Taking "I want this game to remain on Steam" to other games

[warpzone32]

Current Update: I can't believe it. Valve actually decided to do the right thing. According to Polygon,[www.polygon.com] Kotaku, and many others, Valve executive Erik Johnson had this to say:

Originally posted by Eric Johnson:

Valve shouldn't be the ones deciding this. If you're a player, we shouldn't be choosing for you what content you can or can't buy. If you're a developer, we shouldn't be choosing what content you're allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make. Our role should be to provide systems and tools to support your efforts to make these choices for yourself, and to help you do it in a way that makes you feel comfortable.

With that principle in mind, we've decided that the right approach is to allow everything onto the Steam Store, except for things that we decide are illegal, or straight up trolling.

Effective immediately, the Petition Mission is over. It achieved its purpose. I'm disbanding the steam group, and any replies I make to existing petition threads from here on out will focus on answering questions and informing supporters that the fight is over.

But you people who wanted these games removed from Steam should be happy too. Valve is rolling out new tools designed to prevent games and genres from showing up in your feed. If you hate anime games, Visual Novels, RPG Maker games, or whatever else, now all you have to do is click a button and turn it off.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this a reality, whether you did it here in the Steam forums or out there on Social Media. When push came to shove, the players spoke, and Valve listened.

Older Update: One developer did finally issue a Spam Warning. As this is my first brush with Valve's anti-spam measures, and I don't know what enforcement would look like on Valve's end, I've decided not to rock the boat any further. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony, especially after a week of educating other users on things like Chilling Effects.)

So yes, technically, this means I'm backing down. But I feel like we had a good run. As Jim Sterling himself quoted in this video, "Discretion is the Better Part of Valor."

But it doesn't have to end here. It turns out, Valve had reasons for designing its current anti-spam process the way it did. One reason reason was to make genuine grassroots community outreach efforts like this one possible. (I.E. this way one vocal user can't keep posting new threads indefinitely, but large groups of people working together could still alert the entire platform.)

So with that, I pass the torch to you, gentle players of Hunie Pop. Unless Morality in Media hijacks another one of Valve's internal processes to get me banned or something, I'll still be around, collecting information and coordinating with other users. But whether the Petition Mission continues or ends is now in the hands of you, the Steam Community.

Just as it was before I got here. And just as it should be.

Good luck out there.

Original OP, heavily edited over time as information was added and changed, follows for archival purposes:

Thanks to Hunie Pop's massive user base, the community was apparently able to save this game. Unfortunately, other indie games on Steam aren't so lucky. The smaller the game is, the easier of a target it is for censorship and deletion.

The next logical step is to take this successful petition Steam-wide.

This means creating a new petition thread for each threatened game, and as many Hunie Pop fans as possible adding their names to that game's new petition.

Originally posted by Petition Format:

Thread title:
Petition to save <Name of threatened game>

First post body:

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, 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 this game 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, helped save 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. This game was selected to receive a petition because it has the Nudity Tag and relatively few Owners compared to other games. More information, FAQ, and a master list of other petitions are available here.

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

If we work together, we might be able to make Valve realize that removing entire genres of video game from its service just because an extremist group told them to is a bad business decision, a bad PR move, and all around unhealthy for the video games industry in general and their storefront in particular.

Good luck!

FAQ:

Q: Why is this happening? Why now? Why not 6 months ago when <insert name of banned game> was on the chopping block?

A: Two words: Critical Mass. The events of #Waifuholocaust (frankly, I prefer #Waifupocalypse-- more sharable on Discord, dontchaknow) caused people to realize several things at the same time. Mostly that Valve's behavior in the recent past demonstrated that it seemed all too happy to ban certain games even if they weren't in violation of the Community Guidelines.

Q: Why is this happening in the Hunie Pop forum? Wouldn't a better poster child for the movement be <insert name of game>?

A: Again, Critical Mass. Hunie Pop just happened to be popular enough that hundreds of fans rallied to support it in this thread. Days later, Valve started walking back their threats against game devs. Coincidence? Of course it was. Valve doesn't read these threads. But there's no question that the broader public backlash on social media was what held Valve's feet to the fire and prevented them from just quietly banning all of these games. I'm trying to bottle that lightning and take it directly to the devs and fans.

Q: Why was the petition you started for <insert game> phrased the way that it was?

