Some games are still up, but all I see are BL games, where's my straight shi at?
This does not "solve" anything though, it is just "kicking the can down the road". Same with people wanting an alternative to this marketplace. The "problem" is with existing processors that control the flow of money. So you use an ACH bank transfer to move your money into crypto... until the processors tell the bank not to allow that. Nothing is solved.
Hello all,
In my opinion, any standard petitions today are pointless.
Instead, we need to follow the example of campaigns like "Stop Killing Games," which effectively targeted developers. We need to approach Mastercard and Visa in the same way.
We need a citizens' initiative that covers a broad area, like the EU, and that has real legal force. We need to clearly and loudly demonstrate that corporations are already violating EU antitrust laws, and draw the attention of those in positions of authority to this. It's not a matter of potential threats—it's already happening.
Fines of up to 10% of global turnover are possible—a scale that can appeal to any corporation. This is a much stronger means of pressure than any "collective shout."
Feminists from Australia—they didn't attack content creators themselves, but targeted the money that flows from this content. It was an effective strategy. And we must do the same – hit the revenues of payment processing companies, because only then do we have a real chance to oppose what is currently happening.
way to devalue the term fascist, what next? you're gonna call em nazis? Itch can't help it if the people in charge of handling the money wants to swing that monopoly around. Visa and Mastercard are the ones swinging their power around to have a say in not just our lawful purchases but they're already doing it in worldwide, especially Japan. For Itch to do anything about it would make them unable to operate at all
I agree that it is mainly Visa and Mastercard who are at fault. Even more so the group of conservatives that convinced them to go this far. My issue is with itch immediately caving to them and not at least try to fight back. I understand that there is little they can do but straight up admitting defeat and cater to big money kind of shows where the priorities are.
I am not devaluing the term fascism at all. History has shown time and time again that fascism starts with the banning of art. Google "degenerate art" or read this interesting article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-propaganda-fascism-target-artists-zubizarreta...
Also I didn't call itch themself fascist. Banning certain types of art - and I would call video games art - is.
f95zone is a big community almost exclusively catering to NSFW games. Fare warning, it is a bit of a piracy site for paid NSFW games but supporting the devs is encouraged. plenty of devs upload and communicate with the community of their own will. I suggest Devs upload their games there while having a support line.
This happening at the same tame as US gov's are "investigating" Brazil's main payment method (Pix) says a lot....
those bills that are being discussed may be republicans project, but that is not guarantee that trump's administration don't have a hand in this...
other thing that may be involved is the Epestein files debacle
I don't think anyone posted the actual update in here;
The communication from itch /updates/update-on-nsfw-content
Collective Shout, while obviously a bigoted biased nuisance, have no real power in themselves and there have always been groups like them as long as NSFW existed. They are just finding some success in pestering the payment processors. But something tells me they are lying to said payment processors regarding the content hosted at places and saying it's illegal stuff or something. After all, why is it that numerous other places known for hosting NSFW content for decades are not having their payment options threatened while places like Steam and Itch are? Another part of the problem is that there's not really a way around said payment processors: https://www.naka.com/blog/payments-duopoly-global-battle If there were, it would be easy for Itch or anyone else being threatened to simply set up another way for people to spend. So there are multiple deeper issues going on here that need to be solved. Hopefully sooner than later because undoubtedly this will not be the end of places being hassled over the content they host.
It seems like they do consider games as "real life", unlike how they perceive Video/Printed. "Video" meaning movies and television with "fictional" content. Visa and Mastercard are all too happy to receive payment fees for Game of Thrones.
As for the gaming side of things, they just don't seem to understand it is a "fictional" medium. It is also only a matter of time before it escalates beyond gaming into printed fiction. My wife straight-up admits many of the NSFW games here on Itch that I have played are tame in comparison to the supermarket-smut-novels they have near the registers! HAHA
She needs to go visit Melonbooks in Japan if she wants to see far less tame stuff.
I came across one with sadistic brutal themes and my mind went "I'm not surprised this exists. I AM surprised this exists in paperback." and I had to buy it just for the novelty of it.
Although at the end of the day it's a matter of how deep pocketbooks are. Buy Visa/Mastercard stock (Not sure of their ticker) and have a good share percentage, threaten that they can't do crap like this, and you'll find they reverse their decision REAL quick when the CEO's pocketbooks are impacted.
Taking your business elsewhere is just delaying it. Itch was just the next step on their warpath of censorship. There won't be anything to stop the processors from attacking your "next" platform, or the "next" platform, or the "next" platform, or the "next" platform...
They have already attacked (and won) against Epic, Steam, Patreon, OnlyFans, PornHub, etc... and the list will continue to grow if the cancerous reason for this trend is not removed. It is the processors dictating what can and cannot be purchased.