As many of you have now seen, itchio has had no choice but to fold to the demands of payment processors. This is due to the pressure placed on them from the canvassing of a self professed 'feminist' (heavy on the quotes here) group.

I have always been pretty vocally against censorship on my pages, I have stated my fears that we can not censor the 'morally repugnant' fiction without queer people also getting caught up in those targets as well. My fears have now been realized in a way that has left myself and many of my friends wondering ... where the hell do we go from here?

I think a lot of us are hoping that itchio rolls back their current stance. As it stands, itchios stance is vague and dangerous for NSFW devs to even try to monetize using their website.

Lets take a look at their FAQ:

(https://itch.io/docs/creators/faq#is-adult-content-allowed)

Here we have the outline of what is allowed via itchios FAQ at the top saying that generally fictional content is *generally* fine.... but then mentioned at the bottom is that we must adhere to ALL payment processors policies that your account utilizes.

It was mentioned that Stripe is where most of the pressure is coming from regarding the censorship... so lets take a look at their terms

(https://stripe.com/legal/restricted-businesses)

Oh okay, so NO mature content at all is allowed fictional or otherwise?!

And guess what!

If Stripe finds out you are utilizing their service while selling ANY kind of adult content your funds can get frozen and are not eligible for payouts the minute itchio catches wind! Very cool /s!

Im sure this isn't just a stripe problem either but Frankly im too annoyed to even look into the others.

This is what NSFW devs will now have to deal with, constant worry that their games will get banned at any moment because while itchio doesn't prohibit NSFW the payment processors powers that be DO and we have to do what they want!

And this doesn't just affect NSFW as well, itchio is taking down LGBTQ+ games and games about people's personal struggles with SA. Its never just going to stop at porn.

So... that being said, if you care about sex workers, devs, LGBTQ+ people, people sharing unfiltered lived experiences, freedom of expression, please take a look at this website and sign the petitions and consider the other listed ways you can help this cause as well

https://yellat.money/

https://action.aclu.org/petition/mastercard-sex-work-work-end-your-unjust-policy

https://www.change.org/p/tell-mastercard-visa-activist-groups-stop-controlling-w...

Now about Favor...

I'm going to continue working on it because I love this game and want to see it finished, but at this point I am side-eyeing itchio for when I finish the game for the reasons I already mentioned above. Episode 3 should be free so it will not run into issues on itchio but for the other episodes I will be keeping my eyes open for alternative hosting site options, that will be a while off so hopefully there will be a viable option by then.

Thank you everyone for your love, patience and support during this 💕