You suck
EDIT: So many homophobes defending this saying "it's not itch.io's fault" fuck ya'll.
EDIT 2: Saw the new announcement. I'm glad they're actually seeking out a new payment provider, but them not even saying sorry is crazy. I'm willing to let this go if the situation genuinely gets resolved, but you still fucked up BAD itch.io.
Not really their fault, it's the pressure from the payment providers! I'm angry too though, maybe fill in these petitions:
Tell MasterCard, Visa & Activist Groups: Stop Controlling What We Can Watch, Read, or Play
https://chng.it/b2pMbsLvdg
Mastercard: Sex work is work. End your unjust policy
https://action.aclu.org/petition/mastercard-sex-work-work-end-your-unjust-policy
UK: The scope of the Online Safety act is far broader & restrictive than is necessary in a free society.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903
The pressure isn't their fault, but their response is disgusting. Both Steam and Itch Io are able to have long talks with these payment procesors AND give time to the users to react, yet they didn't. And the public response is obnoxious in a way that doesn't adress things like why the fuck are anime nsfw games being banned right now for "sexualized images or videos of real-life humans".
The petitions can't hurt, but for USA citizens the most important thing is to contact Congress.
It has nothing to do with visa or any of them its all because of a group called Collective shout, the group is targeting anything they think is sexual, women posing in makeup ads, lingerie, underwear ads, ect they are even going after games like gta, mass effect, boulders gate, ect and it doesn't stop there they are even go after content creators who do fansly, onlyfans ect the whole entire market is being effected cause this group paypal disvocer all of em its not just visa, and if you try fight against them they will block you on social media, and if its anything they dont like they will literally bring up the wording "children" when no one has said anything about that topic they are causing this monstrosity
The way Itch bowed down without putting up a fight, taking down every "adult" game without telling anyone first, and even going so far as to remove dozens of non-NSFW games that just had gay or trans people in them is overstepping the line. Itch bending the knee and saying they want to have a good relationship with credit card companies while screwing over creators is absolutely disgusting, and I'm angry at Itch for how they're handling this. They don't get a free pass for how horrifically they're handling this.
Again it has nothing to with itcho.io, as i said ABOVE they being PRESSURED into doing this because of the group called Collective Shout if you do research, you can see its not just effecting itcho.io its effecting even women who do onlyfans cause this Collective Shout is attacking visa discovery payplal ect
Honestly I'm not quite sure what people expected.
Personally, after a couple years ago regarding a conflict I had with another user I essentially had to step on a few toes just to get Leafo and staff to actually do something to deal with some at underage kid that went out of his way to troll and harass me personally after I called out he was under 13 at the time and point out the blocking feature wasn't even doing its function.
While not entirely relevant to the issue of NSFW games, the reason why I bring this up is because I honestly feel that Leafo doesn't have the best track record at resolving conflicts or upholding the ToS or rules in an effective manner. That's why I disappeared from Itch because it made me feel less comfortable to be a part of this community. And that relates to this specific controversy at large which I honestly would wish Leafo either had the decency to address that criticism or just hand the position he has over to someone who gives a shit.
So you would have rather itch put out a brutally honest message like this: "We really want to keep fighting for you. But there is a high chance that Visa and Mastercard will drop support of our site, depriving us of the revenue and payment options that are desperately needed to keep Itch.io afloat." Followed by a plea of financial support through means other than Visa or Mastercard.
Thing is Itch did far more than just remove "Obscene" content as far as the Comstock act and the payment processors are concerned. They actively went above and beyond and fucked over so many more people than required, and for what? To show groups like collective shout that they're willing to toss their own userbase and customers under the bus? Itch can get fucked, frankly.
When fuckheads try to dick you around you fight back, period.
In this scenario the best case option is they back down and fuck off. The worst case option is itchio fucks them off and uses other payment processors.... you're weighing the "pain" of users having to go and sign up to a different payment processor vs letting a third-party abuse their power to dick you around and decide your rules like they own the place.
I just found out about this. So let me get this straight. My adult games all feature FEMALE PROTAGONISTS and I give the games away for free, yet because of some Australian a-holes and some cowardly credit card companies my games have been delisted. I wish my characters were real. They would draw their pentagrams, light their black candles, and unleash their unbridled fury on Melinda Tankard Reist and her shyster cohorts.
It's not their fault though. It's not like itch.io can run without the whole money system behind it. Without it, absolutely no one gets paid. It's sad to see how toxic the itch.io community has been since all the dumb things that Collective Shout and other similar organizations have been doing. If you aren't willing to accept that it's not itch.io's fault, then why complain about it? There are way too many people going against what you've said. And at least while you are complaning at least have some more respect about it. And try to put some more thought into what you are writing because this is making you look even stupider with your only way of fighting back is by calling everyone "homophobes".
