HN

Comments (202)

• Menu

  bengotow
  Just want to drive by and mention - a friend told me to play DDLC and I was highly skeptical given the anime pin-up girl art style. I eventually gave in and gave it a shot.It's an amazing "playable story" unlike anything I have ever played. Super creative and well worth the couple hours it takes to play. I think it could use a few trigger warnings and it should be rated PG-13 / R, but there's stuff on Netflix 10x more disturbing so I don't quite grok the Google push back on this one.
• Menu

  anonymous908213
  1bil+ people have surrendered their right to artistic expression to Google, and another 1bil+ to Apple, and another 1bil+ to Microsoft. Many more billions have surrendered it to Visa and Mastercard. The world will only continue to get worse for the foreseeable future as five corporations assert global control over what is allowed to be published. It is mournful knowing that humanity's peak is behind us.
• Menu

  wincy
  Binding of Isaac is a game that takes hundreds of hours to beat, and worked well on iPad. It cost $15. It was removed and so Edmund McMillen the creator resolved to never publish on Apple platforms again. Disappointing for me because his new game is Windows only, but I can’t blame him.I could have sworn there was a discussion about this years ago but I went looking for it on HN and just found a comment I made years ago, funny how that shakes out.
• bawolff
  Sad day for freedom of expression.[Spoilers] For those who haven't played, DDLC has subject matter related to self-harm, mental health, suicide that sort of thing. It generally treats the subjects seriously. It has content warnings on it, so people know what they are getting into.Its weird how we seem much more hung up on censoring video games we are than books or movies. There is way more disturbing books and movies out there. If this was a book i doubt anyone would care. There probably wouldn't even be content warnings on it.On the other hand, maybe someone trying to ban you is how you know you have achieved the status of "great literature" like all the other banned books.
• Telaneo
  My first reaction to this was that someone made a mistake somewhere. They saw the game title and the front page, assumed it was a porn game due to it's rating or whatever, or made some other assumption that doesn't hold up to even cursory research, which would confirm the game's had two releases, the former of which has 100k+ reviews on Steam, and the second of which was even physical on consoles.But no. The post mentions it was pulled due to a TOS violation with regards to its depiction of 'sensitive themes'. That would seem to suggest the problem lies with the game depicting suicide or just its other depictions of mental health problems in general. It could still be a mistake, in that they researched it to the point that they figured out it was dealing with those themes, but not to the point of figuring out it's a successful darling of a game. This seems rather unlikely.Either way, fact that it's even possible to pull from the store, several months after it was first published without issue, without at least having a chat with the publisher first, is worrying.
• Menu

  jhbadger
  DDLC is a disturbing (good, but disturbing) game that opens as a bright cheerful one. So long as the description explained what the user is in for later on, I think Google shouldn't have done this. I haven't seen the Android version; I played it on PC, but as it is basically a "visual novel" I doubt there was very much difference between them.
• linzhangrun
  DDLC is not a niche game, nor is it a new game. It should have been released 9 years ago, right? This alone proves that the so-called policy violation is just a pretext.
• ro_bit
  Which fringe puritanical lobbbyist group is going to step up and take credit for this one(reference https://www.engadget.com/gaming/steam-now-bans-games-that-vi...)
• Menu

  numpad0
  It's a relatively old game, so I'll put up here a spoiler so to remove potential confusion:DDLC is a __horror__ game that contains some gore, death, and self harm content, as well as small fourth wall breaking, disguised as a Japanese Visual Novel style soft/hard porn game. The entire game is a figurative jumpscare. Which makes it technically true to call it a "disturbing and shocking" game, but not as in """disturbing and shocking""" as in the euphemism for pornographic. It is technically correctly rated and marked as such. It just doesn't say viewer discretion of what kind is recommended.And also: a lot of these Japanese pastel colored things, Visual Novel games included, are in fact not intended for kids, especially under 15. It's not like picture books for 6-12 year olds. Audience gender distribution is often closer to 50:50 than what many assumes.
• ropable
  Doki Doki Literature Club is a game that I played, and then replayed, purely on the basis of recommendations by trusted reviewers. The genre (visual novel) and theme (anime pin-up schoolgirl) are ones that I have no interest in. I was extremely glad that I did play it, though; it was a profoundly thought-provoking experience. It was extremely disturbing in the best possible way.Definitely not for kids, though, and it's worth taking the content/trigger warnings seriously.
• ohlookcake
  I've never played this, but this move has made me curious. Is there a way I can still play this on Android? An apk or fdroid or a mobile web version?
• Menu

