Steam receives pressure from payment processors -- pulls adult games with incest/rape

[Saerwen]

BTW - I'm not seeing activity over in another thread - don't know if people are aware but:
Civitai will block access to the UK starting 24 Jul 2025 due to their statement that they do not have the ability to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act.
https://f95zone.to/threads/civitai-blocking-access-to-the-united-kingdom.262866/

Wasn't Civitai banned? I mean nsfw ai? I remember reading an article that they generated REAL people in pornographic situation and they got in a lot of trouble. These degens ruin the fun for the rest of us.

 

[SuccubusEnjoyer]

I actually feel relieved that these games are gone. There was a lot of slop on steam and almost nothing of value was lost. This act of justified censorship (apparently just in my head). Will inevitably lead to transformation of game monetization system to better state... Someday we may even see the avg use maintaining cryptographic credentials and while scavenging censorship resistant waters of truly open and free global communication network.

Oh yeah it's absolutely amazing especially the way it's handled.
Imagine being a game dev who wants to invest 40k usd in making an actual game, not some asset slop.
But he knows that at any point the rules can change, the wimsy of the payment processor can decide their core fetish to be unnaceptable and their entire business model goes to shit.

If anything any single fetish no matter how mild can be banned.

Furry = Bestiality
Gender bender = non consent, person didnt consent to being turned into an opposite gender
A street fighter like 2d game where you get to fuck your oponent = sexual violence.

Etc.

 

[Elianier]

I don't care about those games. However, I care and aware of slippery slope. First they ban this. Then they ban everything else, till there will be nothing. Do you really think they will stop?

 

[Diegobrandinho]

Companies hardly come out of their own initiative to handle violations. They typically handle only that which was reported. I think OF mostly ensured their cooperation due to the PR they conduct, rather than by obeying the strict rules (there are a lot of exceptions to those rules on OF after all). The PR makes them less of a reputational threat, and they also handle abuse of their platform on a regular basis.

As for the method to fund creators. Maybe something akin to what DLSite did? An external service where you can buy points using payment processors, which are the actual product sold, but which can then be exchanged for the products on the platform? It adds another layer of activity to the process, but it should be a small cost to pay when alternative is excessive censorship.

Now you really got my attention, what exceptions do credit card companies make for OnlyFans?

 

[pussdickpuss1980]

Now you really got my attention, what exceptions do credit card companies make for OnlyFans?

Probably something along the lines, 'it's okay when women do it'.

 

[Ironstrom]

There are articles online talking about 1000's of adult games being banned but I really see the exageration going about now this is about 10 time the real number. In reality its around 60 games if we don't count the games that have been split into 30 episodes that are 5 minutes long. Also ignoring the dlcs of the said games that add in the cut content but on steam.
In reality its less invidual developers a bunch of dev/publishers with large catalogs.

Bare in mind steam recently had a issue with season pass and episodic content rules of advertising a product that had no clear definitive release date of the rest of the content or splitting up content that wasn't orgionally advertised as such. Such as selling a game as non episodic then turning it episodic post release.

There have been ban waves of a catalog before as what some devs do is get their game approved,release it then modify the content or store page post release they put a tame trailer out to get store page approved then put a much different one out at later date thinking it will generate more sales.

I looked up 20 different games from the ban wave and they all included under age characters usually in school outfits. Even if its advertised as this is an adult they are still in a school setting with someone putting the uncensored screenshot on the community section this is where a community member basicly gives trouble to the developer but the developer has to moderate it or risk trouble.

Steam have always been sensitive to school settings/small breasted characters that are questionable by "normy standards" or ditzy innocent immature young looking characters of ambigious age not set in a real job/unverified educational situation. The games that seem fine with it are the ones that cut every piece of adult content from their game and list as non ao games and advertise their games as some sort of real game or adventure.

What did the people reporting these games do find the most violent looking ones to help their cause the ones shouting from the roof tops our game contains taboo characters in vunrable situations. Being easy to find under easy identifable search terms.

 

[magus448]

You are confusing artistic narrative with narrative intended for sexual gratification.

If something is considered to have artistic merit, and not simply for sexual thrill - it is not normally considered pornographic or violating obscenity laws/regulations/societal opinion. Even so, it is difficult for creators of written works, films, etc that do come close to that line of differentiation to get their content past the editors and industry regulation. See novels like "Lolita" and movies like "Caligula" as examples of artistic merit --- and still, they are regulated as obscene/banned in some jurisdictions around the world.

