We Need to Talk About Censorship on Adult Games
Hello everyone!
Many of you may already be aware about all the problem that has come out of what happened with itch.io recently. For those of you who don't know, itch.io has removed all adult games from their search engine, which includes Lucky Paradox as well. This was due to lawsuits from a group called “Collective Shout” and some games with controversial content, so payment methods like Visa and MasterCard, have had to push back.
I must be honest. I am very concerned about this whole situation.
Itch.io is a great place to get visibility, especially when considering such indie developments like this, which can't afford a Publisher or marketing expenses. In fact, for now I'm investing as much as possible in the development of the game. Without itch, Lucky Paradox will lose a lot of visibility.
Now that I've let a few hours pass since I read the news, I've been doing some research, and I currently see three possible paths. There has been a lot of misinformation about this.
1. Least Evil Path (Most Likely): If everything goes as mentioned in the statement given by itch.io. The games were “shadowbanned” while they investigate all games that have controversial content. Then there will be an update of their policies and everything will be back to “normal”. None of this should affect Lucky Paradox, as no rules would be broken in this regard.
2. Bad Path: Itch finally decides to ban all adult content from its platform. So Lucky Paradox would lose a lot of visibility for new players, and this would affect donations on Patreon. However, I could continue the development with your help through Patreon, although not having the income from itch, I would be more limited in terms of money to invest in new music and 2d art that I plan to add. However, in spite of everything, Lucky Paradox is still going ahead.
3. Catastrophic Path (Less Likely): In addition to the previous case, there is an escalation in the banning of adult content, including platforms such as Patreon and Suscribestar. This means that I would lose all the monetary support that allows me to develop Lucky Paradox. This would definitely doom the game, since it would be impossible to continue, even less considering that as I am an independent developer, I do not have job insurance. This would ruin my life not only financially, but also emotionally.
Developing Lucky Paradox has become my life for the past few years, and I don't want politics to ruin everything I have built all this time. I want to believe that itch.io, will not abandon us, but it all depends on the level of pressure these institutions put on us.
It's like a dystopian future, where the banks are going to dictate what we should spend our money on, and what we should think about it. Ironically, this sounds like something Liz would say. But as the phrase goes... Who's watching the watchers?
We can only wait and see how events unfold. I don't plan to rush into making a drastic decision. I will continue to work on new content for you and keep the community alive, dont worry about that :).
For now, I have made the decision to delay the public release until all this is cleared up. Since I'm hoping that itch.io will get back to normal, and doing the free launch there helps bring a lot of new people into the game. To launch it at this time, would be shooting myself in the foot.
For my part, I hope everything is resolved in the least painful way. That this is all just a misunderstanding, and that I don't lose this project that I have put my life into.
It's time to stand together!
Comments (36)
I hope everything goes well, LP team. :c
Petition · Tell MasterCard, Visa & Activist Groups: Stop Controlling What We Can Watch, Read, or Play - United States · Change.org https://share.google/9zGjNoqFdeHceKr8Z
I recently moved fro PA to TX. TX is VERY strict with their adult age verification. They haven't blocked any AVN games yet, probably because the awareness is not there, but any other site you would need to verify you age with a DL or CC. I am not playing that game. On another note, the ONLY ID TX will issue is a REAL ID.
Let's keep our fingers crossed this gets fixed reasonably. I want the keep getting more Lucky Paradox. As a reminder, If you want to find Lucky Paradox, and a whole lot of other AVNs on Itch, I am doing my best to collect as many creator pages as I can. The list is growing daily. Everytime I get a new follower, I check for their on collections, and add their material to mine. Trying to give the Itch community a one stop shop, as much as I can. Google, and GameStoryLog has been helpful also https://itch.io/c/6089350/find-all-the-avns-i-could-save-links-to
Utter nonsense and censorship by the conservative lobbyists COLLECTIVE SHOUT (that's right, I'm naming names, you arseholes) disguised as "protecting children". Petitions are going to reverse this crap.
The "conservative" lobbyists are hypocrites - they try to quash free speech while championing it. That's just objectively belying their claim to conservatism, as it makes clear that they use it as a cudgel to promote prudishness. I don't mean to jump down your throat - I consider myself a strong conservative and that kind of "conservatism" pisses me off so bad.
Would this affect your content if I receive the product from Patreon as a monthly charge subscription service?
No, ill make content for Patreon, so dont worry :)
I was asking questions to another creator the other night on this very subject since Tumblr had a similar issue a few years back wanting to remove adult content they lost a lot of revenue, the same may happen to Itch.io. The other issue is yes a blog website could be made similar that doesn't deal with payments but it would need meet server conditions to be able to support the many creators being harmed by this.
