On Itch, Adult Content, and Void Dreaming

Hey, everyone. Faora here, with a post I'm really not happy to be making.

No, the project is fine. Don't worry on that front! Nothing's going to be stopping me from writing Void Dreaming, so long as I have hands. No, as the title says, I want to talk a bit about Itch.io, the site that hosts not only Void Dreaming's public version, but also a vast array of visual novel and indie game content. That doesn't even touch on all the other creative content like literature and whatnot that can be found there. Itch has been, for a long time, a bastion of creativity.

Until today.

For those who may not be aware, Itch is the latest service provider to succumb to the censorious whims of Visa and Mastercard, themselves convinced to act in this way by an extremely motivated minority of people who are very proud to stand up "for the children" and "in defense of goodness" and all that other tripe that people like to roll out when they want to ban something. Steam, the game sales and library platform I doubt I need to explain to you, was also targeted and similarly surrendered before Itch.

The course of action that Itch took was to delist any and every single piece of software on its site that was tagged NSFW or otherwise had an 18+ warning for users, including Void Dreaming. Some pages were outright terminated entirely, and creators who were awaiting payments for their work through Itch itself (of which Void Dreaming does not, thankfully) have been deprived of their funds.

This is, ostensibly, what those of us in the biz like to refer to as, "Utter bullshit." And I'd like to spend far too long right now ranting in text form because this is incredibly fucking important and I am incredibly fucking incensed. You ought to be, too.

So let's get into it.

Getting Steamed

What is the sitch, then? Collective Shout is an Australian organization (yes, they're one of ours; I'm deeply upset about this too but not even remotely surprised) that is dedicated to the eradication of pornography as part of a quest to prevent objectification and sexualization of women and girls in media, as per an article by PC Gamer covering this originally. Now, setting aside the absolutely wild notion that a handful of Aussies (whom I will be referring collectively to as "the arseholes" for the remainder of this post) have the right to determine that for the entire western world for a moment, the unfortunate thing that has to be considered is that they actually managed to do it. I definitely suggest checking out the article linked above; it'll give a lot of context for how we explain what happened next.

They have engaged a pattern that a lot of people have used very successfully in the past. The process is simple: payment providers. Visa and Mastercard dominate the industry. If you want to shut something that you don't like down, you just need to go after the offender's money source. Wrap your argument up in something unassailable like, say, protecting children for example from being exposed to explicit pornographic content in video games... because who could possibly be against that? Use some examples (because unfortunately there always are examples of bad actors doing the wrong thing), and the pressure is applied.

This then forces the payment processors into a difficult spot. Either they follow through with the recommendations issued by this fringe group of arseholes, or they're seen to be aiding and abetting the problem said arseholes have presented. That's suicidal, so they then become the powerful mouthpiece of the arseholes.

Suddenly, the arseholes have real power in their corner. This is what happened to Steam, and now Itch.

Steam tightened up its standards on what adult content is available and practical on their platform, and certain games on its platform were the primary target of the arseholes in this instance. They capitulated instantly, but this didn't really result in a large outcry and backlash... at least none that I personally saw.

That changed today with Itch, and I am not happy.

Not. Happy. Jan.

Itch today decided to take a very bold step and immediately delist every single game on their service that was tagged for adult content, meaning that any game so tagged would not show up in any searches of the site. This was not communicated to anyone, and externally searching for the game through something like Google would still let it be discovered, for the most part. I say for the most part, because some games on Itch have been terminated entirely. The target for Itch specifically seems to be any adult content that contains incest.

What's funny though is that a lot of non-adult queer content has been similarly hit.

And now, perhaps, you see where I'm going with this.

It took Itch hours to actually put out a statement on this matter, and it's precisely as spineless as one might expect. Their payment processors contacted them and told them the score, and Itch capitulated instantly with a blanket silencing of all adult content on the site while they began to sort through the issue more "methodically". I say that in intensely sarcastic quotations marks because, of course, it doesn't feel that way. The fact that queer content that isn't adult in nature is being hit by this points to a problem that lies at the heart of a long-term push to label anything queer as inherently sexualized.

