this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
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140
'Who’s Deciding The Fate Of This Game?' The Secretive Process Of Getting A Game With Sexual Content On Steam (aftermath.site)
submitted 4 days ago by kip5608@retrolemmy.com to c/games@lemmy.world
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
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[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 92 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I personally always find it weird that killing hundreds of people is okay but nudity requires scrutiny.

That being said this derives from stripe threatening Valve in the near past (which is why their previous games didn't face this scrutiny). This is a known thing that any game developer, especially one developing mature content, should know. And the content in that game is definitely mature, if the screenshots of the game were shared without context I would think it's one of those sex simulators, which I get this is not and those are just small parts of the bigger picture of the game, but that's just like saying "this chocolate bar shouldn't need to be classified as containing peanuts, it only has 1 peanut".

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 49 points 4 days ago (5 children)

I personally always find it weird that killing hundreds of people is okay but nudity requires scrutiny.

Just Christian moral panic and puritanism, which has fucked us up mentally and psychologically for centuries now.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 18 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Rather than put us against invented enemies, I like to think a lot of Christians actually don’t care much about these subjects, and that the push specifically comes from Christofascism (rich people without a soul in their body using religion as a weapon to restrict and control people)

[–] zarathustrad@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

That's a bingo!

[–] Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

The enemies are usually foreigners or aliens, so it's cool with them.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Which is weird because "thou shall not kill" comes before adultery in the commandments, and go forth and procreate is also somewhere in that book.

[–] Keegen@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm pretty certain that about 80% of people who consider themselves "Christians" couldn't even list all of the ten commandments if you asked them.

[–] cosmos8188@leminal.space 2 points 3 days ago

Agreed they dont even follow the rules - unless by rules you mean their rules.

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I didn't say it made sense.

[–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Almost makes you think that the bible might have been written by humans and is just as flawed in its text as humanity itself.

[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 3 points 3 days ago

While that's very much true, that's not really what I take away from it. The bible could be 100% true and this wouldn't really change anything in this particular case.

What it instead tells me is that people will pick out whichever parts of the bible suit their biases and follow them, all so they can feel good about themselves despite ignoring the half of it they don't like. I also don't see many Christians avoiding mixed fabrics despite their god supposedly saying that's a no-no two different times.

[–] makeitwonderful@lemmy.today 0 points 3 days ago

There's a lot of killing in the bible as well. Moses and Joshua committed genocides sanctioned by the Christian god. I can see how people who hold the bible in high regard could be motivated to downplay the horror of murder.

[–] zarathustrad@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

It's much easier to have power over people who can be blackmailed for "sexual deviance" when the definition is very broad, can be tracked online, and tracking and banning are voluntarily enforced by corporate entities like banks (no-free speech problems).

[–] Gutek8134@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If the problematic content isn't crucial part of the game, they can try to go for the "official 18+ patch" like some VN re-releases, which would be like adding a peanut in a separate box

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Absolutely, have the game without it and a free (or with a stupid price like 10 cents just to ensure legal age requirements) DLC that's parked as adult only. But I think in this case it might be too engrained to the core of what the game is, that they can't, and if that's the case it makes sense to mark the entire game as adult IMO

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

I honestly think its because, as per every cheesy plot in the history of ever, love beats hate.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 17 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Stupid question - since I have adult mode turned on in Steam, I get weird hentai games like "Slut Goblin" and "Big Tiddy Blackjack".

I'm guessing the games they're promoting are not adult games, but include sex, which is what's causing a issue? They want their game to not be behind that setting?

Is it possible to create a Adult mod or "Directors Mod" to bypass it? Something that a player can choose to get it if they want the more explicit scenes?

[–] Kojichan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

A lot of Japanese visual novels that have English translations work this way. The PG-13 version is on Steam, and you have to either download or purchase the "adult" upgrade from another website.

[–] urushitan@kakera.kintsugi.moe 37 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, but it makes it a double edged sword. Why can Cyberpunk, which has a ton of sexual content, be a front page game while this, which is far more tame need to be locked behind the adult section?

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 4 days ago

Because the latter doesn't have a massive team of lawyers available to sue over it.

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 days ago

Unless your game actually has adult content (and lots of it!) you don't want it hiding behind some adults-only flag where few people will see it.

Basically a death sentence for your game.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

The issue is that they don't want the game to be flagged:

If the game remains flagged this way, it will “have very serious implications on its accessibility and visibility,” says Pedercini.

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Meanwhile, there are "all-ages" anime visual-novel games on steam with official patches hosted by the developers off-site which turn them into full-on pornos - which is the version of the game they are actually trying to sell and what people are buying it for.

And not a peep from Valve on that because it's off-site.

Must be very frustrating to developers of mainline games that by being honest and engaging with valve openly, they face far more hassle than groups who designed their game specifically to circumvent the rules.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Steam is OK with porn games. Banks are not. Banks have the power. Steam has to not get debanked.

I fully expect to have to download a patch from the dev when buying a porn game because of the censorship. If its not on Steam or a few other trusted platforms I won't bother paying.

The user adding the "optional" content after purchase make it not Steams problem while getting past bank censorship.

[–] arules@retrofed.com 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Then why isn't Valve a Bank⸮

[–] CalemitousVariantK@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They probably have more cash money than a lot of banks who haven't fully marked the value of their assets to market value since about 2008. I don't actually have a list of who's who, but creative accounting has been an open secret for some time and will likely become fashionable again either this year or next. Unless someone wants a banking crash or (more likely) is just too stupid to hire anyone that can stop one.

[–] philipp_@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 days ago

Because they'd need to be a third payment provider on top of visa and master card to make a real difference in this regard.

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I'm only remarking on the irony that porn developers might have an easier time because they can intentionally develop the clean 'steam-version' of their game to pass review without having to declare any contents at all.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I don't see why bigger companies couldn't employ the same tactic other than their clientele is more technically inept.

[–] I_Jedi@lemmy.today 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They should've sold the game on JAST or DLSite. They find sexual content to be perfectly satisfactory.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

it's about market access.

you wouldn't make a product and go sell it at the local bait shop, you would try to sell it through Walmart for maximum market saturation.

everyone who you want to sell a game to has a steam account, but only 40-70% of them have JAST or DLSite access.

[–] I_Jedi@lemmy.today 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If Walmart hates you and won't let you sell with them, then you had might as well sell at a local shop anyway to get some return on investment, yeah?