itch.io

||For anyone who won't read :
All of this just for two simple main issues : not specifying 'rape' into the content warning, and sexualising rape which is a greater issue.||

Hi again, it seems you did not at all get my point. I am part of the bdsm scene, thanks kindly for your concern, I do understand BDSM very well which is why I am so uneasy with the content your provide. I criticised it with full understanding of the practices, both in its good points and limits because everything has limits. The screenshots you kindly shared only share a specific vocabulary of fiction or fanfiction, in BDSM you have to specify consensual non consensual, your game does not showcase a bdsm scene, it is just a real plain rape, again, I repeat, the game is not bdsm, nor provides actual bdsm content or entertainement. My critique was both a critique as a player, but also as an artist, a bdsm practitioner, a queer person, and specifically an artist working on social and political matter, which means I observe things, I don't just play and think to myself "I didn't like it so I will comment on it", it litterally takes something really bad for me to do it.

I am not mixing up CNC and non consensual
1- I specified you should be more clear and transparent and directly state there is a rape content. Neither CNC nor non consensual means rape specifically, it just means the consent is ignored. So specify it as a trigger warning. A lot of other medias warn for non consensual content by adding on top of it the kind of assault (physical, sexual, psychological, harrassment, molesting, rape, etc).
2- Me playing the game does not mean I am consensual. As you said, non consensual and CNC are different, your video game is not a cnc since it is not a bdsm scene with the player (it could be) nor is it with the mc (because the practice was not discussed beforehand so there is no consent to ignore the consent), which means that my consent as a player is not confirmed simply because I play : I didn't know the content you would suggest and you didn't allow an introduction for me to get prepared and actually choose what to do. DO NOT compare me leaving the game with a safeword. The harm is DONE. A safeword PREVENTS the harm. I thought you knew bdsm ? Consent and safeword are two completely different things and a safeword only works with enlightned, conscious, informed and enthusiastic previously given consent. Your game allows neither, I don't know what I will see or read, do or go through, I am confused but I trusted you because I followed your content warning perfectly thinking it was well informed. A little advice dom to "dom", work on your contracts, it terrifies me seeing how poor you are with language (not as in English since I am not a native English speaker, but language more generally) and communication, it is YOUR responsability to create an actual and fully safe space for your sub, not the sub's responsability.
3- Stop legitimising the rape in the game with a bdsm argument while you stated that the game is not bdsm and the rapist, YOUR persona (literally your words), not a dom. My point was exactly that : your game is not bdsm so don't use bdsm vocabulary, bdsm is not ambiguous and absolutely doesn't apply to "regular" life so you can not create content for "fantasies" that take space in a non bdsm context.
The first rule in bdsm is trust and consent, you did not place the trust and you did not actually make sure through actually well done introduction, trigger warnings AND content warnings that the player would consent to it. A video game with a rape scene ? ok no problem, it could be a critique, an exploration of trauma, a depiction of systemic violence, all of that could be labled as non-con, but you chose a sexualisation of it. Writing non-con which implies (in YOUR case) there will be rape, does not mean it will be a fantasy, a catharsis (by your description it really sounds like you were speaking of cathasis), or else, it just and simply means "rape", that's it. So no, I do not consent to the consumption of an erotised rape, and you did not prepare anything in the game for the player to engage in an actual bdsm scene. 

Secondly, and remember this well, it does not take a community allowing a practice for the practice to be "okay". You want to explore cnc with your partner ? You go buddy, you do you, that does not mean however that it is okay to do it, and even less to create content based on it : people who ACTUALLY fantasise about real rape could play it or enjoy a let's play, you would be the reason they have access to such content. I am not shaming your practices, I could not care less what you do behind closed doors, I am simply pointing out the issue of not questionning the things you do because "it is a fantasy for many which I provided", so you provide cause people like it (you not included because you do not count as the public) ? (rethorical question, no answers needed). It reminds me of the number of "dom" men with sub women compared to actual dom women with sub men, like it's something to accept because "people like it and it is consensual so it is okay". It is not okay, male educated and socialised people, because of their education and born privileges exercise a specific type of dominance over women, and a lot of them actually think they're dom when they're not and they're simply in the bdsm community to hurt women with no respect of bdsm principles, codes and values. See what I just did ? I took something, questionned it (it's much more complicated than the one line I am writing in this random itch io comment section) and understood that something more complicated than "people like it and discussed it so it's okay" was at play. Even if not your personnal case, it is so not anodyne that your rape scene in the game is a man perpetuating it to a fem looking mc and it's beyond me how clueless you are about it. Again, do not care what you do in private, I am solely speaking about the video game as content for people to consume so it will impact them even in the slightest way.

Again, as an artist I am heavily advising you : you have a responsability as someone who has a plateform and therefore as someone who holds a kind of power, you can not do just whatever you like.

Thirdly, I did not question your confidence in your queerness, again, could not care less. I was basically telling you, it is rich for someone to advertise the content or the profile as queer while acting so patriarcally cis straight. I know you are not cis, and I respect the gender you identify with, always, but news flash being trans does not mean you managed to deconstruct straightness or gender, or that you do not reproduce harmful patriarcal dynamics, again not talking about you but the things you allow your game to share to strangers.
Confidence is a thing, but it does not grant you the right to be misogynistic as much as any other form of discrimination. Example : being best friends with a POC (or even being a POC) does not allow you to be racist or use slurs, for some reason, people understand it for racism but never for misogyny.

As I said, this game was recommanded to me because I work on such topics, let's say I wasn't disappointed, heavy rich material I have to admit, thanks for that at least. If it makes you feel better, you are not the first nor will you be the last.

Please re-evaluate your views on using fiction as a way to excuse the fetichising of rape, to excuse real crimes, and to perpetuate systemic violence.
I do not mix fiction and reality, I understand how intertwined they are and how fiction shapes mentalities in real life and as beautiful as it can be, it can also enable the worst to happen. Don't patronise me, Boy.

All of this just for two simple main issues : not specifying rape into the content warning, and sexualising 'rape' which is a greater issue.

Cordially, a critical non binary POC who actually practices bdsm.