UPDATE:
The game has now been set live on Steam, so a victory for both MangaGamer and common sense!
ORIGINAL STORY:
The so called "culture war" claimed another victim this weekend as MangaGamer's release of The Expression Amrilato has been banned by Steam for "sexualising minors".
The move, the latest in Steam's now infamously unexplained censorship actions, has left MangaGamer and fans of visual novels scratching their heads. The game is a linguistic teaching aid that has been developed in conjunction with, and approved by, the National Esperanto Association in Japan. As reported last week, the game's educational qualities were such that MangaGamer even went so far as to offer free copies to educational establishments.
MangaGamer's PR Director, John Pickett, commented in their press release concerning Valve's decision:
"Valve's claim that this title 'sexualizes minors' is quite frankly absurd and discriminatory. The Expression: Amrilato is an educational title and it has no sexual content. Period."
He continues:
"While we sincerely hope this isn't the case, the only conclusion we can draw from the feedback we've been provided with is that Valve now considers chaste romance between two women inherently 'sexual' and thus inappropriate for all audiences outside an adult context. Despite our many attempts to reach out to them for clarity on their "anything that isn't illegal or trolling" policy––neither of which apply to this title––Valve has resoundingly refused to provide any, so all we can do is express our concern over what this could mean for freedom of expression and the LGBT gaming community."
The game has been launched without issue on GoG, and the game is also available on MangaGamer's own website.
This of course isn't to say that some of MangaGamer's other releases are not inherently sexual in nature, and of course the Japanese style favouring youthful looking characters is a concern for some. However, The Expression: Amrilato, while featuring a yuri romance, never goes any further than hugs or kisses.
The clarity issue
Valve are, of course, entitled to censor any content on their platform. The frustration for developers and publishers is the lack of clear and consistent guidelines on these platforms. Similarly Youtube's recent "VoxAdpocalypse", where content has been wholesale demonetised even when it doesn't break official rules, has created a great deal of uncertainty among creatives large and small as just what is and isn't permissible these days. When these platforms refuse to engage in meaningful dialogue with creators to explain their decisions, it becomes even more frustrating.
If the act of two girls kissing appears inappropriate, then this should be clearly stated in Valve's rules, and enforced equally across all content. The argument in this case is the sexualisation of minors. This does not explain why they then allow Life is Strange 2: Episode 3 on the platform when it contains actual sexual acts between minors. This removes the censorship from rule-based to a seemingly taste-based context wholly dependant on the current assessors mood or personal preferences.
Further, Valve went so far as to add a Steam page and release date for the game, but pulled it last minute. This is not consistent with any kind of standardised checks and balances when assessing content - it looks reactive and suggests that pressure has been applied from elsewhere.
When companies such as MangaGamer reach out for clarification, it is vitally important that it is provided so that these responses can be considered when licensing future properties. As it stands, due to the double-standard being employed by Valve in this particular instance, it could easily be inferred that Valve simply has a problem with LGBTQIA content, but doesn't want to say so publicly. This isn't a good look.
Fallout
This isn't an isolated incident by Valve - I was amused to see the term "Waifu Holocaust" bandied about on other sites - over 50 titles have been banned, some understandably - Fap CEO and Domination Quest are hilariously inappropriate titles that you might expect to see in a comedy sketch - but others contain only sexualised content between consenting adults.
I feel rather sorry for MangaGamer in this instance - the feedback from the Esperanto community has been overwhelmingly positive, and now it seems that one of the big distributors are denying the game to their audience and refusing to work with publishers on their platform. I hope for MangaGamer's sake, the circumstances can be explained to enable their partners to actively submit only suitable content to Steam in future.
Better yet, acknowledge that there is no sexualisation and release the game to a fanbase that clearly wants to play it.
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