Also, GoT is censored/edited for content due to violence and sex in various parts of the world.

Yet these people who are so bent on censoring don't event bother to to think of games as art. They don't event try. Been that way for a long time with these pearl clutching groups who are out of touch and ignorant of what they judge. As you should know from here , some games have actual stories not just for sexual gratification. Some have a family member as just one of the many potential girls in romantic visual novels, that strive to have moving narratives, rather than just empty gratification. They blindly clump it all together.

 

[Saerwen]

Probably something along the lines, 'it's okay when women do it'.

Yes, because only women have OF and not guys too.

 

[Donny Ranistvenich]

There are articles online talking about 1000's of adult games being banned but I really see the exageration going about now this is about 10 time the real number. In reality its around 60 games if we don't count the games that have been split into 30 episodes that are 5 minutes long. Also ignoring the dlcs of the said games that add in the cut content but on steam.
In reality its less invidual developers a bunch of dev/publishers with large catalogs.

For now, Steam have simply done the bare minimum of banning based on some simple search-terms.

Let's presume you can find an intelligent f95zone member who knows a substantial amount of games from the last decade or two. I don't care whether you think they exist or not, that's the simple presumption for the sake of argument; just anyone who could fit this description.

Then pay them $100k, to find and list down every adult game on steam that involved non-consensual fictional sex in some way. Something that could be analogized to rape. They would find 100s more games, and many of those would be top popular games on this forum. A lot of people's "favourites" would be wiped out. Karryn's Prison would certainly fit the bill, IMHO as an example. There's certainly examples of games surviving which are a lot more 'violent' than half of those that have been taken down.

Is everyone happy that all such fictional art gets made immediately commercially nonviable?

And yet, that's exactly what is going to happen if Steam/VISA get pressure to follow through and actually do a proper ban wave that actually follows what these new rules say.

If people want an example of actual good art that has been lost, Pixiv a couple of years ago went through almost exact same thing. Tonnes of great artwork got black holed if it was anywhere near a bunch of "taboos", because apparently we can't separate fiction from reality. There were probably some awesome artists who got 70% of their catalogue wiped. They had to do so under threat from VISA/Mastercard to continue their payment processing, they decided to basically make everything "vanilla only" to survive. And all it takes for this to happen again and again and again is some puritan making a stink that they saw something somewhere. There's no shortage of those idiots around.

 

[pussdickpuss1980]

Yes, because only women have OF and not guys too.

I'm sure there are women who do construction work, but I doubt they make any actual numbers.

 

[Saerwen]

I'm sure there are women who do construction work, but I doubt they make any actual numbers.

Beats me, I just know that for years, construction work is a crap. Everything is falling apart faster than a tooth starts decaying.

 

[taiki_wata]

Now you really got my attention, what exceptions do credit card companies make for OnlyFans?

OnlyFans is probably the most vanilla porn site.

But don't worry, when fetishy stuff are banned across the internet it would be OF's turn.

 

[VegitoHlove]

I had more thoughts on this and steam's capitulating to the payment processors only makes sense if the conversation went like this:

We(Payment Processors) will deny service to the Valve Corperation because they do not conform to our TOS, blah blah blah...

Because if the conversation instead went like this: We will not process payments on product through any vendor/service that does not meet our standards and TOS.

Then Steam could made it so that games rated Adult Only could only be purchased via steam wallet, because then the payment processor can't see that, only the funds purchased for the wallet.

 

[morphnet]

Yet these people who are so bent on censoring don't event bother to to think of games as art.

What makes you think that? how do you know if they do or don't think of them as art?

Been that way for a long time with these pearl clutching groups who are out of touch and ignorant of what they judge.

It doesn't matter what they judge, it only matter what a judge in a court of law rules.

They blindly clump it all together.

No they don't. If they just "clumped it all together" there wouldn't be a need for a test to separate the artistic ones from the non artistic ones. If they were "all clumped together" they would automatically be labeled obscene, the test exists BECAUSE they realize they are NOT all the same.

You guys really shouldn't let your anger and frustrations cloud your judgments.

 

[humblebug]

I had more thoughts on this and steam's capitulating to the payment processors only makes sense if the conversation went like this:

We(Payment Processors) will deny service to the Valve Corperation because they do not conform to our TOS, blah blah blah...

