We need ADULT ONLY games on Steam ASAP

[MADanger]

The problem is that the Adults Only rating kills games. This isn’t an exaggeration; most retailers refuse to carry AO games, and no console will allow them on the platform. This isn’t the fault of the ratings board, the existence of an NC-17 equivalent is a healthy rating, this is the fault of the retailers and platform holders falling for the fallacy that video games are still for children.

"The cold war on the Adults Only rating must stop if gaming is to grow up"
https://www.polygon.com/2014/2/10/5397680/the-cold-war-on-the-ao-rating-must-stop-if-gaming-is-to-grow-up

Enough is enough. Let adults decide for themselves what they want to spend their money on. We don't need the morality police to tell adults what content they can consume. Steam can find a way to do a better job of age gating AO content. Example: Debt Card # is required for EVERY AO purchase. Or, how about a Debt Card # plus a scan of a drivers' license? What 15 year old kid is going to have all that?

Edit: Thanks for the link to HATRED. I just purchased it simply because of the AO rating to support the developer. The ESRB is a major joke. There are M rated games with more realistic gore than this game. That said, we need a ton of AO games where the games are really good AND have good sexual content in them. Think something like GTA5. Steam better listen to the market: Adults want these games.

[MADanger]

theseraph1 の投稿を引用：

Mad Ass Danger の投稿を引用：

SENRAN KAGURA ESTIVAL VERSUS has thousands of reviews. The game would have sold 10x better if there was nudity. People want these kinds of games. Valve should give it to us!

YOU want that kind of game, but MOST do not.. thats why AO games do not sell well..


you have to realize when something is a niche market, and realize that not everyone shares your views or taste in content

1. Valve + GameStop basically control the entire gaming market in the USA.

2. None of them will allow AO.

3. And you are really telling me that there is not an articial depression in the demand?

theseraph1 の投稿を引用：

you have to realize when something is a niche market, and realize that not everyone shares your views or taste in content

I agree that not everyone has the same views or taste in content. That much is obvious. However, I am suggesting that Valve should open it up entirely to the free market. Read the reviews on Senran. A lot of people are talking about nudie patch and how amazing it is. Sorry, bud, people DO want games like this. It is only a "niche" market because the major marketplace for PC games (Valve) has shut it down. That is the ONLY reason it is a niche market. It is a niche market not because of the lack of demand...It is because the marketplaces and the corrupt ESRB have shuttered the markerplace.

[Winged One]

it is a niche market due to lack of demand..


those kinds of games have been easily avaliable, AND MARKETED for decades. the reason they were not a financial gain is because of lack in demand

[MADanger]

They were not sold in a serious marketplace like GameStop or Valve. Both of these companies control video games.

It is somewhat like the Apple app or Android app store. If your app is not on either market...you are not selling squat. Then people like you go:

theseraph1 の投稿を引用：

it is a niche market due to lack of demand..

You lack a fundamental understanding of economics. I suggest you take the next available introductory couse at your local community college.

Steam alone accounts for 50-70% of PC gaming: https://venturebeat.com/2017/02/13/valve-wont-manually-curate-steam-because-it-dominates-pc-gaming/

Valve is a MONOPOLY in the gaming world. So tell me which market is an AO developer going to sell their game at again?

[Winged One]

wrong.. they were marketed in Magazines, online Ad's, countless ma & pa game stores (granted, you may not be old enough to remember), and just about any sex store you could walk in to


there are numerous very sucessful games that are sold outside such platforms as Steam or Gamestop.. heck, Minecraft is one of the best selling games of all time, and the majority of its sales came directly from notches website in early release..



its not that they aren't popular because people can't get them, a quick look at the history of the subject and gameing history show that.. the majority of gamers just don't want porn games, they have other outlets for their "frustration"..

[MADanger]

Read up.
https://www.polygon.com/features/2013/8/8/4595050/adults-only-ao-games

[MADanger]

theseraph1 の投稿を引用：

wrong.. they were marketed in Magazines, online Ad's, countless ma & pa game stores (granted, you may not be old enough to remember), and just about any sex store you could walk in to

.

NONE of those places reach the MILLIONS of people on Steam.

From Polygon:

"We’re starting to see games deal with sexuality in a limited way, although graphic sex will usually land you with the dreaded Adults Only rating, which is the kiss of death for any mainstream game. The stores won’t stock it, the console holders won’t release it and you’re stuck with a PC-only game that won’t find a home on many digital distribution platforms."

[MADanger]

The problem is that the Adults Only rating kills games. This isn’t an exaggeration; most retailers refuse to carry AO games, and no console will allow them on the platform. This isn’t the fault of the ratings board, the existence of an NC-17 equivalent is a healthy rating, this is the fault of the retailers and platform holders falling for the fallacy that video games are still for children.

"The cold war on the Adults Only rating must stop if gaming is to grow up"
https://www.polygon.com/2014/2/10/5397680/the-cold-war-on-the-ao-rating-must-stop-if-gaming-is-to-grow-up

[MADanger]

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

[MADanger]

Doomgineer の投稿を引用：

I would have never bought so many games, of any rating, if Steam were not a thing.