It is an argument that has gained traction lately as a weapon against he trans community, that previously was used as a weapon against the queer community more broadly, and will doubtless be used as a weapon against others in future. The notion that queer content is inherently sexual in nature is the cornerstone of how so much queer content aimed at providing comfort and understanding and visibility for queer children has been banned in certain collapsing empires of late. Porn is bad for children. Queer people existing in public is inherently pornographic. Ergo, queer people are bad for children.

You don't need me to tell you how stupid, yet effective, this argument is.

The Point

So now we've covered the events. Let's talk about why I'm getting up on my soapbox.

Art is important.

Blisteringly simple concept, isn't it? Art is important. It is vital. High art, low art, everything from museum pieces to the bawdiest, dirtiest smut you can imagine. It is all art, and it all has a damn vital place in society.

I do not write Void Dreaming because I want to be rich or famous, which is a good thing because I doubt I'm going to achieve either one of those things. I write it because I am an artist. I want to tell a story. I want to draw my readers into another place and time and world, to captivate the mind and ensnare the heart. I want to create something that makes my readers feel. I want to create something that you become attached to, and something that you think about long after you've finished reading.

I want to pay artists who deserve to be paid fair rates for their work to help me. I want to earn fairly their skills and their values to help me bring those words to life through beautiful images. I want their art to elevate mine, and I hope that I can elevate theirs through my work equally.

And my art's got dicks and tits in it. Deal with it or leave; you've got the choice.

Because here's the part that closed-minded arseholes like Collective Shout and the rest of the christofacist nutjobs that constantly crow about protecting children from the evils of sex seem never to quite comprehend. The world, and our existence in it, is full of sex. Sex is a natural part of existing. Sex is, as hard as it might be for them to comprehend, how they even came to be. They can thank sex for their entire existence. Heresy, I know!

Sex and sexuality are a part of life, and while not every story needs to explore it, stories that choose to (and choose not to shy away from its explicit nature) are just as valid and important as any other. And for queer people, as true as it was when I was growing up as it looks like some people want to make it again now, sexual content can be an important part of figuring out exactly who you are, and your own place in the world. Stories that depict queer existence not as aberration but as natural parts of life provide people trying to figure themselves out a valuable window into what they could be. More importantly, it can do something far more special: it can show them that there's nothing wrong with them. That they're normal. That they're okay. That it's going to be okay. This shit isn't just art for queer people, it's a god damned public service for us in a world where we all, but especially the trans community right now, is under overwhelming threat.

And if your story is just raunchy as fuck because you want it to be? Go off, monarch. You tell the story you want. You create the art that you want to create. Sexual content does not devalue art. Artistic expression isn't necessarily castrated when you introduce sex into the mix. Not all art is for everyone, and that's okay. That's fine. No art can be for everyone without being the blandest slop imaginable, devoid of any actual artistic merit. Art is expression, and you should always be free to express yourself through artistic pursuit without fear of censor.

As I said in my initial Bluesky post when I heard of all of this, art is not safe. It is not sanitary. It does not conform to ideology or creed and it confronts people with that which they might wish to keep hidden or suppressed. Queer art, adult art, and queer adult art all qualify, and these are now, more than ever, under threat.

I believe this with my whole heart, down to my very core. Censorship of free artistic expression is the tool of those who want to control you. A small group of people have preyed on the very real desire to protect children to convince massive organizations to go to bat for them, and exert outsized power against artists in an attempt to silence artistic expression that they don't agree with. To control what you, dear reader, are able to spend your money on.

