This is what happens when payment processors have control over what is acceptable to purchase.

Payment processors have too much power.

Legislate payment processors. They shouldn't be able to deny processing

I know a content creator on YouTube i watch ran into this issue with the visual novel he made.  Dude reviews horror movies and i think his game was a horror game. He had to rework his game a few times to get it approved. I think he said in the end the total amount of content he had to edit out was around 3 seconds but it took him 3 or 4 months to do it because he was more or less guessing about what they had a problem with. Now he is trying to figure out a release date where it wont get absolutely buried by gta and other releases.

I have seen the same happen to an indie VN, which was a sequel and had (according to the dev) the same type of content as the first one which and that one was all ages, just like the new one. I kickstarted it, so I saw them complain about it months ago and it is still 18+ rated now and it's about a month before release. Steam never explained to them what content was the issue (even when they asked) and they only checked the game for about 40 minutes of a 10 hour or so VN. It is actually absurd.

the mod "xavier" at steam kept denying Final Tactics and changing the rules, lying about reasons for rejection, such as claiming my website for final tactics instructed ppl to buy things from somewhere other than steam (it didn't)

i had to make a support ticket and get another boss at steam to tell them to "expidite" it because i'd been waiting for weeks, then, magically, it was approved

all "xavier's" issues were apparantly, as i said, not real issues

5:30 Sadly this was more then common 10 years go, many games could not be played here in Germany because they got on the "Index". So they could neither be sold, advertised or even showed or even named. For example were the first Dying Light, COD and Wolfenstein on the Index. They could not be bought or sold here and people that did make Let's plays about it were in trouble to get into prison for it. Also the first FarCry, that also was developed in Germany was on the Index.

Why cant we just buy fucking games? i hate the world.

Why is nudity, a perfectly natural state, treated as if it's r@pe? Why is the sight of firearms not equivalent to murder under the same logic? Except nudity is natural and not inherently s*xual, while firearms aren't natural and were created for the express purpose of killing. It's baffling.

I've had a game cancelled by Valve because indie devs don't get the same degree of fair use and satire protections that big companies with lawyers do >.>

Also had another game forced to include the adult tag because it has famous renessaince paintings (that you can see at a museum) and another game that got permabanned, because it had an edgy joke, thankfully after I appealed for more than a month, they ended up unbaning it.

Based on my experience it wholly depends on which valve employee reviews your submission.

For reference: the forced-adult tag game is called Cards of Divinity and the edgy joke game is called Drump Simulator.

All these problems and restrictions - meanwhile my indie roguelike hasnt sold enough to even get that first steam payment - I can totally see how actual gaming companies would have serious concerns going forward

Sounds like Valve needs to clean house and get their staff on the same page. How can one person see some nudity and claim AO, then another employee see the same content, rate it as Teen or 18+. Something that points to it being one person, and that means that Valve knows who to fire...

The problem, from what I've heard from AVN devs, is that it depends on the reviewer too. Some are more "difficult" than others. What VISA/PayPal/MasterCard have done is terrible because that is why Valve is so careful.

the credit card thing is laughable to me, as someone who has cared for another for 37yrs , i have never had credit or am i able to get a credit rating . so never will i have a credit card.

I cant even see these things without steam DEMANDING i get a credit card cos the world wants to treat everyone like babies

“And of course, it’s a vampire game! It is sexy! That is expected…” So true! 🤣

Steam needs to adopt the same method as Xbox regarding age regulations.... if your Steam account is old enough to justify you being of 18 or older... you should not be subject to the regulations, hereby making it ok for you to see adult content if you choose to do so.

expecting EVERYONE to have a credit card to be classed as or viewed as, an adult... is discrimination, as not every adult has nor wants a credit card.... so why push for it.

as a guy who has had a steam account since very early days of steam, my account should more than qualify for nearing its own pension

How ironic that Steam is trying to moderate games that are [ahem] moderately steamy

The important question you're failing to ask is, who is sabotaging Valve's approval and ratings process? The company has a history of aiding developers and supporting them in an amazingly broad way, and this is a relatively discrete component with a lot not being explained about the process and the people that are involved.

Halfway through Nighthawks and it is absolutely worth every penny