Okay I’m stupid.

What’s wrong with removing rape and incest games from Steam?

Edit: Thank you all for your answers, I was nervous to ask the question incase I would come off as a troll or ass hole or something and piss everyone off. They are very informative and have given me much to read and think about.

First, they will remove rape and incest, then they will remove all LGBT games, then they will remove all nsfw, and then they will remove all violent games and so on until only the games deemed acceptable by the US evangelicals are left.

The issue is payment processors unilaterally revoking access to content based on what they (or a conservative hate group with a telephone campaign) personally find morally impermissable.

Woah, so I know you’re not saying rape and incest is part of LGBT, but that sentence kinda made the jump. How did we get from rape and incest to LGBT? Why can’t just rape and incest be removed and stop there?

Well not sure about you, but I’d like to agree rape and incest is pretty fucked up so yeah it probably should be removed, so why should people have to see that on their computers in the first place?

Conservative movements are not known for their restraint and fairness. They cannot be trusted to not abuse people.

Republicans are already classifying anything they don’t like as obscene pornography and finding ways to ban it. There’s been a surge in book bans in American schools, for example. From July to December 2023, PEN America found that more than 4,300 books were removed from schools across 23 states. Many of the targeted titles feature LGBTQ+ characters. Works that address rape and sexual assault are also increasingly being targeted. So don’t be fooled by Project 2025’s preoccupation with porn. The far right aren’t interested in the exploitation of women, they’re interested in controlling exactly what it means to be a woman. This isn’t a crusade against porn, it’s a crusade against progress.

Porn bans are a wedge used by conservatives to widen the criteria once the ban is in place.

I’m not a fan of the games. I also know that these groups also consider certain people, like lgbt people, to be just as morally impermissable. If this is acceptable for them to do, why not censor all queer content for the same groups? Where does it stop?

The platforms do this when found or reported already. This is the first they came for (group A) then they come for (group B) etc. I don’t think they meant that rape/incest = lgbt(note the comma in their comment), it looks like they are saying that when this is successful the companies will then get “complaints” about LGBT games and they would get removed, then the violent games etc.

It opens the door to removing any number of games for any other number of reasons.

Remember the war on violent video games? Maybe not, but there are tons of people who think that violent video games cause people to be violent which has been proven to not be the case, yet people still parrot it like it’s true. It could easily escalate to that.

Also, they already went after ALL NSFW games on itch.io with all of those games being removed, so it’s already getting worse right before our very eyes.

If you don’t see how it can escalate from here then I don’t really know what to say.

This content occurs in the Bible, should it also be banned from sale?

What about old plays that contain similar content?

What about art that contains it?

The point is that visa and mastercard should not be policing it, if is legal to own you should be allowed to buy it.

you’re missing the point.

yes, that content is despicable and probably shouldn’t have been created in the first place, or at the very least stopped from publishing by valve. but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

if the payment processors have that much power to pull games they don’t agree with, they won’t stop here with rape/incest and can pull whatever they decide is “impure”.

it sets a precedent where the people who handle money can grab even more power just because they feel like it. dating sims/violent shooters could be on the block next, and while it would be a much harder push for them due to the size of fanbases, would you still roll over and say “well not everyone wants to be subject to these things on their computer”?

Ultimately the material you seem to have an objection to is just an artistic expression, created with the consent of all involved. It has nothing to do with an actual illegal activity. This is just a smokescreen to further the conservative agenda of some old assholes with lots of money. If left unchecked, these groups would likely move on to other things like banning sex shops or certain civil rights organizations (e.g. LGBTQIA+) from using credit cards. How far would you allow them to go with their puritanical beliefs, when you can no longer purchase a beer or watch a scary movie?

Crypto was supposed to do this but it’s too fractured and volatile now.

Steam choosing what to host on their platform is fine. A random payment processor forcing their hand due to mild pressure from a fringe Christian group in Australia is not. Because those loonies will classify anything outside of a married couple having missionary sex as obscene and harmful.

This content occurs in the Bible, should it also be banned from sale?

Yes.

so why should people have to see that on their computers in the first place?

You don’t have to see anything online, (unless you are on a mind rotting infinite scroll). When you want to see something or play a game you have to actively seek it out.

This issue is that once there is a precedent set for payment processors manipulating markets they wont stop. Just like the zombies on tiktok that say “un-alive” because they thin the word “died” will have them kicked off the internet, publishers and developers will get nervous that their game may not sit well with a payment processor for some reason like religion, racial heritage, or opinions on sexual orientation and gender, and they will be unable to sell their game.

They already removed all NSFW from itch.io

Because they didn’t just stop there when they removed from all NSFW content from itch.io

It’s not just a one-and-done thing, it will keep escalating.

I see you, just the truth is, sometiems you do see stuff you didn’t want to without seeking it out. The reason I know about incest games existing on steam is because it showed up on my recommendations or something once, without me actively seeking it out.

Same with other genres of games, they pop up when I’ve never had interest in that type of game to begin with.

But okay thanks for that second paragraph. I haven’t thought of that before. I guess just don’t see how they’d think “ok we got rid of the rape and incest, now let’s go Nazi on everything else”