  farfatched
  It's available on Itch: https://teamsalvato.itch.io/ddlc(I've never played it.)
• redrix
  DDLC is one of those once in a lifetime gaming experiences. Like most people commenting - I had no interest in the style or genre, but I am immensely glad I played it!I distinctly remember sitting there in silence with my mouth open at a number of points during the game.I went down the ~~MONIKA~_ route, though I was intrigued by %]~JUST_MONIKA%]€_ - She seemed like an interesting character.
• throwaway85825
  Walled gardens are antithetical to personal computing. Google is killing ChromeOS in favor of Android.
• Menu

  j-bos
  I guess they don't like Monika.
• Menu

  oceansky
  Well, at least we can "sideload" this easily with minimum attrition, right?
• Menu

  knaik94
  This game was released via a physical release on the Nintendo Switch.It's very clearly intended for teens+.
• Menu

  wavemode
  Surprising, even by Google's standards. DDLC is a violent game but not much more. What app store rule exactly is it breaking?
• Menu

  Adachi91
  This is a great game especially on PC. I don't know if the hidden files are available on mobile, but it was a great dive into hiding data in plain sight, with the game files, from decoding binary hidden in images, to spectrograph QR codes hidden in audio. Friend recommended the game to me and I'll never forgive them, only Monika.
• throwatdem12311
  The game is free and should run on any potato PC or even Mac (w/ Rosetta on Apple Silicon).Google can suck on a lemon.
• kelnos
  I'm so tired of the paternalism from Google and Apple. And of course we have little choice, since we've surrendered to monopolists and walled gardens.It's disgusting, really, that most of the world is totally fine with this. Most people probably don't even realize how bad this is.
• Menu

  lobito25
  Why doesn't DDLC release a webapp bypassing app stores?
• Menu

  DoneWithAllThat
  As someone pointed out why do we even bother with age ratings if we’re just going to ban games entirely for having wrongthink?
• Menu

  dangus
  Aside from the comments on the rest of this thread, I’ll point out this unique point:If this game’s content is objectionable, where was Google 5 months ago when it was released? Are they admitting that they don’t review apps that are submitted? Do their reviewers have zero familiarity with major multi-platform game releases?How are they justifying the availability of the Grand Theft Auto or Resident Evil series on the Android platform if this game can’t be published?Hopefully this turns out to be some kind of error or misunderstanding that gets corrected.
• eucyclos
  (spoiler) The conspiracy seeking part of my brain is fascinated by the fact a company whose decisions are increasingly ai made or moderated doesn't want people to play a game that requires deleting a psychotic stalker off your hard drive...
• Menu

  PunchyHamster
  Seems Google needs Mastercard/Visa treatment.Provide the content, content provider
• Menu

  j2kun
  Self-harm (especially when depicting minors) has special standards. The recent court ruling on child safety against Meta probably led directly to this decision.
• Menu

  shevy-java
  This is why a monopoly is bad. Google can dictate who has access or retains access.
• inopinatus
  Let's not mince words. Whoever made this call is a lily-livered, paternalistic chickenshit startled by their own shadow. A nasty case of moral cowardice, coupled to poor judgement, to no-one's benefit.
• zb3
  Google and Apple know better than you what you want to play and what you want to do on your phone. Visa and Mastercard know better than you what you want to buy. Don't disagree with them, because they're only doing this for your own good.
• torginus
  I think the issue is that Google deliberately decided to market its closed down app store as a necessity to regulators, in order to 'keep users safe'.Which invites censorship from morality police types.
• anon
  undefined
• Menu

  charcircuit
  If you want to play bishoujoge, just play the PC version so you don't have to deal with things being censored. The Play Store and App Store do not allow R18 images so the games have to be censored.
• Menu

  stavros
  For those of us who didn't know the game but want to try it due to the Streisand effect, is there an official APK download? Since it's free on Steam, I thought the official website might list an APK, but I haven't found anything other than the Play link.
• luxuryballs
  fun game, I don’t want to spoil it but it’s got some elements that you will def appreciate more as a software dev once you get that far in
• cynicalsecurity
  Soviet Union collapsed, bit its cause lives on, now unexpectedly in the West.
• dev1ycan
  I really despise these christo fascist led tech companies that think they can dictate what we are able to see/play, etc.Meanwhile the people that lead them go to certain islands.
• anon
  undefined
• trendbuilder
  [flagged]
• CivBase
  This is why we need developer verification - so Google can protect us from threats like this /s
• Menu

  fnord77
  [flagged]