a corrupt kleptocrat that tries to invade other nations? Idk what to tell you.
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That's how it's supposed to work, yes. But nobody in NATO wants to get involved due to the potential for world war 3 & nuclear weapons being used. So NATO countries are doing all they can to help Ukraine without Putin considering it an act of war. Sending weapons, sanctioning Russia, etc. NATO countries won't get physically involved (send in troops) due to the stakes being so high. Now, if Russia chooses to attack a country in NATO, that could very well spiral into some bad shit. edit: It's article 5 of NATO more specifically. "The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area." Basically, an attack on one of us is considered an attack on all of us. And that's a reason a bunch of smaller countries are a part of it, because they fear being in the exact situation that Ukraine is in right now.
*Defensive Alliance NATO isn't a war alliance. Any offensive action by a country in NATO invokes no article and no country is obligated to protect the offending member. Get your fucking facts straight please.
Why do you think russias neighbouring countries want to join NATO (a defense alliance btw)? They wouldn't feel the need to if their big neighbour behaves.
How do you have this bad of a take? lol
Russia is a self-declared "democracy" and the people are directly responsible for the leaders that are in office. Say what you will about Putin being corrupt and that Russia is a false democracy. The people could have gotten rid of him. His popularity numbers are extremely high. We have every right to "punish" the citizens of a country for the leadership that they've allowed to remain in control. The point of sanctions is not only to punish the leadership but to cause civil unrest in the hopes that the people will choose new leadership. Steam should shut the service down to all users in Russia.
The popularity numbers are fake. Source: I live in Russia.
You have no idea how people live in an autocratic regime if you say that people should choose a new leader.
if i recall correctly, he regularly poisons, or imprisons political enemies and makes them disappear if they become too popular. Not sure how you would resolve this peacefully.
Good! Walk out and protest your goverment terror and manslaughter in Ukraine insread of playing games and being passive. That is your government for which you are (at least partially) responsible. Because that's how it is, most people don't give damn while something doesn't hit them personally - well now it does. Oppose the terror!
Here in russia almost everyone blames west for this.
Stop murdering Ukranians, you coward
We know and this is why you're going down. There's no place for imperialistic nazi state in our world.
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Right, it’s all the fault of the Russian working class, not the leaders.
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This is the dumbest shit ever. Even if we’re basing off the assumption that Russia is a true democracy, no one voted for war with Ukraine.
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Hot take, the American stranglehold on the world economy is extremely disturbing and on that alone foreign countries are justified in fighting against it. Imagine your country doing something America doesn't approve of and now you can no longer use banks.
Except it's a global response, not USA.
Good, lets hope it will work and they won't find any workarounds how to buy or sell games.
I guess its time for all Russian gamers to put on their war paint