A: If I was going to try and empower developers and gamers on Steam, it made sense to emulate the format of the original Hunie Pop petition, if only because 400+ people managed to speak their mind without the conversation breaking down into finger-pointing and bannable Community Guidelines violations. The main body of the petition OP has changed over time, as you can see if you go down the list of petition'd games clicking on them. When people kept asking the same questions over and over again, I added some information and rephrased a few things. Whenever possible, I'd tailor the message to individual games or even their local forum subculture, but I'm not familiar enough with most of these games to do that. In some cases, I had to settle for a pun in the thread title. Heh. Puns.

Q: Why did you start a petition for my game? My game is completely safe from this because <insert basically the bargaining phase of grief>!

A: The whole point is that Valve started sending out emails, whether automated or hand-written, we don't know, telling devs whose games had already been tested by Valve and passed compliance with the Community Guidelines that they needed to bring their games into compliance. Full stop, no other information given. This means Valve was ready to ban games that had no good reason to be banned. If it happened to those games, it can happen to your game. All it takes is one false report by a malicious third party and the entire community looking the other way and making excuses. Just this once, that "looking the other way" step failed because I dunno Hunie Pop is so popular or whatever.

Q: Wait. You mean this has happened before!?

A: YES. All along, people have been submitting games to Steam. All along, some of those games got taken down by Valve in response to user reports. And all along, some of those user reports were fake. All along, games have gotten deleted because they were flagged as porn, but weren't actually porn, and the developer has no recourse and gets no response from Valve when they try to find out what happened. I've only been doing this for a couple of days, and I've already heard the horror stories.

Q: What criteria do you use to determine which games are vulnerable to unfair deletion by Valve?

A: Since the trigger for #Waifupocalypse was false reports issued by Morality in Media[endsexualexploitation.org] and other malicious users, we must assume that ALL games on the platform are potentially vulnerable. (Any game can be falsely reported, after all. At one point, they even went after Tetris!) Since I can't be everywhere at once (without, you know, spamming the forums using automation and thus getting banned,) I had to prioritize. First, I started petitions for all games on this list compiled by the Steam community. Then, I was able to use Steamspy (yes, I know the information on it is out of date) to generate a list of games with the Nudity tag, sorted in order from smallest number of Owners to biggest. It's not perfect, and many games will slip through the cracks, but it's a starting point.

Q: Why are there some games on your list with no links to petitions?

A: Various reasons. Some game franchises are so vast, spanning so many titles, (lookin' at you, Sakura series,) that the best use of my time is to create one Petition for the least popular game in the series and then move on, with the understanding that I could come back later after I finish the list and fill in the gaps, (or even fans of those games could create their own petitions!) Sometimes, I can't speak the language fans of that game use, or other communication challenges make it pretty obvious that my usual approach won't work for that game. Sometimes the list has duplicates, since the Steamspy algorithm I'm using to generate the list tends to shift the rankings around when I load a new page. (If anyone knows how to work around this, IM me.) If you feel a game on this list deserves a petition and doesn't have one, by all means, please jump in and do your part to help out by starting one!

Q: But wait, if Steamspy shuffles the list around as you load it, doesn't that mean some games might get skipped? And what about new games? I heard Steamspy isn't even getting fresh data from Valve anymore!

A: Correct. Which is why I need your help. If you know of a game that is vulnerable to deletion by Valve despite being in compliance with the Community Guidelines, please reply to this thread with the name of the game and any details you're aware of surrounding the threat against it. Remember that apparently it's against the rules to post a link to your own game, but there's no rule against another user mentioning the name of it. Or you could just start your own petition thread in your game's forum, using the format above. I mean, it's right there! Just use it!

Q: If you're creating petitions for the games in order from least to most popular, why did you already create one for <name of popular mainstream franchise>?

A: Usually, an obscure spinoff game or DLC that has a Steamspy page but no dedicated forum of its own. Occasionally, a brand new game that isn't even out yet but was listed on Steamspy as having 0 users. It's easier to just power through these titles in the order in which I encounter them than it is to set some aside for special treatment later because they're "too mainstream."

Q: What was your favorite part of <name of 12 hour Kinetic Novel>?

A: Dude. I just created over 100 petitions by hand in two days. Do you really think I had time to play all the games on this list? The point is to get the people who have played these games aware of the danger, talking about it, and actively working to do something about it.

