Help protect Cinderella Phenomenon and other great Visual Novels

[warpzone32]

As you may have heard, malicious users have recently made sport out of tricking Valve's algorithms into incorrectly flagging various indie games as pornographic. While, in theory, any game on Steam could be targeted for unfair removal, we feel that games with the Nudity Tag are particularly at-risk, even if the Nudity tag is inaccurate.

Fortunately, we've discovered that if enough fans raise their voices, an actual human being at Valve listens. If you don't want Valve to delete this game, post the sentence "I want Cinderella Phenomenon to remain on steam." No offensive language, no pointing fingers, just reply with that exact sentence so Valve will know you want them to leave it on Steam. Petitions like this one, on Steam and especially on Social Media, saved the game Hunie Pop from unfair deletion.

Remember, Valve wants devs to remain silent about this, which is why we're reaching out directly to the community. Click here for details on why this game was selected to receive a petition.

Say it loud, and say it proud: "I want Cinderella Phenomenon to remain on steam!"

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Um... As I have quick-glanced at one of the discussions you put links to, I wonder - do user created mods make this a bit of an issue?
Even though I myself have plans to create a few mods for various games (not for destroying games, just creating alternative stories and for fun), don't they look like that they can actually cause harm to the ones who created the original - for example, putting stuff in a mod that can potentially put a game to have nudity tag, or, as You mentioned, be removed from Steam outright?

[warpzone32]

Originally posted by Blogaugis:

Um... As I have quick-glanced at one of the discussions you put links to, I wonder - do user created mods make this a bit of an issue?
Even though I myself have plans to create a few mods for various games (not for destroying games, just creating alternative stories and for fun), don't they look like that they can actually cause harm to the ones who created the original - for example, putting stuff in a mod that can potentially put a game to have nudity tag, or, as You mentioned, be removed from Steam outright?

It's a complex problem, and I'm learning more about it every day. Every game is different, every player is different, every fan is different, and every malicious user is different. I find it helps to look at the problem in layers. Just like with physical security and internet security, there is no such thing as 100% "safe," as devs learned the hard way duing #Waifupocalypse. There's only risk factors that make a game safer or less safe than it would be if it didn't have those risk factors.

Definitely, games with the Nudity tag are more likely to be removed than games without the Nudity tag. But the Nudity Tag can get added to any game by any user at any time. At one point, even Tetris had a joke nudity tag, and depending on who you ask, it's even possible the game went down for half an hour or so in certain regions before Valve stepped in and corrected the problem.

But overt actions by a corporation are only one side of censorship. The other side is what we call url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect]"Chilling Effects."[/url] Chilling Effects are what happens when people or businesses start self-censoring their own speech, even if that speech is legally protected and in accordance with the rules, more out of fear of illegitimate enforcement actions than out of a good-faith effort to comply with good-faith enforcement of the rules.

In that sense, creating fan content for a game may increase the risk to that game by increasing the chances that someone will add a Nudity tag to that game. But not creating (legally allowed) content that you otherwise would have created means you're probably giving in to Chilling Effects. This is what people mean when they say "censorship affects everybody."

If we let this game fall, next they'll come after that game, or so the thinking goes. Remember, before Valve reversed their course on this with their second round of emails, the group that bragged about falsely reporting the games, Morality in Media, had announced they were planning on going after Mass Effect and The Witcher next. Visual Novels were just easier targets, because they have fewer players. (That's another one of those risk factors I mentioned, more players = less risk.)

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Originally posted by warpzone32:

If we let this game fall, next they'll come after that game, or so the thinking goes. Remember, before Valve reversed their course on this with their second round of emails, the group that bragged about falsely reporting the games, Morality in Media, had announced they were planning on going after Mass Effect and The Witcher next. Visual Novels were just easier targets, because they have fewer players. (That's another one of those risk factors I mentioned, more players = less risk.)

Hm... About that formula of more players - I think it can be both an advantage and a weakness, depending a bit on what kind of community is gathered around it - because more players also means that there are people with more varied opinions, some of which can be... kind of selfish, like adding those nudity tags and complaining about the game without rational and good reason.
Also, if Valve truly goes on killing the most popular franchises from their sales, wouldn't this hurt them economically? I doubt that they would go on with such games like Mass effect, and even if they did, I am pretty sure that a new game selling company would appear as a replacement eventually...

[warpzone32]

Originally posted by Blogaugis:

Hm... About that formula of more players - I think it can be both an advantage and a weakness, depending a bit on what kind of community is gathered around it

So far, the only time I've seen a large number of players be a weakness are the Sakura games, which I think gets a lot of shade thrown at it just because there's so many games in the franchise on Steam at once, and in a lesser sense the AAA games like DOA, The Witcher, Mass Effect, etc, where a few individual players get so fanboyish, they're more interested in attacking games they view as their favorite game's competition than in promoting their favorite game. Which never serves any purpose other than to play into the hands of Morality in Media and other malicious users.

Originally posted by Blogaugis:

because more players also means that there are people with more varied opinions, some of which can be... kind of selfish, like adding those nudity tags and complaining about the game without rational and good reason.

In general, diversity is a good thing. Being unpopular is not a defense against trolls or haters. It does however ensure that when one or two trolls or haters comes after you, there are very few people to defend the game. (In theory, # of copies sold should not impact Valve's enforcement of their own rules, but if you look at which games have gotten removed historically, the numbers tell a different story.)

Originally posted by Blogaugis:

Also, if Valve truly goes on killing the most popular franchises from their sales, wouldn't this hurt them economically? I doubt that they would go on with such games like Mass effect, and even if they did, I am pretty sure that a new game selling company would appear as a replacement eventually...

You'd think so. The problem is, Valve is so opaque and secretive about their process, so selective about enforcement, and yet so invested in pushing the boundaries of what is possible on the platform, that players and developers don't know where the boundaries are anymore.

There's also an inexplicable resistance from Steam users to using any platform other than Steam. I don't really understand this, personally, but for some people, being asked to install itch's app alongside steam.exe is apparently some kinda deal-breaker. This, combined with Steam's market penetration on PC means that corporations tread lightly when it comes to actions that might provoke the wrath of teh Gaben.

There's also the problem of Chilling Effects. Even if Valve doesn't axe Mass Effect or The Witcher per sey, it's handling of this controversy and the reaction from Steam users may dictate whether or not the next Mass Effect or Witcher game has the same options in it fans of that franchise have come to expect. Without the public outcry, corporations will just cave to pressure from these outside groups, every time. It's just easier. Until their customers make it clear that it's harder, that is.

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."