Profile of SturmtigerCobra

*snip*
Understandably, reaction from China’s gamers has been less than ecstatic. The most upvoted comment on a post referencing Win.gg’s report on microblogging platform Weibo echoes the language used when the Chinese government discusses Taiwan:

“The position of China’s Steam fans on the issue of Steam’s foreign relations is very clear. We adhere to the principle of ‘one Steam’ and oppose the ‘split’ position, which is unswerving and will be increasingly recognized and supported by the international community. Any attempt to create ‘two Steams’ is doomed to failure.”

But like it or not, it seems China’s gamers will be forced to make do with a more “harmonious” version of Steam in the not-too-distant future.

Valve officially announced the arrival of Steam China in Shanghai on Wednesday. But Chinese gamers are telling the PC gaming platform to “get lost!”
One of the most upvoted comments wrote, “Steam China get out of China.”
It’s important to point out that gamers are directing their anger at Steam China, not Steam. In fact, Chinese gamers love Steam… the global version of it, anyway.

PC gaming in China is huge. According to Asian games market research firm Niko Partners, there were an estimated 321 million PC gamers in the country in 2019. By comparison, the entire population of the US was around 328 million in 2019.

One of the most popular digital distribution platforms for games is Steam, available in many countries around the world including China, where it has over 30 million users. Despite its popularity in China, Steam operates in a gray area. Certain content and features aren’t accessible without a VPN, but gamers can still purchase games, including some titles that haven’t gone through the official domestic approval process in China. For developers, the approval process can be vague, time-consuming and costly, which is why Steam is such an appealing option.

In 2018, Perfect World announced a partnership with Valve, maker of Steam to develop a localized version of the platform that would be independent from the widely used global version. While no release date has been set, it’s reportedly getting closer to being launched. Meanwhile, uncertainties surrounding Steam China have left some gamers and developers worried they’ll be locked out of the global version of Steam.

To explain to you more about the PC gaming scene in China, and the role that Steam plays in it, watch this video by KrASIA.

Jump back to quoted post20 Mar 2019, 21:15 PMSp33dSnake

In conclusion, I don't think there really is a ethical consideration if you're just fantasizing about being a commander of a military and enjoy out thinking a rival player. If that was the case, chess is racist because a white army is fighting a black army, and the white army gets to go first.

News story news.com.au JUNE 25, 2020:
https://www.news.com.au/sport/more-sports/abc-is-chess-racist-debate-garry-kasparov-slams-broadcaster/news-story/bf497773690718a9cfca1b2746e3e7b5

ABC is chess racist debate: Garry Kasparov slams broadcaster:
Garry Kasparov, rated by many as the greatest chess player in history, couldn’t believe the ABC was investigating if the game is racist.

We hope it wasn’t, but if this was just an attention-grab then the ABC has us all checkmate.

A radio debate by the public broadcaster about whether chess is racist was not only widely slammed in Australia — including by former international representative John Adams — it even earned the ire of perhaps the best to ever do it.

Garry Kasparov, the Russian who was the game’s number one player for the best part of three decades, couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw news.com.au’s coverage of the debate, which aired on Wednesday.

It came after ABC host James Valentine saw a post on Twitter noting white moved first in the popular board game and thought it was worthy of further discussion.

Fair to say Kasparov didn’t. “If you are worried that the game of chess is racist, please take up Go, where black moves first, instead of looking foolish by wasting taxpayer money at a state broadcaster to ‘investigate’ it!” the 57-year-old tweeted.

It followed Adams’ stern rebuke on Tuesday. “I just received a phone call from an ABC Sydney based producer seeking a comment about the game of chess,” Adams posted to Twitter.

“The ABC have taken the view that chess is RACIST given that white always go first!

“They are seeking comment from a chess official as to whether the rules of chess need to be altered!

“Trust the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster to apply ideological Marxist frameworks to anything and everything in Australia!

“With all the drama resulting from COVID-19, I am amazed that the ABC is broadcasting on irrelevant topics!”

But Cameron defended the topic on Wednesday. “On social media I came across a post from a father about his child who asked ‘why does white have to go first?’ The father, thinking about the question, considered it in the context of these times and the discussion about black and white,” he said.

Valentine added he “never intended” to run an interview on whether chess was racist, but instead to “have a discussion about a discussion”.

He then proceeded to talk about why it was “wrong” that Minties were only available in white. Seriously.

Epic Games - 40 percent
Tencent's $330 million investment in Epic Games back in June 2012 triggered one of the most dramatic shifts in PC gaming of the last decade, ushering in a new era of free-to-play games as a service. Seeing that "the old model" of selling games wasn't working, Epic founder Tim Sweeney decided to join forces with Tencent to better learn about operating live-service games. It paid off.