Valve pulling a lot of Visual Novels for "Pornographic content" other games might also be removed

[Salv8 (sam)]

UPDATE! valve has gone back on their desion and is now allowing these games again

full details in this post from matrix07012

HI, secend times the charm

Sources:

Polygon: https://www.polygon.com/2018/5/18/17368814/steam-visual-novels-nsfw-takedown-valve

Jim Sterling:

Valve is going to be in some deep shit for a while as they have angered an entire community that likes this category

Quote

Valve has recently issued warnings to visual novel developers concerning adult content in their games, according to multiple game studios who say they were affected.

The developers behind notoriously NSFW games Mutiny!! and HuniePop, which both contain extreme nudity, said on Twitter this week that their catalogues are being squeezed off of Steam, pending additional censorship.

But games like Witcher 3 and GTA5 have full on nudity scenes that the player can acess

Quote

HuniePop remains available for now, however. There’s no warning on its Steam store page that it’s under threat of removal, either. The same is true of Mutiny!!, although its developer wrote that it’s even more confused about Valve’s message.

“We’ve just received some troubling news today that @steam_games has decided to pull down our titled “Mutiny!!” [sic] within 2 weeks for ‘reports of pornographic content,’” Lupiesoft, the studio behind Mutiny!!, said on Twitter. Lupiesoft went on to explain in the thread that the studio has worked closely with Valve, according to tweets, and was told that softcore nudity was allowed on Steam.

Some developers haven't been even notified about this

Quote

Where Steam draws the line for sexual themes in games remains unknown, as recent titles like the comedic BDSM visual novel Ladykiller in a Bind never received any notice from Valve, according to that game’s lead producer, Christine Love

This big problem is that games like WItcher 3 and GTA5 might be removed but there is no confirmation on this at all

Quote

There has also been no statement about the plethora of mainstream games that include nudity, like The Witcher 3 or Grand Theft Auto 5.

valve has said sorry to both Lupiesoft and HunieDev for this and is not removing their games but others are still under elvaluation

Quote

According to Lupiesoft and HunieDev’s Twitter, both studios have received word from Valve, apologizing for any confusion and taking back the threat of removal. However, the games are still under re-evaluation from Valve.

 

so to sum it up, a group called "Mortality and Media" (or as they are more known as: MIM or the National Center of Sexual Exploitation) is pushing valve to remove these games from their store

they are more known for pushing paypal not to allow payments that include porn or anything relating to porn, which really screwed over the porn industry as paypal is safer than just giving your credit card information!

 

MY VIEW:
if people want to play riscie games, they can go right fucking ahead, what isn't ok is that you can't enjoy your game becuse some dickhead is trying to stop you

if it's illegal then thats a different story, what people like is what they like!

the concerning bit is that they might take down GTA5 and WItcher 3, 2 really big games, if they do that, the gaming community isn't going to be happy and there will be a war

I hope to god that valve reveres this decision and compleatly ignores "Morality and Media" and continues on with their day

all i can tell you is that this isn't going to end well with either MAM or valve having a bad public view

i encourage you to help out anyway you can to stop this, spam Valve's twitter saying that this isn't right, and telling everyone you know about this as these developers don't have a say in this

they are powerless, they depend on their games for income and we should help them out as much as possible as if you were being kicked down, powerless to stop it, would you need help to stop this?

i would say yes, having an entire community back you to help you so you can express your art/personality would encourage you not to take this shit!

 

Your views and thoughts are your own, don't attack other because they like something your don't otherwise the mods will ban you/remove your comment and issue a warning

also sorry for not formatting this very well, i wanted to get it out quick as you guys could be notified about this

Edited June 7, 2018 by Salv8 (sam)
Updated post with valves response

[LienusLateTips]

Steam is a private game distribution platform, this isn't censorship because they have other options.

[emosun]

Sure you can literally blast peoples body parts off with machine guns....... but oh no don't let the kids know what a nipple is......

[Crunchy Dragon]

Quote

Your views and thoughts are your own, don't attack other because they like something your don't otherwise the mods will ban you/remove your comment and issue a warning

This is highly debatable, just gonna mention it.

