Is anyone else having this issue? I have adult content enabled on my profile (and historically have been able to find such games without logging in by searching for specific tags) but no search will return any results that would actually be flagged as adult content.
I can find games I know by name through Google, but then searching for related games returns a blank result, and clicking on their tags brings me to searches that won't even show the game I just followed the tag from!
Its kinda pointless to be aggressive towards staff here since this is the result of them having a metaphorical gun to their head by payment processors that bent over after whining by a anti lgbt christian extremist org that wormed its way into power by claiming to act under the guise of feminism and donations from likeminded people(Collective Shout).
Valve has also by now reported that Mastercard full on refused to even communicate with them.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mastercard-deflects-blame-for-nsfw-games-being-tak...
The delay for that statement and how unclear everything still is is what’s fueling the fires here. PLEASE, I’m begging from the bottom of my heart for you to listen and provide clarity to restore trust and support: https://itch.io/t/5125680/please-itch-begging-you-to-listen
It is a shadow ban. I searched for Penny Larcney, Gig Economy Supervillian and it didn't show up. I had to go into the developer's profile page to find it. The game has no nudity or explict content. It does have progressive story lines on things like trans rights however so it's not a porn thing, it's a right wing take down of anything progressive thing.
So I guess it's happening to this website like it's happening to almost every other website that I'm seeing now. They attack on not safe for work stuff it just growing more by the second. It is a shame. I don't know what the deal is with these websites with a double standards. But it needs to get fixed and it needs to stop. I think it if you can show Gore and all kind of other stuff why not just regular adult stuff. It's clearly there is double standards going on.
I dont think thats the case either, entirely free games are also unlisted along with games that require payment, games that have optional and games that have payment options. All of them are unlisted unless you have a direct link.
I think its a bit messier than we think, because there's like 10 games shown for me under Adult, where I know there should be waaaaay more that arent necessarily NSFW
I think you're confused.
I'm listing games that are unlisted from the tages/search with different payment types.
No games so far seems to have been completely removed from what I can see.
Eternum and Once in a Lifetime both have incest themes (step-sister but whatever) and are still available directly, but also search unlisted
House Chores by Siren checkmate (this has happened to other games also, it seems that if the theme is very on its face u get deleted) LockDown Dom by Down Bad Smut Games this game also
Im not misunderstanding the thread, my point is that the targeted deletion of incest games is likely related to the algorithm shutdown, likely to follow in line with the UK law or visa mastercard. It is related to whats happening to the adult games i have no idea why u are having a hard time processing that.
You're diverging from the subject of "why are adult games unlisted" to talk about incest themed games being deleted.
Both are moderation sure, but they're not the cause for one-another. The point was your original post talked about how it had to do with direct payments, to which I listed games being unlisted regardless of.
You're holding separate conversations and probably mixing them up.
SO apparently as pointed out in another thread it seems like this.
- ALL Adult games are being blocked from the search
HOWEVER
- All the games are still there if and only if they do not have a payment method being the only way to get the game (buy and then download).
i have not seen any purely free games bumped yet so it might just be a "were following the Letter of the law / agreement, nothing more" as it seems its the Visa / mastercard issue not the New UK law issue some suggested
it's true it effects everyone (banning ALL adult content'll do that) but lgbt+ is often the victim of targeted censorship when it comes to "censoring porn". this literally happened in real life with fanfiction.net (which is LITERALLY why ao3 exists btw). it's not a victim card when we've actually been the victims of it 😭
You're angry, and I understand. We are on the same side of this. I also want you beating your meat to what you want. Your porn and my rights are targets in their crusade.
Edit: the itch.io post on the matter cites a group called Collective Shout, a group allied with anti-gay organizations in the interest of censorship. https://www.giantbomb.com/steam/3015-718/forums/steams-new-rule-prohibiting-game...
This whole thing is bullshit, alot of game devs post their adult themed games on this website as a way of getting traction for their game.
Or devs post their games here purely because itch is easy to post for compared to some other indie game sites ive seen
(also why the fuck itch gotta ban my porn like this D:
Consider open a patreon alternative (I didn't do it at time), because when I've got the shadow ban here, Patreon deleted my account shortly after, also them don't care about 'incest', none of my games have such content and got deleted, but other games where incest was the focus, still are available (seems that they want to 'farm' big developers as long as they can).
Hello gamedev here, certainly most of the games are still available on the site, even when isn't listed on the searches, just go direct to the game/developer page; but don't expect any of the games will be on searches again, I've been on this sittuaion for over two years, and the 'shadowban' is irreversible.