Q: YOUR A PEDRO AND A PRAWN PETALLER!!!!1!!!!11!ONE!

A: That is not a question. Also, it's spelled wrong. Also, no I'm not. We're talking about games that were deleted or threatened to be deleted despite being in full compliance with the Community Guidelines. If a game was actually full-blown pornography or actually had underage characters in sexual situations, then it deserved to go, I'm glad it's gone, seeya. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about games that got flagged as hardcore pornography because it had a scene with two men holding hands. We're talking about swimsuits. We're talking about Visual Novels being targeted just for being Visual Novels. We're talking about 18-year-old characters getting the axe because they were drawn in an art style that features big eyes. We're talking about games getting banned because some fan made a mod for it, which no developer could ever possibly prevent or control. We're talking about bans on games that valve's own Community Guidelines say shouldn't be banned.

List of successfully started Petitions:
p1-2
p3-6
p7-10
p11-14
p15-46 COMING SOON!

Update: Thanks to Keebster for linking me to dynastystar's shortlist of known threatened games. Unfortunately, this list is based on devs coming forward and alerting the press that their work is being threatened, in some cases even after they've already censored their games and passed compliance with Steam's policies years ago. I have started petitions for the games on this list, and am currently working my way through a list of games with the Nudity tag, from least to most popular.

Update: Managed to work my way through one title each from the franchises listed on dynastystar's shortlist. In the meantime, a few developers from the larger Nudity Tag list replied to their threads explicitly stating that their games are not at risk. Haters in one or two game's communities tried to label the thread as spam. It's my hope that when a Valve employee looks at these threads, they will see that the people saying they want the game to stay are genuine fans and the people saying they want the game to go are just hating on a game they don't like, but time will tell.

Update: Some devs are thanking me for the support in trying times. Others are insisting that this whole thing has already blown over. If anyone has any proof that Valve has stopped targeting indie games for deletion, please post a link to it publicly here.

Update: Whew. Made it through the first two pages of Steamspy's list of the least popular games with the Nudity tag. What's interesting is that haters seem to vanish after sending me one nasty message. I don't mean they stop pestering me after one potshot, that's normal. I mean they post in a thread, an hour later their post has been removed. They send me an IM, an hour later I can't even find their account. You gotta understand, I haven't been reporting these. I don't have TIME to. I've been manually creating forum threads, fielding questions, and creating links back from reply #1 in this thread all day!

Update 2018-05-26: Created Petitions for pages 3-6 of the least popular games with the Nudity tag. I'm starting to settle into a routine. What surprises me the most is how different devs react when I post a new thread. Some devs say everything is fine and Valve always treats them right. Others devs say Valve doesn't care about them and any opportunity to get straight answers out of Valve, or even push back would be a rare blessing. So far, there's no rhyme or reason to it. It seems completely random.

But without exception, every single dev and fan I've spoken to seems to strongly believe that they completely understand how Valve works. There is no confusion or ambiguity in anybody's mind. They've been through the process before, and the process is always the same for each game.

It's just a completely different experience for each different developer.

Update 2018-05-27: Cleaned up the OP, added some FAQs, started a Steam group, Petition Mission. Pushback and whattaboutism from the more mainstream games (Mass Effect, Witcher, DOA, Blood Bowl, etc.) is an issue, but so far these guys are easy to talk to and pretty rational once you get to know them. The important thing is, they're talking about it. When Morality in Media inevitably turns their attention to these guys, they'll see it coming and they won't take it lying down. That's a win.

The Level 0 troll accounts that someone literally just registered today to try and astroturf over this movement are hilarious to watch.

But geez. I was not expecting the RPG Maker gang to be my toughest critics. Make no mistake. If you try to convince the RPG Maker community of something, you had better bring your A-game, because these are people who type paragraphs all day long. Now I kinda want to see some kind of epic Avengers-style showdown between the VN communities and the RPG Maker community. (Just kidding, it would just be people typing, but still!) See below.

Update 2018-05-28: Okay, I got some sleep, and the RPG Maker thing isn't funny anymore. They're One user nobody else seems to interact with is just getting angrier and angrier over there. They're both demanding answers from me, and telling me to stop replying to the thread. They don't seem to realize that fake violation reports are an existential threat to all products on Steam, and I don't think they realize just how many RPGMaker games have both the Nudity tag and small numbers of players. Still, the pushback is real. And it's probably my fault for not communicating better. I'm crossing them off the list early. I sure hope they mount a more effective defense than mine when Morality in Media turns it attention from Visual Novels to JRPGs.

