I think at this point it should be obvious that Valve was full of shit when they said they would not be the "taste police".
They started banning games that might have (if you really squinted hard enough) supposedly contained minors or those that appeared to be. But as time passed, they got bolder and bolder. The most recent victim of Valve's censorship is "Niplheim’s Hunter Branded Azel". It was supposed to release near the beginning of the month. But Valve had still not gotten back to the the developer despite their messages. It got so bad that the dev at one point changed the release date to sometime in 2022 before changing it back to a sooner date.
Now the dev has finally heard back. Valve has told them to censor the game in order to get onto steam. In particular the Pink haired character is considered a no-go according to Valve. Now the game that was being published on Steam is ALREADY censored, it's a non-adult version without any sex scenes (free dlc would add the adult content back in). At most there's some underwear shown. That character is not a loli in the least. She's just a bit petite and the game in no way implies that she's a minor. She looks no younger than the main female character, Put in perspective, Valve is demanding a dev censor an adult character in a non-adult game. This game was released no problem uncensored on Fakku's store.
Hell, even family friendly games are being caught up in this. Recently Koei Tecmo released the Atelier Arland Delux pack on steam. But for a short while before release, Valve removed the store page. You want to know what platform it didn't have a problem on (even if temporary)? The Playstation 4. This game that required no censorship on playstation, what with how censorship happy they are, and yet Valve removed the store page on steam. The dev said that it was waiting for a rating, but Steam has never required an ESRB or PEGI rating. I'm done giving them the benefit of the doubt, my theory is that they (likely the rogue employees, but at this point the whole company could be infected by now) removed it thinking that it would violate their rules. After all, there's a young girl on the cover. But the game in fact did not violate any rules, not even if you squint really really hard and wish with all your might that it did. Said employees then likely had to reverse the removal, and because Koei Tecmo isn't a small publisher like Top Hat Studios or some other indie dev, there was more pressure to not be the taste police.
Initially I thought that Steam allowing content was a good thing, I still hold believe that an open platform is better than a walled garden. Maybe the change in policy was meant to stall the hostile takeover of Steam. But without any actual action on Gabe's part, this is only going to get worse and worse. Personally, since the change steam has become even worse from a censorship standpoint. IMO, I may actually prefer how it was done before, where pretty much anything was allowed on steam as long as it wasn't the adult version, so most games got on steam and then got a patch from elsewhere. As it currently is, I'm seeing many devs already going back to that method and even that doesn't seem enough. Buying Campo Santos was a massive mistake.
Edit: It just got worse. Steam has banned "My Bullied Bride". Honestly at this point I think the only kind of games that might be safe are one such as "Oppaidius Summer Trouble" where the artstyle gives absolutely no margin of error. Then again, I would not be surprised if that too gets labeled "child exploitation". It's such a good excuse that you'd think would stop working sooner or later and for many it does, but there's still many people that hear those words and assume that they 100% accurately describe the situation. They don't realize that by giving SJWs this excuse, they are opening themselves up to losing their favorite games to the same witch hunt like tactics. If a game they play were banned tomorrow for that reason, would they change their opinion? Would they admit to playing what Valve considered worthy of a ban? Or would they then get angry at the thought that valve was indeed acting as the taste police?
They started banning games that might have (if you really squinted hard enough) supposedly contained minors or those that appeared to be. But as time passed, they got bolder and bolder. The most recent victim of Valve's censorship is "Niplheim’s Hunter Branded Azel". It was supposed to release near the beginning of the month. But Valve had still not gotten back to the the developer despite their messages. It got so bad that the dev at one point changed the release date to sometime in 2022 before changing it back to a sooner date.
Now the dev has finally heard back. Valve has told them to censor the game in order to get onto steam. In particular the Pink haired character is considered a no-go according to Valve. Now the game that was being published on Steam is ALREADY censored, it's a non-adult version without any sex scenes (free dlc would add the adult content back in). At most there's some underwear shown. That character is not a loli in the least. She's just a bit petite and the game in no way implies that she's a minor. She looks no younger than the main female character, Put in perspective, Valve is demanding a dev censor an adult character in a non-adult game. This game was released no problem uncensored on Fakku's store.
Hell, even family friendly games are being caught up in this. Recently Koei Tecmo released the Atelier Arland Delux pack on steam. But for a short while before release, Valve removed the store page. You want to know what platform it didn't have a problem on (even if temporary)? The Playstation 4. This game that required no censorship on playstation, what with how censorship happy they are, and yet Valve removed the store page on steam. The dev said that it was waiting for a rating, but Steam has never required an ESRB or PEGI rating. I'm done giving them the benefit of the doubt, my theory is that they (likely the rogue employees, but at this point the whole company could be infected by now) removed it thinking that it would violate their rules. After all, there's a young girl on the cover. But the game in fact did not violate any rules, not even if you squint really really hard and wish with all your might that it did. Said employees then likely had to reverse the removal, and because Koei Tecmo isn't a small publisher like Top Hat Studios or some other indie dev, there was more pressure to not be the taste police.
Initially I thought that Steam allowing content was a good thing, I still hold believe that an open platform is better than a walled garden. Maybe the change in policy was meant to stall the hostile takeover of Steam. But without any actual action on Gabe's part, this is only going to get worse and worse. Personally, since the change steam has become even worse from a censorship standpoint. IMO, I may actually prefer how it was done before, where pretty much anything was allowed on steam as long as it wasn't the adult version, so most games got on steam and then got a patch from elsewhere. As it currently is, I'm seeing many devs already going back to that method and even that doesn't seem enough. Buying Campo Santos was a massive mistake.
Edit: It just got worse. Steam has banned "My Bullied Bride". Honestly at this point I think the only kind of games that might be safe are one such as "Oppaidius Summer Trouble" where the artstyle gives absolutely no margin of error. Then again, I would not be surprised if that too gets labeled "child exploitation". It's such a good excuse that you'd think would stop working sooner or later and for many it does, but there's still many people that hear those words and assume that they 100% accurately describe the situation. They don't realize that by giving SJWs this excuse, they are opening themselves up to losing their favorite games to the same witch hunt like tactics. If a game they play were banned tomorrow for that reason, would they change their opinion? Would they admit to playing what Valve considered worthy of a ban? Or would they then get angry at the thought that valve was indeed acting as the taste police?