It's kind of funny (in a non-humorous sense) that they're treating us like we're living during the prohibition. (Another game dev here.) It's pretty Orwellian that your games would have received the shadowban when they do not have the sort of content that Itch is claiming they're stopping. More than "pretty" Orwellian, actually and entirely unfair. Even moreso that the games won't show up in the search again. Such things are definitely reversible, but only if the company in question wants to reverse it, which is bullshit.
Hi, I am an AFAB comic creator who creates Adult and also SFW comics, and this policy brought on by ‘Collective Shout’ hurts me and my business- so, I do not see how this is ‘pro feminism’ in any way at all.
I hope Itchio can find a way of mediating the situation- and still be a good place for adult works.
And to anyone who wants to help fight censorship against Adult Media, please sign ACLU’s petition in their ongoing lawsuit against MasterCard:
Personally, if this decision isn't reversed, I will no longer be spending money on Itch.io and I won't be uploading my future projects here. I don't care if it's payment processors or whatever, they need to figure out a workaround like it's 1990 instead of throwing queer and nsfw creators under the bus.
sign this to fight back! your voice matters!
https://www.change.org/p/tell-mastercard-visa-activist-groups-stop-controlling-w...
I sincerely hope many things return to normal. These companies don't realize that if they keep attacking everyone with censorship, it will force a lot of people to go further into the dark web and then put themselves further at risk and these payment processing companies at risk too, with compromise. I understand the current action being taken to not scorch earth the site but yeah. Just my 2 cents.
tbh I think what itch did is already going scorched earth they could have just said "hey visa and mastercard have their heads up their asses because of extremist karens who support the pedofile movie, so until they do, we no longer take visa or mastercard directly, but you can still use them to buy games through paypal"
This is fucking retarded and completely unfair. I am making a game that is intended for adult players and could potentially be called NSFW. However, it is not sexual or pornographic, it is a dark fantasy RPG with numerous horror and psychological elements, fantasy gambling, fantasy drinking and many other adult situations. However, because it is intended for adults (and reading how Itch has delisted games already that are adult but not sexual) it makes no fucking sense. We don't live in the prohibition. There's not a damn thing wrong with porn, romance, horror, profanity, or anything else that falls under the "adult" banner. This kind of bullshit has to fucking stop.
Itch you could have had a far better response to this. You could have just said "Visa and Mastercard have their heads up their asses because of extremist Karens who support a pedophile movie so we no longer allow them to be directly used on our site, but you can still use them through other services like PayPal or temporary cards."
What if the developer releases this classification game and actually sells pretty well, but then this new regulation ends up cutting into their creative income? How do we handle or protect against that? Otherwise, it could really discourage the creator from staying active on the platform. So what's the solution here?
The only real solution is to fight the payment processing companies. Itch's adult content is mainly going to be removed - so call your payment processor company!
The reason phone call complaints are effective with these payment processor companies is because it takes up valuable time that the company could be otherwise dealing with other issues. Phone support is expensive and slow, which makes it an ideal pressure point A large public outcry is what causes companies to pay attention and consider backtracking.
Make a script about why this is bad (payment processor companies shouldn't be censoring legal material because they personally think it's immoral and it's an attack on free speech - you can ask AI to create a script for you if you don't have to time to write a long message) then call VISA/MasterCard/STRIPE/Paypal, you'll be on hold for a while because everyone is calling, and say you'd like to lodge a complaint. Then when they ask what this is in regards to, just start reading your script. The longer the better since that's the point. We essentially have to keep this up for the next few weeks if we want something to happen. We don’t need to be aggressive - just persistent. Keep the pressure on and call every few days, or every day if you care about this issue.
The following link has all the contact information you need to call them:
Service reps will now try to quickly escort you to "e-mailing" instead once they realize you're complaining about itch and Steam's recent censorship - try to just keep them on the line. In one call when they attempted to do this, I simply asked, "Are phone call complaints reported to your company or not?" and they just kept repeating "You must e-mail _________" - I was like, "You're not answering my questions, do you report them or not?" and eventually they transferred me to a supervisor who was really awesome to talk to and spent a long time talking to me.. Asking them about why companies are attempting to ban legal content is also a good question that they can't answer but will keep them on the line for a while.
The games are deindexed a third party index can be hosted else where, https://loop-io.dev/ go vote up your favorite developers