Update 2018-05-29: The overall process is gradually slowing down. It seems like I spend more time maintaining existing petitions than starting new ones. I've learned a lot about this issue in just a few short days, but very little that isn't already public knowledge. (Though I did add one game to the list of games that are on the record as receiving the two emails from Valve, the threat and the backpeddle. That felt good.) And the more time passes after #waifupocalypse, the more it starts to feel like I'm reacting to old news. (Which, let's face it, I was a few days late to the party in the first place.) Whether Valve bans these games from Steam or not, it's increasingly obvious that the front lines will be on Twitter and Facebook, not here, (if only because the interface for protesting is a lot more streamlined.)

On the other hand, there's something special about doing this inside Valve's own house. Every day I have conversations with regular players who didn't know this was happening. At least once a day, I see a savvy dev capitalizing on the petition, spinning it as an excuse to sell more games, or at least thanking me for the extra exposure.

I think a good time to call it quits is when I finally get out of the 0-20,000 Owner doldrums. That'll cut down my workload by about half. The games that already had 20,000 - 50,000 sales back in April are probably popular enough that they're reasonably safe. I've hit a few of those by accident when some DLC or expansion pack ended up on my list and the only place to start a forum thread was for the main game, and the difference in reaction between an obscure indie game with only like 9 comments in the forum and something like The Witcher or even, say, Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, is like night and day.

While no game is 100% safe without some sort of feedback from Valve about what game content is and isn't allowed, the bigger games are generally safer, and this comes across loud and clear in the dev or CM's confidence. It's the little guys, the niche titles, who most welcome these petitions. So for now, the plan is to ride out the list of 0-20,000 Owner games, mostly so I can get around to helping all the ones closer to 0.

Update 2018-05-30: After fielding questions on petition thread closures, I started manually clicking through links and cleaning up the master list. Based on how long the first 25 took, this is probably what I'm doing today. My guess based on what I see in my New Comments page when threads with replies close suggest the closure rate is somewhere around 8%. (I'll have better numbers after manually cleaning the master list.)

Seems like some of the initial List of banned games have missing threads, even in cases where the dev and the game's community both came out against Valve's initial action, which is odd. It makes me wonder if maybe it's not the devs themselves shutting them down after all, but just another automated secret process being gamed by malicious users. I'll keep you posted if I learn anything concrete.

Update: See top of post.

[warpzone32]

Petitions started so far!
Please click as many links as you can and add your steam account to the petition.

