Tilt! Erotic Game Content Crackdown Stifles Creators, Threatens Sexual Expression Rights
Anti-porn crusaders and payment processing companies threaten more than just the adult gaming industry
Back in July, Valve’s immensely popular digital distribution service essentially banned any games that might potentially “violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers.”
Steam subsequently deleted a slew of predominantly incest-containing adult games, while around the same time, Itch.io creators also discovered their self-described, NSFW (Not Safe For Work) titles were also delisted.
But as Wired reported, the difference is while Steam’s crackdown seems to be specific, Itch.io’s crackdown was broader, “Whether it was a game about navigating disordered eating as a teenager, or about dick pics—no longer appeared in search results” along with games with the barest “sexual themes, discussions of mental health, or stories that otherwise involve triggering topics.”
The same article noted that Itch.io appeard to be targeting not just anything that might be sexually related but also a disturbing number of LGBTQIA2S+ games, including some without any erotic content whatsoever.
Insert coin
Why this sudden crackdown? Well, as Value itself explicitly confessed, and this Reason article pointed out, it all has to do with money. Specifically, if game distributors fail to comply with their demands, the payment processing companies could sever the relationships and could essentially drive them from a comfortable position in the black to an alarming deficit, or even out of business altogether.
Which brings up yet another important question: why, now of all times, do payment processors care what games are being developed—or sold?
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The answer may very well have to do with Collective Shout, an Australian-based anti-pornography group, whichbegan an organized campaign targeting titles they deemed offensive, only a few weeks before Valve announced its content policy change, began an organized campaign targeting titles they deemed offensive.
While they probably reached out to Steam, Itch.io, and other game distribution platforms, Collective Shout, knowing where the power truly lies, instead took their argument to PayPal, MasterCard, and the rest of their ilk.
Extra lives
Despite Collective Shout providing no evidence that gaming distribution services were hosting a massive number of sexually objectionable titles—claiming underage characters, nonconsensual activities, and so forth—the publicity alone caused the gaming platforms’ payment processors to smash their respective panic buttons.
Not to justify their decision, it makes sense as this makes the processing companies look very good, especially in today’s currently socially conservative environment—to look like they are standing up against the so-called evils of pornography, even if it means banning games with just the slightest, if any, erotic content or erasing emotionally supportive gay-themed or sex educational titles.
As Mike Stabile of Free Speech Coalition posted to BlueSky, “Antiporn groups said they were only going after games with violence against women. But what got censored? Award-winning games about disordered eating, LGBTQ+ games and anything flagged NSFW.”
Boss battle ahead
Unfortunately, whether it’s films, books, games, or anything else, recovering from anti-adult content hysteria can be a long, grueling process—made all the more difficult because while most people enjoy it, no one wants to actually, vocally support our right to responsibly create and consume it.
Even free speech advocates tend to dance around the issue or carve deep lines in the sand with them on one side, willing to fight for our right to say what we want, yet hypocritically recoiling when those same freedoms are expressions of human sexuality.
However, precisely the same mechanism that’s now knocking adult games off many game distribution platforms may prove to, if not turn things around, then maybe force them to reconsider.
I’m talking again about money, as payment companies may not want to appear to support adult content, but profit is and always will be what turns them on the most.
Case in point, just this month, Itch.io stated they are engaging in ongoing discussions with payment processors and will be “re-introducing paid content slowly to ensure we can confidently support the widest range of creators in the long term.”
It appears that love may ultimately prevail, including the love of money. But if it means people may be able to play the sexy games or not, whatever they want, then at least it’s not game over—for now, that is.
Image Sources: Depositphotos
