itch.io

Heck, I was tempted to give in and respond to this properly for a moment.

You're not worth arguing with. Pretend like you got me, or whatever makes you feel good about yourself.

I am arguing against the use of the word. When people hear about something getting "nuked", they assume people mean that it got deleted, which is not the case here. The clarification is important to avoid blatant misinformation. The literal definition does not matter.

Your insistence to use the word feels like a rhetoric intentionally for the purpose of antagonizing Itch.

Itch and Steam are not the same. Steam is owned by Valve. Itch is indie. There are plenty of ways this could change how each handles moderation. Truthfully, I don't know how they function, but I don't expect that you do either. If I am correct to expect that, I believe it is unreasonable to criticize Itch for a situation you do not understand. Moreover, I feel like your frustrations are misplaced and that they should be directed toward those that have forced this decision to be made in the first place.

With all that said I'm done. This has been a headache.

Well, first of all, hiding content is a very detached concept from "nuking" it.

Second, this situation is more complicated than that. With the pressure from payment processors, Itch needs to be more careful. Many of the games being targeted and removed are done so based on some of the fetishes associated with them. This is due to Collective Shout, a puritan group that has been influencing payment processors to disallow content they disagree with from being sold.

I would assume that NSFW games being hidden is being done in order to protect themselves and developers while they sort everything out with said payment providers.

They didn't nuke all NSFW games. They're just hidden while they're reviewing games. Most of the games are still there, but you can't search them at the moment. You can, however, interact with the game's page via a link.

Yes, absolutely, and we should prepare to fight back, not just for those at risk, but also those who have been affected.

Targeting Itch about this would be unproductive. That's all I'm saying.

If they didn't, they'd be stomping on many more indie devs. If you want to call that convenient... sure, I won't argue with you.

Note that the same thing happening now has already happened with Steam. If Steam can't fight back on this, what the hell is Itch going to do???

I think people are being absolutely ridiculous in these threads to blame Itch for anything beyond how they initially handled it. It's unfair to suggest that Itch should have fought back on this matter, and it would have been an irresponsible move on their part. The whole website, and all of its developers who rely on it, should not be killed because Itch decided to stand up for a portion of its developers.

I have developer friends of whom this affects. I fear for what might happen to their games. I am angry that this is happening, but what good does it do to go after the people with the guns to their heads and not the people holding the guns?

It seems like this situation is ongoing. Maybe they're not prepared to handle refunds at the moment. It would be a lot cleaner to clear the review first, after all. I think the wording you used here is otherwise better, but I'm also okay with the way the announcement phrased it. I don't see it as dishonest.

Games have been hidden, and some are being eliminated, yes. This is an announcement to explain what's happening. It just came late. I don't see the lie here.

What do you define as the "official review?" Because to me, the removal of certain games that's been happening looks exactly like that.

I feel like focusing on the tense of that quote is arguing semantics more than anything. I don't see that as a lie, as much as it is improper wording.

If you have read https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content, you'll see that there is no lie about them deleting games.

"Part of this review will see some pages being permanently removed from itch.io. Affected accounts will be notified via their account’s email address from our support address. You can reply to that email if you have any follow up questions."

I think we all need to be patient and understanding on the matter. It can be assumed that the situation was urgent and needed to be handled at haste. Even if it wasn't, it helps no one to criticize Itch for a situation people don't fully understand. The best you can do is ask for more information.

I don't know if there's anything meaningful I can say to this beyond what I've already said.

I stated my thoughts on that matter in the reply above.

That unfortunately doesn't change anything if they don't have a choice in the matter.

That's an AI chatbot protesting against a law. We're talking about a platform for indie developers to sell their games on potentially losing its payment providers.

Itch can't not comply without destroying itself in the process.

I get that the decision was abrupt and that it's frustrating there was no communication on the change, but I don't think it's worth people's time to mull over the way it happened, especially when you don't know the exact situation they were dealing with.

What other choice did they have besides resisting and losing support of payment providers for all developers? I feel like the only other option would have killed them harder than you describe.

To the people who believe itch.io is at fault and should have resisted these new changes: please try to think realistically here.

This was mitigation, to preserve developers' ability to sell their games at all. Itch has no power in this situation. The removal of NSFW content wasn't for "greed" or "short term gains". Had they resisted or fought back like many of you are suggesting, Visa and Mastercard would have very likely disallowed any payments through Itch. This damage would have extended to every developer on the platform. Then you'd have something far, far worse to complain about. I know that none of you want that.

Do not direct your anger toward your fellow victim. Direct it toward the people who forced this decision to happen in the first place. Collective Shout was able to pressure payment processors into telling platforms like Steam and now Itch to remove adult content. We need to make our voices heard to those payment processors. We need to fight back against this push from Collective Shout with our own larger push.

Payment processors should not have the right to dictate how people spend their own money. We need to fight back against this incentive against adult content. A good start might be with this petition: https://action.aclu.org/petition/mastercard-sex-work-work-end-your-unjust-policy. Although, it would also be a good idea to make more noise on social media. Express your disapproval in any way you can that might aid in getting our voices heard.

Directing it toward Itch, however, neither helps yourself and developers, nor Itch. They know this is a frustrating decision to have to make, and I wholly believe they are on your side in this situation. Please remain rational.