It's unfortunate because there really isn't anything anyone can do except wait for regulation or try raising awareness/usage of crypto payments or cash by mail
Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
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Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
The major problem is the payment processors though. Unless you defeat that duopoly or only accept cash how do you stop this exact situation? There are the FedNow tokens and ACH which could help but it still requires quite a bit of cost to begin even that route. My customers are going to want to use their cards to pay too.
There's the Fair Access to Banking Act ( https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/401 ), currently stuck in committee, which would make it illegal for various financial services, including payment processors, to deny service for mere reputational reasons.
I wrongly assumed this was a D bill, and would die in committee. Turns out it's actually an R bill, with exclusively R sponsors, and now I'm wondering what awful shit is hiding in it.
Though almost all of the sponsors are from almost 6 months ago, so it might die in committee anyway.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#53It's not a slippery slope, they're targeting non-porn games literally right now. Detroit Become Human, a very well reviewed cinematic/adventure game especially among non-gamers was one of their targets.
From the subhed: "Even games that have nothing to do with sex or abuse have been caught in the dragnet."
Detroit: Become Human has abuse as significant element to its story. It came under attack from the "National Association of People Abused in Childhood" when it came out, and also from Collective Shout.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#54This is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to create a censorship-resistant platform, though, I don't know how you do it profitably when CSAM and other potentially criminal content needs to be reviewed.
create a good censorship resistant payment network (stripe replacement) and these platforms would probably just be your customers?
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#55This is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to create a censorship-resistant platform, though, I don't know how you do it profitably when CSAM and other potentially criminal content needs to be reviewed.
The major problem is the payment processors though. Unless you defeat that duopoly or only accept cash how do you stop this exact situation? There are the FedNow tokens and ACH which could help but it still requires quite a bit of cost to begin even that route. My customers are going to want to use their cards to pay too.
Is it not possible to jawbone them into favoring free speech?
If they are easy to sway in one direction, why not the other? Simply do what Collective Shout did, but in the opposite direction?
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#56More caving to the ultra-religious pearl grippers who just have nothing better to do than tell others how to live. All the hate speech trash and troll talk on the Steam forums is fine though. All the war games are fine though. Make sure people can validate genocide and what not but not see titties.
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Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree completely that they align with the religious right in this aspect, but you can't pretend that sex-negativity isn't a huge school of thought in feminism. Vague calls to "stop the sexualization of women in media (aimed at hetrosexual men)" have been a huge part of the casual feminist suite of views for at least a decade.
It's interesting that you equate opposition to sexualization of women in media with sex negativity. One does not necessarily imply the other. You can be sex positive and believe that media sexualizes women to a problematic degree.
There's a reason I wrote "casual feminist suite of views" because while they two are very closely linked they are indeed separate.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#58This is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to create a censorship-resistant platform, though, I don't know how you do it profitably when CSAM and other potentially criminal content needs to be reviewed.
These conservative groups aren't pressuring Steam and Itch directly, they're targeting payment processors. I don't think it's realistically viable to compete with Steam (or Itch) without access to Mastercard and Visa. (For anyone thinking crypto: we have a different idea of what it means to be either "realistically viable" or to "compete with Steam")
Maybe a silly idea, but here’s a solution to prevent financial censorship: make the game free. Or monetize via another way—ads, subscriptions, credits. There’s actually a lot of options for Steam if they aren’t being pressured directly to remove the content.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the subhed: "Even games that have nothing to do with sex or abuse have been caught in the dragnet."
Detroit: Become Human has abuse as significant element to its story. It came under attack from the "National Association of People Abused in Childhood" when it came out, and also from Collective Shout.
This amuses me, as my wife deals with trauma from childhood abuse, and she absolutely loved that game.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#60My free speech red line is criticism of govt and leaders. Ban all the porn games ya want, I don't think they're very valuable.
When did pornography become protected speech?