Games which the author has come forward and alerted the media that their games are being targeted for deletion:
HuniePop (The petition thread that started it all!)
Mutiny!!
KarmaSutra (Dev says the game's not being pulled, but will keep fans updated.)
Tropical Liquor Thread closed.
Re;Lord 1
Kindred Spirits on the Roof Thread closed. Other related threads in subforum still open.
Kindred Spirits on the Roof Drama CD Vol.1
Kindred Spirits on the Roof Drama CD Vol.2
Kindred Spirits on the Roof Drama CD Vol.4
Kindred Spirits on the Roof Drama CD Vol.3
Kindred Spirits on the Roof Drama CD Collection
Kindred Spirits Complete Collection
Battle Girls Thread closed. Dev got both emails from Valve.
Battle Girls - Dakimakuras
Battle Girls - Soundtrack
Battle Girls - Wallpapers
Galaxy Girls Thread closed. Dev says they received both emails from Valve.
Galaxy Girls - Sara Remembers
Galaxy Girls - Soundtrack
Galaxy Girls Deluxe Edition
Galaxy Girls - Wallpapers
Galaxy Girls - Emilia Sneaks Aboard
Galaxy Girls - Kotoha's Harem
Galaxy Girls - Poker Night
Galaxy Girls - Erica Alone in Deep Space
Galaxy Girls - Dakimakuras
Roommates
Roommates Bonus Content Roommates
Sakura Sadist + other unnamed Sakura titles (excludes weapon/outfit DLC because X_X)
Sakura Dungeon
Sakura Cupid
Sakura Shrine Girls
Sakura Swim Club
Sakura Space
Sakura Angels
Sakura Gamer
樱之杜†净梦者 完全版 Sakura no Mori † Dreamers
Sakura Fantasy
Sakura Santa
Winged Sakura: Mindy's Arc
Sakura Nova
Sakura Clicker
Sakura Spirit
Sakura Agent
Sakura Magical Girls
Sakura Beach
Sakura Beach 2
Winged Sakura: Endless Dream
Winged Sakura: Demon Civil War
Sakura Bundle
Sakura Bundle
Winged Sakura: Mindy's Arc Demo
Sakura Spirit - Original Sound Track
Winged Sakura: Endless Dream Special Edition
Winged Sakura: Demon Civil War + OST
Winged Sakura: Endless Dream + OST
Sakura Sakura
Winged Cloud Bundle
Winged Sakura: Endless Dream - Soundtrack
Winged Sakura: Endless Dream - Art Collection
Winged Sakura: Endless Dream Demo
Winged Sakura: Mindy's Arc - Soundtrack
Winged Sakura: Demon Civil War - Soundtrack
DEEP SPACE WAIFU Dev seems confident that future games will be safe; could not articulate why, as they "dont know yet" why they got flagged in the first place.
deep space waifu: FLAT JUSTICE VERSION
DEEP SPACE WAIFU COLLECTION
DEEP SPACE WAIFU BUNDLE
DEEP SPACE WAIFU: ACADEMY DLC
DEEP SPACE WAIFU - SOUNDTRACK
deep space waifu: FLAT JUSTICE - SOUNDTRACK
Deep Space Waifu: FANTASY
SonoHanabira (aka A Kiss For The Petals - Remembering How We Met)
Forest Fortress
Coming Out On Top Dev got "the same notice" as other devs and is "working on a solution." Dev thanks the community for the support and linked to Valve's blog entry on the reversal.
VR Kanojo / VRカノジョ
VR Benchmark Kanojo


Games with the Nudity tag, ranked in order from least to most popular.[steamspy.com]
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (PM from dev, doesn't think game is at risk.)
Muv Luv Alternative Thread closed.
High Hell (ha ha oh you wacky Devolver Digital devs :) )
Remothered: Tormented Fathers
Muv Luv Thread closed.
Virginia
Ladykiller in a Bind Dev Response: "What the hell is Steam doing!?"
All Walls Must Fall Dev "hasn't been contacted" but "also would like this game to remain on steam :D"
Seven: The Days Long Gone No word from Dev. Officer says "we're not going anywhere."
Koihime Enbu 恋姫†演武
Moero Chronicle | 限界凸記 モエロクロニクル | 極限凸記　萌萌編年史
Moero Chronicle - Deluxe Pack | 限界凸記 モエロクロニクル デラックスセット| 極限凸記　萌萌編年史　數位附錄套組
Deluxe Bundle | デラックスエディション | 豪華組合包
Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel
The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything
Code of Princess
Past Cure
Zombeer
Creature Romances: Kokonoe Kokoro Thread closed.
Escape from Pleasure Planet Dev says: "Thank you for your concern but we have no indication that Escape from Pleasure Planet will be removed from Steam."
Mark After Dark
Chaos and the White Robot
Da Capo III R
Planet Stronghold: Colonial Defense
Hollow (Dev says ESRB/PEGI ratings ensure game is protected)
The Next Day After Friday
Norilsk (Dev says they have not been contacted by valve.)
Red Haze Dev says "haven't been approached by Valve, and if I was I'd make a case."
Princess Edge - Dragonstone (Dev has not gotten takedown notice; agrees with the spirit of the petitions.)
DoDonPachi Resurrection
Doki Doki Literature Club
Doki Doki Literature Club Fan Pack(CM Mithost says dev not contacted by Valve)
Anime Girls VR
Good Morning
Virtual Reality Girls
Virtual Reality Girls 2
A Sky Full of Stars Dev says on twitter "Currently unaffected (sic) by this" as of 2018-06-01
Leisure Suit Larry - Magna ♥♥♥ Laude Uncut and Uncensored
Harmonia
Littlewitch Romanesque: Editio Regia
Blood Bowl 2 - Official Expansion
Foto Flash Foto Flash will not be taken down.

Known Removed Games
Delirium: Bad Trip Edition (other users commented that the game was "deleted." Unclear whose decision it was or why.)

