Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope • Hacker News Board

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#951

Post by Dweller1622 » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 9:07 PM UTC

Dweller1622 wrote: post #950

nosignono wrote: post #946

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I should have included -- in the context of the story. They are of course, not agents. They are fictional characters in a videogame. But humans built them, and humans framed them in the camera. Those humans did have the choice to provide them with a setting in which the characters do or do not have that agency. Those humans chose whether or not to depict that agency. Art reflects something about the creator, a…

There's a number of things being said here, but much of it seems orthogonal to the original discussion and so I'm not going to address it. Rather, if these characters aren't agents, I wonder where this leaves us re: sex positivity and "media [that] sexualizes women to a problematic degree." I don't think anything here tells me.

I'm not the biggest fan of how I phrased some of this. Perhaps "and so I'm opting not to speak to those point."

Unfortunate how short the edit window for comments is on here. In either case, I suppose what I'm saying is clear enough.

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#952

Post by drdeca » Sun, Aug 10, 2025, 7:48 PM UTC

immibis wrote: post #939

drdeca wrote: post #923

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did I imply that our purpose was to breed? I don’t believe that. I didn’t even say that the relations were specifically to be reproductive.

Why do you believe the parts you believe but not the other parts?

The parts of what?

Just because the belief system I believe includes some beliefs that some other belief system has, doesn’t mean I’m like, taking portions from that other belief system.

(If you think that Christianity says that the purpose of people is purely to reproduce, you are quite mistaken.)

The purpose of people is to be in loving relation with God, and with each-other. The purpose of coitus is to further those goals, by symbolism, by strengthening affection among a married couple, and by producing more people.

And the purposes of sexual desire follows from these purposes.

(To justify the claim that Christianity does not say that coitus should only ever be done with the goal of reproduction: If one burns with desire, it doesn’t become not right to marry on account of being infertile. Now, I think one should be open to the possibility of a child, and be willing to raise a child if need be, but it doesn’t need to be the goal of the marriage.)

Of course, I recognize that some people reject the idea that there are purposes to these things / reject that there is a telos to things. I don’t think either I nor they will convince the other in this thread.

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#953

Post by CHUCKEESH » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 9:47 AM UTC

nosignono wrote: post #946

Dweller1622 wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's fine, since I think it's not only the case that these are sufficient, but that I simply wasn't explicit enough in my rejection. What I'm disputing is any application of objectification theory to media analysis wherein there are no actual agents involved. Neither The Handmaiden nor Night Sister Mirrin ever possessed any agency, nor were they deprived of it. There is simply no moral valence in how one treats…

Sorry, I should have included -- in the context of the story. They are of course, not agents. They are fictional characters in a videogame. But humans built them, and humans framed them in the camera. Those humans did have the choice to provide them with a setting in which the characters do or do not have that agency. Those humans chose whether or not to depict that agency. Art reflects something about the creator, a…

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