Developer Blames "American Culture" for Greenlight Ban

[masticina]

how many obvious jokes can I make about this. American culture no nipples but naked tits is okay. American culture porn is okay but nothing leading up to it.

Seriously steam... you lost the game

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

This is a scene from the game.
http://beefjack.com/files/2012/09/SeduceMe_Pietra.jpg

It is porn. Simple as that. Steam was right to take it off since it violated the TOS which specifically mentioned no porn.

The version of The Witcher sold on Steam has cards of Geralt's "conquests" that you can collect. Those cards are just as graphic.

And I'm pretty sure if Steam sold Indigo Prophecy, no one would bat an eye. That game has a full on explicit sex scene.

Hell, swap this Seduce Me game out with a Leisure Suit Larry title and gamers would NOT be complaining even one quarter as hard.

Game with a sex scene =/= Sex game.

Those are still two different things. Indigo Prhophecy (or Fahrenheit, how the rest of the world calls it) is NOT about shagging as many women as possible or getting one in the first place like this game is.
In case of Fahrenheit and Witcher, it was a SIDE EVENT. You could reach the end of the game without even having to see a single naked butt!
Now in this game however, you have no choice as the game is simply about that - have a guy screw a chick. That's the goal, hold together by a very simplistic UI and Mini-Games about as complex as Wario Ware Minigames, I assume.
And even in the Leirsue Suit Larry games, sex was not the goal - it was a far bigger thing than Witcher. But it ALSO has A DAMN ENTIRE GAME to back it up. And it didn't took itself serious in any form, either.

So, no matter, how much you want to defend it - "Secude me" is simply porn and all your "Witcher" and "Mass Effect" examples are all GAMES with one or two sex-scenes in it. That's hardly the same.

Your sex scene=/= sex game argument only works for gamers.

For non gamers, which this whole issue is about seeing as how those are the people Valve doesn't want to piss off, it really is sex scene= sex game.

Most mainstream on gamer media perpetrates that sex in video games is bad. The context of the sex does not matter. Hell, even Mass Effect faced controversy over its sex scene.
Even the Original version of the North American Witcher came with NO nudity as to not piss people off.
This game is no different in the eyes of those who don't know games.

And the argument that this game's simplicity works against it is flawed.
So what if its a game about getting sex? The Wii has a game where its just scooping ice cream. That game is simple and basic but we still call that a game.

 

[beastro]

They came into a win-win situation. Regardless of whether they got turned down or not, they were going to get their game noticed.

There's no honest righteous indignation here. If they got in, alls good, if not, they could beat the "Puritan America" drum to get the required attention.

 

[Upbeat Zombie]

While the game probably isn't to offensive content wise. I personally don't really wan't dating-sim flash games to start popping up on steam.

 

[Mcupobob]

So their shitty game gets down voted to the point Steam takes it off greenlight project. So they decided it to say "Well hey its those stupid prudish Americans fault!" and every hipster is on this like donkey kong.

 

[Soak]

I don't know the real reasons, however, i searched Steam for any "dating sim" game and the closest match i found was... well, "The Sims". I know "The Sims" is not a strict "dating sim", the point i want to make is, that i found no real "dating sim" at all. Maybe my search criteria were bad and/or i wasn't searching hard enough, but i think most games of the genre won't fit in their content guidelines in general, probably because it wouldn't suit their image/ game-lineup.
On the other hand, i don't care enough about this game myself to use it as an argument for any kind of "prude" or "sexism" debate whatsoever.

 

[SajuukKhar]

The version of The Witcher sold on Steam has cards of Geralt's "conquests" that you can collect. Those cards are just as graphic.

And I'm pretty sure if Steam sold Indigo Prophecy, no one would bat an eye. That game has a full on explicit sex scene.

Hell, swap this Seduce Me game out with a Leisure Suit Larry title and gamers would NOT be complaining even one quarter as hard.

Your joking right?

