People heard about Steam's move against adult games on their Platform?

[Delmach]

Apparently the forced censorship isnt enough. Or removing uncensor patches from their platform.

"HuniePot, the developer of HuniePop and HunieCam Studio, recently informed their followers that Valve is prepping to remove HuniePop from Steam unless any and all sexual content that violates their guidelines are censored or edited out of the game. This is despite the fact that the Steam version of HuniePop is already censored."


"I’ve received an e-mail from Valve stating that HuniePop violates the rules & guidelines for pornographic content on Steam and will be removed from the store unless the game is updated to remove said content."

— HunieDev (@HuniePotDev) May 17, 2018


The NCOSE, as in, National Center on Sexual Exploitation, apparently wants to take some credit for that, saying this:

“Steam hosts approximately 35 million users who are children and teenagers, yet it also has hosted videogames that promote themes of sexual violence, exhibitionism, and rape, often depicting child-like characters in sexual scenes. It’s about time that the videogame community is responding to this #MeToo moment, and is distancing itself from gamified sexual violence.”


“Some game developers are claiming that Valve is “censoring” them, but Valve is a private company that can—and should—make decisions based on creating a safe and user-friendly environment for its users,”


Funny how they point out exhibitionism like its a bad thing, next to rape. Also people been wondering (mostly already ironical though) why big games like GTA V or Witcher 3 are no problem at all, but yeah theres more money behind it of course. A few more games also got letters that they have a short time to remove all content.

And of course the always present double standards, kill maim murder is fine (in most countries), but naked anime tits? Got to ban all of it. Wont somebody please think of the children. Seems to boil down to either allowing all content or none, apparently humanity is not capable of making fair decisions. And if its all or nothing im voting for all of it, all the time. Over 20 years of violent video games and numerous studies also showed what most knew already: We dont become mass murderer because of that content. Or run people over with a car for fun.

We got to the point of having those games on there, also some Japanese games with really good translation, like Meltys Quest and Fallen: Makina and the City of Ruins (and those are really fun games). Where japanese producer and western translator worked hand in hand to open their games to the other market. I would really hope to see more of it, not get more restrictions.

It also may hinder some of the western developers that had thoughts about releasing their games to Steam, seen a fair share of them. Retroactively applying censorship to a whole game can be quite bothersome, a fair share of developers probably noticed since last year.

 

[Dr PinkCake]

I absolutely abhor censorship and retroactive censorship is even worse in any shape or form! People who get offended these days have too much power over censorship imo.

These activists are likely the same type of people ranting about how video game violence creates mass murderers; which time after time has been proven to be false. I understand the argument that Steam should be a safe environment for families/kids but there are other ways around that issue besides from making adult content illegal on the platform. Parental filters and actually being a concerned parent who checks what their kid is doing online work wonders. And how about not letting your kid have access to a credit card on the computer. If your husband downloads adult games through Steam, then he is fully aware of what he should do to protect his children from seeing it.
Yes, the Witcher/GTA examples are perfect counter-arguments that Steam is hypocritical. As well as parents who still buy their pre-teen kids copies of these games. The Mature rating is there for a reason.

One game that was released on Steam recently is a VR game called VR Kanojo from Illusion games. Yes you read that correctly ILLUSION GAMES, the studio behind Rapelay, Artificial Academy etc. I've played the game without censorship. It is an amazing experience (seriously, try it) and basically just interactive VR sex. I dare not even think what the game is like censored because it would probably just be a five minute game with a kissing scene at most. There's literally nothing else to do in it besides from groping and progressing in H-scenes. When it was released on Steam I was positively surprised and actually hopeful that Valve finally would open up to the adult community! But it will likely get pulled too eventually.

 

[Chel]

While i don't like the change, i can see why steam is doing it. Plus, i find it kind of dumb that people are sending hate towards Valve because of this.

But lets be honest. Even if those developers do remove the nude content and the lewd patches, they will still float around, just not through official places. Nothing of value will be lost.

Huniepop is probably the one taking the biggest hit from this tho.

One thing i was wondering about tho, is that, arent some of the profile backgrounds you get from Huniepop and Huniecam studio, like really lewd? Not like nude or anything, but pose wise. Weird that they haven't forced changes to those.

 

[mesoru]

Huniepop has way less porn than than The Witcher 3. :test:

This seems more like an anti-weeb games crusade. Pretty backstabish from Valve to partner up with these devs years ago, make them follow a set of procedures to allow their games, make money on it, and then just throw it away all of sudden. But yah, i dare say this was already expected to happen after the SonoHana removal.

The main appeal of Steam was ofc the price. I don't like buying h-games there, but it's the only store that offers somewhat "fair" prices, especially for shitty countries like mine.
JAST USA is apparently implementing

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, but i didn't try to buy yet to see if it holds true. I hope MangaGamer also follow suit and pulls up the same strategy for us third worlders.

BTW if you guys don't know. Lupiesoft got mad at Steam and put Mutiny on a massive

You must be registered to see the links

.

