How much do you know about the Itch/Steam adult game crackdown?
Image credit: Lorenzo Redaelli/Eyeguys/Santa Ragione/Eurogamer
I’m sure you’ve heard that it’s going on but how much do you know about the Itch.io and Steam payment processor-related crackdown on adult games? What even is an adult game? It suggests one thing but can include many things.
Matt investigated the collateral damage on queer-themed adult games yesterday and received some incredibly powerful quotes in response. At its heart, it’s a story about censoring and controlling art, and if you whittle away what’s allowed and what’s not, where then will you find the edges sharp enough to pierce and make a point?
“We are sick and tired of how games are viewed as vile and derogatory by people who don’t understand them,” says Bobbi Augustine Sand of developer Transcenders Media. “We want games to be taken seriously as a medium. Games that include sex as a topic or content are no different from other media doing the same.”
“People make art about traumatizing events, taboos between adults, and even violence, and these are paid for every day by people who go to the movies or buy novels. Video games and interactive fiction have the same potential to transform lives for the better,” adds Queer Bundle organiser Caroline Delbert.
Lorenzo Redaelli of Mediterranea Inferno fame concludes: “Art is the most precious resource we have as humanity, and that’s something that concerns everyone… For years, indie authors have been working hard creating and fighting against the market to dignify the art of video games, and that also means producing video games for adults, where a video game is not a toy. Let us be adults.”
