Horses, a first-person narrative horror game, was banned from the Epic Games Store just hours before it was set to launch on December 2nd. Then, a day after launch, the Humble store (temporarily) banned it as well. The decision shocked the developers at Santa Ragione, makers of the critically respected Saturnalia, as these storefronts were the homes they’d found for their game two years before it was preemptively banned from Steam.
Valve and Epic say Horses violates their sexual content policies. Humble hasn’t yet said why it banned the game.
I literally don’t care if they had a little girl talk to a naked horseman (who is being treated by the game like a regular horse and not a man at all to make a point). My point is that banning things that aren’t child porn because of moral outrage leads to the moral crusaders escalating. Next thing you know they’re gunning for lgbt themes, then going after violence. It’s ridiculous and should be ridiculed and dismissed instead of pretending things are child porn just because you don’t like them.
Yeah all I am saying is this isn’t surprising. It should have been expected. I doubt you will ever be able to put a child model in a game next to nude adukt models and not get your game pulled from mainstream marketplaces. Thats just the current reality we live in and is not surprising. I mysslf dont think its offensive in this context. But again this outcome is completely expected.
There was one in the version they sent to Steam. That’s what started all this.
Go to horses.wtf if you really want to know more. I myself dont think this is a hill worth dying on.
You’re not even trying to understand what I’m saying if you think that deciding if this particular game is the hill to die on is what I care about. I don’t give a shit about this particular game. I care about maintaining the principles of not letting moralists dictate what art and media is appropriate for everyone else.
Yeah and what I am saying is this is stupid shit to do that for. Someone tried to make a “grotesque story experience” and they got too close for comfort for main stream distributors. You can still acquire the game, just not on these platforms. You can still play it in its intended state, just not on those platforms. So what you are arguing for really is for Steam and Epic to distribute this.
You need to work on your reading comprehension.
Yes, I am. There doesn’t appear to be a non-moral-panic reason for it to be barred, and being barred from steam will have a deleterious effect on the game and on the studio’s ability to keep making games. I wish company didn’t have that power, but they do.
Its their platform. In what world can you force people to sell shit they dont want to sell? You can literally go buy it and experience the art right now. But its not on Steam with achievements and friends seeing me play it so fuck it? Lmao what logic is this? Theres not much left to discuss here tbh. This seems pretty straightforward and your argument is incoherent at this point. They are getting loads of marketing from this
This particular game is. It won’t always apply to every game, which is why I want digital marketplaces that have so much market dominance they can make or break studios to not choose which games they allow on their platforms based on vibes.
My argument isn’t incoherent just because you refuse to engage the scenario from a systemic rather than one-off perspective.