Developer Blames "American Culture" for Greenlight Ban

[Tiamat666]

I agree with the developers assessment. The american point of view that gruesome violence is OK but sex and boobies are a no-no, is perverse.

As Colonel Kurtz himself pointed out: american culture says it's OK to drop napalm and rain death indiscriminately over villages, but it's not OK to put the word "Fuck" on an airplane, as that would be obscene.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

You can't put sex games on Steam.

Why are you surprised by this?

Sure, American culture is prudish when it comes to sex, but that's hardly anything new. Why in the world are you surprised that an American company won't publish your sex game?

Yet the sex scenes and full frontal nudity of BOTH Witcher games is ok?

And let's not forget Mass Effect

Hell, Steam sells GTA.

This 'Seduce Me' game may not even have nudity in it like most other erotic dating games. It may also come with the option to turn nudity off if there is any.

My point is that Valve isn't unfamiliar with nudity or sex in their games. Decapitations and Lacerations can't be the only "adult" thing video games should have full reigns of doing.

 

[Belated]

She's right, y'know. We are prudish. Well, not me specifically. I reject society's standards of "decency". But there are millions of Americans who don't. Don't get me wrong, I'm not surprised that Steam banned it. That's what Steam's terms tell them to do. But is there a logical reason why companies like Steam have terms like that?

I mean think about it, why is murder okay to depict in a game, but sex isn't? Sex is harmless (mostly). Violence is the very essence of harm. Violence is harm incarnate. Murder is (more or less) the worst thing you can do to somebody. Sex is (more or less) the best thing you can do for somebody. (Provided it's consensual.) So why is it okay to have a game where you murder people, but not a game where it's implied that you maybe copulate with people? Sex is treated as a big deal because of some stupid arbitrary values we attach to it, most of which have to do with organized religion. There's no logical reason to put sex on a sacred taboo pedestal.

Think about it from a purely logical perspective: Why is it okay to sell something that makes people sad, but not something that makes people aroused? Arousal is just another emotion, as is sadness. So why is it okay to go watch a movie that jerks your tears, but not a movie that jerks you? Bottom line, arousal is just another emotion. The values we attach to it are stupid and arbitrary.

From a purely logical perspective, if it's okay to sell something that makes you happy, makes you sad, makes you angry, or makes you anxious, then it should be okay to sell something that makes you horny. Just slap a higher rating on it if you're so scared that the precious oh-so-fragile little brats might get their hands on it.

 

[unacomn]

Prudish when it comes to violence? Half the games I own on steam allow me to bloody eviscerate AI and human opponents.
Agree with the rest though.

 

[LadyTL]

You can't put sex games on Steam.

Why are you surprised by this?

Sure, American culture is prudish when it comes to sex, but that's hardly anything new. Why in the world are you surprised that an American company won't publish your sex game?

Yet the sex scenes and full frontal nudity of BOTH Witcher games is ok?

And let's not forget Mass Effect

Hell, Steam sells GTA.

This 'Seduce Me' game may not even have nudity in it like most other erotic dating games. It may also come with the option to turn nudity off if there is any.

My point is that Valve isn't unfamiliar with nudity or sex in their games. Decapitations and Lacerations can't be the only "adult" thing video games should have full reigns of doing.

The Witcher wasn't just about sex, sorry there was an actual game that went with it. Same for Mass Effect and GTA. Seduce Me if you had actually taken a look at it, specifically says it will have sex in it. The entire point of the game is to have sex with characters and it will have repeated nudity in it as per their own trailer. The entire point is to unlock the explicit scenes as well and nothing else! It is porn. Last I checked the point of the Wither or Mass Effect or GTA wasn't to just to provide explicit scenes to fap to.

Last I checked, Steam does not sell porn, has never sold porn, so I don't know why someone would try to get porn up for sale on Steam and then get mad when they were told they couldn't.

 

[00slash00]

theres no doubt that american society is rather prudish and i have no doubt that is a considerable reason why steam wont allow games like this. that being said however, based on the description of this game, it doesnt sound like any great loss. the game seems pretty lazy and shallow

 

[GuiltBlade]

This developer is just making an attention grab (just as I am using this post to inflate my ego ).

I can't say why Steam removed it but I'm guessing it's the same reason you don't see porn on mainstream TV networks. Not true porn anyway.

I actually have a hard time swallowing "American's are Prudes" as this is the media culture that contains HBO, a studio which specialises in adult centred (and overly racy) programs such as Rome and Game of Thrones.

