President Summerson Needs Your Attention!

Dear citizens,

I wish I could come to you with a more pleasent and upbeat post, but the adult gaming world has once again been struck hard last night I'm afraid. Many of you have undoubtedly noticed that "something is rotten in Denmark".

Last week, Steam has added a new rule to their guidelines after receiving pressure from payment processors like Visa and Mastercard regarding certain NSFW content. In case you're out of the loop, you can read in detail about the situation in this article by Gamespot:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/steams-updated-guidelines-allow-banks-to-enforce-standards-on-adult-only-content/1100-6533253/

As of last night, itch.io has also been pressured into taking action against adult games. Nearly all adult games have been delisted until further notice. This does have an immediate effect on the income of developers affected by this measure. Adult games won't appear in search lists and can't be found via certain tags anymore which in turn cripples the important impulse buying sales. I am losing roughly $200 per week under these circumstances. This is income I can't afford to lose. Yes, the margins are this narrow. And this of course goes for pretty much any other smut dev out there. Here is the official statement by itch.io:

https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content

I'm not asking for money, I'm asking for action. There are currently two promising petitions going on with the goal of stopping payment processors from dictating morality. Please take a moment and consider adding your voice too:

Worldwide petition:

https://www.change.org/p/tell-mastercard-visa-activist-groups-stop-controlling-what-we-can-watch-read-or-play

For US citizens only:

https://action.aclu.org/petition/mastercard-sex-work-work-end-your-unjust-policy

This absurd scheme has been going on for too long already and just reached a new level that could endanger the livelihood of many, if not all adult game developers and therefore the games we all love and cherish, unless we stop them. Letting them off the hook will undoubtedly have ramifications down the line. They won't stop after having tasted blood.

Sincerely yours,

President Summerson

P.S. Additional note for the US: A bill called the "Fair Access to Banking Act" has been proposed in February of this year. Info here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/401

In a nutshell, this bill says "Unless people are spending money on content that is literally illegal, payment processors are not allowed to block it." Please contact your local politicians to get them on board. (Thanks to Stephen)