Small Group Trying to Control Gamers Again

General Discussion
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Someone should make a counter-petition called “Shut Up Collective Shout” to tell them they’re not wanted, with a troll one called “Get Collective Shout Mental Help”, suggesting they to go to therapy for inability to distinguish fiction from reality, delusions of grandeur, and for coping with their midlife crisis.

Edit: since someone has proven the “TL:DR” mindset on here, I’ll break it down for everyone.

A small group of internet Karens managed to pressure payment processors, who pressured Steam, into getting several adult games on Steam removed and have been emboldened.

If anyone on here can’t understand the implications relating to us, allow me to point out that they’ve already gone and said that they plan to go further, even into other platforms: itch.io, a platform we frequently refer to on here, was on that list.
And they’ve targeted Detroit: Become Human - a game not even relating to overt sexual themes - so our preferences are definitely not going to be left alone if we get another censorship happy group on our hands. I know some people may have agreed with certain groups, but Sweet Baby Inc and their like were a perfect example of what can happen when authoritarian self-absorbed morons get their way and go unchecked.

Edit 2: since apparently no one wants to watch the video, I’ll try to summarize my points up here as best as possible.
1.) The reason I didn’t write much down and just posted the video is because I’m not the best at getting my points down. Endymion is, and he tends to have a decent grasp on situations to point out the important parts. And tends to be right in his predictions, it’s not a broken clock situation.
2.) I suppose bringing up SBI brought the wrong impression, as I admittedly assumed, again, people would watch the video. My point being that, no matter their politics, they’re in the same boat of being folks who don’t actually care for or know video games, but want the sense of power and control they get from getting rid of them. This lust for power is indeed nothing new, the real goal with spreading awareness would be stopping them before they do serious damage. It’s about their recent upswing, not when they sprang up.
3.) admittedly, my initial “petitions” were initially jokes but they’re not funny - I posted them on here because they’re not censored here, like on YouTube. I also treated them too seriously, but does no one else find it odd that there have been petitions on that site in the past with way more signatures, that never got taken seriously, yet this one is the one that they’re paying attention to? When it has only 70,000 signatures?
4.) I’ve seen several comments on the topic point out that as payment processors are more of a service, equivalent to electricity and water, they should be restricted in that, barring outright illegal practices, like theft or murder, card companies cannot control how money is spent or by who. Which, if a petition were to actually happen, would probably be a good basis.
5.) I posted this video here because I figured it would relate to Weight Gaming’s topics as well as the site - itch.io - where games frequently go. Am I really the only one making the connection to this site and their terms of “adult games”? Especially since they might track down this site?
6.) A reason I’d consider for taking this as precaution at least is because we have precedence at least for what happens when outside forces can decide what gets posted on your local network. The creator, j8867bbws, had to remove their games due to a law passed in their country, and it’s still difficult to get some of their salvaged games running.
We also have precedence for moral guardians getting their way here in America: it took years for the effects from “Seduction of the Innocent” and it’s author to wear away for the comics industry, the ratings authorities for both movies and games have had plenty of cases of unfair scoring, and a prominent non-media example would be The Prohibition Era. I know it seems like a stretch, but remember they’re the most recent example of moral guardians getting their way. They already affected industries completely unrelated to what this site is about.

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Is there really any need to bring ragebait drama videos into the forums? This isn’t Reddit.

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Clearly you didn’t even watch the video. That’s fine, then I’ll just write more context into the post.

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The one thing, as an Aussie, that I want to make sure ANYONE discussing this topic understands, is that this is not a topic involving ‘SJWs’. These are conservative organisations with conservative politics. The leader of the group supposedly spearheading this (the US and UK orgs they teamed up with are more significant) is an anti-sex worker conservative christian fundamentalist.

‘Pro-Life Feminism’ has always been an oxymoron and it continues to be so.

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They’re not new. They’ve been active for decades. However, the election of a certain Orange Man has clearly emboldened them and facilitated greater co-ordination.

This would be the stupidest course of action. Anyone that actually wants to oppose these sorts of groups are best engaging with actual anti-censorship groups and the like, rather than posting dumb things on the internet or giving these individuals the reactions they’re looking for. Any attempt to ‘counter-troll’ will be immediately fed into the Murdoch Media machine.

