Take me with a grain of salt, but from what I understand Valve banned it when they received their evaluation build, and they found a scene of a child character "riding" on the back of an adult, naked, "horse" character, in the form of a human.
Developer immediately took to social media to whip up the current media frenzy you see now. Whether the developer simply didn't realize the implications of what they made, or whether they did it purposely for "artistic license" or "anti-puritan shock value" I leave to you.
@HarkMahlberg@ZippyBot I see, well that's hardly a pedo scene imo but some people like to take things out of context and spin crazy narratives so what do I know. What with that game where you had to "nail a coffin with a live girl inside in order to win"... I know exactly what kind of people sided with that version of the story, and it's not the kind who'd know which side of a PS2 controller goes up
After watching the actual scene in question (linked in another comment) I don’t think there were any implications or bannable presentations at all. The kid was clothed fully and riding on the shoulders of the naked man in the horse mask. It even censored the nakedness of the man. Even if you ignore the context of the man being brainwashed into believing he is a horse, the scene lacks even the most vague implication of sexuality.
Before actually watching the scene I was entirely on Steam’s side. They don’t owe any person or product a platform and don’t actually need a reason at all to ban something. But even still, after watching the scene for myself, I’m disappointed by the apparent decision making which led to this game being taken down.
Wikipedia says it's a horror game where you take care of a farm and "horses" which are actually just enslaved and brainwashed people in horse masks.
Sounds like a typical indie horror game, tbh. I'm not sure why it would have been banned from steam or even epic. Apparently you can get it on itch.io though.
@Zahille7 interesting! I found this review, I suppose this is it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--mCTtm1txk and it'd seem #Steam falsely accused it of containing pedo scenes or something. As I read, the game is a critique to certain political systems, if that's true then I'm not surprised someone somewhere would just seek to ban it, Steam probably just complied and provided the devs with a random excuse that sounded good enough
@Zahille7 and btw I found it on gog, unfortunately there is no Linux release so it seems like I'll have to pass. Shame because it looked like a good title, if a bit more on the interactive story side of things
7 Comments
duckz@mastodon.gamedev.place · 3 pts · 280d
@ZippyBot for those of us who don't know, what is Horses and why is it banned?
HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth · 7 pts · 280d
Take me with a grain of salt, but from what I understand Valve banned it when they received their evaluation build, and they found a scene of a child character "riding" on the back of an adult, naked, "horse" character, in the form of a human.
Developer immediately took to social media to whip up the current media frenzy you see now. Whether the developer simply didn't realize the implications of what they made, or whether they did it purposely for "artistic license" or "anti-puritan shock value" I leave to you.
duckz@mastodon.gamedev.place · 3 pts · 280d
@HarkMahlberg @ZippyBot I see, well that's hardly a pedo scene imo but some people like to take things out of context and spin crazy narratives so what do I know. What with that game where you had to "nail a coffin with a live girl inside in order to win"... I know exactly what kind of people sided with that version of the story, and it's not the kind who'd know which side of a PS2 controller goes up
knight_alva@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 279d
After watching the actual scene in question (linked in another comment) I don’t think there were any implications or bannable presentations at all. The kid was clothed fully and riding on the shoulders of the naked man in the horse mask. It even censored the nakedness of the man. Even if you ignore the context of the man being brainwashed into believing he is a horse, the scene lacks even the most vague implication of sexuality.
Before actually watching the scene I was entirely on Steam’s side. They don’t owe any person or product a platform and don’t actually need a reason at all to ban something. But even still, after watching the scene for myself, I’m disappointed by the apparent decision making which led to this game being taken down.
Zahille7@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 280d
Wikipedia says it's a horror game where you take care of a farm and "horses" which are actually just enslaved and brainwashed people in horse masks.
Sounds like a typical indie horror game, tbh. I'm not sure why it would have been banned from steam or even epic. Apparently you can get it on itch.io though.
duckz@mastodon.gamedev.place · 1 pts · 280d
@Zahille7 interesting! I found this review, I suppose this is it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--mCTtm1txk and it'd seem #Steam falsely accused it of containing pedo scenes or something. As I read, the game is a critique to certain political systems, if that's true then I'm not surprised someone somewhere would just seek to ban it, Steam probably just complied and provided the devs with a random excuse that sounded good enough
duckz@mastodon.gamedev.place · 1 pts · 280d
@Zahille7 and btw I found it on gog, unfortunately there is no Linux release so it seems like I'll have to pass. Shame because it looked like a good title, if a bit more on the interactive story side of things