itch.io ban of NSFW works

[DiffydaDude]

https://www.thegamer.com/itch-bring-back-adult-games-new-payment-processors/ I saw this post today. Hopefully they can find one!

[arcus]

It's working.

Mastercard and Valve have released statements, IGDA have released a statement, and the CBC have published an article on the situation.

[boreal_cryptid]

some good news: Valve Speaks Out!

after recent Mastercard "respone" (deflecting any responsibility over this), Steam (Valve) published their version of the story:

"Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks.  Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution.  Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

MASTERCARD DIDN'T EVEN BROTHER TO SPEAK DIRECTLY WITH VALVE! WHAT! 

side note: (outdated, but still important) GOG.com and several adult game publishers launched the FreedomToBuy.games campaign last weekend, offering 13 adult-themed games for free for 48 hours to oppose the quiet removal of legal content and defend creative freedom. which is very very very important to raise awareness!
so far, i feel a little bit of hope. platforms speaking out is a good thing. because people opposed it! :3 all of those who signed initiatives and was calling to Mastercard directly 

[Symberzite]

MASTERCARD DIDN'T EVEN BROTHER TO SPEAK DIRECTLY WITH VALVE! WHAT! 

People attribute this to malice, but I genuinely think this whole incident can be explained by stupidity. Also didn't Collective Shout claim that GTAV and Hitman were both games that rewarded you for killing sex workers, thus tried to get those games pulled circa 2014? I'm kind of curious if the people trying to censor... everything basically even played the games they are trying to remove.

Look, Steam wasn't in a good place due to all of the poorly made hentai games there. I'm pretty sure most tried to be as provocative as possible since any publicity is good publicity in their eyes, but this entire thing feels rotten. And now marginalized people are going to get the short end of the stick unless this mess gets undone.

I can actually see Mastercard/Visa not stepping down due to the sheer PR disaster of them admitting that they can be swayed by religious extremists to sabotage a sector of the economy after a few stern phone calls.

[PurpleHello98]

I'm really wary of this personally. If it were just affecting porn games I would be less wary as personally I don't like porn for moral and ethical reasons (and no I'm not a conservative before anyone accuses me of being some sort of purity culture evangelical) but I don't get why LGBT+ games are being lumped in--probably homophobia of some sort? (Apologies for stating the obvious but I'm tired today.)

[bugholder's epiphany]

I'm really wary of this personally. If it were just affecting porn games I would be less wary as personally I don't like porn for moral and ethical reasons (and no I'm not a conservative before anyone accuses me of being some sort of purity culture evangelical) but I don't get why LGBT+ games are being lumped in--probably homophobia of some sort? (Apologies for stating the obvious but I'm tired today.)

Plain and simple: It's an excuse.

Far-Right Lawmakers and Religious fanatics have been wanting to crack down on LGBT+ content online for ages, and for years they've been trying to lump LGBT folks-- especially transgender individuals, with porn. That's the whole game they're playing: Make porn Illegal (or at the very least, extremely difficult to get), change laws into defining transgender stuff as pornographic, and go from there.

Porn is just the scapegoat for them to be far more controlling.

[PurpleHello98]

Plain and simple: It's an excuse.

Far-Right Lawmakers and Religious fanatics have been wanting to crack down on LGBT+ content online for ages, and for years they've been trying to lump LGBT folks-- especially transgender individuals, with porn. That's the whole game they're playing: Make porn Illegal (or at the very least, extremely difficult to get), change laws into defining transgender stuff as pornographic, and go from there.

Porn is just the scapegoat for them to be far more controlling.

Heaven help us. I wonder if this wave of weird right wing whatever is going to end eventually?

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Heaven help us. I wonder if this wave of weird right wing whatever is going to end eventually?

I absolutely agree to bugholders explanation of the whole situation. Needful to add, that they camouflaged as feminists in this case. It is legit to assume that they did so to redirect the anger the whole action creates among their own base (that is heavily into both video games and porn) against women and emancipation movements.

The whole struggle is as old as humanity; those who push today against LGBT rights are the successors of the people who defended slavery in Rome, burned witches in the medieval age, exploited the natives of the "new world", and pushed the segregation in the US or the apartheid in South Africa. These are people who fall to a dark drive that seemingly does exist within humanity: To exploit the weak to sustain the privileges the powerful. It is our task to keep them down and establish societies that are resilient against them.

Hasta la victoria siempre! 

----
Back to topic: While I think that it is great that Itch is trying to solve the whole thing, I still think that it would be wise to create alternative structures. Has anybody seen any projects or attempts that go into such a direction? Personally, I've mirrored our games on our own server, but I'm aware that this ain't a solution for the wider gamedev community.

[bugholder's epiphany]

Back to topic: While I think that it is great that Itch is trying to solve the whole thing, I still think that it would be wise to create alternative structures. Has anybody seen any projects or attempts that go into such a direction? Personally, I've mirrored our games on our own server, but I'm aware that this ain't a solution for the wider gamedev community.

I've seen a few solutions people have done and are in the process of making, including (but probably not limited to):

• Keeping their games listed as free but having links to places where they can be paid (such as Patreons)
• Setting up pages on their own websites using a mix of carrd and stripe
• A currently in progress effort by a collective of artists and what-not to have a new platform like itch, only without the risks of being censored or running into payment processor issues, called Conjured Ink. Don't think they have an actual thing set up yet but I assume they're getting there.