[warpzone32]

Looks like the radical extremists are tying to label our movement spam. If somebody else could jump in and continue working their way through the games with the Nudity Tag after I fall, it'd be greatly appreciated.

I don't mind taking all the risk myself, but if they silence me, somebody else has to jump in and stick up for these indie games.

[Seraphita]

Don't believe the pieces of ♥♥♥♥. You can continue and put more games on the list. Steam won't do anything against you since there is NO spam here. I am not seeing repetitive posts. So yeah, extremist can eat poop unless they have evidence that you're spaming. GG, freaks. Rekt... :D

[warpzone32]

Originally posted by Zero:

Don't believe the pieces of ♥♥♥♥. You can continue and put more games on the list. Steam won't do anything against you since there is NO spam here. I am not seeing repetitive posts.

Sweet! :)

Since you feel that way, be sure and do your part to support some of those other petitions linked above. One dude isn't gonna make a difference, but you all saw what happened when the entire Hunie Pop community banded together.

[Seraphita]

Apparently, I read in another thread that I just posted in that they removed the ultimate heaven of yuri goodness because stupid SJWs reporting it for loli or something... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ need to die...

[warpzone32]

Originally posted by Zero:

Apparently, I read in another thread that I just posted in that they removed the ultimate heaven of yuri goodness because stupid SJWs reporting it for loli or something...

I'm not familiar with most of these games, but if the game actually was in violation of Valve's policy, then that's fine, they earned their ban, I'm glad they're gone. My only goal with this list was to give the community the tools to push back against bans which Valve has issued or threatened in private emails to issue despite the game not being in violation of Valve's TOS.

Regardless of whether SJWs or Christian groups like Morality In Media are to blame for starting this whole mess, I think we can all agree that Valve should be enforcing its own policies, and not taking marching orders from radical extremists on either side of the proverbial aisle.

[[PHNX]Kordarus]

You have any sources to confirm this? Cause man you sound like a crazy mofo wearing a tinfoil hat...

[warpzone32]

Originally posted by PHNXKordarus:

You have any sources to confirm this?

Not sure which part you're skeptical about, so here's a random grab bag of evidence:


Twitter comment from Hunie Pot admitting that even Hunie Pop! isn't out of the woods yet. (Hunie Pot's twitter account seems to be where the news first went viral.)

Clip from a livestream that was running when the news first broke that Steam was purging Visual Novels pretty much en masse.

Jim Sterling's video on the subject.

Mutiny! developer saying that Valve told them that their game, which had already passed certification, needs to be reviewed by Valve (again.)

A Special Interest Group named Morality in Media claiming responsibility for Valve's action[endsexualexploitation.org] by falsely flagging games as pornographic, even when they did not contain any pornographic content.

Account on Reddit of a mallicious user claiming credit for taking down "A Kiss for the Petals" by knowingly issuing a false report to Valve.

List of games compiled by the Steam community whose devs claimed that Valve sent them an initial threatening email. (Only a few of these have publicly said Valve sent them a follow-up email walking back the threats.)

Semi-complete list of all games on Steam with the Nudity tag.[steamspy.com]

I made the following assumptions:

• Some game devs were contacted by Valve but didn't go public.
  
• Valve's enforcement of this policy will be done by automation, not by a human being, since that's how Valve handles everything unless the community intervenes.
  
• Smaller niche indie games are less likely to be able to protect themselves than more popular games.
  
• Hunie Pop's petition and the strong community response to it were deciding factors in motivating human beings at Valve to issue a response.

Based on those assumptions, it made sense to start petitions for all the games that had gone public first, then start working my way through the games with the Nudity tag, sorted in order from smallest number of owners to largest.

I'm currently on page 3.

[shoopy]

I get the feeling somebody or some people are making reports to sabotage games they don't like. They're also applying fake tags to some games for content the game doesn't even have.

[warpzone32]

Originally posted by slandy:

I get the feeling somebody or some people are making reports to sabotage games they don't like. They're also applying fake tags to some games for content the game doesn't even have.

That's one possible explanation. There are others. Everything from memes to joke-tagging to a conflation of nudity with female characters in general.

In the end, it doesn't really matter why a game has a Nudity tag. What matters is, Valve has theatened to remove games that are already in compliance if they don't get into compliance, and in the past Valve has tended to use algorithms to do its dirty work for it.

