Greetings, everyone. I did not want to make this post so soon after my previous one, nor did I want to discuss this topic at all. However, considering the uncertainty of my current predicament, I feel compelled to speak out about this.

On July 15th, Steam added a new rule regarding what games can be sold on Steam:

The rule is: "Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content."

What does this mean? Well, this is explained by what Steam did soon after. They removed a bunch of NSFW games that contained incest or non-con content. So effectively, this means that Steam is targeting games with incest and non-con in them.

The reason they're doing this seems to stem from a movement from several anti-sex exploitation organizations: 

As I'm currently writing this, Steam is still removing games from their storefront. This brings up the elephant in the room: Is Daddy, Say My Name going to be removed from Steam? Unfortunately, I simply don't know the answer to that. I have been hoping that this VN won't be affected by any of this for any given reason. Maybe they're just doing this for a short while to please the payment processors, and not a hard rule against all incest games? Maybe they're going to avoid LGBT games? Maybe someone will get involved and stop the payment processors from forcing Steam to do this? Maybe I'll just get lucky? But there's no getting around the fact that there's a very real chance that this VN will be removed from Steam store shelves.

Needless to say, this has put me in a very sour mood. I've been working on this game for over a year now, and I've been hoping that I'll be able to make this my livelihood. This whole situation puts a damper on things. Steam's important because of its massive user base and how it's able to extend a game's reach to more people. Losing Steam would be a major loss to this game's success.

But more than that, it brings up anxiety that this could go further than just Steam and incest/non-con games. What if they start banning games with any sexual content at all? What if they start banning games with certain political messages? What if they go after sites like SubscribeStar or itch.io? It's micromanaging what people can or cannot buy on the internet.

It also makes me feel a bit of ostracization. Obviously, incest isn't something I condone in real life. At the same time, fiction is a place where you can explore taboo subjects in a safe space where you can't really explore elsewhere. I know people are quick to point fingers at the "normies", but I have seen this happen in the furry community as well, where people shame others for having certain kinks. Thankfully, everyone within the community that I've talked to has been super supportive of my endeavors, but not everyone is like that. The type of content I make being targeted makes me feel like there's something wrong with me, that I've taken the wrong path in life. There's a possibility it is, but that's for me to decide, not for someone else. I think more people need to understand that what a person enjoys in fiction doesn't necessarily reflect who they are and what their moral compass is. Let people enjoy what they like. If you don't, you're going to receive the ire from those people.

Being honest with you, I don't like being mopey like this. I'd rather face my problems head-on and keep a positive attitude. But there's pretty much nothing to be positive about in this scenario. Sure, I do appreciate that there are a lot of people who are speaking out against this issue. But overall, I feel a lot of anxiety and uncertainty in this moment. Ultimately, adult content creators, especially ones who make work about taboo subjects, have to learn to adapt and be ready for any change in the rules. It's certainly not fair, but that is the reality of things. The game's still going to be on itch.io, so you can buy it there regardless of what happens with Steam. 

So what can you do? Well, there are a bunch of things. The first is that you should follow me basically everywhere. On itch.io, on Twitter, and on Bluesky. I also have a mailing list that I made a while ago, but I never felt the need for it until now, so consider joining it just so you'll always be hearing from me, no matter what happens to any of these platforms. I'll start posting updates on it starting next month. You can join it here. The second is to support me on SubscribeStar. If my game does end up getting pulled from Steam, then I’ll going to lose a lot of potential revenue I could have made. Having a few people financially support me is going to help migrate that. Also, it would be greatly appreciated if you bought the game at launch. That supports me more than any SubscribeStar subscription could, so you'd have my full gratitude if you did that. The third thing you can do is to spread the word. Share this post with as many people as you can so that the general community is aware of what’s going on. The people who want to censor our games made their voices heard, so you should make yours heard as well. The final thing is to just cheer me up. Fanart, funny memes, or just words of support would be greatly appreciated right now. I’m in a sour mood now, and so any little bit would help. I do hope things turn out for the better, but you can never be too sure.

That’s it from me. Sorry, if it's a little different from usual, but I cannot stress how important I get the word out. Take good care of yourself and pray for the best. Bye!