Thinking about making a simple game, but it would contain sensitive material, would I be able to legally make it?

[Decibel2044]

The game I would make would have the female protagonist face rape on defeat. I live in Canada and there are definitely laws against that subject matter.

What are my options? Rape and obscenity is depicted in art, movies, and tv shows all the time. Rape fantasies/CNC are a pretty common kink among people too.

I've heard of Patreon having stricter rulesets with such genre. I've also read that some pages were allowed to remain if their download link wasn't present on Patreon. It also seems like a lot of games, with the rape genre, were able to remain on Patreon. How is this possible? What are the criteria? Are there other alternatives to Patreon? Is the only option to use patreon is to release the game for free? How do subscribers get exclusive access to early builds? Do they have a download link locked in the page?

 

[anne O'nymous]

Note: I'm not a lawyer, just a guy that have some knowledge regarding law. Therefore, what I'll say isn't a legal advice, just shared knowledge, and it can happen that I'm not totally right, or even wrong.

The game I would make would have the female protagonist face rape on defeat. I live in Canada and there are definitely laws against that subject matter.

What "subject matter" ? Because the existence of laws against rape do not imply the existence of laws against depiction of rape in a fiction.
I don't know for Canada, but generally the Law make the difference between "reality", "apology", and "fiction". One can be illegal, while the two others are legal or not even addressed.

What are my options?

Learn more on the subject. I know, it's not a helpful answer, but by learning by yourself what is exactly the legal status of what you want to do, then having confirmation that you understand it correctly, you'll be in a better place to do it. This simply because you'll not just know if it's legal or not, but you'll also know the limits of this legality.

I've heard of Patreon having stricter rulesets with such genre. I've also read that some pages were allowed to remain if their download link wasn't present on Patreon.

The first one is true, the second pure bullshit.
Patreon view on none consensual sex (so rape), is that you can not use their services to fund your creation, dot. It's not a question of having a link, showing images, talking about it, but a question of what you're doing with the money. The only way to lure them is to have two games, and never talking or giving a single clue regarding the one that have banned content. Yet, I wouldn't recommend such approach, because it they discover it, you'll have no way to escape their ban hammer ; it's not an error, you haven't momentarily forgot that it's banned, nor thought that it was "before the limits", you tried to skirt their Terms of Service.

It also seems like a lot of games, with the rape genre, were able to remain on Patreon. How is this possible?

It's simple, there's actually 187 876 accounts on Patreon with at least on patron. Among them

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create adult games, and it goes over 40 000 if you count all the creators that have adult content. Patreon can't control them all, as long as no one report you, they'll not ban you, because they ignore that you're doing something wrong.

 

[Decibel2044]

What "subject matter" ? Because the existence of laws against rape do not imply the existence of laws against depiction of rape in a fiction.
I don't know for Canada, but generally the Law make the difference between "reality", "apology", and "fiction". One can be illegal, while the two others are legal or not even addressed.

Obviously not. I'm of course referring to obscenity laws:
" Every person commits an offence who makes, prints, publishes, distributes, circulates or has in their possession for the purpose of publication, distribution or circulation any obscene written matter, picture, model, phonograph record or any other obscene thing... For the purposes of this Act, any publication a dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, or of sex and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence, shall be deemed to be obscene... "

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I don't see any wording there that differentiates fiction and reality.
This topic has been talked about for a long while and people have said that these laws are intentionally vague to be a catch-all.

Someone have said before that perhaps the reason rape can be depicted in a television show is because it is not the main focus of the show, rather just a part of what they can claim as an artistic production. If this is the case, then it seems easily doable to implement artistic elements, a story, and simply not make non-con sex the focus of it.

Learn more on the subject. I know, it's not a helpful answer, but by learning by yourself what is exactly the legal status of what you want to do, then having confirmation that you understand it correctly, you'll be in a better place to do it. This simply because you'll not just know if it's legal or not, but you'll also know the limits of this legality.

Well, I have been reading up on it. This post is merely another avenue to learn more about it. Asking for advice and asking what other's in a similar situation have done.

The first one is true, the second pure bullshit.
Patreon view on none consensual sex (so rape), is that you can not use their services to fund your creation, dot. It's not a question of having a link, showing images, talking about it, but a question of what you're doing with the money. The only way to lure them is to have two games, and never talking or giving a single clue regarding the one that have banned content. Yet, I wouldn't recommend such approach, because it they discover it, you'll have no way to escape their ban hammer ; it's not an error, you haven't momentarily forgot that it's banned, nor thought that it was "before the limits", you tried to skirt their Terms of Service.

It's simple, there's actually 187 876 accounts on Patreon with at least on patron. Among them

You must be registered to see the links

create adult games, and it goes over 40 000 if you count all the creators that have adult content. Patreon can't control them all, as long as no one report you, they'll not ban you, because they ignore that you're doing something wrong.

The preferred wording is 'donations' over 'funding'. Case in example is Vrelnir's patreon page where he says on November 3, 2019 "Patreon have contacted me with bad news. Degrees of Lewdity is not appropriate for their platform. I can keep this page up and running, but I can no longer talk about the game, provide downloads, or link to it in any way... This page will now be for supporting my lewd games in general." With that note, it is pretty clear the money also goes towards supporting the inappropriate game Degrees of Lewdity as well.

Another example is The Dystopian Project's patreon page. They only have two games both of which features rape against the main protagonist. There is nothing there that suggests the money goes anywhere other than the two games that feature rape.

I have been browsing the various games listed on this site that features rape, followed to their patreon page, and most of the patreon pages say that the game is free, but that subscribing allows them access to earlier builds.

 

[Marzepain]

While rape is a serious issue it's unfortunate that the law has to be involved in fantasy.
Rape is one of the most common fantasies for woman. The estimates are between 60 and 90 % have them.
There is quite some research on it done.
For instance "

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" Jan-Feb 2009 states 62% of female undergraduates (N=355) on campus have had a rape fantasy with a frequency of 4 times per year.
A closer look at that study in Psychology Today "

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?" Posted August 1, 2015
key phrase " Wishing plays a role in some fantasies, notably dreams of striking it rich or losing weight, but having an erotic fantasy in no way means you want it to come true. "

Another article of Psychology Today "

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" Posted November 5, 2014.
This paragraph illustrates how common it is:
"Not cited in this piece is a famous quote from the conversationally

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Madame de Staël (1766-1817), whose prescient words on the subject I regard as seminal. “The desire of the man,” she opined, “is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.” Without being overly simplistic or reductive, I think this timeless reflection goes to the heart of why women’s imagining what’s best appreciated as a “safe rape” [talk about oxymorons!] is so common a theme in their fantasies. And it’s no less common in literally thousands of romance novels, composed especially to titillate an almost mind-bogglingly large female audience."
" Diametrically opposed to actual rape, the fantasy really isn’t about losing control as such. It’s about willingly surrendering it. "

It related to dominance and submission and SM.
Also the losing control by a male and still being "safe" means there should be some relationship there. This might explain the incest stories as it provides the "aggressor" an extra taboo that has to be overcome.

Why would something so common and often monetized be illegal?
Why would your work be judged more harshly then

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?

As a side note, it used to be that sex shops in Amsterdam where dirty dark holes, now they have all gone female friendly making them white and have lots of glass. Times have changed. Although, it's only packaging, as human are animals. That big brain makes them great liars, but the species would not have made it very far if they actually kept to all the bullsh*t rules they made up.
So do what artists always have done and do whatever you want to do, then wrap the result in bullsh*t words. Get a sales person if you don't know how, as they specialize in such crap.