The uncensored sex cards for Witcher only show boobs, and some side ass, they don't show any detail on anything below the waist, and they most certainly don't have a close up of the lower area on the side.

 

[I.Muir]

Looks like bits within other bits is where the line is drawn
Not sure about American attitudes, but I'm pretty sure a lot of that gets produced in that country. Oh and it really is porn, there are no two ways about it so it's destined to stay in the shadows. What did they expect.

 

[Olrod]

Would Custer's Revenge have been banned? Maybe they should make a sequel to that. They could called it "PiXXXelated Adventures" or something.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

I sees it this way: Greenlight is a service where games are published on a popular platform based on decisions made by the consumers, in this case the Internet.
Now, think about how much the Internet loves porn. If Valve lets in one porn game more will follow, and come Saturday, Steam will be a porn distribution service.

That may be a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

 

[Skratt]

We Americans are promiscuous prudes to be sure, but what culture would publish this game for them, hmm? I sense a spurious argument nearby.

 

[Stripes]

The game how no merit aside from soft porn, if it had actual value beyond that then maybe it might have been allowed to stay and maybe people would give a damn.

 

[Bindal]

I sees it this way: Greenlight is a service where games are published on a popular platform based on decisions made by the consumers, in this case the Internet.
Now, think about how much the Internet loves porn. If Valve lets in one porn game more will follow, and come Saturday, Steam will be a porn distribution service.

That may be a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

So what you're saying is that Greenlight should not be a service where consumers get to decide on a preferred games presented by various developers, but rather a service where consumers choose from a screened selection of games?

If "within a set amount of rules" equals "screened" for you, then yes. Otherwise, no - just "within a set amount of rules". Like in this case "NO PORN".

 

[PinkiePyro]

this gets banned but not the countless copy-paste dating sims that the user winterwolves posted or any of the eyebleeding games that would be consitered crappy even by newgrounds standards *headdesk*

 

[Bindal]

this gets banned but not the countless copy-paste dating sims that the user winterwolves posted or any of the eyebleeding games that would be consitered crappy even by newgrounds standards *headdesk*

Well, quality is not part of reasons for a ban. Only what the game is about. Two different things. Logical, obvious, understandable - but clearly not a reason to headdesk.

 

[Irridium]

So we can have games where you can literally tear a man in half (hello, Darkness 2), but we can't have a game where two consenting adults have sex?

I mean, we have craploads of games where women wear nothing but small straps of clothes/armor (hello Tera, and most other RPG's) that essentially leave their asses hanging out for everyone to see, but immediately take those off and suddenly it's too much? Really?

Lol, society.

And now I link to Jim Sterling, because he pretty much hits the nail on the head for me. http://www.destructoid.com/a-game-about-sex-ban-this-sick-filth--234650.phtml

 

[RandV80]

From a technical point this kind of make sense for Valve. I guess the real question is if you're making a 'sex game', are you making a 'game' or are you making 'sex'. While the old point about movies how it's sill that violence = okay, sex = bad, with a video game violence is derived through action and a game is a combination of action and story. That doesn't mean you couldn't make a legit 'sex game', but what this title in question looks like is a collection of cheap mini games that ends with a sex scene.

Now back to the point I'm getting at, the Steam Greenlight program lets the community vote on which games Steam adds to its service. Users will log in and browse over a number of obscure indy games they've probably never heard of, then look... BOOBS!!! As everyone knows sex sells, is there any doubt that this game wouldn't totally win the first vote? And considering the real money to be made, from there it won't be long until the Greenlight program is overrun with sex games and turns into a bit of a joke.

So basically, while I agree with the premise that it's stupid where we say violence is okay but sex is bad there is a clear distinction between being a video game and a porn distributor. Different types of entertainment, and I have no problem if Steam wants to stick to video games and not get into porn. I totally don't know who the big porn players are these days, but whoever they are if there's a market for these types of games they're the ones that should be looking at how to distribute/sell them.