Collective shout seems to have expanded its scope: games like cult classic Fear And Hunger have been removed from Itch.io, while horror game VILE: Exhumed has been delisted from Steam just a week after launch.
That slop got real slippery real quick.
Collective Shout Purge Sees Horror Games In Crosshairs
Submitted 1 day ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://nmiagaming.com/collective-shout-purge-sees-horror-games-targeted/
Comments
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
IzzyJ@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Why cant the payment processors just fucking ignore them oh my god
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 hours ago
The people who would typically be expected to push back against collective shout also typically wouldn’t be expected to do anything effective whereas the people involved with collective shout are the type of people who give politicians money.
heyWhatsay@slrpnk.net 11 hours ago
Isn’t there some hacker group putting Collective Shout in the crosshairs?
Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Hope so.
MagicShel@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
First, I don’t understand why processors give a fuck. Do they imagine people are going to just stop using credit in protest of how other people spend their money? Tell me another fucking joke.
Second, I’m not a game developer, but I suddenly want to make a horror game that includes graphic, exploitive, gratuitous depictions of everything they complain about. And name the game Collective Shriek.
Mirshe@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The worm that keeps getting put into payment processor’s brains is that they might somehow be held criminally liable for games people purchase. It’s like telling a bus driver that they might be liable because they gave a ride to someone who robbed a store.
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
NOW that they’ve started curating, that has become way more likely to actually happen. They could have claimed to be a neutral carrier before. Actively filtering means they’ve decided to take on that responsibility, and the consequences for missing stuff.
They’re morons
Cethin@lemmy.zip 20 hours ago
I’ve heard this reasoning a few times. I don’t buy it. Illegal content is already illegal. You aren’t allowed to sell it. Policing particular content beyond that doesn’t cover your ass. In fact, it implicates you if you do process payments for illegal content.
I’ve never seen any argument from them that this is the reasoning. The only rule they need is that you aren’t allowed to sell illegal content on your platform. That covers everything. Going beyond that implies there’s a different reason. They’re being influenced by something else other than the law.
prex@aussie.zone 1 day ago
That what I just dont get about this.
If payment processors think they are liable because these games cause harm then where does it stop? Supermarkets sell cigarettes and so on…ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I hate corpos as much as the next guy, but I don’t think that’s a good rule to have.
Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Man, I knew it was only a matter of time but I didn’t think it would be this bad, this soon.
Fear & Hunger is a goddamn masterpiece. Yes, it has depictions of nonconsensual sexual acts. It’s in keeping with the lore of a world that is truly fucked even beyond our reality. It’s an integral part of the worldbuilding, and it is by no means glorified.
BreakerSwitch@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Agreed. Fear and Hunger has it’s issues and I would not broadly recommend it to anyone. I would also say that the FREQUENCY of sexual assault in the game, and the presence of some weirdly sexual status effects like anal bleeding are a bit overboard. That being said, when one of the earliest enemies can sexually assault you, or maim your character in a way that leaves you able to keep playing, but effectively crippled, it really nails home not just that the world is dark, but that your assumptions about what is in the game don’t apply here. Anything could happen. REALLY anything. And exploring a harsh, hostile world with that expectation set is one of the best parts of the game, because it’s a unique experience that you just can’t get at that quality anywhere else.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 40 minutes ago
This sounds really good. I’ve never heard of the game before, but now I want to look for it.
raynethackery@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I think there are probably some skeletons in the closets of Collective Shout’s members.
k0e3@lemmy.ca 17 hours ago
Wait, that’s actually their logo? A butthole?
sdfric88@lemmy.sdf.org 15 hours ago
A stretched out pink butthole full of cum, yes
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
New punk band name found
SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
And kids, that’s how I met your mother
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
gross, who would fuck them?
IzzyScissor@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
E Pluribus Anus.
So close to the Greendale flag from Community.
RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I don’t get why the gaming platforms are removing games instead of removing the objecting payment providers as a payment option for purchasing those particular games.
