Forum - View topicThis Week in Games - Nintendo Numbers, Steam Stoppages, and Lots of Virtual Fistfights
|
Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Joe Mello
 Posts: 2304 Location: Online Terminal |
|
||
|
It's possible that there is just One Dude at Valve that has a bug up their butt about Japanese games but considering how, for example, parts of the niconico ecosystem are now just completely walled off to Western countries, I think the issue is larger than that one dude.
|
|||
|
|||
i got the shivers!
 Posts: 114 Location: Brazil |
|
||
I think it's just the "Japan is weird" mentality never really went away and some people think it's their moral duty to fight against the country for whatever reasons. I hope the Switch 2 is backwards compatible via physical games and not just digital. That was one of the nicest features of going from the DS to 3DS, even if it lost GBA compatibility. Any degree of backwards compatibility is always convenient. |
|||
|
|||
FishLion
 Posts: 221 |
|
||
I think it could be kind of both, I think there is a larger issue going on for sure but that it is very possible there is this some dude or dudes that really worry about that larger issue, possibly even because of Japanese games sites getting hit so hard with rules. I'm sure if valve lost credit card services for a day even then somebody would be in a lot of trouble, not that it's an excuse for being unfairly hard on them, I think they should have a rule that if it isn't rated Ao or equivalent in any country then it's automatically allowed for sale. It's also weird because they have outright pornographic games with fully animated sex scenes that don't get taken down, even without Kagura style patches. Maybe it's because those are opt-in to see while characters that are in sexy outfits but not "adult only" games get treated differently. You'd think if that were the issue you could just move it to adult only instead of banning it, but these are just guesses as to why they can have porn but ban games like that at the same time. At the end of the day it's still wild to me that sexy anime girls cross a line while they sell both entries of Fear and Hunger with no problems, that game has things way more horrifying than any eroge I've seen and things of a very sexual nature. I guess horror nudity is artistic and scary unlike anime girls in revealing outfits that aren't even nude are banned? That's why I would hope it is a category issue they are handling badly and not literally allowing western producers to make games like Cloud Meadow with fully animated sex cut scenes while blocking Japanese games that have revealing outfits and don't even contain sex scenes. |
|||
|
|||
|
FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 636 |
|
||
|
[quote="FishLion"]
Even if it is a category issue, outright banning the game on Steam would be such an overreaction. A misclassification is basically a clerical error, banning the game doesn't just refuse the game it means you can't resubmit the game again. You raise an interesting point with the "sexy costumes but no sex" theory, but the problem is that doesn't explain a ton of other games that might have some kind of racy costume to them and nevertheless are on Steam. X-Blades is on Steam, and its protagonist is dressed way more skimpy than anyone in Tokyo Clanpool. And remember: even if it's opt-in, any content in a video game (optional costumes, optional levels, optional missions or story scenes) have to be submitted for review by the ESRB. Even if you specifically have to make the conscious decision to go into the menu to make all of your party members in Baldur's Gate 3 buck-naked, that's still out in the open and a factor in its review. This was part of the issue with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when the Hot Coffee scandal happened: yes, the Hot Coffee stuff was dummied out, but it was still in the code. So we're back to the same weird point. Tokyo Clanpool is a long way from Criminal Girls, which I could understand rocking the boat. |
|||
|
|||
Greed1914
 Posts: 4618 |
|
||
|
I keep wondering when Steam will be consistent when it comes to Japanese games. As others have said, things made elsewhere that are being sold on nothing other than shock value, get a pass. There was a point where adult visual novels could be sold there sans the sex scenes, but Steam wouldn't let them mention on the store page that there even was a patch for it. Steam's presence as the place to buy games meant that it didn't even occur to customers to go to a site like JAST or Manga Gamer to get it directly.
|
|||
|
|||
|
FishLion
Posts: 221 |
|
||
I completely agree, there is some weird double standard going on, I am just trying to figure out why sexyish games from Japan are getting dinged while games like Baldur's Gate or X-Blades go free. At the very least it would explain why I am able to find so many extremely explicit games from Japan and America that are marked for sexual content but Tokyo Clanpool is completely banned. I also wonder if it is a judgment of "anime elements" being in a game, if they outright comb Japanese games for questionable content and judge it more harshly for some reason, or if it's anything in particular they dislike. It's dumb, whatever that reason is is, but I always try to find out why things happen and not just leave it at "Steam has a weird double standard." Not that they'll ever tell anyone why, I just have a bit of an interest in this rash of games being taken down or banned lately and what @Joe Mello said made me wonder a bit more if it's a random dude or related to other events. |
|||
|
|||
|
Joe Mello
Posts: 2304 Location: Online Terminal |
|
||
|
The public reason for the Japanese site restrictions is to compliance. Some of it is international regs, but a lot of it is to the Terms set by Point of Sale processors: so your card companies, digital wallets, etc. If sites can't collect payments from their subscribers, they won't be able to stay afloat, so measures get taken and people like me who only use niconico for Vocaloid/MikuMikuDance stuff (I have too many hobbies) and occasionally finding weird a capella covers get stuck.
I'm not cynical enough to think this game getting banned is some form of clapback (only in one's own mind, maybe), but I could easily see these things as two symptoms of a greater issue and one that probably won't be going away anytime soon. |
|||
|
|||
|
FishLion
Posts: 221 |
|
||
That is what I was wondering, payment processors are more strict because lobbying/activist anti-porn groups are being hard on them to restrict content. I know that these groups pressured Mastercard and Visa to cut all business with mainstream porn sites and I don't know how related that could be to niche anime content but I feel like at the very least the fact that payment processors have started targeting niche media is coming from that larger push to make them responsible for any content that is sold by websites on their watch, even if the company is working with a site who is not responsible for what third-parties post. It feels like they are trying to make such businesses self police the entire globe for content they disagree with and blaming the tech companies for not fixing it, even though that would logically be the site holder's job. |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group