To continue the analogy lets compare Rome and Seduce Me, both contain strong adult graphic content, both were featured on a mainstream distribution for their media type (steam and cable). But the reason why Rome was acceptable was because the racy element was a relatively small part used to compliment or sell the main content, where as Seduce Me is focused entirely on the act of banging a celebrity/socialite. See the difference and why one was acceptable on a mainstream service and the other was not?

 

[Krantos]

Yet the sex scenes and full frontal nudity of BOTH Witcher games is ok?

And let's not forget Mass Effect

Hell, Steam sells GTA.

This 'Seduce Me' game may not even have nudity in it like most other erotic dating games. It may also come with the option to turn nudity off if there is any.

My point is that Valve isn't unfamiliar with nudity or sex in their games. Decapitations and Lacerations can't be the only "adult" thing video games should have full reigns of doing.

Sex in a game = Sex Game.

There's a big difference there.

This game sounds like one of those cheap flash games you play at... some websites I don't visit... really.

This, by the way it's explained in the article, sounds like nothing more than a sex game.

 

[Chiave]

"inspired by the lives of American socialites and celebrities."

Lol, that's a perfect quote.

Anyway it doesn't matter about whether or not the culture believes in this or that. Valve can allow or censor whatever content they want, for whatever reason since it's their company. Doesn't matter if it's "right" or if it's "wrong."

The reason they gave for banning the game, whether it's a bullshit reason or not, is a mere courtesy.

 

[omegawyrm]

If regular sex is off-limits, how the hell did Binding of Isaac get on Steam? That one has deformed fetuses and giant blood-shooting vaginas.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I don't think American culture is too prudish - it's more a case of it being structured in-between extremes. On one hand, you have guys and gals who think nothing of leading a largely carefree existence, you've got the Spring Break fetishism, the porn industry, Reality TV and the whole social standard where we end up idolizing complete strangers based on their looks.

On the other, you've got groups who'd pretty much like it if women stayed in the kitchen, if Sundays were spent in service to God and especially *in fear* of God, who consider almost any kind of honest expression as being sinful in nature, and who view aggressive and domineering ultra-masculine dominance as being the only proper way to live.

In-between, you've got Industry and Commerce. There's money to be made out of being lecherous, just as there's money to be made by White Knighting it up for the sake of "family values". America seems to have lost the rather important midpoint or doesn't really care for it anymore. You can be a loving father or a Christian while still putting some time aside for some good, clean fun. You can be an atheist, have zero experience or very little sex-appeal, and still be a good person.

Thing is, extremes are fun. Just ask the Japanese about Hentai. They've got the same problems, though. Ejaculating or urinating becomes shooting milk through your nose, and the phallus is substituted for, well, anything that's vaguely pipe or cable-like, or tentacular in nature. You can't show something as natural as a dick onscreen, but you can subjugate make-believe female personas to otherwise degrading and humiliating stuff. That's A-OK. See the problem?

I don't agree with Bellard. You want to make a racy game? Go ahead and make one. You're not advancing the cause of gaming as an art form or as a means of personal expression if you're giving us a panty shot simulator - but you're likely to make some money off of it nevertheless.

Steam said no? No problem, option your work to some of the more racy software publishers in Europe, as those do exist. Back in the Minitel's glory days, you could access entire catalogs of racy games through your phone line. The Internet's replaced that, but the principle remains the same.

 

[Ickorus]

Makes sense to me, Valve doesn't want their service associated with porn much the same way as Youtube or Facebook don't, they want their service to be a more social experience and I doubt many people want their friends to know they play 'Tentacle Terror 12'*.

That and porn would give them a bad image which would probably lose them a fair portion of their younger audience if they allowed it through.

Besides, there are plenty of other places you can go for that sort of stuff.

[small]*Please let Tentacle Terror 12 be a real game, that would make my day.[/small]

 

[lacktheknack]

Two bucks says it's because of the NIPPLES that are VERY CLEARLY VISIBLE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE ESCAPIST.

See-through bras are considered "offensive" by pretty much every modern non-porn business, you know.

 

[Entitled]

Yet the sex scenes and full frontal nudity of BOTH Witcher games is ok?

And let's not forget Mass Effect

Hell, Steam sells GTA.

This 'Seduce Me' game may not even have nudity in it like most other erotic dating games. It may also come with the option to turn nudity off if there is any.

