Thoughts on itch.io
This was written after itch.io removed a bunch of games by request of payment processors. The free games being removed was undone, so that can gets kicked a little further I suppose.• I'm surprised they had to remove the free games too. All the language around this ban is about "selling" xyz content, but it seems like they're not allowed to host these games for free either. I never charge money for my games and I've always assumed that gives some vague level of protection (in regards to copyright infringement w/ Wingless Fairies), but I guess not.
• If this includes free games then there's no loopholes, and we can only rely on hubs for distribution that don't allow purchases (like how fanfiction works for example). I would gladly put my games on a free platform in addition to whatever else everyone is using. People who want money for their art should also move to the free platforms, and ask for donations on whatever external ko-fi-esque site happens to exist at the time. Trying to find a platform with payments that will survive forever is not viable.
• Being paid for games online has always been a donation. You're selling something that can be copied and pirated easily. That exchange of money can only be turned into an obligation through laws and regulations that protect small businesses, and the institutions that decide those things (the USA, corporations) do not care about art. We will eventually have to stop relying on them to legally bind people to give us money for our art and start asking people for donations if they like what we create.
• The system that makes adult or lgbt games harder to sell is the same one that gives massive advantages to artists for speaking english, having an internet connection, and a hundred other things. It was never remotely fair and this isn't the first or last time it will become less fair. This free market you enter into when you sell products online was always precarious and inaccessible for the majority of people on earth. Grieve the world becoming even more unfair, but have some solidarity with the 7 billion people who were never going to make money from their art in the first place. Those are your peers if they weren't already.
• As this gets worse, more and more people are going to try to sell outrage about losing the livelihood we were promised. The most principled thing to do in the face of this new wave of reactionary artist anxiety (much larger than just this) is to give up on your self-employment dreams immediately, even the really small ones. I gave up on making money from art when I realized I was trans in high school. If there's any part of you that still feels like you deserve something other people don’t, you need to get over it before it's used against you.