It is not quite as easy to purchase, obtain, and maintain games from individual sites as it is to plop money into the steam wallet and click some buttons to install it and have it stored nicely in the library and accessible from any system. This predictable, uniform method is quite nice. (Also the Steam sales help a lot!)
I have one experience with getting a mature game from an individual dev page, and it was a pain in the butt to obtain the files. The developer was very helpful and nice but it still involved multiple emails, waiting, and the uncertaintly about if I had a technical problem that just wouldn't get resolved and then I'd have to mess with refunds and all that crap, plus the disappointment of not having the game. Anyway, I did eventually obtain the game files, but then years later, I found steam had added it to their selection and I got it here, too, and now it's in my library and reg'd to my account and super easy access! (meanwhile the old files are burried on a disk or external hd, and at this point might even need patched to run on newer OS's but Steam also automatically handles updates :neonsmile:). Anyway, my other expereinces are with FREE adult games that didn't make me use some payment system I am uncomfortbale with, and those downloaded fine.


The individual developer sites are not organized with so much diversity of content being displayed in one conveninent place? Do they have a Discovery Queue? The ease of access and suggestion (and sales!) help games sell on Steam. So too do things like the activity feed and other social media components, as I find a lot of games I did not know exist by seeing what friends are playing, purchased, added to wishlist, etc. Steam is also sort of a game itself, giving people achievements and badges and stuff. It had its own instant messenger. I don't believe that a marketplace/social media combo for any-kind-of-game-including-adult-games which works like Steam, would not increase adult game sales by making it easier to download them and to see they even exist at all, with a community growing there, as here, of people into those games, and games even being created with it in mind that the marketplace there would be used to boost sales.

I do complain, that a lot of adult games are boring, repetitive, uncreative, and have other problems. Be nice if people made creative games that have adult content as a component, but not as the be-all-end-all point. Evidence from personal experience, toward the argument that people don't care about AO games, is this: I don't seek them out because I am ususally bored with them; however, about half of my reason is that they are hard for me to find to begin with and I don't like messing with individual sites. However when it's something unique like the mature game I tried quite hard to get, I do. Provided, again, that I know about it at all.

Would be nice, imo, if on a marketplace such as one like Steam, there were a full version of mature games available that have whatever content a developer would have included but had to avoid including due to content ratings, in order to have the game marketable to a wide audience on a big place like Steam. OP's "fanfictiony" Trevor example fits that. (Trevor is gross and awful, and that little blurb fits his character. That example is cringworthy, funny and thought provoking to me. But then I am one of the people that likes disturbing content and would sign up for this adult game site, and the people that don't want the "Complete" Edition of various games just wouldn't sign up there. Adult content isn't necessairly hot or to get one's jollies. It can be used for humor, horror (think Outlast, which IS on Steam), social commentary, etc. But anytime someone wants to use sexuality in games I reckon their mind must go: is this going to reduce my sales if I include this? And that is absolutely something that affects the storytelling. Isn't it just easier to just leave it out and have fewer lumps and bumps?)

Has anything like Steam for adult-content-and-more ever been tried, that is, an attempt to organize adult games and other types into a marketplace with all these nice features like Steam has? That is different from advertizing in magazines, etc. Steam hooks folks in with an account loaded with friends and fun that people come back to, and see the stuff hosted on their site, that they get through an easy payment system and button presses. Mods and microtransactions are also included. The nice features combined together, contribute to Steam's success.

I don't claim that's all there is to it. But that aught to be considered.

+10 for well thought out post !

[MADanger]

Every M game is available with only 2 AO games (that I'm aware of) available.

[JellyShark]

King of Pain の投稿を引用：

Probably the same reason why Blockbuster didn't have a pornography section...

It would kind of give the entire company a smutty reputation and would be hard to regulate who gets their hands on that kind of material.

Well actually. Blockbusters did have what some would consider "pornography". Softcore stuff but they had it all the same. Lots of video stores did. They just didn't keep it in the sightline of every family with their kids. Because they knew some would be interested and want it and others wouldn't want to know it was there.

Look, this whole thing is just about regulation. Its harder to hide something on steam than it is in a video store; If you're looking for a game you type it in and it appears, you don't have to actually search or ask someone. It's harder to figure out whos seeing the content on steam than it is in a video store; If someone buys something it goes straight into someones home without you seeing their face, you can't tell that the person buying it is 13 years old.

This is what this whole thing is about. The internet is all about being anonymous but that can't work when you're dealing with things that may or may not be restricted by certain people who are now blending in unwatched

[NeXuS23]

PEGI18+ == ESRB-AO(18+)

PEGI18+ is allowed on Consoles.
ESRB-AO(18+) is not allowed on Consoles.

PEGI16 ~ ESRB-M(17+)
PEGI12 ~ ESRB-T(13+)
ESRB-M(17+) ~ PEGI16+/PEGI18+

BBFC, PEGI, CERO, OFLC, ACB all have an 18+ rating which also is allowed on consoles, the ESRB is the only one where the 18+ rating is a taboo and not allowed on consoles.

Perhaps there is something wrong with the ESRB then!? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[gods strongest little guy]

No we don’t

[MADanger]

The ESRB is a scum bag organization.

Time for adults to demand the main consoles + Valve to allow for more AO content.

[Crashed]

Be careful what you say. The ESRB is owned by the ESA, which is the video game equivalent of the RIAA and MPAA.