Steam is now banned in Vietnam

As a vietnamese American, my mom always told me stories about the shitty government. Most citizens in Vietnam know the laws are dumb too but can't protest because the government is too strong now. Just know that EVERYTHING is regulated over there.

The local devs were not trying to get steam banned. Hell they wanted steam but wanted to play by the same rules and pointed out how strict their own laws and requirements were.

Vietnam govt said you're right, it's not fair and banned steam to make sure everyone plays by their rules rather than admit the rules were stupid and draconic.

It's not immediately obvious to me that indie developers in Vietnam won't be able to find an international publisher. While I don't approve of the law, it does strike me as potentially having a positive effect on Vietnamese studios.

Today I learned Texas is communist.

I guarantee you, they're not communist, they're authoritarian.

Valve has faced criticisms from former employees in the past for its toxic work culture. And Gabe Newell, being the CEO, has a lot of power over that.

Just because the places you frequent on the internet don't shove criticism of Valve down your throat the same way it would do so for, say, Epic Games, doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with Valve as a company. All the pro-Valve/Steam information you get and the general sentiment towards Gabe Newell from people on Lemmy and Reddit are pure, undiluted corporate propaganda. That it comes from Steam users rather than being something Steam directs and pays for doesn't change what it is.

you’re seeing different posts by different people and conflating the two

This ignores the reality that Lemmy is, at least in the part of it consisting of lemmy.ml, lemmy.world, and others, overwhelmingly leftist. This comment also attempts to dismiss the underlying criticism that Lemmy as a whole has a culture that, much like reddit, seeks to pick and choose its targets under capitalism and actively engages in corporate apologia, like in this post, while collectively professing a broad ethos that is outright hypocritical when viewed in the light of that other behavior. And if you think Lemmy is amenable to a diverse array of economic opinions, then maybe you should try posting a "Capitalism Appreciation Thread" on a major lemmy instance and see how that goes over.

I hate capitalism. And Valve. Because it's a capitalist institution and I'm at least consistent.

It is impossible to criticize any actions taking place by any entity against a capitalist entity without defending capitalism yourself.

It depends on the purpose and shape of that criticism. If you criticize a communist nation banning a particular corporation's marketplace from their country on the basis that doing so is a part of a grift that seeks to engineer a national-level monopoly over a particular corporate sector by banning external competition, then, sure, that's a valid criticism because the intent is innately unethical. But if the Vietnamese video game industry is actively harmed by Steam, an American company, using its vast resources to outcompete Vietnamese publishers, then what is your opposition to this that doesn't encompass a de facto defense of free market capitalism?

Linus Torvalds net worth could be way higher if he took jobs a big tech companies (that were easily available to him) instead of choosing a career path that ensure Linux' independence.

For anyone curious, it's around 150 million USD.

Less data siphoned off to the USA. Less markets for a US company. One avenue less for western propaganda.