💌 Bad news for porn lovers everywhere in Mr Hands' Naughty List #9

Hello, lovelies!

I hope you’re all having some lovely holidays! 🥰

This Naughty List will be a little different from previous editions. While I will still be writing about games centered around sex, love, and romance, I will put less of a focus on highlighting specific games. Instead, I want to provide you with news from the adult gaming community, tips for developing your own adult games, and media that I think you'll like. I'm also going to be posting twice as often: every Sunday at 9 AM CET as opposed to every other Sunday.

The reason for these changes is very simple: I don't think I'm providing you, the reader, with enough value compared to the amount of effort I put into this newsletter. I've previously spent around 8-10 hours a week playing adult games, gathering notes, writing copy and headlines, and contacting developers for feedback. And while this has given me a lot of invaluable experience in writing good copy for games, I don't think this is sustainable for me in the long run.

I'm very grateful to everyone who has followed me on this journey so far. Your inbox is your most personal space on the Internet and the fact that you entrust me with it honestly means the world to me!

If this is your first time reading or you haven't signed up yet, you can do so here:

With that out of the way, let's dive into the news!

Spoiler alert: it's not been great!! 😬

SISEA is coming for your porn

The Daily Dot reports that American lawmakers are working on a law called the Stop Internet Sexual Exploitation Act (SISEA) that will require Internet companies to set up rigorous standards to protect people against sexual exploitation on the Internet.

Unfortunately, there are lots of problems with the proposed law as written. The requirements it imposes are so high that most companies will opt out of hosting adult content entirely.

Ana 🏴 @acvalens

🚨🚨 By popular request I’m compiling a master post on SISEA, the bipartisan bill by @SenSasse & @SenJeffMerkley that would purge porn from social media and devastate sex workers’ income during a pandemic. 🚨🚨 THREAD. Plz RT. 🧵

In case you think Internet companies would never go so far as to actually delete all the porn, Instagram is already deleting accounts of sex workers and anyone posting about whatever they deem to be "adult content":

Suzy Exposito @HexPositive

As part of their new terms of service, Instagram is now deleting the accounts of sex workers and anyone they vaguely associate with "adult content" — which can also extend to educators, artists and LGBTQ people. We should all be very worried.

𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖍𝖊𝖑 𝖗𝖆𝖇𝖇𝖎𝖙 𝖜𝖍𝖎𝖙𝖊 🎡🎟 @rabbitwhite

Instagram deleted me, no warning. my personal account, as a writer and poet. I even combed closely through and deleted anything that seemed to not apply with the new extremely vague tos. This is fucked.

This means that if SISEA passes, you won't be able to do any more overly specific art requests, thirsty likes, or simping for thots in general.

The Adult Performance Artists Guild had a meeting about this law, where they discussed what it would mean for their members. And they discovered something truly horrifying: the law contains a loophole that would make child pornography legal in some jurisdictions:

APAG - Adult Performance Artists Guild @APAGunion

In states where the consent law allows for child brides/grooms, they could potentially be allowed to upload their own adult material, superseding existing 18+ laws- this has been confirmed with lawyers! #STOPSISEA

SISEA would obviously have huge implications for anyone making or consuming adult content. While the intent to protect people online is noble, it is clear that it was not written in collaboration with the people who would be most affected.

Since the law is not yet passed, it still makes sense to call or e-mail your representatives in Congress about stopping it. Otherwise, adult content creators are sailing into troubled waters indeed.

Adult games are blocked from sale on Steam in Germany

Gamers in Germany are reporting that games on Steam tagged as "adult-only" are blocked from purchase in the store. Valve has not released an official statement on this decision, which means that consumers are left guessing as to why this is happening.

A possible cause for the sudden ban could be that Valve's age checks are deemed inadequate by German law. Note that the following tweet is from February and may not accurately reflect what's going on:

Doddler @The_Doddler

It looks like a number of steam games with adult content are being removed from sale in Germany, including what looks like the entire Denpasoft catalog. Steam users are suggesting Valve's age checks are inadequate for Germany's minor protection laws.

steamcommunity.comGame not in german steam store since yesterday!! :: House Party Feedback and SuggestionsVery sad! Was thinking about getting it during this current sale... Can you tell me why? Guess it is because of our frigging youth protection laws. Steam has no veryfication of age required and this is kind of a porn game... I guess some A$$-hole in germany did not like this game and reported you gu…

Meanwhile, developers are also left in the dark as to why this is happening to their games. The fact that this is happening during Steam's annual Holiday Sale means that they will be missing out on a lot of potential revenue on the German market.

It also appears to no longer be possible to provide free DLC that will unlock the adult-only content on your game. But this is again not confirmed by Valve either.

WinterWolves Games @WinterwolvesG

you remember that nice "trick" to offer the base, censored, safe version and then offer a free uncensor DLC? that seems to not work anymore. I think from now on either you make a super clean game, or if there's even some slight nudity (not even in a sexual way) must be adult 🤔

There has been no coverage about this ban in German media that I'm aware of, but I'll keep my ear on the ground and will let you know once I know more.

Naughty or Nice Holiday Bundle 🎁

Luckily, it's not all bad news this week. 19 amazing and sexy games have been bundled together for the holidays in the Naughty or Nice Holiday Bundle on Itch!

And if you're living in Germany, some of these games provide Steam keys as well, which you can still add to your account. 😘

Quickies 💦

• TinyHat Studios is publishing Smutty Scrolls, an erotic drag & drop puzzle adventure 🧩

• DigitalSpy did a feature on A Summer's End, which is an "honest and authentic" Asian lesbian love story set in Hong Kong 💝

• Diamond Mirage is a Yaoi/BL visual novel out on Kickstarter now 💎

• LewdPixels has an interview with the developer of Heavy Five, who pivoted from reading visual novels to writing their own 📰

• Kosmos Connections is still going strong, sharing in an update on Kickstarter that they will finish chapter 4 of their game by the end of the year 📚

Cheeky chuckle 🤭

Deramin @otdderamin

When I say fandom has never changed throughout history, only our access to each other and ready ability to feud in front of crowds of the community and other people.

CJ Douglass @eroticCJ

What about a tennis-themed Erotica called: "First Come, First Served"

Out of Context Porn @OOCporn

Artist spotlight 💡

Anoldor @AnoldorF

#screenshotsaturday (on monday, yes.) 🥖Traduction : "C'est soit une partouze bizarre, soit le programmeur qui fait des tests avec les tailles de sprite." (Je vous laisse choisir votre interprétation préférée).

Thank you for reading and I'll see you next week! 😘

-Mr. Hands