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Valve says it won't publish game about raping women, after 'significant discussion'
Valve has at last responded to a mounting controversy concerning an indie game designed entirely around the violent sexual assault of women. The statement, posted to the Steam Blog earlier today, makes clear that Valve will in fact not distribute the visual novel, which was called Rape Day and scheduled for release in April through the company's Steam Direct distribution channel. The declaration marks a quizzical few days of silence from the video game developer and marketplace owner, which has taken varying, occasionally radical stances to moderation on Steam in the past few years.
In a policy change announced last year, Valve said it would let basically anything onto the platform so long as it was not illegal or very obviously trolling to illicit negative reactions from the general public. So far, the only category to meet that definition included visual novels and other games featuring the sexual exploitation of children, which Valve banned last December. In this case, Valve says Rape Day posed "unknown costs and risks," without clarifying which rule it broke.
Developer's website. Also at Ars Technica, Business Insider, and Kotaku.
Previously: "Active Shooter" Game on Steam Sparks Uproar
Valve Still Lives in the Waking Nightmare of Web 2.0
Valve Attempts to Define "Troll Games" in Order to Ban Them on Steam
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @06:18PM (13 children)
Or maybe its fucking evil.
(Score: 2, Informative) by takyon on Thursday March 07 2019, @06:20PM (12 children)
Yes, censorship can be pretty sinister.
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 07 2019, @06:51PM (11 children)
Yes, censorship can be pretty sinister.
Why are the story selectors here on Soylent called Editors and not Censors?
After-all, Aristarchus submitted a story and you censored him by not posting it. Is that not the exact same sinister censorship?
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Thursday March 07 2019, @07:21PM (5 children)
It's never been the case that anything that is submitted will be posted to the front page. However, aristarchus has been given a place to post whatever he wants: the journal. It seems to get plenty of attention with about 40+ comments per journal.
In this case, Valve/Steam has had to break with a policy they set in September 2018. Even people who wanted Rape Day censored are criticizing Steam for the explanation given (damned if they do, damned if they don't).
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by nitehawk214 on Thursday March 07 2019, @07:47PM (4 children)
And the developers are free to publish Rape Day on their own website. Valve isn't obligated to share their game any more than you are obligated to post someone's story.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday March 07 2019, @07:51PM
Though, to be fair, I agree that Valve is a bunch of hypocrites when it comes to choosing what games they publish. They let outright scams on their network and promote them so they can make more money off of it.
But I still think they get to choose that they do and do not publish. If their reason is "we don't want to put up with the hassle of the outrage", then that is their choice. Maybe it will help people realize that Valve is a Steaming pile of shit.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday March 07 2019, @07:55PM (1 child)
Sure, they can do that. But if they try to collect money for it, they may be censored yet again, this time by payment processors. I guess the solution to that is to collect dollar bills sent in the mail or use volatile cryptocurrencies.
That doesn't mean that the response to Valve kicking a game off the platform should be silence. People certainly weren't silent before the game was kicked off.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @10:05PM
You're right!!!!!
*clap clap clap*
Good call Valve, that kind of shit shouldn't be a part of your gaming ecosystem!
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday March 07 2019, @08:01PM
I'll add that they are free to publish on their own website... as long as their hosting service or registrar doesn't get pressured to remove the site (appears to be Squarespace and Tucows).
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(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 07 2019, @10:23PM (3 children)
Aristarchus hasn't had "a story" censored. It's hundreds, maybe thousands. Not the ed's fault that Ari has an obssessive/compulsive thing with stories that very few people are interested in.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 07 2019, @10:37PM (2 children)
Aristarchus hasn't had "a story" censored.
Yes, I agree.
I was employing modus tollens [wikipedia.org] in my argument.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 07 2019, @11:00PM (1 child)
Which is appropriate, seeing that Ari uses modus stoolens in his submissions. He shits all over the board.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday March 08 2019, @08:34AM
While you obviously prefer to use modus trollens.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 08 2019, @12:38AM
That's not comparable, since getting on the front page is more like an endorsement than anything. Aristarchus is free to post the stories in his journals without censorship. Will Steam allow Rape Day to be published on their service elsewhere, just without endorsing it?