Controversial horror game Horses is the top-selling new game on GOG even as it gets kicked off the Humble Store one day after launch
www.pcgamer.com
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Horses is proving to be something of a surprise hit, at least on the storefronts where you can still buy it.

Currently, only GOG and Itch are still selling this game.

EDIT: It seems the game has returned to Humble Bundle.

Kraiden
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491d

content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor

I’m assuming they don’t mean a suggestive camera pan, but actually something problematic on screen, in which case, I totally support the ban. Devs were given the opportunity to change it, and they said no. Ban away imho. The fact that this is considered controversial is pretty disturbing to me.

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It was a child doing pony play, riding a naked adult man-horse. The dev claimed it was not sexual.

This was removed later but it’s the build you send for review that gets reviewed. Other stores got a later version, hence why it passed on those.

Dev was not given a chance to remove it as it turns out steam has a policy that anything that resembles CSAM gets denied permanently.

@[email protected]
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28h

Considering there website proudly shows it is banned on Steam I’m sure this was done on purpose for the publicity.

Why did Epic ban it though? They didn’t get the ‘tainted’ preview version and normally love to have games that aren’t on Steam.

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38h

Anything’s possible but I wouldn’t assume it was planned unless something else came up. I think he’s just riding the accidental publicity, which I don’t really blame him for, though the dishonesty of his spin kinda pisses me off.

I’d like to hear epic’s explanation on why the clean version was still too much.

@[email protected]
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161d

I haven’t heard about the details, what’s your source on that?

As far as I recall, the developer said he didn’t know the actual reason for the ban.

Mark with a Z
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261d

Some previous article which contained valve’s response, and a description of the scene. I didn’t find it immediately, but I’ll check again.

@[email protected]
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81d

What’s CSAM?

Mark with a Z
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231d

Child Sexual Abuse Material. Legalese for child porn and adjacent things.

@[email protected]
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81d

Pretty sure it’s child sexual abuse material

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17h

I’m almost thru the game and I did not notice any sexual conducts with minors

EDIT: Btw. Something that I thought was only done for screenshots, but the nudity in-game is censored/pixelated.

Kraiden
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521h

Yep, I’ve since read some other articles and it seems there’s more to this specific case

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creator
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113h

There’s been so many vague articles about what happened, I’m not sure we’ll get a clear picture at this point.

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The devs were not told what needed to change even after asking, so they tried to remove anything that they suspected could be taken the wrong way, asked for reconsideration or clarification, but receive no response.

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231d

This is false.

https://www.eurogamer.net/its-extremely-frustrating-and-also-fcked-up-one-of-the-worlds-best-indie-studios-is-facing-shock-closure-following-confounding-steam-ban

They submitted to steam, who asked for a preliminary build of the game (one would assume due to concerns about the content). The build provided included a small child reading a naked man like a horse.

Steam denied the game based on the inclusion of CSAM, and advised the devs directly of this decision in what the devs call “an automated email”, as if steam is out there personally hand writing rejection letters for every failed game out there.

The devs claim to have changed the scene, but it seems that Steam has a zero-tolerance policy on games that feature CSAM. And, I mean, Fair.

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19h

It seems a stretch to call (at least as far as I understand it), a naked (fictional) underage character riding a horse CSAM? Sure, it’s definitely not in good taste, but… CSAM?

CSAM is child abuse, there are no children here. Is there a clear line between someone drawing and actual real child abuse? Because, IMHO, there definitely should be.

I agree that steam shouldn’t allow such content, we don’t want it, but I definitely disagree with the semantics here.

Or am I missing something obvious??

despoticruin
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819h

You are, it wasn’t a horse in the build they sent to Steam, it was a naked man. If you have a naked girl on a horse I think that qualifies too, you have an underage character that’s naked.

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-17h

Someone who claimed to have played the game said the privates were sensored.
The game concept feels very political, not sexual from what I am hearing.
My guess is the AI just flagged it, and noone actually reviewed it. Now that it is news, they don’t want any bad press, so they are standing by the ban, when otherwise they might have reversed it.

@[email protected]
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-221d

Forming an opinion from your made up justification is a sign of poor judgement

Kraiden
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241d

It’s a direct quote from the article you’re commenting on, and that my opinion is based on.

But please, don’t let me stop you from attacking my character instead of my argument

@[email protected]
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-61d

I was talking about your comment, not the quote. Weird that you assumed otherwise

“I’m assuming they don’t mean a suggestive camera pan, but actually something problematic on screen, in which case, I totally support the ban. Devs were given the opportunity to change it, and they said no. Ban away imho. The fact that this is considered controversial is pretty disturbing to me.”

Devs were not given the opportunity to change it as it wasn’t there in the first place

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120h

Yes it was

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