I was going to mention Tumblr's ban on adult content. It's like itch.io didn't learn anything from that incident.
I think I'll try the political route. Banks have been engaging in this practice over the last 10 years. The reason they are blocking something is irrelevant. Their opinions are discriminatory whether it's against guns or chocolate chip cookies. We elect politicians to represent us in what should be illegal and what shouldn't be. I don't remember being able to elect anyone at Visa or Mastercard. There are already laws against discrimination by opinion. Just a matter of awareness. The banks were already reprimanded on blocking ammo and gun sales. The beautiful thing is that it doesn't matter whether that bothers anyone or not. It's legal to purchase therefore banks cannot ban.
Thoughts on oppaiman as a publisher? Besides itch, I look for best rated games on oppaiman or on F95. I typically try out the game and if I get hooked then I subscribe on patreon or subscribestar.
In my experience, f95 is almost an echo chamber, where tastes are very defined, and you can't get out of those patterns. For the most part, I've received a lot of hate there, most of it unfounded, so it hasn't been a good experience for me (And not for some developer friends either). Oppaiman is a good alternative, but in case the banks ban all adult content, there will be no alternatives.
I’m going to be looking into building a hosting website specifically NSFW that only uses crypto instead and try and market it out to all the devs so keep an eye out I’ll let you know what I do
I just went to an adult website and looked at their title page they're talking about page verification age quite long so I'm not going to cut and pasted here but they're saying the same thing it's there to stifle these sites without increasing any low security for children accessing. But if this is a gun like some regulation I guarantee you the NRA be all over it's saying you can't do anything to or whatever yet the freedom of speech is always on target by right wingers.
Would OF be a viable alternative to Patreon? It's got a similar structure and is well known for it's adult content.
The problem is this is going to regulate all adult things so that would be affected as well
Whatever happens we got your back Stawer!!!! ❤
Thank u <3!
Hmm, this sounds like a constitutional free speech incident telling adult content developers to "be quiet". There should be a precedent setting law case or two somewhere about this.
The trouble is the United States supreme Court has already allowed for age verification that means if you don't have a credit card you can't use these and of the credit card companies decide they don't want this content to be funded that means you can't view these
What I’ve been telling everyone if you live in a blue district and state tell them that it’s suppressing lgbtq freedom of expression and freedom of speech and if you live in a red district in a red state tell them it’s suppressing free expression and violating my constitutional rights
The bad thing is that since it is the Internet, it is a global censorship, which goes beyond territories and legislations. There are not many precedents of violation of freedom at this level. We are talking about a group from Australia that has turned this upside down.
I've been watching several online content creators losing their funding because of the credit card companies unwilling to fund certain things because of this bill we need to stop regulation and censorship this is the way the Republicans kill freedoms they would have a fit if we decided and they did have a fit when they decided to not allow credit cards to process firearms that got overturned real fast but everything else seems to be for a game for Republicans so I'm against this bill. Feel free to copy this if you like this is what I wrote my senators and representative
In this case “Collective Shout” appears to be from Australia and they have lobbied the banks (that's what is said at least). Unfortunately, from here I can't make anything but noise :(
Let me do some digging and I’ll update on here by Sunday. (If I do t forget🤦🏻) I’ll do some research and see what sites could give you the best chance of views based on random searches and controlled searches to see what sites have and do t have the same games
Thank u, that could help a lot!
I mean to be fair the US government had nothing to do with it it’s the duopoly the payment processors have in shutting this down and this bill was introduced in February mind you for very different reasons
Yes, and even if you change platform, or make your own website with direct donations. The payment system would be a limit :c
I agree that hopefully things are resolved in the least painful way. Hold the line and stand together!
I'm waiting for that, but you never know
Everyone in the US call your local district congressmen and state senators about bill. Fair Access to Banking Act, H.R. 987 in the house and S.401 in the senate tell them this is an attack on free speech and freedom of expression by an Australian activist group
H.R.987 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Fair Access to Banking Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress https://share.google/gtKYdozYqt8ks58nk
I'm going to say this once this is why it's so important for people who can vote to vote for the right people because the wrong people in office can really ruin your lives in many ways that you didn't even think of.
Well said and I hope for the best possible outcome for all content creators. I have also seen a petition going around. Maybe that will have an impact as well.
Yes, I signed an online petition yesterday, but I don't know how much of an impact that would have. We would need something like a million signatures at least.