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posted by martyb on Thursday March 07 2019, @04:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the think-of-your-mother,-daughter,-or-sister dept.

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


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday March 07 2019, @07:55PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday March 07 2019, @07:55PM (#811317) Journal

    And the developers are free to publish Rape Day on their own website.

    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.

    Valve isn't obligated to share their game any more than you are obligated to post someone's story.

    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

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @10:05PM (#811351)

    You're right!!!!!

    *clap clap clap*

    Good call Valve, that kind of shit shouldn't be a part of your gaming ecosystem!