The negativity behind an ADULT CONTENT rating

That and some authors may take it as a value judgement of their work (though it is not).

Perhaps, but I think the M3 stuff may still effect some authors perspective on it.

Yeah Sam really took it badly as a judgement on the quality of his work, though I think there was a bit of a feedback loop of antagonism between him and some others as well. Hence the whole “being good forum citizens” thing which has popped up recently and which I fully support.

As a former forum mod, let me just stick my head in to say: we responded when things were brought to our attention through flags. I didn’t have time to read WiPs other than my own, let alone screen them for adult content. Staff have even less time than mods for that kind of housekeeping.

Mods aren’t here to be community police or housekeepers (that’s also in the FAQ) but to respond to alerts from the community. If no one in a thread’s audience speaks up and says, “There’s content here that we think minors shouldn’t be reading,” the mods almost certainly aren’t going to know about it. So if you think there’s a WiP that should be in Adult and isn’t yet, PM a mod or flag it with a note. That’s when it’ll be sorted.

On another note: while of course it’s possible to be a good forum citizen (friendly, polite, constructive, etc.) without reading the FAQ, you’ll always be a better one for having taken the time to read them. Systematically relying on others to tell you when you’ve broken a rule is…well, “irresponsible” and “immature” are much too strong, but “less responsible that you should be expected to be” is I think about right.

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As a personal friend of Samuel Young, I can tell you it wasn’t the adult content situation that irked him the most. But no need to worry about that, we should leave it behind.

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At the risk of sounding like an idiot… what IS MMM again? :thinking:

I would like to redirect you to this thread.

https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/mass-mother-murderer-and-off-forum-harassment/47711/27

With that, all related matters should not be discuss any further.

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To be honest I hope one day he returns to the forum and finishes the wips that he worked on, it was a sad day when he left COG and took all of his wips down.

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Hello folks, I haven’t visited the forum in a long while. How can I opt-in to the adult content section ?

Try entering through here:

https://forum.choiceofgames.com/groups/Adult_Readers

I know you have to enter your birthdate. It is best to check with the link above.

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Thank you!

ESRB isn’t a very good check for that. Major companies really don’t make 18+ games because you can’t sell them on consoles or stream them on twitch. The 18 rating was given to manhunt for a bit (which swung back and forth) and Hatred out of notable violence cases. And Hatred wasn’t so much violence but that you were a serial killer. It’s mostly sex that gets censored to go down to 17+ nowadays anyways and you can still get away with lot on either case for MA. Especially since their guidelines aren’t strict.

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Ahhh I see!

Thanks for clarifying :+1:

If anything the adult content rating on this website would more be in the line of a M rating from the rest instead of the A rating. Very very few games get the A rating.

Yes, that is what I was going for, when I mentioned it last night. I just worded it slightly more harshly. My b, y’all :slight_smile:

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Wow, I understand the situation so much better now…thanks yall for taking the time!

With regards to the whole “the FAQ thread is where you can learn about the adult section” thing, unless I’m mistaken you guys are talking about the welcome thread, yes?

If thats the case then to be fair it does state that the adult readers group is for the Hearts Choice label. For those that like violent games but don’t want to read romance, I can see them not joining the Adult Readers group due to not caring about romance or not wanting to read erotic stories. Perhaps the welcome thread should be updated to say that the Adult Readers group is for more than just the Hearts Choice label.

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I should begin with saying I do not want my current wip in the adult section where it was moved to. It was not intended to be adult, and I have nothing against adult category as a whole (and may very well post a different WiP there later) but it is a point of frustration with me. There isn’t a publication path for works that turn out to be explicit, and per the guidelines of the Adult category, it feels, at least to me and my understanding, that works moved there are considered explicit. I’m not particularly fussed about that ‘stigma’ or not, but that there’s a certain expectation of what your work will hold without giving merit to the rest of it. And finding out after it’s in the queue or not means I’ve already lost a portion of potential testers because it is locked behind a wall–and if I thought my content warranted that, I would be all for it.

When I first posted any scenes that could be considered intimate, I had a conversation about it with a mod to try and ensure I was not crossing into anything that could be considered explicit. That was not quite a year ago, but I wanted to be sure that what I was posting would be acceptable for the community as a whole. I even added toggles just in case–the potentially questionable content is optional and not a mandatory part of the story. I based what I wrote on published games. I referred constantly to what has been published by CoG and is not in the Adult Content category before posting (Heart of the House and Werewolves of Haven for example).

And then my game was moved without an even “Hey, heads up.” I understand it is the company’s prerogative to move as they see fit, but I specifically took steps to avoid this. Even now I’m awaiting a response (going on three weeks of waiting) to determine if I need to axe some content.

I stated in the first post of my thread that I considered my game Mature, based more on the ESRB rating board–I do not consider it Adult. I do not consider it explicit either, which is the implication of moving it to the adult category. It is not an implication I appreciate nor want associated with this particular work.

I have also been frustrated because, yes, visibility is a problem. I have had multiple people contact me (outside of the forum, so whether or not they are members I cannot say) asking about where my thread went, if it got taken down, etc.

So while no, it hasn’t been, people have been having difficulty finding it. I like that there is an adult content category, but my WiP has existed for three years outside of it and one year with any potentially problematic content (and again, I am not of the opinion that it is based on my comparisons but I have yet to get an official verdict) so to have it moved suddenly like this felt a bit like a slap in the face, especially after working to avoid this very thing.

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Sorry if this was already explained but are the CoG/HG considered as adult content released on mainstream platform such as the Google play ? I’m not very active on the forum for WIPs and I’m afraid I could be missing out on some content

The only problem with the “Adult Content” label is the misuse of the word, “adult,” in our culture at large. If someone asked me to come over and watch an adult movie with them I would think they were asking me to come watch pornography. An adult-film star is a porn star.

Even a racy, R-rated, erotic thriller isn’t likely to be called an adult movie if it has decent production values and a star or two in it.

So when we label some CS games as “adult” there’s a danger that we’re consigning them to a metaphorical smut bin, that I don’t think any of them deserve to be in.

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