We’re currently in a new age of book burning—digital book burning, where mass censorship is upon us. Rather than censoring bigotted, hateful views that call for violence against marginalized groups, certain groups have pointed their aim at anything they deem problematic, including eroge, queer works, and more. First it was Steam, and now it’s itchio. Tomorrow, who knows.
This is not just a worrying trend—it’s outright alarming. But rather than speculating on what the future may hold, what can we do right now?
1. Stand with eroge devs.
Regardless if you make ero content, we need to stand with ero developers. These are our fellow developers, our neighbors, who are expressing themselves artistically. Furthermore, NSFW content can be a safe outlet for those who have been abused, as a way to work through their emotions without bottling it up. Banning NSFW content will not stop it. It will only make it harder for victims to express themselves.
2. Realize it doesn’t stop at eroge.
These groups will never be happy with just getting the Daz 3D games removed from platforms. No, they want any content they deem problematic to be removed, including queer games. American school systems are already targeting wholesome boys love manga because no queer media should exist in a conservative’s world. And naturally, they won’t stop at queer media either. The Hays Code is an example of how far this line of thought could be used.
This isn’t something that will go away by simply waiting or moving to other platforms, as they will target more content and be more vicious.
Continue reading “Digital Book Burning – How Visual Novel Devs can Mitigate Harm”
