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URGENT: Why not a game geoblocking feature for certain games?

A topic by Emiko Hosokawa created Jun 08, 2023 Views: 1,002 Replies: 14
Viewing posts 1 to 5
(1 edit)

I am making a game with heavy (and I mean HEAVY) Christian references / themes, and what makes me feel concerned the most is the distribution of the game (and probably my other works as well) in China. As far as I know, China is notorious for the persecution of Christians and even went as far as censoring Christian media (these articles might give you an insight: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/december-web-only/chinese-christian-in...  https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/censors-ban-the-word-christ-from-t...).

I'm afraid that if I distribute my works there I would land myself in big trouble, with dozens (or even hundreds) of hitmen hired by the Chinese government targeting me and wants me dead (similar to Salman Rushdie's controversy revolving his most popular work, The Satanic Verses).


Because of this, I want itch.io to have a specialized geoblocking feature that can allow developers to geoblock their games in any regions that the developer wants their games to be not available in (with a list of countries that the dev can choose from in order to make their game inaccessible in those regions), in order to minimize the chance of a developer getting troubles within certain countries because of their content.

Can you please add this ASAP for the sake of many other devs who make games with content that might be insulting to people of some nations? 


Thanks in advance!

(+1)

It’s understandable that you’re worried about this, considering the stories you’ve heard about censorship and persecution in China. However, it’s important to clarify a few things here that may alleviate your concerns:

Anonymity and online reach: The Internet is vast and mostly anonymous, particularly in the context of a platform like itch.io. Unless you’re a very high-profile individual, the chances of a foreign government being able to identify you and take direct action against you based solely on a game you’ve uploaded to itch.io are virtually nonexistent. Especially if you practice good digital hygiene and avoid giving out personal information.

China’s censorship practices: While it’s true that the Chinese government does engage in censorship and has restrictions on religious content, they are more likely to simply block access to certain materials rather than retaliate against creators, especially those based outside of China.

Case of Salman Rushdie: The Salman Rushdie case was quite unique and involved a complex set of religious, political, and historical factors that are quite different from what you’re describing. It was also a pre-digital era event. The infrastructure of the Internet allows for a much higher degree of anonymity.

Your idea for geoblocking features on itch.io is a thoughtful one, and might be worth suggesting to the site administrators for reasons beyond your specific concern. However, based on your described scenario, it seems unlikely that the Chinese government would single you out for creating a game with Christian themes. It is more likely they would just block the game within their jurisdiction if they found it objectionable.

Remember, you can always seek legal advice or talk to a security consultant if you’re seriously worried. But hopefully, this gives you a bit more peace of mind as you continue your creative work.

Actually, another concern is this:

IIRC China also practices the censorship of any media that are "historically inaccurate", based on some articles that I might have read. The "history inaccuracy" thing might again target the content of my game, which heavily features a (Christianized) Titanic alternate history theory as the focus (the theory states that the Devil (again, the Christian depiction of the entity) sunk the ship by jinxing it to its demise) (maybe I am wrong as the censorship of "historically inaccurate" media might only target those that depict Chinese history).

This, coupled with the religious content in my game, might even land me in more trouble IMHO.


It is better to have geoblocking features for such games (like mine) in order to keep me and those devs who make games with similar content safer from those issues.

isn't historical inaccuracy the whole point of fiction? as for titanic, not even that popular movie has much historical accuracy in it. yeah, there were some more or less accurate tidbits in it. But the story was completely fabricated and many things were changed, where they even knew how it went.

(+1)

Do you equate havin a game on itch with distributing it to that place  ? 

Of course there are severl good reasons to boycot each and everything possible related to them. They are closed, you can not become acitizen. Not even by marriage.  They have substandard environment protection and undercut world market prices with knockoffs, monopolizing where they can . It is not a free country, where you can speak your mind, get indipendent information - or play any game you want.  Putting money there by purchasing stuff made there    supports all those things. Including the censorhship.

They banned Winnie the pooh, exposing their unfittness for global community.  Lets hope the young people  there grow up as decent , making the country decent as well. (and that goes for many countries, even the us. especially the us.)

If i were you, i would be more worried that you get picketed by westboro  baptist church for desecrating christian imagery by putting it in some ungodly computer game. Because, you know, usually you do offend some christians by having christian "references" in games. Not people that are indifferent or even against the source material. 

A bit derailing from what I want, though.

I just simply want the itch admins to implement a geoblocking feature in order to have devs opt out certain regions in publishing their games, especially if their game (s)'s content are offensive / illegal in the regions they wanna opt out.

