Itch.io to reindex adult content

[Winterfire]

Yet there's no reason to be happy, because itch.io is the hardest hit.

Patreon survived (and really well) its own hit 8 years ago. Steam will survive its hit. But itch.io have to find few millions if it want to continue servicing adult games through payment.

For people like me that have only used Itch.io to promote other pages (Patreon), this "feels" like a victory for sure. At least for what I do, things are back to normality. It sure makes me happier than I was the day before.
However, if I take into consideration everything, of course not. We're still cooked, and it can still get worse, that's why we (still) need to fight until Mastercard/Visa stop overeaching by trying to make their own laws.

 

[peterppp]

Not I. My game is still not listed. The whole principle in my mind for donations is that you are donating to the developer you are not donating to the game. I understand their concerns but you can't just take a hammer to all NSFW games like this, there are people's livelihoods at stake here. People who spend a lot of time and effort to build content, content that breaks no laws. For me Itch is not a huge revenue stream, but it's still an important one and also acts as a vehicle to get word out on my game. It's a big loss to me and this fixes absolutely nothing.

then change it to "no payment" for now to maximize the exposure. but how much views have you really lost? 30%? 50%? being deindexed doesn't stop views that come from outside of itch, like from reddit or google

another suggestion is to make it paid only for now to compensate for lost views

 

[XforU]

My game was removed for 2 hours then came back, but is still not indexed so I suppose the review doesn't actually matter and all the paid games will be removed.

I don't think itch is the enemy, but bringing back only completely free games looks like a "look, it's fine now" move to reduce the negative sentiment against them. Imo this doesn't change anything.

We are still fucked.

 

[anne O'nymous]

[...] but is still not indexed so I suppose the review doesn't actually matter and all the paid games will be removed.

It's explicitly said in the blog post linked in OP...

If you’d like to be eligible for today’s re-indexing, your page must have the following option checked: (The “No Payments” option under the “Pricing” section of your project’s Edit Page in your Dashboard)

 

[XforU]

It's explicitly said in the blog post linked in OP...

Yeah, why bring it back if they're gonna remove it later though? It feels like they still don't know what they'll do.

 

[Midnight Passion]

Are they re-indexing everything today, or will they have to manually review some games first? I've been waiting to release my project and am hoping it'll be visible once I set the project live.

 

[Vivi404]

I have put all my games back to 0 or donate. Up yours Itch do better.

 

[Winterfire]

I have put all my games back to 0 or donate. Up yours Itch do better.

It won't work, needs to be "no payments".

 

[VeryVexxing]

Yeah, why bring it back if they're gonna remove it later though? It feels like they still don't know what they'll do.

Well they kinda don't know what to do unfortunately, as the credit card mafia has waltzed in and torpedoed their business model. They wouldn't have given themselves these headaches otherwise.

 

[Vivi404]

It won't work, needs to be "no payments".

I know.. 'They are al now worth 1k'!

 

[Midnight Passion]

It won't work, needs to be "no payments".

Oh thanks for pointing that out. Is there a way to check if your game is indexed or not? I suppose I can just look at analytics.

 

[t77genki]

I guess half the problem is solved. The chance for exposure from a game simply being allowed on itch is pretty important and valuable.
No payments is obviously a problem that I would hope gets solved soon, but that's going to take time.

 

[PopotoProductions]

Oh thanks for pointing that out. Is there a way to check if your game is indexed or not? I suppose I can just look at analytics.

You can look for your game's title in the search bar, or in some of its tags page, but yeah the analytics are a pretty good indicator. Here's mine for today :

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[VeryVexxing]

You can look for your game's title in the search bar, or in some of its tags page, but yeah the analytics are a pretty good indicator. Here's mine for today :

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Damn. It angers me that you guys have to deal with this absolute fucking garbage. The CC mafia strikes again

 

[XforU]

I guess half the problem is solved. The chance for exposure from a game simply being allowed on itch is pretty important and valuable.
No payments is obviously a problem that I would hope gets solved soon, but that's going to take time.

What part of the problem is solved? Literally got worse. From "only rape and incest" to "everything that earn you money".

 

[peterppp]

What part of the problem is solved? Literally got worse. From "only rape and incest" to "everything that earn you money".

no. first they deindexed all adult games. now they reindexed all games with no pay (except the ones banned/suspended).

 

[Insanatee]

Check on twitter. Mastercard sent out a response that was complete gaslighting, stating they weren't banning adult games. Kotaku reached out to Valve for confirmation and they confirmed that payment processors and banks cited mastercard as justification for banning adult games. They are currently being dragged online for lying. Some users are looking through their 400+ page TOS and finding inconsistencies that are intentionally vague, talks of potential ethics complaints and lawsuits are happening but only in those threads.

 

[XforU]

no. first they deindexed all adult games. now they reindexed all games with no pay (except the ones banned/suspended).

No. The games that aren't going completely free aren't being re-indexed. This means mostly demos will be available. Meanwhile you can post games on Steam with pay as long as they don't have incest and rape. It's not better at all. Also TOS has been updated, so even the free games will have to follow the incest and rape stuff. So technically, nothing good has happened for the devs.

Check on twitter. Mastercard sent out a response that was complete gaslighting, stating they weren't banning adult games. Kotaku reached out to Valve for confirmation and they confirmed that payment processors and banks cited mastercard as justification for banning adult games. They are currently being dragged online for lying. Some users are looking through their 400+ page TOS and finding inconsistencies that are intentionally vague, talks of potential ethics complaints and lawsuits are happening but only in those threads.

Visa has the same bs statement a few days ago. They're all acting like they have nothing to do with it. This should be used as greenlight by Steam and Itch in front of the processors.

 

[Insanatee]

No. The games that aren't going completely free aren't being re-indexed. This means mostly demos will be available. Meanwhile you can post games on Steam with pay as long as they don't have incest and rape. It's not better at all. Also TOS has been updated, so even the free games will have to follow the incest and rape stuff. So technically, nothing good has happened for the devs.


Visa has the same bs statement a few days ago. They're all acting like they have nothing to do with it. This should be used as greenlight by Steam and Itch in front of the processors.

The actual quote a lot of people are citing is " A Merchant must not submit to its Acquirer, and a Customer must not submit to the interchange System, any Transaction that is illegal, or in the sole discretion of the Corporation, may damage the goodwill of the Corporation or reflect negatively on the Marks."

So rather that just sticking to blocking illegal content they gave themselves a out. Not sure if anyone with legal experience can attest to this. They are a private company sure, but to go out of their way to hide their own TOS and lie to their customers?

 

[Vivi404]

I say this is olive branch has some rotten olives on it. I am not going to alow them to parade my games on their site to be al like 'look you guys, we are totally on your side'.