Gamers really do have an obsession with Valve similar to how some people have unhealthy attachments to celebrities.
The author of this Eurogamer article doesn't want Steam to censor games, but he's really upset over their lack of a principled stand on the issue. It's crazy to me that a person would get this worked up over a corporation's decision making if he doesn't even disagree with its ultimate outcome.
That sort of scrutiny over motivations for behavior should be reserved for family members and loved ones. Some of these people seem to think that just because they really loved Half-life Valve should be in a constant quest for their approval.
That's not just any author. That's the editor.
This paragraph articulates one of the dumbest and most misguided arguments I have ever heard voiced regarding free markets:
The astonishing arrogance that underlies this delusion can be found in this passage of Johnson's blog: "If you're a player, we shouldn't be choosing for you what content you can or can't buy. If you're a developer, we shouldn't be choosing what content you're allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make." Guess what, Valve: we still have those choices regardless of what you do. As huge as Steam is, it does not actually have a global hegemony on video game distribution. Other ways of making, distributing and playing games exist, but Valve appears to think that by removing a game from the Steam store it is effacing it from existence. It has confused itself with national governments, the internet, society itself. It actually thinks it has absolute power.
Those choices don't exist regardless of what Valve does.
Know why, Eurogamer? Because your argument is contingent on the presumption that
other vendors
do offer the choice of whatever game is being censored by Valve. This is not guaranteed, and in fact, the opposite would be ensured if we extend your proposed logic for Valve's own internal management-- to become a closed market-- to the wider market as a whole. Obviously we
wouldn't be living in a free market, anymore, but a bazaar of selective censorship.
The consequences of this are the most plain if you reverse the direction of censorship, from product to customer, but maintain authority with the vendor. After all, if Valve served up hamburgers, not video games, would Oli be arguing, "Just because Valve denies service to black people, and won't allow them in the restaurant, doesn't mean that there aren't other restaurants out there where they could buy a hamburger!"
This is the man in charge of Eurogamer? Their organizing mind? Jesus, that's depressing.
