this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
469 points (99.0% liked)
PC Gaming
11872 readers
753 users here now
For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki
Rules:
- Be Respectful.
- No Spam or Porn.
- No Advertising.
- No Memes.
- No Tech Support.
- No questions about buying/building computers.
- No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
- No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
- No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
- Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I had a look at their website.
They have campaigned against games that normalize incest and sexual abuse. The first campaign, that led to this one, was against a game called No mercy.
The description, according to their website, is:
Following that they campaigned against other games promoting sexual violence and incest.
How is this a bad thing? Do you lot just hear anti-porn and start foaming around your mouth?
Targeting payment processors to force change within a business often leads to overreaction. That's how we got Onlyfans announcing that it was banning porn entirely. Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal become quite unreasonable when these groups start gaining traction.
This same group pushed to get Detroit: Become Human pulled because it has the player controlling a victim of abuse protecting another victim. There is zero nuance to their target choices. If they get pull with payment processors, they can go "this is a child abuse simulator!" and get something like that pulled with less public support behind them.
Zero nuance is what this thread is filled with.
One does not need to agree with everything they do or did. In fact, i don't. But getting games that are clearly catering to rapist fantasies pulled off steam, is something i see as very positive.
not sure anyone thinks the problem here is that these particular games are getting taken down, the larger context and efforts of this group are concerning as it etablishes precedent for them to take the next step in their anti-trans and anti-gay agenda ...
Downthread there are some people arguing pro rape and incest games.
I am not defending the group. When (likely not even if) they go against LGBTQI+ games i will happily speak up against that. But in this case they are not wrong, and i am okay with pointing that out. Look at the level of hate in this thread. For banning incest and rape games...
When they move to anti trans stuff and we give them flak, they will rightfully say "Oh, it's those gamers again. Last time they defended rape games. No need to listen to them."
huh, scrolling through the comments I mostly see comments calling them out for being TERFs, I'm not really seeing any defense of the games themselves.
Excuse me if I'm a bit sensitive, though - I'm both gay and trans, so this group in particular is dangerous to me and I don't really care if the broken clock is right twice a day, I think it's best to call the clock broken.
We don't have any argument here, though - we agree that vile games are vile and it's good they're gone.
Because letting extremely biased ideological groups dictate worldwide policy is always a bad thing that comes with negative consequences.
I'm not personally familiar with any of the games in this ban wave, but Steam's stance prior is that these games are free expression of art, made by adults and it's not Steam's job to police art. If a group does want to impose limitations on art on a worldwide storefront - that should be a national limitation performed by an appropriate body - Australia already has a stringent games rating system, and if these games do not meet any approved standards they would be hit with 'Refused Classification' and thereby restricted to be sold (banned from sale or import) to Australia and Steam would region block them for sale to Aus. As is the case for many games already.
However, this group deemed following the appropriate channels too much work, so instead went for a Karen smear campaign of the payment processors on social media - stating that they supported the sale of rape and incest games (simply by working with Steam), thereby pressuring the payment processors to put lobby Steam to remove the games entirely as the easiest path for Steam to avoid financial processing impacts.
I see where you are coming from. I still think that it is a net positive that they got rid of those games. I quoted the description of one game above. That aint no art. That is just the glorification of rape. And i'm glad it's gone. Glad it's gone everywhere in fact, not just in Australia.
Are these good people? Rather not. I still have to see them campaign against queer or trans folk, but seeing their connections that is a valid fear to have.
I will fight for diversity, in any form, beeing part of gaming culture. But i won't cry a single tear about games that have a glorification of rape and incest as their main topic.
Do you have trouble differentiating between fiction and reality?
Can I demand racing games be banned because they promote CO2 emissions?
No. Do you think fiction about rapeing women is'nt a problem? Have you considered the idea that exposing oneself to said fiction could reinforce a violent and objectifying view of womem? Or normalize rape and sexual violence?
No, and thankfully this is a complete strawman. If one wanted to make that analogy, it might point out how racing games might normalize speeding.
No. I don't think that. In fact, research says access to porn reduces sex violence.
And again, a stawman.
We are talking about rape porn (games) normalizing sexual violence.
This article is not talking about rape porn. By the way, it is an article from 2016 who uses studies from 2011 and younger. Here is a Meta analysis of the timeframe, suggesting that many stdies suffert from a metholodical weekness.
The question, if violent porn causes sexual violence is debated, but as of now simply not enoth good studys exist to confirm or denie such a link.
This study, for example, hints towards it. It is also a good example for methodological muddiness though:
I can only repeat: there is evidence towards violent porn causing violent behauvior, but it is weak and more studys are needed. Untilh then both of our standpoints are just opinions. Either of us might be right. Personaly, i wouldn't risk it.
i agree with that research, and i agree with where you’re coming from but i’m not sure you can apply the same research to violence. there’s an argument that it gives people an outlet, but afaik also people that commit these crimes often escalate. making it easier for them to try out their fantasy could easily mean they escalate faster
Citation?
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/criminal-career/escalation-in-the-seriousness-of-crime/BDBA0E71013CF101AC238215C1D353BD
this suggests that skill level plays a part in escalation. i’d argue that refining the “fantasy” is absolutely part of that (the same is true of the psychology of all fetishes: you start with something you’re not sure you’re into, and as you refine what it is about it you like you can dive deeper)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0093854813485575
this paper suggests that both thrill seeking and self control have different impacts on people’s desire to commit crime