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2 things to that:
1.) the group they’re affiliated with is probably who you’re talking about when referring to “being around for decades”, this group they’ve named is probably meant to be a chameleon skin. I’m aware they’re not SJW, but you can’t deny they likely got the inspiration for “Collective Shout” from those people, not only in how they’re named but also in modus operandi.
2.) Trump barely has anything to do with their behavior, it could’ve been Billy Bumfuck for all anyone cared and they still would’ve voted for the ones who hadn’t been trying to demand everyone had to think a certain way for the past decade now. That bored housewife organization is only brazen NOW because several old hats are watching the pendulum swing the other way and are thinking now’s their “Big Break”.

And about the petition, that’s only because they’re bragging “see, SEE? People don’t want sexy games!” With THEIR petition that they made on change.org. It’d be about making a point how someone could do the same thing, get more signatures, and say “no, actually, no one wants you dictating what we, the ACTUAL people, can do in our spare time”. The joke petition idea is to mock as well as demonstrate how stupid their “evidence” was, especially since several have been ignored in the past. Heck, I even stumbled across one targeting “Growth Academy”.
It’s what makes this concerning; they’re are a SMALL GROUP deciding what WE are allowed to buy. And I’m willing to bet you they’ll eventually aim for our fetish if they manage to get that far.

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can this thread get deleted? i don’t understand the relevance

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My point from this thread is to bring attention to a group that’s gaining ground in going after adult games, which unfortunately is what is part of this site, there’s a reason signed on users have to be 18+.
And they’ve managed to influence not Steam, but the credit card companies who serve as payment processers, which Steam relies on to make their money as they aren’t a brick-and-mortar store.
And they’ve already made it clear that they’re not going to stop, they intend to go after any game that they dislike and go after other platforms, including itch.io, which is where a lot of games on this site are posted. They also rely on the same payment processers.
If more folks bend the knee to them, Collective Shout could demand that places like itch.io can’t have ANY NSFW material, including free games.
If they get far enough and games of our fetish get in the crosshairs, our games could be next.

Edit: one thing I want to make clear to everyone, this is not a singular government entity, these are companies that handle money - banks and gift card suppliers - who can decide that you can’t buy these items if they feel like it. Meaning all countries who use Visa, Mastercard, and the like are vulnerable. No one is safe from this.
The only alternative is of course bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but I can’t decide if that’s a good idea or not.

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Like wulf said, these types of vids are typically very ragebait-y. Often fluff pieces from people making a mountain out of a molehill in order to pay rent, so most people aren’t going to want to watch them, let alone give them views.

That doesn’t mean they can’t have legitimate content, (broken clock, ect.,) but your post title alone is not only uninformative on the real issue (which took you 4 posts to spit out) but reeks of “gamers are the most oppressed” which absolutely no one takes seriously.

Tl;dr: Forum users hate reactionary threads, try making them not look like that.

Now for everyone else who clicked this thread and is somehow still here, I’m going to try to clarify:

As cheddar went over a bit, it’s NOT new, NOT only a “small group”, and NOT targeted at gamers specifically (lol), and is a problem with banks and credit card companies that has been ongoing for years, most immediately affecting people who make stuff in fetish and sex spaces (like me).

You could go into the broader scope of the implications and Politics It Up (which is against the rules anyway; I am only going at it because this is directly adjacent to site content*), but if you’re on this site you probably only really want to keep seeing more boobs on the internet, and that’ll do.

If you’re actually concerned about this problem, you should sign (USA citizens only) and support this petition, which will try to actually do something, instead of just flailing and seething on the internet.

*(IMO the thread should probably be locked due to this; but whether it stays open, up, or deleted on this principle is up for mod discretion. I’m not sure if I should even report it due to the adjacency.)

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First, Endymion isn’t ragebait, he typically has good points about various topics. The comments in the section tend to tell more about the commenter than the video (that being, they see the topic but don’t watch the video).
Second, if memory serves me right, the main women in the Collective Shout group are, hypocritically, not targeting what that petition you showed me seems to be emphasizing. At least one of the women in Collective Shout have connections that make their stance hypocritical.
Third, the petition seems to be less about adult content in general and more about, in a roundabout way, emphasizing cam girls. With the way it’s worded, it looks like games and adult art will be more of an afterthought. I’m willing to bet they added digital content as a way to catch strays who don’t like this either, but if it goes into effect, artists and the like are still going to be screwed by this, while cam folk will get what they want.
If it comes down to it, those in the digital art space may have to have their own petition.
Heck, I was thinking of a poll on what’s likely to happen, as Endymion points out in the video that it is likely to backfire, but I prefer sooner on rather than later, before they can do any damage.

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Locked and hidden pending review.