Posted April 05, 2024 by bitshiftgames
A long, but important and informational rant follows. You have been warned.
Ever since I started sharing my work with a larger audience, I've made a firm and deliberate effort to avoid talking about anything "real world", and ESPECIALLY anything political. I wanted, and still want, my stuff to be accessible to as wide a range of people as possible, a bright spot in people's lives when other things might not be so great. But baked into this rule from the beginning was one clear exception: "Unless it's relevant to my art, or my audience." What I'm writing to discuss now is VERY relevant, and, though political, is I think actually very unifying, in a dark kind of way.
Things are bad.
I don't just mean in general, but specifically in the world of explicit art and expression. On March 15th, Gumroad pulled all support for adult works, kicking countless artists, modelers, voice actors and others to the curb. Patreon soon followed up, not with an outright ban but with tightening of their already severe restrictions.
On March 25th, Dlsite, the premiere location in Japan for explicit doujin, audio content, and games like the ones I make was forced to change a number of their "Problematic" search tags in an effort to placate US credit card companies, changes like "mindcontrol" to "trance/suggestion" and "slave" to "servant".
It wasn't enough.
On April 3, DLsite announced the "temporary" suspension of all processing of Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards on their platform, effectively cutting off commerce outside of Japan without jumping through numerous hoops and paying heavy markup. Anecdotally, some creators are saying this has sliced their income in half.
In 2022, Louisiana passed a "Porn ID" law, requiring all sites with at least a 3rd of their content being explicit to REQUIRE age verification via government ID or credit card, under threat of private, business-ruining lawsuit. The law effectively makes running non-profit porn sites impractical, and for-profit ones radically less profitable, possibly to the point of extinction, as no one wants to show an ID (that can later be hacked and leaked, remember Ashley Madison?) to look at porn. This kicked off a flurry of copycat legislation throughout the country: some form of the same is now the law in South Carolina, Texas, and soon will be in Arizona, home to everyone's favorite MSG-flavored porn site. Within a few years, it's likely to be on the books in nearly every state in the union.
It has been frustrating, watching this unfold, to see the same ignorance, shortsightedness and vindictiveness pop up again and again. Not from the politicians and activists creating this problem (that's expected), but from those effected by it. Even now, some of you reading this are probably thinking "God, those stupid right-wingers, those republicans, why can't those wacko bible thumpers get their paws off my porn?!"
No.
Bill Ackman is not a right-winger.
Gail Dines, the activist behind the porn ID push, is not a "bible thumper," though she is working with one:
"Dines is a self-described radical feminist, sociologist and anti-porn crusader from Manchester, England who has lived in the United States for 37 years. It’s a strange coupling, between an anti-abortion Louisiana Republican and a professor who says her radical feminism 'encompasses many socialist feminist principles.'"
These are the people whose agitation ultimately results in Paypal, Mastercard and Visa vanishing in a puff of smoke. Every time someone replies to a Reddit thread or a Twitter post "Why is this happening, why does Mastercard care what I'm wacking it to?"? This is why. These people are why. This is coming from BOTH sides. From ALL sides. Always under the same tired moral panics we know by heart. They ALL have zero concern for freedom of expression, or the livelihoods they're trampling on in an era where everyone is struggling to get by.
And the dark thing is this isn't just, or primarily about porn. That's just a minor side-effort in a much larger push. This is about total control, on a level that people who haven't lived under actual authoritarian regimes can't imagine. You will think what they say, you will say what they say, or you will suffer. And the sad, but predictable thing is that people cheer it on. "Ha, that creep got banned from Twitter! Finally!", "That wackjob got kicked off Youtube and Patreon! About time!" Never understanding. The muzzle may be going on your enemy's mouth today, but they've got one in your size too, and they'll be delivering it soon.
And all this stuff with the suppression of explicit content? That's a little taste of that, of the shoe on the other foot. More to follow, you can count on it. It's a re-assuring myth to keep telling ourselves that when bad things happen, it's the other side, "those people". But the reality is that those in power, as a group, aren't "right wing" or "left wing", at least as normal people understand it. They just like power: consolidating it, protecting it. And taking it from us, piece by piece.
So where does all that leave us? What's the point of this somewhat unhinged rant? Only to point out that Itch isn't much different from DLsite. What will save it? Obscurity? DLsite was far more obscure, from a western point of view. The lack of actual IRL porn? The vast majority, if not all of DLsite's content was illustration, not photos, video, or "photoreal" cg. How long until the grim, bony fingers of the moralists are knocking at Itch's door?
I know this post is long, dark and depressing. As I said, I make a point of avoiding politics, and will continue to do so going forward. But this is an existential matter, literally. It effects me deeply, and if you're here, reading this, playing these games, it effects you. I suspected this was coming, but I had hoped I had a few more years before it truly set in. It looks like I, like WE might not.
Thank you for all you've done, the support, the kind words, the help finding bugs, tweaking gameplay, all of it. It's made a huge difference in my life, and however long I have left, I am immensely grateful for what I've already been lucky enough to enjoy. I have no plans of leaving: I'll stay "on the air" as long as I can. But just know that things are rough (in many ways that go well beyond porn frustrations). Enjoy this stuff while you can. Backup and archive everything. And if there's a game, an art pack, a commission you've been putting off? Maybe get it sooner rather than later. We live in uncertain times. But you've been a light for me, and I hope, in some silly, dumb little way, I have for you too.
Now, back to drawing cocky bunnies getting railed.