 

[thecardinal]

I guess it was just a matter of time. We can still stick together here and other places until something replaces Steam and Patreon for porn games.

And I see where they are coming from on their stances on rape, sexual violence, and child-like characters (but exhibitionism, really?) but we all know that is just the beginning of the censorship

 

[Daxter250]

“Murder is illegal, but if you take a picture of it you may get your name in a magazine or maybe win a Pulitzer Prize. However, sex is legal, but if you take a picture of that act, you can go to jail.”
-- Larry Flynt

 

[megaplayboy10k]

I seriously doubt there are ANY studies (outside maybe Japan) regarding the playing of games featuring "edgy" sexual content and any rise in tendencies to act in antisocial/criminal ways. So instead they're extrapolating from the viewing of other media, which likely involves the viewing of live persons engaged in real or simulated "edgy" behaviors. Which is of course a different kettle of fish.

 

[NandabaCanti]

I have a feeling Valve may not even have been aware of any of this, at least at first. I bet those e-mails were automated based on the flood of false reports that came in for the affected games.

 

[kiteares]

#Sigh# said it before, I'll say it again...if you have money you're good. Yet more double standards in practice.
I am a nearly 40 year study in playing video games. I got a cheap copy of the Atari 2600 and have continued through various consoles to the PS2 at which point my son has taken over buying a PS3.
On the consoles sexy games have been very limited, but violence, while often illegal in the scenarios shown I've played in abundance. Still waiting to go my killing spree.
I've done a fair bit of exhibitionism, skinny dipping, nakey runs, sex on car bonnets etc....still never been raped or tried to rape anyone and never been involved in any form of domestic abuse other than spending over 10 years working with people going through it themselves.
Speaking as someone who has been tea-total for 25+ years, in light of all these restrictions that private organisations are putting on thier platforms, I'd suggest they look at how well prohibition went and that was a legalistive thing.
Hopefully this will be a rough couple of years that will see a rebirth in the adult games sector.
I fear for my grandchildren's generation, we had solid controls on all content which were gradually eased off until the kids were 16 with an ongoing education through that. The kids with none of this will know no better so when it comes to their own kids, they will be clueless about how to limit stuff they don't like but boy will they know how to be offended. Much as I hate a lot of crap that comes out of M$ their parental controls are very easy and over effective (lots of false positives), there is no excuse for any parent. Stopping now before the rant goes into meltdown.

 

[Delmach]

I absolutely abhor censorship and retroactive censorship is even worse in any shape or form! People who get offended these days have too much power over censorship imo.

These activists are likely the same type of people ranting about how video game violence creates mass murderers; which time after time has been proven to be false. I understand the argument that Steam should be a safe environment for families/kids but there are other ways around that issue besides from making adult content illegal on the platform. Parental filters and actually being a concerned parent who checks what their kid is doing online work wonders. And how about not letting your kid have access to a credit card on the computer.

Definitely agree on that part (and the others, but this here, yes).
There are numerous laws in numerous countries that can be described as "lazy parents" law.
Just like parents worrying their 10 year old kids go and catch those "pawkemons" on their own, with all those "crazy" people out there. Well how about you not let your child do that, or better, accompany it.

It also always hits the people that are old enough to determine on their own if they want that content.

And I see where they are coming from on their stances on rape, sexual violence, and child-like characters (but exhibitionism, really?) but we all know that is just the beginning of the censorship

Yeah, as seen with exhibitionism thrown in there by the NCOSE, you are only a decent human being as long as you like what they like. Thing is, the rape, sexual violence and child-like characters part is very exaggerated, just shows that most act with the "throw shit first" reaction, blow all out of proportion and you got their attention. Not to mention that we are talking about fictional content here.

I have a feeling Valve may not even have been aware of any of this, at least at first. I bet those e-mails were automated based on the flood of false reports that came in for the affected games.

Thing is, they know, as they had the situation with the game "House Party", and they also already acted on games having uncensor patches, their action was to not allow any of them to be found on their platform. Kind of reminds me of the Patreon situation we have at hands.

 

[Lynn]

Not to mention that we are talking about fictional content here.

Yeah, not like stuff like NCOSE would understand that concept. How ironical, organizations that definitely really want to help you and consider you as the lowest most impressionnable moron in the world cannot tell fact from fiction. And if somehow they do manage to differentiate those words, they'll cover up by saying it's a subconscious thing and you're absolutely being molded by those low-quality 3D models depicting the most unrealistic things you'll ever see in your life. Why not, after all, some states in America will put you in jail for downloading hentai.
But anyway, a quick google search on that particular acronym confirms that these guys only manage to be ridiculous.

The president is

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, who is a registered sex offender.

I guess that was my way of having my own little "#MeToo" moment... whatever the fuck that was supposed to be. Dumb situations like these make me happy that Rockstar would intentionally push the boundaries a little here and there, and add sex in their games just like they would add the possibility of comitting a few genocides.