 

We don't ban people like Minecraft server owners that overreact to their playerbase. If things get out of hand, then we'll clean the thread.

[Blebekblebek]

This again?

 

Holy shit... does these people really annoyed with what other people likes?

I am proud owner and players of eroge games which most of the time I couldn't get.

 

I don't get where this mentality came from " If I don't like it, no one can have them "

They don't even buy or play games.

[ARikozuM]

Most of those Steam games are clean versions with 18+ patches that need to be pulled from the devs' websites. I could see an issue if it were excessively risqué, but HuniePop? Seriously? It's about as tame as Bejeweled mixed with Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?.

 

Edit: I hope Valve pushes this issue regardless of Witcher or GTAV's nudity. No game should be pulled for something as vague as "nudity". Otherwise, every RPG ever is going to be 18+. 

[Misanthrope]

I've been reading the comments about the pressure from this think tank and possibly paypal.

 

Bad move on Valve's part to let themselves be bullied: sure they're the premiere digital distribution platform on PC but honestly? I can easily see them losing a big chunk of the AAA business to the likes of Origin, Uplay or even Microsoft store: If AAA publishers decide 'We don't need valve' most players will just get the big title releases on whatever platform they select.

 

Fuck they already do for extremely popular titles from the likes of Blizzard or EA.

 

What Valve should remember is that while the big publishers certainly help the platform their long term business should actually be from the smaller games, like the ones they're going after now. That's what keeps many people on the platform: come from the big titles but stay for the smaller ones. Without them they would basically have nothing to distinguish themselves from the aforementioned storefronts.

[DragonTamer1]

-If you already purchased the game, then do you get to keep it?

 

-What is going to happen to Hyperdimension Neptunia?

 

-Why does this Rick and Morty company have a stick up their butt all of a sudden?

 

-Am I still allowed to be married to Neptune?

 

-What's for dinner?

[Salv8 (sam)]

40 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

-snip-

ok...

[CyanideInsanity]

As always think of the children, but never how to actually help the children. I wonder if they'll respond to the message I sent using their contact form. I told them they got a gold star for their effect but an F for the project. I did actually put in a bit of effect explaining why this doesn't accomplish anything and that all this wasted effort could have been put towards helping parents learn to parent and how booby games are literally just a google search away.

[Misanthrope]

9 minutes ago, DragonTamer1 said:

-If you already purchased the game, then do you get to keep it?

That's almost always the case: there are people who still own notable titles (Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2, etc.) That are no longer on Steam available for sale but if they already got em, they get to keep em, redownload every time they wish, etc.

[Salv8 (sam)]

43 minutes ago, JDE said:

-snip-

dude the problem is that developers don't have another choice

steam is the only place that indie developers can put their games on a recognizable platform

other platforms aren't as well known and their art that they have have spent time, money, blood, sweat and tears working on won't be as popular as they wanted

if i spent much of my time an energy on my art and it gets destroyed or censored, am i going to take it like a little bitch? NO! i'm going to stand for my art and stop this from happening to others as (quote @Blebekblebek )

46 minutes ago, Blebekblebek said:

I don't get where this mentality came from " If I don't like it, no one can have them "

is wrong and people should be allowed to express themselves in their own way! regardless on how they do it!

[Misanthrope]

6 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

dude the problem is that developers don't have another choice

steam is the only place that indie developers can put their games on a recognizable platform

other platforms aren't as well known and their art that they have have spent time, money, blood, sweat and tears working on won't be as popular as they wanted

if i spent much of my time an energy on my art and it gets destroyed or censored, am i going to take it like a little bitch? NO! i'm going to stand for my art and stop this from happening to others as (quote @Blebekblebek )

is wrong and people should be allowed to express themselves in their own way! regardless on how they do it!

Actually, they choice they don't have at this point is to not diversify and throw support to other platforms.

 

Because yes: it is shitty that they will lose a lot of business if they're run out of Steam but if there's something that Valve has proven, time and time again, is that they're extremely unreliable for you to basically depend on them to do all of your business.

