Valve Pulls Sex Game From Steam Greenlight
Valve had to pull a listed PC game the very first day Steam Greenlight went live.
When Valve launched Steam Greenlight five days ago, the studio said it would be a platform that "enlists the community's help in selecting some of the next games to be released on Steam." It would allow developers and publishers to post information and media about their game in an effort to convince the Community that the game should be released on Steam.
Thus, not only would Greenlight connect developers and publishers to gamers, but serve as an advertising tool. If the game gets enough votes, it becomes an actual product sold on Valve's Steam platform – a really awesome idea. Greenlight even piggybacks on Steam Workshop's flexible system that organizes content and lets customers rate and leave feedback, Valve said.
Unfortunately, not every idea will get a chance to be voted onto Valve's platform. According to the official Greenlight guidelines, a submitted game "must not contain offensive material or violate copyright or intellectual property rights." Developer No Reply Games found out the hard way after submitting its game Seduce Me on Greenlight's launch day, only to be quickly removed by Valve.
"We submitted the game on Thursday, when Steam Greenlight launched," explained Miriam Bellard, co-founder No Reply Games, "but they took it down almost straight away. Many people still view games as 'for children' in spite of the fact that the average gamer is 30 years old. The gaming establishment is fine with violence and gore but is uncomfortable with sexual themes."
According to the description, Seduce Me is an erotic game with light strategy gameplay, pre-rendered backgrounds, and hand painted images of glamorous women. "Explore Pietra's luxury villa and meet its glamorous occupants," it reads. "Do you have what it takes to seduce your way into the hearts and bedrooms of Seduce Me's gorgeous women."
The game centers around four women: Pietra, a rich, beautiful, celebrity socialite; Cecelia, a sexually aggressive, confident, older divorcee; Lilia, Cecilia's daughter who is a University student and a "proper" English girl; and Esper, the group's wild child. Players interact with the girls by responding to events and playing card-based mini games that mimic real world situations like chatting, flirting, confronting and more.
"High scores and winning mini games can earn you erotic cut scenes," reads the game's description. "The girls are not passive. They can and do respond to how you act. Maximizing your scores with one of the four main characters allows you to win the game. This leads to a final erotic cut scene with that character."
Hmmm. Maybe Valve was on to something when it swung the Greenlight banhammer, especially after watching the gameplay video and reading some of the in-game dialog. "Steam has never been a leading destination for erotic material," Valve's chief spokesperson Doug Lombardi told Kotaku. "Greenlight doesn't aim to change that."
No Reply Games eventually received an email saying that the game was pulled for violating Steam or Greenlight's terms. The developer said the removal "obviously was not a mistake so we interpreted the situation as a non-negotiable one."
Nevertheless, Seduce Me will still be released in November, just not on Valve's platform. Meanwhile, Valve said it will update the terms of service to "more clearly reflect content restrictions."
OMG! teh sex?!
saw nipple
saw that there was apparently penetration
here is a game that is on steam
http://store.steampowered.com/app/7980/
here is some gameplay from that game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w19e04FGukY
now unless the game had violent rape, or went to an extreme fetish, i see that soldier of fortune has far worse content than the sex game (heavy violence apposed to light sex)
but oh god, for some reason in america, its better to see a body shot apart and dismembered but the moment you show a nipple you are crossing a line.
OMG! teh sex?!
dudes got a point. I myself never understood this mentality in the gaming industry. you dismember people and do all sorts of violent crap with an M rating, but put graphic sex in a non violent game and its instantly hammered down with an AO rating. I dont really care for sexual video games, but I see why they can be frustrated by the prejudice of the gaming industry.
saw nipple
saw that there was apparently penetration
here is a game that is on steam
http://store.steampowered.com/app/7980/
here is some gameplay from that game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w19e04FGukY
now unless the game had violent rape, or went to an extreme fetish, i see that soldier of fortune has far worse content than the sex game (heavy violence apposed to light sex)
but oh god, for some reason in america, its better to see a body shot apart and dismembered but the moment you show a nipple you are crossing a line.
The Pledge of Allegiance should be re-written to not contain religious babble, as it was originally. Our money should have "In God We Trust" removed (because many of us feel we are being incorrectly represented as we do not believe in God!)
We keep having idiot people dictate what is socially acceptable, people who are afraid of sex ruin our entertainment, when in truth we should promote healthy sex and educate our children about it.
Perversion is not lust, do not confuse the two. True perversion (which involves violence and non-consent to sexual activity) comes from a lack of healthy sexual contact and healthy sexual growth during puberty, and actually leads to more rapists and sociopaths.
The Bible belt is where the most online porn is consumed in America, and it is conservatives (i.e. those who claim/try to be celibate but obviously cannot be as it defies animal instincts) that end up doing the most grotesque acts. Good psychologists already know this.
In other cultures, the most conservative areas are also where the most heinous crimes happen involving children or rape.
