Do you think renaming it to something like “mature” (or anything else) would help lessen the stigma associated?
1 Like
Before I continue, I would like to reply or discuss a few things @Dae-kalina has brought up. Please forgive me for jumping all over. I’m writing this stream of conscious style, so my cohesion may not be the best
With that out of the way:
It is my understanding that works moved there have an element or elements that may make a work explicit. @RETowers doesn’t even read these, only giving the determination of explicitness upon submission.
Works moved there are identified by testers as having one or more suspect elements leading towards being explicit. These testers then notify moderators, who normally (in my limited experience) contact and discuss the matter with the author in question. @Gower has followed this proceedure, while I do not know if other mods do or do not.
Which leads me to:
This is where I feel everyone is going off the rails. Rachel, and the outside counsel specifically reading for guideline compliance make no determination on the explicitness of a work until it is officially submitted.
What the testers and authors have expectations about is what is causing issue here.
In my experience, when a major compliance parameter (such as explicitness) changes, it is always best for the publisher to be as transparent as possible about that change.
In the past, most of the parameter changes made were at the store-front level and most of us never had to worry about this until submission anyways.
Due to this being a change in the testing of WiPs and being in a more immediate level of concern, I hope that someone would address the process concerns so we all can focus our attentions on our stories.
I know that I would want a moderator to talk to me prior to moving my WiP thread. I am unclear if one did speak to you @Dae-kalina - I hope so and I would be disappointed to find out otherwise.
It looks like:
and I would be upset at that as well. See above for my limited experience which is different.
Perhaps a tag had auto triggered a move? Unfortunately, I am speculating at this point. Have you asked the person who made the move? That would be my next step.
I’m repeating myself, and for that I am sorry but I do not think you will get a response from any CoG staff member until your actual submission.
I think this is a great idea that all of us should follow but obviously it is not a fool-proof method to ensure the WiP will not be moved.
1 Like
I am aware of that. I did not want to discuss too much of what went on in dms nor tag the mods in question as they are exceptionally busy and can’t deal with every concern. But Rachel was the party I contacted about what constituted as explicit and my take-away from the conversation is my content was okay, but, obviously, final decision would be rendered upon submission.
I was not contacted by the moderator who moved my thread. I was not contacted at all about this; I reached out in response because I was surprised and upset by the move. I don’t want to derail this topic too much by focusing on my personal experience, yet at the same time I feel because of it I can add to the conversation.
I am engaged in a dialogue with Gower and Rachel. I was asked for information, I replied with it, and I have then been waiting for a response for almost three weeks since then. To already have a response and then be left hanging, even knowing that they don’t mean ill by it and, again, have other priorities, is frustrating. I am trying to take steps to get my game moved back, but the first step is determining if it even belongs in the adult category in the first place. Until that determination is made, I cannot make steps to correct it.
This may sound self-serving, but the guidelines don’t feel clear, nor the expectations. The reason, under the content guidelines, would have been explicit sex scenes, but as I mentioned before, I did my best to emulate published works which were not treated as having explicit content. If I failed in doing this, I would like to know, but my current feeling is that there is a lack of clarity and consistency and it is doing more harm than good at the moment.
11 Likes
I initially moved the game based on the author’s description of the content as potentially containing “mature” content. I haven’t played it, and I would only move a game without first asking the author if I thought the author had already self-placed their game in the adult category with their description.
As far as I can tell, the way we left it on the thread was that we were wondering how to treat games with only opt-in mature content. I am sure that @RETowers will offer some thoughts on the matter when time allows. My own opinion is that even opt-in adult content belongs in the adult section, but that is just me.
But my sense is that authors know their own games best. Do you feel like the content available in your game is appropriate to be placed in the general category? Is there graphic violence and/or explicit sex in your opinion? What do your readers think?
2 Likes
I’m going to read this, sit on it, think about it, and then come up with something that, well, trying to come up with something no one is going to complain about is an impossibility, but hopefully something which is a good, singular, cohesive solution.
I’m locking this not because anything has gone wrong, but because I know working on something while everyone is commenting at the same time always leads to a bunch of people guessing far more than actually reading and following.
17 Likes
Okay, updated, if you have other thoughts on what to include in the list of Content Warnings as per rule 4 here. I’ll pay attention to this thread for a while more (like, till tomorrow) before going back to trying to get work done.
5 Likes
I would advise to include. SUICIDE or self harm. Sexism and racism And use and abuse of drugs. I personally wouldnt like find that I am playing a game with any of those and I wasnt give a warning
7 Likes
I’m not sure those are 18+/NSFW content always though (although self harm/abuse of drugs probably comes closest) if handled with sensitivity. Definitely think that they should have a warning posted in the game descriptionon the forum/WIP title page though. Even if you’re over 18, you may not want to read something that includes something in the above.
1 Like
I am happy to see the guidelines more clearly spelled out. I have a couple questions for clarification.
One, I’m concerned by what the implications would be of “Violence against Disabled” always being considered adult content. I am worried that this would create a double standard in the treatment of disabled characters. What happens when a disabled character has a combat position, or is skilled in fighting? In games featuring some amount of general fighting as part of their overall theme, in cases where they are not otherwise adult content, it would seem problematic to exclude characters with disabilities from being a part of the action. As I don’t imagine this is supposed to be excluded, I would consider some clarification of this category to be useful.
I also just wish to check what the line would be between depicting and mentioning such topics. Does adult content apply only when these things occur “on camera,” so to speak, or at least involve the main character, or would they also apply if mentioned, as in the case of events in someone’s backstory?
3 Likes
Look. We really don’t want to define these rules too closely, in particular because we’re not going to spend our time enforcing them.
As has been said numerous times over the course this thread and other recent threads, we–the staff–don’t have time to read WIPs. All of these arguing about WIPs is distracting us from the job of publishing games that have actually been submitted for publication.
Things are very tight right now. Asking us to spend time arguing about these rules or their implementation is a dangerous misuse of our resources. So please move on from this topic.
7 Likes
If you have questions, email support.