[ROTMetro]

With Valve's take on being one of the few companies to stay in Russia, with details on how to get around sanctions stickied in their forums by official forum mods for quite a while after the sanctions were put in place (and with no response from steam when I submitted complaints that they were allowing sanctions evasion thinly veiled as simply (official steam moderators) posting this information) I don't see Valve as being some sort of virtuitious savior.

[from]

The gaming industry was not sanctioned and there are no export controls on video games. What do you want them to do? If by "sanctions evasions" you mean telling people to buy virtual cards to pay for games or gift cards I will tell you none of that is illegal. How exactly would banning Russians from Steam save anyone anyways? Savvy Russians have been using VPNs for everything for a long time now, it would make no difference.

[philwelch]

A lot of people seem to support collective punishment of the entire Russian population. It’s somewhat alarming to me.

[stussy_g]

I will never miss an opportunity to admit that plenty of thoughtful people in Russia don't support this war and feel awful about that. But there is a chance to get a fine or to be commited in crime for that kind of speech. Gamers use vpn, trukish accounts and prepaid cards. Also a lot of steam deck salers on local cragelist. Peace