My point is that Valve isn't unfamiliar with nudity or sex in their games. Decapitations and Lacerations can't be the only "adult" thing video games should have full reigns of doing.

Sex in a game = Sex Game.

There's a big difference there.

This game sounds like one of those cheap flash games you play at... some websites I don't visit... really.

This, by the way it's explained in the article, sounds like nothing more than a sex game.

The line between sex in a game and sex game is often not just arbitary, but biased by traditional genre names, or stereotypes about gameplay mechanics and art styles.

I have seen way too many eroge (Japanese "erotic game") being written off as porn, while having deeper and more diverse stories than 99% of western video games, based on the stereotype that Japan is perverted.

This is just an equivalent stereotype, just with those flash games providing the source of the bias.

 

[Negatempest]

This developer is just making an attention grab (just as I am using this post to inflate my ego ).

I can't say why Steam removed it but I'm guessing it's the same reason you don't see porn on mainstream TV networks. Not true porn anyway.

I actually have a hard time swallowing "American's are Prudes" as this is the media culture that contains HBO, a studio which specialises in adult centred (and overly racy) programs such as Rome and Game of Thrones.

To continue the analogy lets compare Rome and Seduce Me, both contain strong adult graphic content, both were featured on a mainstream distribution for their media type (steam and cable). But the reason why Rome was acceptable was because the racy element was a relatively small part used to compliment or sell the main content, where as Seduce Me is focused entirely on the act of banging a celebrity/socialite. See the difference and why one was acceptable on a mainstream service and the other was not?

Killing Floor. A very fun and hectic game that if the gore was removed, would be pretty average game at best. Also there is no real info Seduce Me that says it would be a boring game, could of been fun actually. From the gist of it, Seduce Me actually have the player work on the relationship from the ground up. You know, dates, presents, communicating, etc. before you get to see anything racy. Again, pulled from greenlight (an area to decide by the FANS/MEMBERS if the game should stay) long before fans/members said yes or no. I'm a US citizen and I find this kind of thing bs myself.

 

[Krantos]

*snip*

The line between sex in a game and sex game is often not just arbitary, but biased by traditional genre names, or stereotypes about gameplay mechanics and art styles.

I have seen way too many eroge (Japanese "erotic game") being written off as porn, while having deeper and more diverse stories than 99% of western video games, based on the stereotype that Japan is perverted.

This is just an equivalent stereotype, just with those flash games providing the source of the bias.

For some background [a href="http://www.seducemegame.com/about.html"]Here[/a] is the Seduce Me's actual website.

It's a sex game.

It just has more marketing behind it than the flash ones.

 

[Chiave]

Makes sense to me, Valve doesn't want their service associated with porn much the same way as Youtube or Facebook don't, they want their service to be a more social experience and I doubt many people want their friends to know they play 'Tentacle Terror 12'*.

That and porn would give them a bad image which would probably lose them a fair portion of their younger audience if they allowed it through.

Besides, there are plenty of other places you can go for that sort of stuff.

[small]*Please let Tentacle Terror 12 be a real game, that would make my day.[/small]

Damn u!

Now while I'm playing the new Tekken Tag Tournament, I'll be thinking of Tentacle Terror 12!!

Apparently, there is a pretty fucked up looking tentacle outfit in the game.

D':<

 

[SnakeoilSage]

My biggest problem is the assumption that I want to play a game "inspired by the lives of American socialites and celebrities."

If I wanted to be a shallow, pretentious remora, who's life is defined by wealth I didn't earn, feeding off a society I don't contribute to, and be emotionally and spiritually dead inside, I'd join a political party.

 

[Lunar Templar]

wow ... game sound terribly good to start with ... and I'm sure the writing is on par with Katawa Shoujo's, and that'd do the imposable and make American socialites and celebrities seem to be more then vapid, brain dead twats

oh wait you play an 'unnamed male beefcake', >.> so, i should be assuming less Katawa Shoujo, and more Twilight then?

but yeah, why are they surprised by this? they do know that steam is an American country right?

 

[redknightalex]

I don't care about sex in video games; it has as much a reason for being in a video game as violence does. I understand, and agree, with that argument.

The problem I have is the objectification of women in this game. Change the game so you can choose your own gender as the main protagonist and be able to have sex with either a male or female from the villa and I'll be completely fine with it. Playing as a "beefcake" and trying to seduce women who are scantily clad, playing it off as a strategy game? Yeah, I see no objectifying happening here at all.