Go on then. Talk about it. Which other games besides Horses (the feature adult content) have been removed from or not allowed to launch on Steam? Because that platform is full of porn games and the Horses thing was about sexual themes involving minors.
Comment on Github Banned a Ton of Adult Game Developers and Won’t Explain Why
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
This smells suspiciously similar to the stuff affecting adult content on Steam, like Horses. No one’s saying anything about any of it, which feels like that’s on advice from their legal counsel.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
ech@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Again. This wasn’t on steam it was on the literally payment providers who forced the issue. If steam can’t accept payment for your game, of course they’re going to delist it. That’s not what he said. He said steam is trying to clear porn games.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
He said steam is trying to clear porn games.
No, I didn’t.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Exactly. Steam is so laissez-faire about adult content that removing one game, without elaborating, and allowing so many others sounds exactly to me like it violates or risks violating a law somewhere, and so they’re covering their asses, maybe even preemptively. I’m not a lawyer, but their advice is often to just shut the fuck up. Epic sure was excited to host it when Steam declined and then did the same thing. For all I know, the reason GOG can host it but the other two won’t is that maybe GOG doesn’t operate in a country where some law makes that game a problem for them.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
They did elaborate though. They explained that the game had depictions of children with adults in sexual situations and the game developer removed one scene and paid some lip service about how they were just small adults. Steam didn’t buy into that and wouldn’t allow the game on the platform which is a reasonable take.
Would you like to give the names of specific other porn games involving children in sexual situations? I would like to see that list because I’m pretty sure it violates the law in several places.
You seem to be suggesting that Horses got treated differently for invalid or incomprehensible reasons and that isn’t true from literally every article I’ve seen reporting on the situation.
GOG is based out of Poland, and I’m sure Polish law absolutely does cover children in sexual situations in media.
But we also don’t know what the developer went on to change in the game since it was submitted to Steam with acception of the part highlighted by Steam specifically when they denied it.
This developer may have gone on to change several things that clear the bar in Poland but not everywhere else.
In any case you speculated that Steam might be trying to clear porn games from the platform in your initial comment (or inferred such) and one game doesn’t validate that claim.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
In any case you speculated that Steam might be trying to clear porn games from the platform in your initial comment (or inferred such) and one game doesn’t validate that claim.
Quite the opposite. The reason I suspect there’s something legal behind behavior like this is that it is so laser targeted to this game. Especially when it was immediately followed up by their competitor eager to host the game (which had already removed the content named in Steam’s initial reason) and then changing their mind at the last second.
What I see in common between Horses and Github is that it appears that they see it as a bad idea to explain publicly why they’re doing what they’re doing, and that smells like a legal reason to me.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 3 days ago
I think they are testing the waters of just open warfare against indie developers. Microsoft has no interest in platforming their competitors. They start with the adult games because no one is going to defend them. Once the precedent is set, they go after everyone else. They do the same thing with porn as a vehicle to attack free speech.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I don’t see it. Indie developers would comprise the vast majority of open source projects. Many of them add value to their own products, and they know it, which is why they’re largely a services company now. And the timing is so close to everything going on with adult content in other places.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 3 days ago
What about the last 20 years of Microsoft make you think that adding value to their products has anything to do with their business model?
Tech companies don’t make new shit anymore, and they haven’t done it for a long time. All they do now is steal our shit and sell it back to us.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The part where they tried to make an Apple app store and it didn’t take. The open ecosystem of Windows is the thing that allows it to continue to exist and dominate. And the open ecosystem of open source software actively enhances their ability to sell companies server infrastructure, which makes them more money than Windows does.