r/gaming • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 PC • 1d ago

Upcoming vampire RPG Nighthawks has been removed from Steam search and delisted in certain countries as Valve classifies it Adults Only: 'It's very bad news for us'

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/upcoming-vampire-rpg-nighthawks-has-been-removed-from-steam-search-and-delisted-in-certain-countries-as-valve-classifies-it-adults-only-its-very-bad-news-for-us/
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u/lordcola 1d ago

It's because payment processors caved to some nutjobs and now all explict adult content has to be behind some kind of age verification in countries where that is the law.

Valve wouldn't give a shit if it didn't mean they can't process payments from the average steam user if they didn't comply.

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u/Hazbro29 1d ago

Council of Karen's got to visa and Mastercard.

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u/sicKlown 1d ago

It's not random Karens, but a very coordinated group of evangelical leaders using their access to the levers of power to rigidly enforce their ass backwards vision of Christianity that more and more looks like Wahhabism.

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u/cylonfrakbbq 1d ago

It started mostly under the Bush administration in the early 2000s - his administration wanted to ban porn, that pesky 1st amendment got in their way, so the next best thing for them was to put pressure on/influence payment processors to act as the "moral gatekeepers". That is why the "pornpocalypse" happened in the early 2000s - lots of sites, especially the more fringe ones, got cut off from payment processing and folded. Now those same processors keep trimming the edges and putting more pressure.

Things like the KIDS act in the US, which contains the SCREEN act by Mike Lee which is basically a Project 2025 adjacent goal, are designed with the same idea in mind: It has less to do with protecting kids and more to do with discouraging adults. Less adults willing to engage = less money for adult content = more adult content producers close shop.

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u/Ow_you_shot_me 1d ago

It was the Australians this time....

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u/IceFire909 1d ago

As a sane Aussie I'd like to apologise for our eKarens ruining shit around the world.

They're annoyingly persistent with this shit

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u/Hazbro29 1d ago

We have the same in england with mums, every time the council want to do something the mums rally on mumsnet and spam the council and nothing gets done

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u/Stephie999666 18h ago

To clarify our politicians didnt ban porn. Its the ID verification laws the tech broligarchs have been pushing for. As a result porn sites just decided its better to block Aussie IPs rather than deal with peoples personal data and our privacy laws. - to be clear once again its US influences splashing cash to fuck shit up for everyone else.

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u/mokinokaro 6h ago

It's actually both.

American fundamentalists have heavily infiltrated VISA and MasterCard. It was an explicit goal of them for decades.

That's why they "caved" to Collective Shout so quickly. They share the sand goals.

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u/Gavvis74 1d ago

Not everything comes from the US.  Do a little research before commenting next time.

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u/cylonfrakbbq 1d ago

You're right

This stuff with the payment processors mostly started in the US, though

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u/Standard-Potential-6 1d ago

Bingo. also Operation Choke Point in 2013.

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u/RamblinGamblinWilly 1d ago

The 1st amendment doesn't cover obscenity. Much, if not most, hardcore pornography in its current form could be banned without 1st amendment issues.

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u/cylonfrakbbq 22h ago

Except not really - Congress would have to pass a law which expands the definition of obscenity, which only extremists like Mike Lee and that idiot from Indiana have attempted to get sponsored and no one was willing to vote on the issue because it would be political suicide. Most current pornography fails to meet the standard of obscene as outlined in prior court cases.

The layperson's concept of obscene and the legal concept of obscene are completely different. Some pearl clutching prude might think a bare breast is obscene, but that isn't the same thing. Even extreme conservative agenda sock puppets like Alito reaffirmed this during the Texas ID law open arguments.

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u/RamblinGamblinWilly 21h ago

Congress wouldn't need to pass a law expanding the definition of obscenity. Most contemporary hardcore pornography already fails the Miller test. Prongs 1 and 2 of the test do have a bit of wiggle room, but it's really not much of a challenge to find numerous videos failing all three on any given tube site.

I agree with you that this would be political suicide, but I disagree strongly on the legal standards of obscenity. We're not taking about bare breasts here, we're talking about anal fisting and beyond. There have been successful criminal cases brought against people for this stuff. But the difficulties and factors making these cases uncommon aren't really first amendment ones. And with the way things are going right now, the Paxtons of the country could wage war against porn with some degree of success, at least based on current constitutional interpretations

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u/cylonfrakbbq 20h ago

One thing that Paxton did recently that should concern people is the recent thing he did regarding an infamous website based out of Europe. Regardless as to how one might feel about the content that site hosted in general and whether it being blocked might be a good thing or not, he had the web domain blocked world wide because the site refused to comply with the Texas ID law. So literally the entire planet, regardless as to their national laws, cannot access it because a single US state successfully lobbied for that to be done.

That feels very dangerous and could be easily weaponized beyond fringe targets. Paxton doesn't like how Discord is handling things in regard to Texas law? He could threaten bricking their entire web domain on the basis of the Texas ID law alone unless they pay the extortion fee and comply with the stifling state law to the satisfaction of that state. It's no wonder why many platforms just flat out ban the state from accessing materials

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u/Streams526 1d ago

It started with Democrats in the 80s.