Today, we are re-indexing free adult NSFW content . We are still in ongoing discussions with payment processors and will be re-introducing paid content slowly to ensure we can confidently support the
While this is far from some kind of total victory, that a conversation is happening at all is much better than that not being the case.
I am guessing payprocs did not have any fucking clue the extent of backlash they would receive from just being extremely vauge / heavy handed.
Hopefully this can at least result in some more concrete and specific definitions of what they will and will not allow, so that existing platforms at least have an idea of what the actual rules are, and then from there, potentially a more targeted public pressure campaign could manifest.
If itch.io manages to get them to actually clarify the rules, this could lead to other platforms, Steam, Nutaku, etc, also reworking their allowed/not allowed games, now having more clarity and less fear of being totally nuked for violating vague guidelines.
True, this is good news. But, it should not have come down to the entire fucking government of Japan weighting in on the global impacts of this insane decision!
Is this truly the amount of mountain-moving we have to do to counteract a single organization’s opinion? There is a clear difference in effort required between one side and the other.
The issue isn’t the amount of effort required to undo one action.
It is the complete lack of effort every other time this is done. Gamers Rise Up STILL pretend this is some watershed moment that nobody could have foreseen. And while it is always dangerous to consider The Internet to be a monolith, you can even see threads here where people didn’t care when it was just “incest and furry shit” on Steam.
Let alone when it was basically the entirety of Pornhub a couple years back.
And that is the problem. This kind of shit happens. Why should a megacorp fight it when nobody will care one way or another and this avoids any bad press? Why should news outlets report on it when the outcome will be “Ugh, fucking scammer journalists. How fucking dare they put that behind a paywall or have ads”?
So they just kind of acquiesce to the loudest voice in the room until people DO care.
The lesson to take from this isn’t that we need government intervention every single time chuds do anything.
The lesson should be to ACTUALLY support independent journalism that covers shit like this. At the very least, shut the fuck up when you see a paywall from a blog run by some of the most established and prestigious investigative journalists in the tech space. Preferably consider throwing a buck or two their way so they can pay for legal fees.
And… ACTUALLY support good smut (that aligns with your preferences, morals, etc). Everyone (except some of the aces) likes to get a bit frisky with themselves every so often. Rather than always just pirate that shit consider throwing a few bucks at creators (and games) that do it right. You’ll find you get a LOT more of the stuff you like (see: The rise of “chick porn” in the late 00s/early 10s… and the overabundance of stepsister washing machine porn in the 20s…) AND it shows stores that there is actually a market for that and it might be a bad idea to kill it.
Because first they come for the smut. Then they come for the art.
Is this truly the amount of mountain-moving we have to do to counteract a single organization’s opinion?
It looks like another commenter has already well replied to this, but uh, yes.
thunder crack
Welcome… to the real world.
…
Video games are treats.
Treats only flow by the arcane and abstract machinations of those with power, and those with power are fickle, greedy, and often do not busy themselves with the minutiae of the affairs of the hordes of useless eaters.
I agree with you, the power differential is absurdly vast, the situation is plainly ‘unfair’ by most viewpoints…
… but the question that matters is what are you going to do about that?
Entirely seriously:
While this is far from some kind of total victory, that a conversation is happening at all is much better than that not being the case.
I am guessing payprocs did not have any fucking clue the extent of backlash they would receive from just being extremely vauge / heavy handed.
Hopefully this can at least result in some more concrete and specific definitions of what they will and will not allow, so that existing platforms at least have an idea of what the actual rules are, and then from there, potentially a more targeted public pressure campaign could manifest.
If itch.io manages to get them to actually clarify the rules, this could lead to other platforms, Steam, Nutaku, etc, also reworking their allowed/not allowed games, now having more clarity and less fear of being totally nuked for violating vague guidelines.
True, this is good news. But, it should not have come down to the entire fucking government of Japan weighting in on the global impacts of this insane decision!
Is this truly the amount of mountain-moving we have to do to counteract a single organization’s opinion? There is a clear difference in effort required between one side and the other.
The issue isn’t the amount of effort required to undo one action.
It is the complete lack of effort every other time this is done. Gamers Rise Up STILL pretend this is some watershed moment that nobody could have foreseen. And while it is always dangerous to consider The Internet to be a monolith, you can even see threads here where people didn’t care when it was just “incest and furry shit” on Steam.
Let alone when it was basically the entirety of Pornhub a couple years back.
And that is the problem. This kind of shit happens. Why should a megacorp fight it when nobody will care one way or another and this avoids any bad press? Why should news outlets report on it when the outcome will be “Ugh, fucking scammer journalists. How fucking dare they put that behind a paywall or have ads”?
So they just kind of acquiesce to the loudest voice in the room until people DO care.
The lesson to take from this isn’t that we need government intervention every single time chuds do anything.
The lesson should be to ACTUALLY support independent journalism that covers shit like this. At the very least, shut the fuck up when you see a paywall from a blog run by some of the most established and prestigious investigative journalists in the tech space. Preferably consider throwing a buck or two their way so they can pay for legal fees.
And… ACTUALLY support good smut (that aligns with your preferences, morals, etc). Everyone (except some of the aces) likes to get a bit frisky with themselves every so often. Rather than always just pirate that shit consider throwing a few bucks at creators (and games) that do it right. You’ll find you get a LOT more of the stuff you like (see: The rise of “chick porn” in the late 00s/early 10s… and the overabundance of stepsister washing machine porn in the 20s…) AND it shows stores that there is actually a market for that and it might be a bad idea to kill it.
Because first they come for the smut. Then they come for the art.
It looks like another commenter has already well replied to this, but uh, yes.
thunder crack
Welcome… to the real world.
…
Video games are treats.
Treats only flow by the arcane and abstract machinations of those with power, and those with power are fickle, greedy, and often do not busy themselves with the minutiae of the affairs of the hordes of useless eaters.
I agree with you, the power differential is absurdly vast, the situation is plainly ‘unfair’ by most viewpoints…
… but the question that matters is what are you going to do about that?
deleted by creator