We need to learn that to fight sexual assaults we actually need to EMBRACE sex in our culture and instead fight the conservative that leads to close-minded thinking and closet freaks that can't contain their lust and so do things to others against their will in secret.
there was penetration in this game.
only leasure suit game that got an ao rateing was the newer crap ones.
ill bet the old games could go to steam without a problem.
lets not even go with graphical non violent, lets just go with implied, unless you are a major publisher, you will be slapped with a harsher rateing.
take a look at Indigo Prophecy, the sex in that game is no worse than a R rated movie, but it got cut out of the american release.
that was before big companys started putting boob into games though.
but look at the new witcher 2, that has full frontal women, gta4 has a full frontal man, but add the two in the same sceen... instant AO and no one wants to deal with them.
steam is mostly computer games, the only reason computer games don't have AO games is because they almost cant turn a profit in america, so we only get import games, and even than they don't have much money in them. religious do gooder faimaly friendly companies had music cut, movies cut, all for the sake of they dont want graphic content in their stores.
you also have the nintendo/sony/microsoft that dont want AO on their systems at all.
with steam, you could make that content not even visible, to anyone under 18, steam has no real competition, so i cant see why they would institute no ao at all.
no they wouldn't, the ao market even if it were around, would make very little money, meaning low production values all around. and low production value games, i don't care if they are a genre you love, are usually passed over. i have no delusion that we would get a gta game that would go for broke and do full AO only, but giving an ao game a chance, that's all i want. allow true uncut content to be available.
look at most of the other english countries, sex is more accepted than violence.
for me personally, it would suck if violence is censored instead of sex, as i love games with full dismemberment, but what sucks is that you can have full graphically accurate dismemberment will full blood and organ physics, but you show even a moment of sex in the game, that's what pushes it to AO.
no they wouldn't, the ao market even if it were around, would make very little money, meaning low production values all around. and low production value games, i don't care if they are a genre you love, are usually passed over.
Steam is a money machine with low distribution cost and it could profit from the addition of sexual themed games. Also sales of AO games on an online platform are likely to beat those of a store due to purchase shame. The real question is whether a publisher could make money off of it. But Steam Greenlight is an experiment in low production values anyway.
First, if Sream put up these type of games, they would have to list their website as being Adult themed. Their would be different regulation, and they might not be able to allow minors to visit the site.
Second, you should get your facts straight before you make bogus comments. Though I would like to debunk each of the myths you've suggested, this is not the place. Your presupposition about religion and Christianity have no merit. More Christians were killed during the dark ages by the State Church, than non-Christians. No Christian, nor anywhere in the Bible does it ever demonized sex, it's part of God's plan. You have many superstitions because of your lack of knowledge in these areas, and you should actually read up about the Inquisition before you make ridiculous comments.
And no, this is not a hypocritical stance because I fully welcome violent games. Again I do not object to such content existing if it has sexual themes to it. I however would like Valve to truly put more effort into blocking minors from extremely violent games as well. If Valve can achieve a working method that stops kids than I say bring on the sexual games as well. But at this time it would just be a mistake and there is no need to pile this on the violent games issue.
Also I want to make it known that I am a father. I pre-approve content for my son before letting him view or play the content. I think we can all agree this is the responsible thing to do but sadly not every parent does the right thing. This is also why we need sex-ed in school because we cannot rely on many parents to do the right thing and properly raise and educate their child alone. If the parents fail the child then it is up to society to do the right thing. I believe children are worth it, don't you?
Oh really?
Clearly mentions fornication in the list and even says those who do it will not enter heaven. Corinthians 6:8-10
Bible clearly doesn't support homosexual sex and even orders those involved to be put to death Genesis 20:13
You are not even suppose to look at a woman who is menstruating Leviticus 18:19 Also if you have sex with one during this time you are both to be exiled Leviticus 20:18
Although one may find it immoral the bible calls for the death of adultery for all involved which I am sure almost everyone will find too extreme. Deuteronomy 22:22
The bible even goes as far as blaming and punishing rape victims, if they are a virgin girl they have to be put to deaths if their screams were not heard by others. Deuteronomy 22:23-24
Female prisoners of war are free to rape and forced into marriage Deuteronomy 21:11-14
Need I go on? I can give plenty of more examples. The bible is not only insane about sexual topics but even when it comes to the vile of rape it always punishes the victim. You must have never opened up your own religious book to be unaware of these things. The bible is absolutely the opposite of moral on this issue. Intolerant, victim punishing, and ignorant and even pro-rape.
Bear in mind that games don't HAVE to have a rating.... It just makes the stores/distributors feel more secure about selling them.
While that holds true for America and likely other places that isn't the case in other parts of the world.
Because Steam is a world wide retailer it would be best to include the proper rating systems with any game hosted on it's service to avoid legal issues.
Originally the defacto motto of the US was E. Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One). You can thank the Red Scare of the '50s for changing it to "In God We Trust" and changing the Pledge of Allegiance.