Because if the conversation instead went like this: We will not process payments on product through any vendor/service that does not meet our standards and TOS.

Then Steam could made it so that games rated Adult Only could only be purchased via steam wallet, because then the payment processor can't see that, only the funds purchased for the wallet.

If removing those payment options on just the reported content was an option I'm sure one of the many platforms they've targeted would have done so. The PPs seemingly want it gone period.

For now, Steam have simply done the bare minimum of banning based on some simple search-terms.

This ultimately comes down to how pro-active Steam ends up being. Even Patreon has missed some stuff, and with the way they hound creators for off-site content I'm guessing the PPs were up their ass to a ridiculous degree. There's no doubt this will have a major chilling effect regardless, but given how slowly they've moved to take down what little they have it might not be as bad as it could have been.

 

[Lelandsdead]

All I'm doing is posting my thoughts on this whole situation, so if you disagree with my opinion or agree with it, I don't care in reality.

I tend and try not to talk about topics with this on the internet because people may find my opinions wrong and thus hate on me or threaten me by making it, but this is how I see the whole situation.

The payment processors are only doing this because of feminist groups being upset with the depiction of real world crimes in media, and while I can see the argument that this type of media is bad, I also have another viewpoint.

I have played, watched or interacted with games with that illegal stuff, but do I wanna rape someone or any of that? No, because it's pixels on a screen, and I can easily tell that from where I sit. I do not support those that commit the crimes IRL, I do not want these crimes to happen to people IRL. But censoring games over it is just... weird to me. Because, games aren't meant to be reality.

I can play a game like GTA and know that the crimes I commit are illegal in reality, but also am aware that the game is fictional, so I should not fear doing the crimes in the game because it isn't reality, it's fiction.

TL;DR: I think games are fictional, and I do not see reality when I see pixels on the screen, so this whole situation is stupid in my eyes.

(Also, small edit because I'm sure some people will think I'm against feminists, I'm not. I find what feminists advocate is fine, but some specific groups are more radical about feminism. Just wanted to clear that up before someone thinks I'm a sexist or misogynistic)

 

[morphnet]

If they did count is as art, they would treat it the same as movies. They let things go in movies yet go after games for things like violence. They still think of video games as toys for kids and want to protect them from things they shouldn't already have. But please keep talking down to me.

This has already been covered...in this thread...multiple times....

Non-porn games have already had their day in court and the court has ruled they are NOT obscene.

You must be registered to see the links

<- linked once again

"Court: Video game violence does not constitute obscenity
The Supreme Court has resisted efforts to extend the rationale of obscenity from hard-core sexual materials to hard-core violence.

The state of California sought to advance the concept of violence as obscenity in defending its state law regulating the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The Supreme Court invalidated the law in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011), writing that “violence is not part of the obscenity that the Constitution permits to be regulated.” "

(quoted now for the second time)

It's also not talking down to you, it's talking to someone who didn't read the thread or double check there facts then made baseless statements.

You claimed "they don't see it as art", they don't need to because "is it art" is part of a test the court has already ruled it didn't need to take. So we'll never know if some or any saw it as art because it didn't have to take the test.

You claimed "Been that way for a long time with these pearl clutching groups who are out of touch and ignorant of what they judge." but it doesn't matter and has no relevance because the courts have already ruled.

You claimed "They blindly clump it all together" but the existence of the miller test proves they don't.

All this information is in this thread AND free and easy to find online.

 

[Death Panda]

It's not the "left wing" getting caught outside of schools with their pants down after going on campaigns like this. It's not the "left wing" constantly shouting "save the children!" while actively hurting children.

Thank you for proving my point. The right wing is against children being exposed to porn, while you left wingers just want to eliminate certain types of porn altogether (rape/incest). I certainly know which side I find worthy.

Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.

 

[morphnet]

Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.

That's what blenders are for.

 

[justlooking2]

Well, what we can do, is tag most games, especially the most popular ones, with incest, rape, slavery, bestiality ... "use your imagination" tags.

There are unfortunately not enough of us to boycott Visa and the like for an extended period of time, unless the porn sites starts doing it as well...

I'm guessing with pornhub and the like no longer working in France already, there is a possibility people will start using cash again.

Since direct bank transfers will also support "them", going cash only would be virtually impossible for most of us nowadays, but well, there really isn't any other things that can be done, since creating a worldwide payment processor would be virtually impossible, as most banks would simply not accept it to keep VISA/MASTERCARD and so on...