Valve's Adult Anime Visual Novel Crackdown

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Valve gives up on responsibilit y Valve is standing by the values that made the Steam games store to 'allow everything Dav B BC nything goes, as long as you give Valve a cut By Ben Kuchera Jun 6, 2018, 3:52pm EDT internet terrible Commentary: While the world is figuring out how to moderate and curate content for its audiences, Valve is leaving it up to the user Polygon North America technology reporter O 7 June 2018 2 Valve's new content policy is a gutless attempt to dodge responsibility g gamesindustry.biz ro se , sexist, misogyni mes spe me es Valve has spent years trying to lower the barriers to entry on its digital storefront. From its initial hands-on curation process to the community- Brendan Sinclair North American Editor Wednesday 6th June 2018 Steam's new 'anything goes' policy is doomed from the start PCGAMER By Tyler Wilde 21 hours ago Valve's video game marketplace St is now the anti-App Store Mashable Valvetake a stand against taking a stand on Steam rules Valve's abdication of responsibility ver Steam is the Valve is responsible for the games published on Steam, even if it says it Valve take a stand against taking a stand on Steam rules Valve's abdication of responsibility over Steam is the a school caused huge controversy last month- it has since been removed from Steam ROCK SHOTGUN Share this:wos possible solution By Dominic Tarason on June 6th, 2018 at 10:18 pm Apple's "walled garden" approach to the App Store may not be perfect, but it does make life harder for racists, homophobes, and other purveyors of hate to peddle their goods. VALVE 7 JUN 2018 By John Walker on June 7th, 2018 at 5:00 pm BANNING A GAME FROM STEAM ISN'T SMOTHERING CREATIVE FREEDOM Share. Opinion: Valve should stop acting like Steam i The same can't be said for Steam, however. The PC gaming marketplace owned and BY ADAMoperated by Valve Corporation was at the center of controversy just last week over a product ROSENBERG isting for a game called Active Shooter, which allowed players to step into the role of a DAY AGO STEAM Valve's new Steam approach isn't about censorship, but Caration, but rt aoreds to adbeter censorship,but IGN 0 BY TOM MARKS → Yesterday Valve announced that it would change Steam's policy to allow everything onto the platform, as long as they didn't deem it illegal or "straight up trolling." The gaming behemoth says they want "to focus less on trying to police what should be on Steam. That desire was spurred by a recent incident where Valve threatened to ban a handful of erotic games, and then actually did ban a school shooting simulator fusing policy is business as usual for Valve URS AGO Valve's New Content Policy for Steam Is a Triumph of Cowardice Over Curation FREEZE PEACH EXTREMETECH AIDSOp-ed: Valve takes a side bv not "taking By Joel Hruska on June 7, 2018 at 9:32 am sides" in curation controversy Steam's content policy is both arrogant and cowardly Having appointed itself the god-king of PC gaming, Valve is vacating the throne. ars TecHNICA By deciding not to decide what's "acceptable," Valve implicitly endorses vile content. KYLE ORLAND 6/7/2018, 6:54 PM EUROGAMER Second Opinion: Valve's Failure to Moderate Steam is a Problem That's Going to Get Much Worse Yesterday, in response to a couple of recent controversies, Valve announced that it would abandon its (few, vestigial) efforts to curate the content of games on its ubiquitous PC gaming platform, Steam. "We've decided that the right approach is to allow everything onto the Steam Store," Valve's Erik Johnson said in a blog post, "except for things that we decide are illegal, or straight up trolling Oli Welsh GAMEREVOLUTION Steam's Irresponsible Hands-Off Policy Is Proof That Valve Still Hasn't Learned Its Lesson PAUL TAMBURRO OThursday, June 07 2018 Valve Ignores Its Responsibility with Its New Steam Content Policy Valve Endorses AIDS Simulator Paste 11,496 views By Garrett Martin I June 6, 2018 5:30pm ything goes on the Steam Store now after Valve said it will stop policing games - and GAMES FEATURES STEAM Published on Jun 7, 2018 that's not OK Valve says removing controversial games frovoeen torv and cegt h Steam is hard so it's not going to neritably endare the bhing your store Valve will allow everything that's legal, even if it's morally or ethically dubious, on the Steam Store amid Active Shooter controversy Lucas Matney @lucasmtnyYesterday

BBCNEWS Steam games store to 'allow everything By Dave Lee North America technology reporter 07 June 2018 Technology This policy is going to be a huge boon for VR software, particularly adult content," he wrote on Twitter. Master, we're saved! 0

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Overview

Valve's Adult Anime Visual Novel Crackdown refers to the controversy surrounding Valve reportedly threatening to remove anime-style dating simulators with sexual and explicit content from Steam unless the developers removed that content from their games. This angered those developers and fans of those games, as Steam has been historically unclear with the kind of content they will allow on their platform, and have been allowing those types of games on the platform for years.

Background

On May 17th and 18th, 2018, several developers of anime visual novel games tweeted that they had been contacted by Valve saying their games were in jeopardy of being removed from the platform due to the explicit sexual content within if that content was not removed in two weeks time. These developers included Manga Gamer, developer of Kindred Spirits,^[1] HuniePot,^[2] and Lupiesoft.^[3]

HunieDev Follow ) HuniePotDev IMPORTANT NOTICE I've received an e-mail from Valve stating that HuniePop violates the rules & guidelines for pornographic content on Steam and will be removed from the store unless the game is updated to remove said content. 8:26 PM 17 May 2018

Lupiesoft @Lupiesoft Follow We've just received some troubling news today that @steam_games has decided to pull down our titled "Mutiny!!" within 2 weeks for 'reports of pornographic content'. Now those of you who know @Lupiesoft know that we don't put that on Steam, or advertise that content on Steam. 10:52 PM 17 May 2018

Developments

The following day, Manga Gamer^[4] and HuniePot^[5] reported that Valve had walked back on what they said the previous day, and that their games were now under review. Kotaku^[6] wrote a piece that day pointing out that Valve has been inconsistent with their definition of what constitutes pornography, noting that many of the developers worked with Valve before getting their games on the platform without issue. They also noted that non-anime style games with sexually explicit content such as Witcher III were not subject to the crackdown. Other publications to cover the crackdown included Vice,^[7] IGN,^[8] PC Mag,^[9] and Newsweek.^[10]

Steam's Update

On June 6th, Valve's Erik Johnson wrote a blog post discussing the challenges of deciding on a case-by-case basis what kind of adult content is allowed on Steam.^[11] Citing the frequent disagreements their content-reviewers experience, Johnson stated Steam's policy from that point on would be to allow "anything" onto the platform unless it was "illegal or straight up trolling." He also stated Steam would give users tools to avoid seeing the kind of games that may offend them. This was covered by Kotaku.^[12]