Hundreds of users saying "I want this game to remain on Steam" seems to have worked for Hunie Pop, at least in the short term. If there's a game with the Nudity tag that you care about, maybe it's worth a try saying it there, too.

[warpzone32]

Pages 3-6 of games with Nudity tag, ranked in order from least popular to most popular.

Remember, if you see a game you like here, support them by clicking the link to its Petition thread and reply to the thread with "I want this game to remain on steam."

Dungeons & Geese
LoveKami -Divinity Stage-
Delirium: Bad Trip Edition
Amoreon NightClub
Puzzle Wishes
Gladiators Of The Arena
Stay! Stay!
SYREN
Frequent Flyer: A Long Distance Love Story
Elisa: Seduce the Innkeeper
Squirt's Adventure
Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Love for Sail
Cinderella Escape 2 Revenge
夜雪冰娇
Legend of Fainn Dynasty ～Battles of Beautiful Warlords～
Tropical Girls VR
Spartacus: Beneath the Mask
MILF
Resfort
The Secret of Middle City Demo
Legend Of Mercy 神医魔导
WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC
Shuffle! (Dev says game not affected.)
Kane & Lynch 2: Cops & Robbers Mode English
Fureraba ~Friend to Lover~
Soda Drinker Pro
Theory of Fear
Minotaur
Criminal Girls: Invite Only
魔物娘物语
Play Cube with Uncle Billy
Death Point
Sweetest Monster
Bastard Bonds
Dungeoneer
Dujanah

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Trailer
Time Tenshi Paradox: Episode 1
Time Tenshi 2
Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise (Really, Valve? Really?)
A Clockwork Ley-Line: The Borderline of Dusk
Ouroboros: Prelude
Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy
Tender Loving Care
The Essence Reaper Ritual Dev thanked me for starting petition; manually removed the game's Nudity tag.
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol.1
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol.2
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol.3
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol.4
TOGETHER VR

Rapid Tap Dev says: "Looks like this isn't a problem anymore now since Valve has decided even nudity is allowed on Steam. But thanks!"
Capsa Dev says they "have no concerns."
Nurse Love Addiction
Tropical Paradise Costume & Movie Set
Dark Ghost RPG
Sexy Serial Killer
Little Busters! English Edition
Two Worlds II HD - Call of the Tenebrae
Discouraged Workers TEEN

Ghost In The Shell: The Laughing Man (Not a game.)
Split Of Knight
"BUTTS: The VR Experience"
Super Tits Rush
Wild Romance: Mofu Mofu Edition
Order of Ataxia: Initial Effects
Panty Party (Topic pinned by dev!)
Accel World VS. Sword Art Online Deluxe Edition
BeefeaterXO
Patent9 - Goddess of Trust
Bunny Bounce Thread removed
My Little Kitties
President Pig
BADASS
Mugen Souls Z

[The Baekin' Company]

I JUST found out that Steam was doing this to mostly anime games. Has Huniepop really been spared? Or is the process of it being saved still ongoing?

[Sku;Te]

If all the games that offend people are removed, then the only thing left would be "Cats Make You Smart" - and no doubt canines would find that offensive.

It does seem to be a knee-jerk reaction to either a problem they think exists or supposed external pressure. What makes it even worse is Valves silence over it all - and their ambiguous statement's when they do try to communicate.

Anyhoo, Re;Lord 1 needs saving (so that the chances of 2 & 3 being released increased and so we can finally see why the nationalistic and xenophobic Wilfried gets his just deserts).

[warpzone32]

Originally posted by Thora Suan:

I JUST found out that Steam was doing this to mostly anime games. Has Huniepop really been spared? Or is the process of it being saved still ongoing?

Most recent word I'm aware of re: Hunie Pop is this.

Originally posted by SkuTe:

Re;Lord 1 needs saving (so that the chances of 2 & 3 being released increased and so we can finally see why the nationalistic and xenophobic Wilfried gets his just deserts).

I see you already found the petition for Re;Lord 1. Don't forget, the whole point is to post phrase "I want this game to remain on steam."

[korytoombs]

I'm a developed of one of the games on your second list and I can say I have not been tragetted by this, but it does make me feel worried that Steam cannot make up their minds on this issue. Luckily I at least have 1 other outlet where I sell my game.