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If you read Niche Gamer, then you probably remember the “Anime Tiddy Apocalypse” earlier this year. It started with HunieDev receiving a cryptic email from Valve stating that they had violated Steam’s guidelines on pornographic material, and that their games would be purged from Steam unless they removed the offending content.
Soon, other developers, usually ones that specialize in erotic Visual Novels, were getting similar emails. Then, as suddenly as it began, Valve did a 180 and issued an official statement declaring that it was a mistake, and that they wished to remain relatively hands-off when it comes to what games are allowed on Steam.
Yesterday, Valve finally brought the subject up again in a blog post detailing some of Steam’s new features that give users the power to better filter what they see on the PC’s largest digital storefront.
The post starts with details regarding the new Developer and Publisher homepages, and how the Upcoming Games section has been reworked to help ensure gamers see more titles that could be relevant to their interests based on what games they play the most. You can now filter games to the point of choosing to ignore specific developers, publishers, and curators as well.
The most important change relevant to anime tiddy games, however, is the increased number of tags and mature content filters available to Steam users. New content filters include “Mature Content” in general, and an “Adults Only” filter that includes games featuring explicit sexual content.
Developers will also be required to describe the context of mature content in their games. This new section of a game’s store page will allow the developers to describe the kind of mature content that their games include, and the frequency of it. Developers of mature games currently on Steam will have to go back and update their store pages once the feature is implemented.
Valve also addressed those annoying age gates. Unfortunately, they will be staying regardless of your content filter preferences due to the various rules and regulations in place by ratings agencies across the world.
Finally, Valve again addressed the topic of “outright trolling” that was mentioned in their previous blog. In typical Valve fashion, however, their response to this question was pretty vague. They did mention that the developer’s past games and behavior play a huge role in determining what constitutes a “troll game,” but the specifics are once again being kept fairly nebulous and flexible.
Hopefully these new changes will allow developers that sell explicit games to upload the uncensored versions directly to Steam, instead of relying on the current off-site H-patch solution.
