Valve allegedly rejects new boomer shooter from Steam due to "disgusting" scene

Valve has allegedly refused to permit a new boomer shooter a place on Steam owing to a disagreement over a scene that the dev says is purposefully “disgusting.”

[Petebloodyonion]

Why do companies like Valve need to chaperone ppl into what they should see in a game?
The game has a warning at the start, on the page, etc...
You can opt out to skip the scene and still, Valve feels the need to restrict the view of the artist.

[Eonjay]

I think what goes missing here is that the platform owner has a right to express what they don't want on their platform and that in and of itself is a free expression of the platform. For example just because you own a private bookstore that sells books doesn't mean you HAVE to stock every book or even offer every book.

By the same token, you as a customer can use your free expression to complain that you don't like Valve's policy or decision as you have here.

By the same token, the developer is free to use their free expression to create a game containing an endless assortment of content (within legality of course).

So in a free society, each person/entity described above must be free to make the decisions they have.

[Smok91]

Is this not common sense?

[SegaSaturn669]

Is that right? I know a lot of adult games need(ed)? separate patches to be installed to allow the censored content. It's not ideal, but it might work here.

[isarai]

What's disgusting is the term "Boomer Shooter"🤮

But anyways, I dunno, films and especially books can do this all day and no one bats an eye, but games do this and it's suddenly banned. I do feel you don't necessarily need to show the act for it to be impactful, however who am I to tell the creators how to portray something. It is their marketplace tho so 🤷‍♂️

[DefenderOfDoom2]

Yeah I do not understand why Boomer Shooters became a term to describe 90s FPS games.

[fr0sty]

Or why boomer became the term to describe anyone over 30 by the tide pod chewers...

[BlackDoomAx]

I despise this term.

[-Gespenst-]

I think the developers here are doing the right thing by warning players of the scene in advance and giving them the option to skip it. Stuff like this can be very hard for actual victims to see. I also think it's good that they're, apparently, making sure that it is a disgusting and scary scene, rather than one that is titillating. The thing that bothers me, though, is the feeling I have that they're trying to have it both ways. So-called boomer shooters don't typically take themselves very seriously, and are mostly just outrageous and pulpy. It seems a bit questionable to put a serious, realistically disturbing scene of sa in a game like this. Either make a serious game, or don't and leave out / only imply the sa stuff. At the very least, I can't imagine it working tonally. It's just a weird thing to include in a game that is almost certainly fundamentally un-serious, like boomer shooters tend to be (and which a quick look at the game's Steam page pretty much confirms). I'd be interested to hear Valve's side of the argument, though.

[shinoff2183]

Valves to big to even put forth an argument. What they say goes end of story.

In all seriousness I'd be surprise to see if we ever hear valves argument.

[garos82]

f off valve. murdering thousands and thousands in other games is ok in your eyes. therefore valve is pro genocide with this dumb logic. its like the conservatives in the 90s getting outraged over all art.

[gamerz]

Valve allows nearly everything so really curious what this was.

[Plague-Doctor27]

Curious enough to read the article?

“We were disappointed by how many games depict sexual assault as being gratifying and arousing, so we chose to depict is [sic] as simply disgusting and revolting. The sequence involves an emaciated, wrinkled alien creature bobbing up and down while licking the camera. This, to us, is so disgusting that it required advance warning and an option to disable the content."

[Vits]

Valve so far has basically blocked two types of content. Sexual violence-focused games and sexualization of minors or "minor-looking characters". From the article it doesn't appear that this particular game falls into either category, yes, it has a sexual violence scene, but it doesn't appear to be the focus of it.

So it would be something new if it does indeed get blocked.

[Duke19]

Virtual Rape Simulator! Press X to sexually assault!!

Glad Valve blocked it. Just another developer looking to make a name for themselves by being edgy.

[BillyCrystals]

You probably have the lamest taste in movies. “Clockwork Orange sucks, Kubrick is an edgelord!”

[Amplitude]

But that's extremely obviously not at all what this game is and not even close to what's being talked about. You don't even have to read the article, all you have to do is watch 5 seconds of the trailer or read even one sentence of the reply from the developer in the article but you clearly didn't do either of those things. It's a cutscene explaining backstory, and they made it optional content to avoid disturbing any viewers that don't care to see it.

It's unlike Valve to be this wrong - but in this instance they're very very clearly in the wrong and i'd imagine it's one employee kinda messing up right here.

"The sequence involves an emaciated, wrinkled alien creature bobbing up and down while licking the camera. This, to us, is so disgusting that it required advance warning and an option to disable the content. According to Valve, this is not sufficiently explicit to be a reference to sexual assault so they rejected our build again. Currently we are removing the content warning, which we feel is very wrong.”

[gold_drake]

again with the "boomer shooter"

who even says stuff like that. so dumb.

[jznrpg]

Wth is a boomer shooter ?

[isarai]

It's what some idiots are calling classic/arcadey style shooters like Doom, Wolfenstein etc. I just don't understand why it's getting so much traction since at the time of these style of shooters first being created and played, boomers were not playing or developing them. The term is like 2 generations off

[Plague-Doctor27]

Ehh my Dad is a boomer and I remember him bringing home pirated floppys of Doom and Wolfenstein that had made their way through his workplace. 30 years ago boomers were in their mid-late 30s. Not saying gaming at that age was anywhere close to as prevalent as it is today, but there are definitely boomers who played them.

Either way, agree the term is stupid

[porkChop]

A Doom-like or Doom "clone". Idk why people are labeling them with such a stupid term.

[CrimsonWing69]

we can't call a First Person Shooter a First Person Shooter now? What do you call RPGs from the 90s, Boomer RPGS? Sh*t sounds absolutely r*tarded. My god... I'm literally getting too old for this sh*t.

[Amplitude]

I mean i agree with ya but it's kinda taken off as a name for the genre of games that play like retro FPS games from the 90s. Postal 4 is an FPS but so is Postal Brain Damaged and they're both very different games - with Brain Damaged being, well, a boomer shooter. It needs some sorta name to differentiate lol

Not saying boomer shooter's the best name (it's trash as hell) but it's definitely it's own genre beyond just "first person shooter" y'know?