If visa doesn’t want people to purchase game X with Visa, then remove Visa as payment option for buying game X.
dustyData@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
This is what Steam will probably do in the future, and Itch.io is already looking into it. There’s a reason all this garbage hasn’t splashed GOG. GOG is based in Europe, where protection laws would slap silly any financial entity trying to pull this stunt on an European company (pressure groups have weaseled censorship and moral panics with other strategies though, just not this one), and they have so many more payment processors that PayPal, Visa and MC would just be dropped entirely and immediately for any of the other dozen or so alternatives. The issue is that in the US and Australia, the three headed shit dragon already lobbied governments to pull the ladder behind them, so no other payment processor could take their place or compete with them, establishing a legal oligopoly of the old money finance club. They won and have this power due to systemic and political failures decades in the making.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 20 hours ago
Yeah, that’s not what the payment processors are requesting. They aren’t saying they don’t want to be used to buy this content. They’re dating, if your platform hosts this content at all then they won’t process any payments. It doesn’t matter if the option is removed if the content is still there. They’re using their power of monopoly to police content.
RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Do you have a source of where they are saying that?
I have seen an article about the Australian political action group that was claiming credit for getting the games banned. The story behind the start of the controversy.
And I have seen an article about the communication from Steam that they were banning games which were in conflict with the rules of their payment providers. The result basically.
But I’ve only seen conjecture and speculation about what went on to get from the start to the result. I haven’t seen any article that spelled out exactly what the different payment providers demanded from the gaming platforms, nor anything about what they discussed in between them.
sykaster@feddit.nl 23 hours ago
You overestimate the adaptability of the average software stack. I worked at companies where even adding another button to the cart screen was a monumental undertaking
Ulrich@feddit.org 20 hours ago
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Itch has come out and said it’s not Visa, it’s PayPal and Stripe.
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Removing those payment options would cause a massive loss of revenue.
scratchee@feddit.uk 20 hours ago
But removing them from the specific games they object to would not lose any more revenue than removing the games entirely, and reduce the backlash significantly, as long as they could find 1 obscure payment provider to handle the obscure games and keep some form of access.
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RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
I only use Steam myself, so I hadn’t checked Itch Io’s communication yet. I don’t know the platform myself so it’s quite possible that I’m misinterpreting this, but to me it appears that Itch Io will allow creators to delist payment options that they are not compliant with: “For NSFW pages, this will include a new step where creators must confirm that their content is allowable under the policies of the respective payment processors linked to their account.”.
SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 21 hours ago
And then use what?
syreus@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
A few options include American Express, Discover, JCB, and the Steam Wallet, which can be funded through Steam gift cards.
QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
The Collective Shout logo looks like a butthole.
MysticKetchup@lemmy.world 1 day ago
WhatThaFudge@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Thank you! First thing I thought when I saw that logo.
Six seasons and soon a Movie!
Ulrich@feddit.org 20 hours ago
It’s an asterisk…
GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
TIL the thing under a cat’s tail is an “assterisk.”
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
as
terisk
Shotgun_Alice@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Called it. Soon all we’ll only be able to play baby games like Elmo’s big adventure puzzle book land, or something like that.
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’ll be some “evolution is the devil” creationism bullshit, because this is a Christian fascist movement.
unphazed@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Nah, most likely Veggie Tales. Elmo is too woke and might cause dissonance with supremacists and Christian Nationalists. Oh, wait. I just repeated myself - sorry.
crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
They hate Elmo, too.
redwattlebird@lemmings.world 14 hours ago
I feel like even those games will be banned if we don’t stop them now. My thoughts are that games like ‘I am Jesus’ is the end goal here.
FriskyDingo@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
Nah, we’ll still have our shooters and sports games, just not anything sexual (yucky), taboo or too outside of the ordinary.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Honestly horrors get old when you can read in the news about “respected people” calling to exterminate Gaza and build beachfront cottages there. Even from just reading that and knowing that the same people can put anything onto your Android devices via a Facebook update or any of the Google applications update, on a whim. Nobody will even know.
About this - is it even legal to obey such pressure?
Ulrich@feddit.org 20 hours ago
Give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 day ago
What I see is a new niche opening up for a website offering game sales through alternative payment processors.
GasMaskedLunatic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Involving the MasterCard Mafia in your puritanical crusade is next to criminal. The only solution is to [CONTENT REMOVED FOR VIOLATING RESTRICTIONS AGAINST ADVOCATING VIOLENCE].
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 hours ago
Yay were back to the 2000s again, Jack Thompson rises again !
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
don’t you mean Joe Lieberman?
MITM0@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Can we go after CollectiveShout Now ??
