Deleted 5 years ago
If you are an 18+ adult and need 'trigger warnings' by others to get through life, then perhaps you should get off the internet :P
It is not the responsibility of ANYONE else to account for infantilized inadequate pseudo-children masquerading as adults and demanding that others cater to them. That's how CHILDREN make demands. They are not adults and not suitable to be treated as adults so therefore they should be denied access to adult content without further question or consideration. Take your trigger warnings and bugger the hell off the net already.
Literally the only people that I believe could possibly have a strong case for desiring 'trigger' warnings would be military veterans with PTSD. That's about the only type of group I could sympathize with to some extent but I still wouldn't feel 'trigger' warnings are a good idea. The individual needs treatment and society should not be required to bend over backwards for their individual situation.
no, voting system will always get abused. There is never a perfect way to make voting system, people will find a flaw and abuse it.
Those who abuse the system would have their itch accounts banned & an IP ban put in place to deter them from making new ones. Itch already has a system for Two-Factor Authentication so make that a mandatory requirement when making a new account. Even the most ardent trolls will find it cumbersome to go through the entire 'make a new account' process alongside creating new 2FA info & verifying it every single time.
If itch wants to go further to prevent abuse, they could require phone verification with a valid phone number via SMS. That would significantly cut down on a lot of potential abuse. However, that would also exclude a lot of people so I feel the 2FA requirement becoming mandatory would be a nice middle-ground, even for those without phones.
Doesn't work, Steam has an even more annoying system and trolls as well as scammers go to the process. Newgrounds is not even inmunite to this either, trolls will make somewhere to 10 accounts, rise them up weekly and they would have something to affect voting. Not even Voat was able to come up with a better voting system, the best they can do is delay the abuse and try to find them.
Voting is always a bad idea.
speaking of titles they may want to look into restricting the ability of a dev to change the title of a work. for example let's say the sell a game "X", then later they change the title to "X demo" or "X version 0.001". this happens a lot with adult games when the dev abandons the itch version in preference to selling on patron, or decides to milk the audience for more, granted milking could be somewhat defended if they had initially sold the game as "X demo" or "X version 0.001", but to sell it as "X" then downgrade it is a bit bait and switch.
I'd love to see a mandatory archival system for 'older versions' where developers can NOT prevent customers who paid for a game from downloading an older version prior to an update. That way if a future update 'nerfs' a game and/or removes features/content then customers have some recourse and aren't screwed out of money.
Which reminds me that I recently joined Dreamwidth, which also has an interesting system. Namely, there are three levels:
and then there's a freeform text field "reason for age restriction". So you get the benefits of predefined categories combined with descriptive content warnings. It does raise the obvious question of where to draw the lines, but it's an approach to consider.
The report system goes to the people for review it is not a robot job like steam or youtube does.
Anyone who needs 'trigger warnings' is not adult enough to be on the internet without the supervision of another non-triggered standard actual adult.
Life sucks, get a helmet. :P
You've said that before. Can you please drop it? People have been complaining. Staff has decided to take no action, but that was the first time.
On a personal note, if you think adults can't be triggered, you must be very, very young and with an untroubled life. No offense.
Mod is gonna mod me. Better not. I'll pastebin it from my Discord if anyone is interested.
Congrats mod, you have succeeded in censoring my free expression. Have a cookie.
There are three problems with what you said:
Please reconsider.
With respect, this is not only a bad idea, but antithetical to Itch.io's purpose.
There are plenty of porn games on this platform I find distasteful, some of them I even think are wrong to make. But Itch facilitates these games because beyond a basic code of ethics, it is meant to be an open marketplace where anyone can distribute their game. Democratizing games is the goal.
It's reasonable to me that you should have the right to filter out content you don't want to see. It is not, however, reasonable to eradicate content you don't want to see. Banning porn games on Itch would remove vast swathes of queer art, and historically, porn bans have been used to do just that.
Advocate for better content filtering, not abolishing content you don't like.
If I recall correctly, Game Jolt banned nsfw games because (don't quote me on this) "we have minors on our site and were asked to clean up." Controversy ensued (some think the removals unfairly targeted LGBT+ games,) and itch made this very on brand tweet (Which IIRC Game Jolt quote retweeted and said "itch is a good platform if you want to host nsfw games.)
Yes but ESRB is for computer games only, too corporate and I’d hardly call it independent. I also don’t like the actual rating system. Their one pro is that they have some authority, but even that is only for North America.
What my ideal would be is just an externally verified list of content warnings, that are not ultimately reduced to a single character. Next to each item would be either “light”, “medium” or “heavy” modifiers. Separate into categories mandated by law like 18+ vs not 18+, but leave the actual rating to adults.
I don’t think you can have enough rating boards.
I personally don’t see an ethical reason for creating an independent rating board, especially to the tune of the ESRB.
The whole idea is basically GameJolt’s solution: “DGRS”
It’s a rating board they created, my idea was basically, this, but mandated by Itch.io themselves, and not user selected.
