Itchio makes the distinction between pornography games which glorify incest, rape and child abuse etc - and narratives which touch on them in ways which are not glorification. Context and framing matter. Its incoherent to discuss content divorced from context.
I don't think its smart or true to argue "if they ban No Mercy they're going to ban Mouthwashing next". I think it sounds asinine. The worst faith, most catastrophising of slippery slopes.
.
With that said, justice for scat porn.
Even if we were to assume that there could be a set of standards in regards to what does and does not count as art, and which subjects are and are not worthy of exploration,* "glorifying" is an entirely subjective term that is worthless in this context.
No one person or group of people should be allowed to act as arbiters of what kind of art and media other people can and cannot create or interact with. Don't like it? Don't engage with it. But there's more to the creative field than Thomas Kinkade's whole thing of "art should always be uplifting and feelgood and should never challenge me and make me feel uncomfortable."
--Sincerely, someone whose mere existence is considered glorifying a degenerate and dangerous lifestyle by people like Collective Shout
* And we really, really fucking shouldn't because that's how you end up with lists of "degenerate art" and bookburnings.
Wait: you also use Patreon as a platform. Which is beholden to the same standards set by payment processors as itch. You do have several payment processors who are ok with your work.
.
I think it's natural to care for the other people who will be affected. Justice for scat porn etc. There's just some hills I'm not willing to die on. I don't see rape games with fascist devs and fascist messaging like No Mercy as the people who would show solidarity if the shoe was on the other foot: they would almost certainly celebrate the removal of what they would see as degenerate art.
In less leftist spaces, spaces which we'll call center-right to be diplomatic, this whole itchio shadowbanning is being discussed as a censorship of rape and incest games with no mention of queerness. In fact, this is considered an instance of leftist censorship and the center-right are complaining about leftist feminists (not distinguishing between feminists and terfs).
Its so sad the most grotesque fascist porn games affected will find a new home the easiest. Obviously. That's part of why this hurts queer people.
I'm sorry I keep bringing up No Mercy, its just the easy well known example to point too. Many such fascist porn games got deplatformed.
.
Patreon used to allow sex workers on its platform. People who'd sell photoes of hole. It sucked when they got banned. There wasn't a lot of solidarity from NSFW artists back then - they just kept on keeping on. The kinds of solidarity NSFW devs are demanding from SFW devs now never materialised when NSFW artists could have supported sex workers all those years ago. Its sad. I sometimes wonder who we NSFW artists are to now demand what we never gave. I just reflect on it some times.
.
Sorry for the rambling post.
I don't know why you're calling the No Mercy dev a "fascist." Stop with the ad hominem attacks.
And just for your information, they're a pretty chill person. The game itself was only noticed because Karens made it seem like the worst thing ever, when it was really just an average, and really tame AVN.
Please do better as a human being.
nothing about "pornography" nothing about "glorify"
Read the whole thing and not a cropped social media screenshot: https://itch.io/docs/creators/faq#is-adult-content-allowed
The whole thing is under a subheading about adult media and pornography and not general policy. It directly uses the language: "Content glorifying sexual violence is not permitted".
Yes, please read the whole thing, indeed:
If you plan to collect money for your content, then you must adhere to the acceptable use policy of all respective payment processors that your account utilizes:
The following is a non-exhaustive list of prohibited themes present in card processing networks. We are unable to support the sale of any works containing these topics:
Non-consensual content (real or implied)
Underage or “barely legal” themes
Incest or pseudo-incest content
Bestiality or animal-related
Rape, coercion, or force-related
Sex trafficking implications
Revenge porn / voyeur / hidden cam
Fetish involving bodily waste or extreme harm (e.g., “scat,” “vomit”)
Basically they say: "Content glorifying sexual violence is not permitted" (we will kick you out for that) and then they add "we won't let you sell anything that might violate the much longer list"
It does not need to "glorify" anything for the second part. If it did, it would already run afoul the first point and be kicked out and there would be no need to say "oh, we'll kick you off our platform for glorifying sexual violence, but if you also include scat in your sexual violence glorifying game then we also won't allow you to sell it"
I don't know how much plainer I can make it for you. There is NO QUALIFIER on the long list, it just says, if your content includes X it is as good as dead. A furry game (even if it is not porn)? Nope, not allowed to be sold because it might be "animal related"
This is not true. Games that are not NSFW, adult content, or have any sexual content at all have already been banned. Specifically, games that contain the prohibited content. A man coming to terms with having been sexually assaulted, not described or included in the game itself, was banned because it contained non-consensual content.
So claim that the context matters all you want, but it really doesn't. Itch doesn't have the time, money, or people to review anything that lists any prohibited content to make sure the context is not glorifying. Payment processors don't give a damn how the game frames prohibited content.
A man coming to terms with having been sexually assaulted, not described or included in the game itself, was banned because it contained non-consensual content.
Source?
I am looking for a full-on ban that passed a human review. A game being swept up in shadowbans would not sway me, as I already agree that Itch did handle this situation poorly and quickly and badly. A lot of games got swept up in shadow bans that should not have. Payment processors are amoral profit driven entities who make a bad de-facto classification board. But platforms which are already forced to comply with payment processors whims such as Patreon and Ko-Fi would platform such a story. If Itch banned such a game they did a bad job and it should be reinstated.