This is not a defense of particular content, mind. If your artistic expression depicts awful things including acts that are illegal (or at best morally dubious) in reality, you should absolutely have the right to create that art. That does not mean you should be immune from the consequences that might arise from such expression. There are laws against creating content depicting minors, just as the obvious example, that are in place for a damn good reason. I'd never call for their repeal, and if that was what these matters were actually about, I'd indeed be on the side of the arseholes.

But I'm not. Because they're arseholes.

Divided We Fall

Itch's behaviour through this situation has been abhorrent. Not just in their lack of communication for hours, not just their inclusion of queer (and furry) content as being inherently adult in nature, and not even the fact that people have had payments withheld and potentially stolen as a result of the page terminations that have taken place already (and the rest that may come sooner rather than later). A lot of people since this has happened have, rightly, pointed out that pressure should be applied to the payment processors in question. They have also suggested that Itch is not the right target, far less rightly. I have even heard people suggest that if Itch resist the payment providers their entire business collapses.

The problem is choice.

The goal of the arseholes is to put pressure on things they don't like to force change. They do this through financial institutions because they are small in number and great in impotent rage. The financial institutions let them punch above their weight. Collective Shout bragged that it took only a thousand odd calls and emails to get the payment processors to do this. That's all it took. That's fucking nothing.

Steam capitulated, though, and bent rather than fight. We lost a major institution that could have encouraged others to stand up and resist, too. Itch, then, capitulated, and in far, far worse manner. Another pillar removed. And who will be next? Paypal and Patreon, perhaps? Are the way they've already responded to adult content in challenges like this from such organizations in the past insufficient for this new, puritanical era? More and more pillars disintegrating, and with each one that goes, there's less incentive to fight back.

Which is by design.

Unity is strength. Unity is resistance. We don't win by people deciding that it's in their best interests to roll over and not fight. If we all stand together and say, "Why the fuck are you listening to these arseholes?" we force a cost-benefit analysis to be conducted. We force the real strength behind the arseholes in the form of these payment processors to look at the situation harder. Do they want to lose the business of these very valuable companies that they're threatening? Is it worth it to sacrifice that for a thousand voices who can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality? For every voice and every institution and every dollar that is arrayed against the arseholes, the cost-benefit analysis tips further and further in our favour. And for every voice, institution and dollar that surrenders, there's less on our side to tip the equation. And that doesn't even begin to go into the "First they came for the-" poem and how directly relevant it is.

That is why Itch has fucked up, and now has to find out. That's why they're not an innocent party in this. That's why people are, rightly, angry with them. That's why I am, certainly.

-And I Said Nothing, For I Was Not A Pornographer.

For those that are looking for ways to fight back against this, there's many, many people who have suggested it in far more detail than I want to get into. I've reposted a lot of the outrage and the means by which to fight back on the Void Dreaming Bluesky page; I heartily suggest you check it out if you want to know what you can do to help stop this. There are things that can be done.

All I wanted to do here was to explain what was going on, why it mattered, why I'm so fucking mad about it all, and why it's going to probably cast a shadow over the next update to the Patreon build of Void Dreaming in almost a week's time. After all, with one pillar after another eroding, what's to stop the arseholes from going further? Why not here? Why not everywhere?

Void Dreaming will continue to be developed no matter what happens. The project will continue. My art will continue. It may be in the background if this goes absolutely terribly and it may be a while before it can be finished, but I will not give up. I will not give in.

Art, in any form, allows us to explore the fantastical and the intrinsic. We can transcend reality and we can hold it under the microscope in equal measure, to dissect the truth of what is and to extrapolate the possibilities of what could be. Art is a window into past, present, and future all, and for that window to be slammed shut because someone doesn't like what they see and thinks they have the right to dictate to others what has value is morally repugnant to me.

But art endures. No matter the censorship, art endures. Moral panic and upright indignation at the particulars of artistic expression also endure, but it is art and the expression of self that wins out, always, in the end.

After all, what is more enduring than the infinite artistic capacity of the human spirit?

Until next time, stars guide you.

• Faora