The truth is, the ESRB is government mandated, on console games, you can’t not have an ESRB rating and sell your game on disks, and in truth, they don’t really have a place on Itch.io, because Itch.io is a private company and doesn’t have to abide by any sort of consumer protection laws, in the sense of adult content. However, the idea of a ratings board for itch.io is really needed for the sake of the customers, so at the end of the day, it really only depends on if they want to add it themselvs or if they don’t want to.
The ESRB would also require you to submit it and go through what million-dollar companies need to do, most indie developers can’t afford those fees.
While that sounds good, would you think there is a difference between a 20yo and a 30yo in terms of recommendation? Because even for 13yo vs 17yo, that concept would not really work out.
And especially for difficulty, there are games that a 13yo will beat, but a 18yo would not. Reflexes and enthusiasm can be very high at that age.
Hmm. The more I think about it, the more that idea becomes ... not bad, but obsolete. Just look at the retro games. People in their 40s and 50s are (still or again) playing stuff that they played as a 10yo. Concerning age, the only important thing is, if you should not play it, because you are too young for that type of conent. The rest is personal interests and that is done via tagging.
(Ok, there are games for pre-school kids, that even young teens would not touch. So recommended age group, is of course a thing.)
No I think till 18 will be enough (I know that in some countries 21 is adult age).
Still there is big difference in 13 yo and 17 yo.
To be more precise. As I am author of the game about movie production it is quite obvious with understanding of the film industry between 13 yo and 17.
As I remember myself when I was watching 2001 A Space Odyssey by Kubrick or Blade Runner by Ridley Scott those films was boring when I was around 12... it past many years to understand and appreciate such movies and this comes with life experience and knowledge of medium.
And this is just simple example. What about psychology horrors like Rosmary's Baby by Polanski or classic movies by Hitchcock (13-teens even do not know who he is).
The most statement about my game that is too difficult comes from very young players... because they do not understand some business mechanics, do not have skill of abstract thinking and do not have "life experience".
2001 is boring as an adult even more. And I watched it in double speed. That one was for people that are high. It had good moments, but overal just too stretched out. You could run it as an art installation somehwere in the background maybe.
So basically you would need a tag that entails that the game is for mature players in a sense that is not usually used in this context. Like the real meaning and not being the fancy word for saying stuff that minors are not allowed to watch.
Btw, I had a look at your gameplay video. Difficulty would not be easier if people were older. Your game is Rockstar Ate My Hamster with movies (wich was played by 12yos) and an interface that reminds more of an office application than of a game. The gaming part is not the problem, kids will figure that out. Sure it is more complex, but you need not know anything about movies or movie production. Gaming (at least one part) is about optimization. You get a budget, a time frame, means to spend money to make money. In short: management simulation game. You make it sound as if you would need real knowledge to play the game. The game should actually teach those mechanics in the context of the game. Teach as in, players will figure out optimal strategies.
(Oh, and I saw Blade Runner as a kid and it was not boring to me. Quite the contrary. Maybe a bit scary. ;-)
Yes that is true that game at first sight is playable for everyone. There is nothing fancy there on interface level and it is not a problem to follow some basic mechanics (btw I have written first version of this game when I was 15 years old on Commodore 64).
Still when you play it there are some concepts which is hard to understand for younger persons.
About knowing the movie it partially true as it is not mandatory but it gives some additional context and layers of fun (with cult characters concept or cult movies which based on IMDB real films)
So there are small things which requires some abstract thinking and younger audience have problem with it.
So to make it summary yes as you write this is for mature players in not common sense (as most of the ratings based on content) but still I would like to suggest some age category for players. As you do not watch Tarkowsky's or Bergman's movies with 7 yo kid.
P.S. I won't comment your movies preferences as everybody has it's own taste and perception of specific movies :)
I saw 2001 only a few weeks ago... ;-) High expectations, because the movie was so acclaimed.
The concepts and mechanics are not causing the problems, the way you describe it, imho. Having fantasy currency is the norm in games. Having hidden preferences of your toons is not a problem either, you just have to figure them out. And if the game (accurately) teaches long term economics, yay, tag for educational. Limitations of party size is a staple of any game you control more than one toon. You do not hire a thief to fill a mage's role either. All those concepts are well known and understandable to even young players.
I do not think, I get what you mean with abstract thinking. The whole concept of playing a game is an excercise in abstract thinking. You do see the results of your planning in the game, do you not? I remember distinctly from your video that you even see how the audience reacts and to what. Like having the setting in a specific region. What is "abstract" about making the connection that certain combinations will have certain effects? That is not different from improving your damage per second in an mmo that is played by 12yo.
People will probably not get the assumed easter eggs, if they do not know the movies they recreate. That is a given.
I am not sure, if the kids that now perceive the game as difficult would have a different opinion, if they first encountered the game as a mature adult. My guess the problem is not difficulty, but appeal. Your game looks like an accountant software. Kids dig difficulty in general. Just look at "nintendo hard" or Dark Souls. But just like adults, not all kids dig difficulty. Or management games. But the thing is, more people are playing games nowayday then back in the 80s. Gamer kids back then were more nerdy, and those gamers are adults now. So I presume, that adult gamers are currently a little bit more nerdy than the younger gamers. And your game looks like it appeals to the nerd in all of us. Fussing about details as an accountant.