You can't label queerness as a purely sexual thing because it makes it sound like you believe all queer people are all like sycophantic perverts. Also mind you queerness also deals with gender identity which is not sexuality based at all. From the logic your pulling, games with trans character on this site should get pulled because its based on "sexual stuff". The fact people generalize queerness as sexual stuff is actually one of the main reasons creators who are making queer experience games are also worried.
And just a larger addendum but for gods sake if you hate nsfw games this much not only are they're deindexed right now but you can also filter them out with tags and settings. What are you gaining by trying to stoke fights with people in the community forums? Are you trying to get itch to make the change permanent instead of a temporary measure? The itch staff barely even read these forums and also disagree with you. Just go enjoy all the games on the site you want and leave these people alone because all you're doing is making yourself look like a moron with the times you've put your own foot in your mouth
It is not pornography disguised as a video game.
It is video games with pornography. We humans like pornography - the depiction of sexual things - as long as there exists art. There is cave paintings with such older than what some people will tell you the world is old. You will find "sex" in all things that are expressed. No matter if video games, movies, books, paintings, sculptures and so on.
Curious how games are attacked. There is not even real people being actors and showing the sex. It is pixels all the way down. Pixels. But thought police can't have that. People being entertained by ungodly sinful pixels, instead of being pure and adhering to whatever morals are pushed by an activist group in an attempt to be seen as relevant. Attacking the weakest of the arts, indie games. It is cowardly.
If you think sexual games are bad, don't play them. But do not act like thought police or support others that do.
The post I replied to, is deleted. Iirc it claimed something along the lines of those games being pornography in disguise. Which of course provokes a headshake and a groan... ;-)
But there were times and places and still are places where anything that might be called porn or has to do with sexual things would have to be disguised.
I believe there are places in the US where this applies to sex toys in this day and age. You can't sell those, but you could sell a personal massaging device. Crazy things like that.
FUCKING EXACTLY!
It shouldn't matter for shit, but: I am an asexual female game dev who isn't exactly white. I've got a WIP game that, even though it doesn't have ANY sexual content at all, it is very adult and because, despite it being a dark fantasy RPG, it has many elements of horror, including kidnapping, murder and fantasy religious horror. Because those are only three of the many, many things in it that are far from kid-friendly, or could be called "controversial" with how blatantly vague the new terms here are, there is a very real likelihood that, even if I were to make a page for my game here, despite the demo not being ready yet and the fact that it will be a free game, the page could easily be at risk of being yanked. Because it is not intended at all for children.
When I was in my twenties - early thirties (I am in my forties now,) I wrote porn for a living, professionally. No, I did not act in it, nor was I a chat agent, I wrote hardcore, softcore and fetish porn. NO ONE MADE ME DO IT. I did it because I like writing and have no problem at all with pornography. (Plus, the pay was very good.) I am FAR from being the only woman alive who has ever written smut because I wanted to.
NO ONE has the right to dictate what an adult can read, watch, or play, as long as it isn't unquestionably, blatantly illegal. We do not live in the Victorian ages any longer-- who has the right to say we aren't capable of making up our own minds, knowing what we do or do not like, what we aren't comfortable with, or anything of the sort? We are more than capable of making our own decisions and sure as fuck don't need someone to try and "protect" us from shit!
i dunno if i’m tripping or misunderstood ur comment, but NSFW does not stand for Not Safe For Women, it stands for Not Safe For Work, it means content you shouldn’t open while at work because more often than not it’s lewd, but lately it refers to just +18 content in general, for other reasons such as graphic violence, dark themes and so on.
The most common mistake in human history is not for a moment putting yourself in another shoes. That may even be the root of all evils, from psychopats to facism, racism, genocide and so on... i would try to not be put in that same bag, i personally have and grew better as a person ever since.
Imagine you own Itch. You have a much smaller budget, partners(if any) then any other platform and game store out there, fgs some simple key reseller/bundle sites may be bigger then Itch... most huge companies CANT and wont fight all major payment processors legally, wich in the us costs abusive amounts. Chances are you cant even afford to start that fight
So this bomb falls in your lap, and unless you do something imedietly they will cut your site out, meaning ALL revenue- revenue you need to keep the site running. You realize this whole ordeal came out of the blue, not x months ahead warning right?
So what would you do polocatfan? Im not even aware if theres a good, reliable big enougth payment processor alternative out there(that isnt crypto) - and if there is im sure it isnt something you close a deal with and change the whole site accordingly overnight.
They dont deserve even the benefit of the doubt? A chance? Youre reacting like theyre the cause, the ones who decided to ban everything. Its understandable to get mad, but that anger have a much more logical target...
My reaction was sadness and worry. Im mad too at the situation, but with Itch? Im worried. I love this platform, i dont want to see it reduced by outside forces, or close down or anything like that.
I can be angry at the people who drove itch to do something and I can be angry at itch for not standing up for their creators and not outlining their plans sooner. Believe me if they said they were de-indexing games until they could find another payment processor this thread would not have been made.