 

[Henz]

Nice to see Value is focusing its efforts on the “real” problems of steam and not the flood of asset flips and never finished early access games

 

[NandabaCanti]

Thing is, they know, as they had the situation with the game "House Party", and they also already acted on games having uncensor patches, their action was to not allow any of them to be found on their platform. Kind of reminds me of the Patreon situation we have at hands.

That's a pretty big assumption to make. House Party is another case where it was up for months but eventually there was an effort to get it pulled after it got a lot of media hype, at which point the spike in reports triggered the moderation.

Valve are notorious for being understaffed and relying on statistical software to do most of their moderation work. Games that get a report or two here and there won't even register, but when suddenly they receive dozens or hundreds of reports within a short window of time their moderation software is going to take notice and the most likely response is an automated warning being sent to the related developers. What that software assumes is that if a game really is in violation a lot of people will notice and speak up, basically relying on the old idiom, "where there's smoke, there's fire." But this leaves them vulnerable to concerted attacks from malicious groups like the one responsible for this incident.

Now don't take that to mean I don't hold Valve responsible for their fair share of the blame here, since they are the ones who chose to rely on automation to handle their moderation, which led to this blatant abuse of their systems. But I also think it's ridiculous to assume a company like Valve just caved to some two-bit morality police, unless it's the rogue actions of a SJW staffer, like that time Hatred got pulled from Greenlight for a few days until GabeN found out and personally apologized for the incident.

 

[kokothebear]

Seems that both HunieDev and LupieSoft got an e-mail that their games are going to get re-reviewed and to disregard the 2 week deadline. Doesn't mean they're out of the woods yet, but at least they can breathe a little bit for the time being.

 

[Delmach]

That's a pretty big assumption to make. House Party is another case where it was up for months but eventually there was an effort to get it pulled after it got a lot of media hype, at which point the spike in reports triggered the moderation.

I meant that they know about the fuss about adult games on their platform, since they already dealt with it in the two occasions I mentioned, and probably a lot more often than that.

And the NCOSE was apparently one of the reasons House Party got censored at first. Various information can be found about that. And the statement was a lot of "this isnt acceptable in real life, so we cant have a game like House Party that is actually teaching players how-to blackmail, and/or rape people." Plus point to Steam for still having that game up and not caving in completly at that point.

Now about the other statements, that does sound all pretty reasonable, but people seem to have contacted them already and asked them for example about their double standards regarding AAA games. Especially since HuniePop is censored while others are not, and for a longer time. Talking about the big ones, GTA V, Witcher Series, to some degree Farcry if I remember correctly. Not that I would want any of them censored at all.

Now if what you are saying is that its just a group that abused their (easily abuseable) system with reports, I would like that, I would really like that, but things do point out that the developers were indeed contacted by something more human than a system.

Dumb situations like these make me happy that Rockstar would intentionally push the boundaries a little here and there, and add sex in their games just like they would add the possibility of comitting a few genocides.

Oh hell yeah, I welcome this, whenever it happens. Its not about tacking on sexual content when its really not fitting (which I would say isnt too often though) its about it missing nearly everywhere, as if sucked up with a vacuum. To be sure not to ever show anything like that anywhere. When its really one of the few things humanity needs to do, have sex and have a sexuality. Thats why I loved the first Witcher, when it was even less common. Even those small naked character Cards were a triumph.

 

[DarthSeduction]

How is this new? They've always had a stance against adult content. I'm not saying I agree with censorship, just saying that it's not a new story, it's older than the Patreon crackdown.

 

[PotatoNinja]

I don't understand why a simple age-gate or a "Click here to opt-in to adult content" couldn't solve this.

If theres a problem with Steam at the moment, its not the anime tiddies, its that the service is awash in absolute garbage tier shovelware.

 

[Delmach]

How is this new? They've always had a stance against adult content. I'm not saying I agree with censorship, just saying that it's not a new story, it's older than the Patreon crackdown.

Well since its new news, I guess. It apparently aired yesterday that developers got mail saying they would have to change their games (even more in a few cases) or face removal.

Now about that stance against adult content, yeah thats no real news, even though you gotta wonder why they allow it in the first place. Wait, that does sound oddly familiar...

 

[DarthSeduction]

Well since its new news, I guess. It apparently aired yesterday that developers got mail saying they would have to change their games (even more in a few cases) or face removal.

Now about that stance against adult content, yeah thats no real news, even though you gotta wonder why they allow it in the first place. Wait, that does sound oddly familiar...

I don't think they did. I think they didn't screen it. Like I said, it's a long standing stance. I think that the problem is that there were too many games flying under the radar.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

It's up to Valve what to put on their platform but it irks me immensely how hypocritical they are to allow games like The Witcher, which has plenty of nudity and sex scenes. I've heard the argument that these games ''don't focus on the sex'', but

1. there's no clear line to draw here, it seems pretty arbitrary.

2. sex sure as hell is a selling point for The Witcher to the point of having collectible items from sex scenes.

3. The Witcher 2 has sex and frontal nudity pretty much as soon as you start the game up! The fanservice is undeniable.