Hello everyone!

What happened?

In case you haven't heard, late last night itch.io made a massive move: they delisted almost all of the games on their platform labeled adult or NSFW, making them impossible to find through the storefront. They also straight up removed certain titles and barred creators from withdrawing funds for violating their terms of service if they were hit by this unannounced censorship.

This was a result of pressure from itch's payment processors, Visa and Mastercard, which received a lot of pressure from the Australian based anti-porn campaign, Collective Shout. For a more detailed rundown of the events, you can read Blerdy Otome's article here. 

Now, some of you might say "who cares about hentai/gooner games, they're not removing anything of value." 

First of all, even if you personally don't partake, media exploring sexuality and sexual themes are extremely important. They educate, they entertain, and they provoke thoughtful discussion. 

Second, this mass round of censorship has not affected only "pornographic" games. It has hit any game that deals with adult themes and thus has been tagged appropriately. This includes chimeriquement's "The Daughters of the Sun" trilogy, which is based on a famous Greek myth involving the taboo desire of a stepmother for her stepson. It describes both the twisted perceptions of the stepmother and the conflicts of the stepson as he struggles with the horror of his predicament. This censorship also includes other games about sexual trauma and surviving abuse. These are stories that have the right to be told and experienced.

Third, do you think this censorship will stop here? I've heard talk that "itch will look over the games and remove the bad ones and leave the good ones alone." But this is not a guideline that itch is setting for itself; it is a demand being forced upon itch by payment processors. Should your credit card have the power to dictate what you should or shouldn't play? First, we'll just get rid of the games glorifying SA. But what if they decide later, that all depictions of SA are gross? Even explorations of sexual trauma are too much for our family-friendly website. What about depictions of trans narratives, or LGBTQ content, or child abuse, or gore? If we say "it's all right for payment processors to censor art," then that's the first step towards a world that is far more dystopian than it already is. 

How am I responding to this?

First, I'll say that I'm fortunate: none of my current games have been affected by this extremely broad, vague, and poorly communicated act of censorship. As a person on the ace spectrum, I don't really include much sexual content in my games, if at all. However, I do plan to make at least one erotic game (that is very fully in the realm of erotica, and not simply "spicy"). I am currently not comfortable with posting this project on my main account as I do not want to be suppressed or shadowbanned, so it's possible I will create a side account for it or distribute it on alternative websites altogether. I'll make an announcement later.

Second, while my games don't specifically deal with sexual content, a lot deal with dark content and themes. I also try to be LGBTQ friendly, and I plan to delve more into queer narratives in future projects. I hope that I (and my games) can continue to exist on this website, but just in case, if you enjoy my work, I heartily encourage you to follow me on my other socials. You can find all of them here (I recommend Bluesky for a site that isn't run by a lunatic - and the one where I post most frequently). You can also join my mailing list, which is the one form of communication where I can guarantee I won't be blasted off the Internet for one reason or another. 

As for me, I have decided to turn off donations on all of my games, at least until the current round of censored games have returned to the storefront, and possibly longer. (The exception is MindMindMind, so that people can still access the artbook.) I greatly appreciate everyone who opts to support me financially, especially since making games is not cheap. Even a little bit of support helps me pay the artists, VAs, and other collaborators that I work with. But the payment processors take a significant amount of the money I earn through itch, and it sickens me to think that money that players donate to me is used to fund these hateful campaigns of censorship.

If you would like to support me (and it's completely unnecessary), I'll still be taking donations/support through my Ko-fi and Patreon. I won't link them because that would be kinda crass, but if you want to find them, you can find them. 

What can you do?

If there are developers that you appreciate that have been affected by this censorship, I greatly urge you to support them in any way you can. Follow their other social media, play and rate the games that they still have on the platform, and leave kind comments.

I would also urge you to get involved! Call/send emails to Visa/Mastercard/Paypal/Stripe, encourage them to stop this censorship. Contact your local government officials. There are a few documents circulating around explaining how to do this. I've linked a couple below (and I will be contacting these companies as well). 

Here

https://yellat.money/

I repeat once again: regardless of whether you play adult games, THIS AFFECTS EVERYONE. Please stand up and help to protect artists.

As always, thank you to everyone who supports me and my projects; I appreciate you every day.

Best,

Chattercap