(+1)

That feature might be usefull for some cases. But it is mostly used for regional pricing. You do not even need an account to buy stuff on itch, i highly doubt they will ever implement such a feature. If they were, then a dev could release one project for asia with one price and one project for other region with other price. Also it would be possible to discriminate against people based on their location. By not giving them your free game at all or giving them your paid game for much higher price.

Have a game that is a tad bigger . Go to steam. Have your geo blocking.

Delist your game. Only link to it    on sites geoblocked from your unwanted audience.

Do not put language of unwanted area in game.

Have the download link point to a geoblocked hoster.

Do the reasonable thing and have a disclaimer stating the obvious, that it is fiction, characters are not minors and no celestial beings were harmed during the production. And that people offended or agitated by religous topics should not play it.

Well, actually, to submit a game to Steam requires a very steep fee which I cannot afford.


Plus, preparing more assets for Steam pages is simply tedious for me though...


And please, itch.io REALLY needs to add a geoblocking feature for game developers, in order to keep them safe from regions where the content of their game (s) are considered illegal / offensive.

(+2)

I’m sorry but with all due respect, I don’t see how the Chinese gov would have any access at all to your information (Itch.io isn’t going to have it, the only thing they may have is your IP address if you have not used VPN, but they would violate so many privacy laws if they give that to china). So unless you explicitly put in your name, phone number, address into your game or game description, there’s literally no way the Chinese gov is going to even know who you are.

Well, what about things like the name of the development team  / circle in the credits?

Good point! In the world of digital content, it’s indeed common to attribute work to a certain group or individual. If the development team’s name or the individual’s name is unique and traceable, it could theoretically be a potential source of identification. However, it’s important to bear a few things in mind:

Pseudonymity: Many developers and creators use pseudonyms or aliases for their work. This can provide an additional layer of anonymity and protection. If your team is concerned about potential risks, you might want to consider using a pseudonym for your group or avoid directly naming individuals within the team.

Dilution of threat: There are millions of games and developers out there. This vast quantity tends to “dilute” individual visibility, reducing the likelihood of being specifically singled out, especially for indie developers.

Actions vs identities: Most likely, in a situation where a game is found to be objectionable, the game itself would be blocked or removed in the problematic jurisdiction. The focus would be on restricting the content, rather than pursuing the creators.

Your safety is certainly important, and it’s wise to think carefully about how you present your work and your team to the world. But remember, the Internet provides a level of anonymity that should give you a fair degree of protection. And you can always increase that protection by using pseudonyms and being careful about what specific identifying information you include with your game.

I sincerely apologize if my earlier comments came across as dismissive or rash. I want to clarify that I’m not against your suggestion for a geoblocking feature on itch.io at all. In fact, I see the value it could bring in giving developers more control over where their content is accessible. My intention was not to belittle your concerns but to provide a perspective on the likelihood of the scenario you described, based on general practices in international internet governance. I absolutely recognize the importance of ensuring the safety and peace of mind for content creators like ourselves.

(+4)

You try to reason that it would be hard to find a dev. It is not. Especially in this case. Devs expose themselves on purpose.

But is it reasonable to fear hundreds of hitmen? For a game that is not marketed there, not in the local language, not preaching religion, and mind you, christianity  is not forbidden there, nor is the actual bible. They have 2% christians.

The reasonable fear would be, that they might ban the game there. Or that the dev gets put on an unwanted list, having problems when trying to visit the country. Or even fear of hackers and trollposters, downvoters etc.    

Geoblocking  would solve none of those issues. I hope everyone realizes that. 

Optional regional pricing might be implemented some day. Maybe optional geoblocking  will be included for that. But I guess that is very low on the priority list of features. Regional pricing is not needed for all those pay what you want games.

(+2)

I'm Chinese player and your worries are so redundant, first of all China is not what this article and what you say it is.why do you think goverment need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire an assassin to kill you...It’s funny.And itch is not a Chinese site, so any information you post has nothing to do with the Chinese government.

I have heard accounts of religion (especially Christianity and Islam) getting persecuted there pretty often.

Some of them even said that Christian media (such as Bibles and literature) are confiscated / gone out of circulation.

I am worried if they are gonna target mass media like video games and / or TV series featuring such religious themes or not.

In fact, there are many religion-related games and movies that are very popular in China, as long as they are not for the purpose of promoting religion, Chinese players do not like and do not want to be religious, but if it is just a subject matter, it will be very popular.