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Valve doesn’t want erotic games on Steam

At least that's the message Miriam Bellard of No Reply Games got, when she received a notice that her company's game ‘Seduce Me,' had been kicked off of the Greenlight voting platform for breaking terms and conditions. Considering the only real two T&Cs that could get you removed were for being offensive or infringing copyright, it seems Valve just isn't a fan of sex focused gameplay.

Sex in games has always drawn controversy, whether it's the Hot Coffee mod for GTA: San Andreas, or the fact that you saw some blue side-boob in Mass Effect 2, a lot of people seem to think sex doesn't belong in games – though they have far less hangups about the ultra violence often depicted. Of course that are people that complain about that too, but sex and the discussion about whether it belongs in games, often polarises people. The case for Seduce Me was no different.

Seduce Me
It gets a bit more graphic than this, but it's not that problematic, surely?

Before it was eventually taken down by Valve, the comment section for the title was filled with a mix: supportive “White Knights,” as they were labelled by the detractors, who stood up for the fact that sex is just as worthy of being depicted in games as violence, and another group that demonised the content, saying it had no place on Steam. Some of these people simply believed it should be hosted elsewhere – on adult orientated websites – but others kept making the tired comparison between games and children.

This is one that's been made for years and years and isn't uncommon in many mediums. The “think of the children” mentality has often caused issues with adult activities and entertainment, but perhaps no more so than with gaming. Despite the fact that games with adult content have appropriate age ratings, despite the fact that the average gamer is well into his 30s and despite the fact that you need some form of online purchasing plan to buy Steam games, many people still felt like adult sexual content wasn't appropriate for the digital download platform.

The white knights often responded with links to horrifically violent or scary games, making a very valid point.

KitGuru Says: While no-one is asking for more games like Rapelay, why don't we have more sexual games?

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