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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: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @08:33PM (6 children)
What has me wondering here is what kind of sick puppy would spend their life designing and developing such a sick "game"? They should be tracked down and locked away in an old-style asylum, far from society at large, for the rest of their natural lives.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday March 07 2019, @08:54PM
A person's artistic vision shouldn't be compromised by what other people find "sick". Plenty of moral busybodies would say the same thing you did about the directors of certain horror/gore movies. And yet there probably isn't a viable legal basis to involuntarily commit any of these people.
If anything, your own two sentence comment makes you more incompatible with a free society than the anonymous developer's "rape simulator".
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday March 07 2019, @09:31PM (4 children)
Ah, yes, because describing something is the same as doing or encouraging the actions.
So we get:
Lifelike sex dolls..okay,or possibly not okay, because:
Lifelike sex dolls that look like children... are not okay
We (society) prevent fantasy because we (society) are grossed-out by ideas.
Sad, and likely dangerous.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @10:51PM (3 children)
The problem is that when fantasy meets humanity it does bleed into reality. Does allowing child-like sex dolls send a message to society that such behavior is OK? Or does it prevent real children from harm by giving the perverts an outlet? Tough call.
On a long term perspective I think the tendency to restrict freedoms is a better long term survival strategy for society, but yes it does trample on the freedoms of people who aren't negatively affecting anyone else. It can be dangerous, but it can also serve as a good brake to make sure society has time to adapt to changing conditions.
Just look at slavery, banned in the US for over 150 years but the effects of that change are very much felt today. Not saying it should have gone differently, it is sad it has taken humanity this long to so widely reject slavery, and even still there are slaves today. That decision
Long story short, it is a process. Anything to worry about with this story? Nope, Steam is free adhere to the general morals of society for what content it deems appropriate. The comparison to "murder simulators" holds a little value and speaks to the violent culture we have normalized. I wish we could get beyond killing, but I'll settle for no rape simulator on Steam.
** Offtopic ** Plug for Subnautica if you want a horror simulator where killing is not really an aspect. Fun underwater exploration
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @11:24PM (2 children)
I don't know, do you have any rigorous scientific evidence that it does? If not, then fuck off. But since I don't see how this is any different from the 'violent video games cause violence' claptrap, I'm going to presume the answer is 'no.' The vast, vast majority of people seem perfectly capable of separating fiction from reality when it comes to things like video games, movies, books, and almost certainly, sex dolls.
But even if it did, so what? That's not an excuse to ban the sex dolls/art, but an excuse to go after the specific individuals who violate others' rights.
So, no matter how I look at the issue, you're just wrong that it's a tough call. We should stand on the side of freedom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 08 2019, @07:14AM (1 child)
No need to be nasty, i posited both possibilities yet you attack me as if i only said one. Not surprised, anyone up in arms over this story is going to already have serious issues of their own.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 08 2019, @03:45PM
You posited two possibilities and acted as though they were on semi-equal footing, which they aren't. There is such a thing as a neutrality bias.