Cethin@lemmy.zip 20 hours ago
We should, but also they aren’t the root cause. If they’re gone, there’s nothing stopping a different group from doing the same thing (except for fear of retaliation). The ideal solution is to force payment processors to process any payment for legal content.
MITM0@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
But they can be used as an example
curiousPJ@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Wow… This count have happened in the 2010’s with the anti-gaming feminist and conservative movement at the time.
If only they knew to go after payment processors instead of identity groups.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Soon: games causes mass shootings! Prohibit all games! And the payment processors will just comply because again they’re semi dictatorial greedy fucks
Tattorack@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Well, this is happening earlier than I thought.
Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Maybe we should retaliate.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 1 day ago
If only there was a method of paying people in a private and decentralized way, possibly maybe even… cryp"SCAM!"
“SCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM”
sits back down
meeeeetch@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If people had used cryptocurrency as a currency instead of as a “it’s totally not a security, we swear, even though we’re only saying that to evade SEC regulations a little longer” there’d be a lot fewer people calling it a scam.
For sixteen years, crypto’s only use cases seemed to be buying illegal goods and securities fraud. Finally, we have another use case presenting: perfectly legal transactions that credit card companies have gotten cold feet about.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 49 minutes ago
The only thing I’ve ever used crypto for was to buy totally legal goods and services.
Saleh@feddit.org 1 day ago
There also has been cases where people increasingly used cryptocurrencies as their national currency was subject to instability and severe inflation. Usually the governments cracked down on it hard, like in Turkiye.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 18 hours ago
If people had used cryptocurrency as a currency instead of as a “it’s totally not a security, we swear, even though we’re only saying that to evade SEC regulations a little longer” …LTC did. Monero has and is. BTC’s fall was a massive pullback on an extremely new and volatile idea that not even half the buyers entirely understood. BTC now is held up by ETF funds, private equity and everyone that cares putting a few chips in. Is it a scam now? Is everyone scamming everyone?
…there’d be a lot fewer people calling it a scam. For sixteen years, crypto’s only use cases seemed to be buying illegal goods and securities fraud. Some would call that decentralization and freedom. Spin it however you like.
Finally, we have another use case presenting: perfectly legal transactions that credit card companies have gotten cold feet about. They deserve every negative degree.
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
The SEC had every opportunity to make up it’s fucking mind for years, but even after repeated promptings from all the big crypto exchanges, they kept putting things off and randomly throwing lawsuits for violations for things they were asked for guidance on.
Also, this is the exact kind of transaction they had in mind when they created the tech, but everyone decided it was only ever for drugs, because that’s what the Wall St owned media told them to think
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 1 day ago
Not every country has a corrupt securities administration. Don’t push your third-world Americanism on others like its their problem.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“Man, I don’t understand why unregulated currencies are unpopular! I’m going to dismiss the heaping mountain of examples of it being abused with no possible recourse as just people being unreasonable in their dislike! That’ll convince people!”
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 1 day ago
I got robbed!
blames the currency
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I don’t care what gets delisted, I’m not buying your fucking monkeys
Tetsuo@jlai.lu 1 day ago
What does it have to do with monkeys ?
NFT is a very small subset of “Cryptos”.
On a more serious note, you really do prefer VISA MasterCard to dictate what is to be censored or note rather than using crypto currencies ?
hanrahan@slrpnk.net 10 hours ago
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 day ago
Yeah, I’m just going to a riot instead, like God intended
klopstock@feddit.org 1 day ago
I think the biggest problem is getting any crypto which usually involves an exchange which is also dependent on the payment processors you are trying to avoid
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 41 minutes ago
There’s also p2p sources like Bisq and Haveno.
Tetsuo@jlai.lu 1 day ago
Do you think it happen randomly that payment processors are unavoidable to get crypto money ? Because it’s clearly on purpose and a way to control a market they didn’t have any leverage on.
Still the take above of “I would rather support payment processors than Cryptos” still sound super dumb to me. People are so extreme on their assessment of technologies here. There is no nuance. AI is all bad, crypto is all bad that’s pretty much the tone here.
daggermoon@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Fear and Hunger appears to be back.
Bubbey@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
To be fair… Funger is pretty brutal, a little past regular “horror”. Definitely against the censorship tho.
Strider@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
This will be fun 🍿.
(before downvoting: don’t worry, this won’t go over well)