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Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
371–380 of 953 posts
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is being pushed by an Australian Feminist organization, not the American Religious Right.
It's unfathomable that an Australian Feminist organization wields this much power in the U.S. and globally. It seems more likely that this is a front.
You're not wrong. I read a couple days ago that this group receives funding from evangelical organizations to do stunts like this. I don't know if the intention is to false flag feminists as responsible, but it sure seems like it.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#373What is wrong with these people who try to block certain content? Don't like porn? Don't buy it. Simple as that. No one, including governments or payment processors, should be in the position to decide whether a platform can sell something or not. I wish there was a payment processor who was brave enough to say a big fucking NO to censorship.
I agree with your sentiment, but declaring that a company shouldn't be free to decide who they can and can't do business with isn't the solution to this problem and I am no friend of the business world. It seems fine now when it's something you don't like but what happens when it's a situation that isn't so agreeable? like being legally oblidged to do business with South Africa during apartheid or working with a choc…
A payment processor should be treated like a utility. They just let the money flow and skim profit off the top without caring who's at either end.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't really disagree with you, but to play devil's advocate - when you see something that you think is harmful to society, what determines whether or not it's moral and appropriate to advocate for and work towards its abolition in what you see as the best interest of everyone? Is "Don't like X? Don't buy it" as far as we should go with... AI-produced child porn? Rolling coal and other egregious pollution? Online g…
> when you see something that you think is harmful to society, what determines whether or not it's moral and appropriate to advocate for and work towards its abolition Evidence. If you think something is harmful to society, you have a hypothesis. The next step is to test it. Not assume it's true and ban everything. I have seen zero evidence that any of these games are harmful. If I had to hazard a guess, and this is…
Thing is, with things like these, they only need one or a handful of cases. With everything, there is always a handful of cases - porn addicts, gambling addicts, revenge porn victims, trans women in women's spaces and sports, etc. The fundamentalists and right-wing media will hyperfocus and signal boost these statistically insignificant cases to push their own agenda.
For them, n=1 is enough evidence. For their moral compass or larger scale goals, n=1 is one too many.
There will always be some people - teenagers or otherwise - that develop mental health issues from e.g. porn games. But there's people developing mental health issues from Farmville or ChatGPT supposedly turning sentient and sharing the infinite Truth of the universe too. Somehow those aren't an issue.
It's not about preventing mental health issues. It's not about protecting women.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#375What is wrong with these people who try to block certain content? Don't like porn? Don't buy it. Simple as that. No one, including governments or payment processors, should be in the position to decide whether a platform can sell something or not. I wish there was a payment processor who was brave enough to say a big fucking NO to censorship.
> ”I wish there was a payment processor who was brave enough to say a big fucking NO to censorship.“
Perhaps we could develop some form of secure digital currency that is not reliant on central authorities such as banks, payment processors, or governments?
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is being pushed by an Australian Feminist organization, not the American Religious Right.
It's unfathomable that an Australian Feminist organization wields this much power in the U.S. and globally. It seems more likely that this is a front.
The processors had this bias for decades. Some calls that already conform to what they want to do needs less nudging than proper consumer rights.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
> _before_ the law gets involved There's no law (as of now). If there was a law, Valve would happily de-list these things. For example, a recent custom map for Mount and Blade that was banned in South Korea: https://automaton-media.com/en/news/valve-cooperates-in-bann...
This is my entire point: Valve and Itch do not police their store fronts (Itch actually does, it won't allow any games it thinks are 'hatred' but other content is OK) and now the payment processors think the risk is too great. I think one solution for Valve/Itch to continue with the 'no policing policy' is for governments to step in and say all video games needed classification like films do. I think a few of these v…
Steam's storefront is actually policed somewhat, their rules are simply not the same as the ones you want them to have.
> governments to step in and say all video games needed classification like films do.
Valve and (I believe) Itch are both US companies. In the US, films are not required to get a rating anymore.
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you have to be Puritanical or particularly religious to realize that some content is generally not good for people. I've seen this destroy lives, drive addiction and lead to other forms of destructive behavior. Religion and taboo often exist for a reason, because endless self gratification does not lead to flourishing. You don't have to agree that it should be banned, but you can at least concede it's n…
>Religion and taboo often exist for a reason, because endless self gratification does not lead to flourishing. So then why aren't those activists going after Instagram, TicTok, X/Twitter, etc. you know, the OG spyware, brain rot and anxiety inducing companies, because that would actually benefit society and not too many people would mourn their loss. Why are they instead going after a dozen random horny video games n…
So then why aren't those activists going after Instagram, TicTok, X/Twitter, etc. you know, the OG spyware, brain rot and anxiety inducing companies
What makes you think they aren't? Because it hasn't been discussed in the HN bubble?
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#379[dead]
Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Puritanical origins of the US reverberate to this day. While coming for "freedom of religion" sounds like a noble origin story, the context was that they wanted the freedom to practice a much stricter, restrictive form of religion than that allowed by the Church of England.
I'm not so sure you can point the finger at the USA for this. I ran an online porn website for almost 20 years. For 15 years it was my primary source of income. I'm in Canada which, compared to the USA is extremely progressive. In 2022, after a decade of doing business with a certain bank as this business, never having hidden anything about what we did, my wife and I received an urgent, signature required, overnighte…
Thank you for your story. I like to try to imagine what conversations happened behind the scenes. The fact that the suddenly hauled you into the branch, and still decided that you were too "risky" (clearly a made-up excuse) says a lot. Whatever force is behind this is powerful and it's not even remotely explained by a coalition of angry activists.