 

So it sucks than most if not almost all of these indie games would flat out fail without Steam but they should prioritize and try to drive people to other platforms because centralizing on just one platform it's just a terrible idea: This is how you get giant companies that couldn't care less about the content creators that made em rich because they are so big they can intimidate and bully them all into submission.

 

The only way out is long, painful and probably unsustainable, yet the alternative of letting Valve get more control over you by not even trying to push alternatives is just worst.

[Salv8 (sam)]

14 minutes ago, DragonTamer1 said:

1. -What is going to happen to Hyperdimension Neptunia?

 

2. -Why does this Rick and Morty company have a stick up their butt all of a sudden?

 

3.-Am I still allowed to be married to Neptune?

 

4. -What's for dinner?

1. we have to wait and see

2. cause they are "stick-ups" haha

3.You can't reply to a NULL value, please choose a valid value and try again (programming joke, don't worry if you don't get it)

4.

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

59 minutes ago, Blebekblebek said:

does these people really annoyed with what other people likes?

People will get annoyed or offended at practically everything these days.

 

Apparently if one person doesn't like it, then nobody can have it.

[Carclis]

I'm not really sure why games are copping the brunt of criticism when film has done this and worse for decades. If Valve is going to be as petty as removing adult or pornographic content you'd hope they could at least be consistent. This "please think of the children", but gambling is fine in Team Fortress 2 mentality is pathetic.

 

If it's actually the potential of Paypal cutting off payments that is pushing Valve to do this then I'm shocked at how little thought they put into the solution. Tearing the house down because you don't like the paint is idiotic. It would have made more business sense for them sell the infringing games via direct payment only.

[Crunchy Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Carclis said:

I'm not really sure why games are copping the brunt of criticism when film has done this and worse for decades.

Because all the kids play video games these days and get influenced by them. Pornographic content in games they play could cause them to become rapists or something.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if their logic was along those lines.

[CyanideInsanity]

9 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Because all the kids play video games these days and get influenced by them. Pornographic content in games they play could cause them to become rapists or something.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if their logic was along those lines.

Oh yeah it definitely is, to quote National Center of Sexual Exploitation "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.” Eh they've maybe got something there regarding animu lolis, but with adding #metoo they would likely consider me teabagging someone in eldewrito harassment on the level of actual sexual harassment.

[PocketNerd]

While I'm glad that Valve is putting more attention into curate the library on Steam, I wish they were a little more consistent with their policies.

Question, how many of these games have ESRB Ratings?

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, CyanideInsanity said:

Oh yeah it definitely is, to quote National Center of Sexual Exploitation "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.” Eh they've maybe got something there, but with adding #metoo they would likely consider me teabagging someone in eldewrito harassment on the level of actual sexual harassment.

Right, but they don't say anything about the violent games.

 

Let's be real here, if the kid wants to find pornographic content, they're likely not to go looking on Steam for it.

[CyanideInsanity]

2 minutes ago, PocketNerd said:

While I'm glad that Valve is putting more attention into curate the library on Steam, I wish they were a little more consistent with their policies.

Question, how many of these games have ESRB Ratings?

IDK and it doesn't say on the store page for huniepop. Doesn't say on the witches 3's page either, just in the trailer. Am I wrong or was the rating show on the right down by dev/publisher panel? Regardless these games do have an age verification block(as useful/less as enter you age from this droplist is) or a warning.

[CyanideInsanity]

Here's another thing from them "Steam Announces Release of a New App, Makes it Easier to Access Exploitative Content". Being able to stream from a pc to a phone increases the access to this content. If they really wanted to help they should stay away from kids, because clearly they're on some heavy drugs.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

27 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Right, but they don't say anything about the violent games.

 

Let's be real here, if the kid wants to find pornographic content, they're likely not to go looking on Steam for it.

Some teenagers don't even need porn sites for nude content. They just ask their friends for pictures. This is the sort of world we live in. 

[Eaglerino]

They'll just have a patch for it on their website that you download separately, like all the other hardcore crap. Not that I uh.. have experience with that

[SonAnji]