The allowances of games with the rating in question to appear on this site and be added to collections seem like glaring oversights to me what with how it requires users to be over the age of thirteen and does not allow content that is pornographic or sexually explicit to be posted. There should at least be a mature-game label that has to be opted-in to before being able to view games with M or AO ratings if removing AO-rated games from this site is not an option. If it is, then that should be considered.
The games autopopulate from another video game bank (this is an over simplification), so those AO or extremely questionable games like Hentai Nazi Hitler is Back do end up on this site automatically. That being said, I don’t know about the viability of some sort of censorship of inappropriate games.
- This site is international and ratings are not consistent across the globe. There are E rated games which will get an Adult rating eleswhere because of elements that area finds objectionable.
- Talking about art is not the same as playing a game. Whether a person has played a game or not shouldn’t bar them from discussing a game. Do I want to talk about MadWorld with a thirteen year old? No, but that is their right.
- Kids sometimes play games they are not allowed to play. I played plenty of Halo in high school, and even have a fond memory playing Turok with my older cousin when I was like nine. Not everyone submits to the authority of the ESRB or whatever censorship agency is running the show in your region.
That all being said, I would be amiable toward the idea of getting some of the Nazi games off the site. They get added automatically, but it would be nice if we could deprive them of air.
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I don’t think any game should be removed. Those games exist, so they have to be in a game database.
If a game is trash, that should be showed with a trash score, not by pretending that game doesn’t exist.
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This still doesn’t rule out the implementation of a necessary opt-in option for viewing posts about or pages for games from Steam that have “Mature” or “Adult Only” tags outside of the ESRB.
Those games mentioned by georgeypoorgey, and any other inherently harmful titles like “Adult Only” ones with young-looking characters, have no right to exist. Just because Valve allows them to exist doesn’t mean that a site like this has to give power to them by acknowledging their existence.
Although Grouvee as a platform doesn’t specifically have a mandate to index AO games, members of the community may add them from time to time. The content housed within the database does not contain explicit material, including but not limited to, in-game content. We encourage site members to adhere to the Grouvee ToS when submitting and posting about these games, which includes refraining from posting explicit game content.
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It seems like the main concerns here are:
- Children having access to explicit content
- Removing games from our database
- Steam/Valve having control over what games are allowed on Grouvee
- Being able to opt-out of seeing specific games on the website
Children do not have access to explicit content on Grouvee. When someone reviews or talks about a game with explicit content on Grouvee, they still must adhere to the ToS rules and not include explicit content in their postings.
If a game exists, it will inevitably get added to the database because someone has played it, reviewed it, or wanted to add it to their collection or backlog. If a game has problematic content, review it or rate it. That’s what those tools are for. Games are works of art and it would be wrong to only include games we subjectively “approved” of.
Steam and Valve have no control over what games are added to our database. Even if Steam did not allow explicit content, these games would still exist on other storefronts. Again if a game exists and a Grouvee member wants to play it, review it, or add it to their collection or backlog, it gets added to the database.
Grouvee members can use filters on their news feed to avoid seeing other users or games being discussed or catalogued. This means that typically members have to opt-in to see other games in general. It is quite easy to avoid content you don’t wish to see or participate in.
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Games are works of art and it would be wrong to only include games we subjectively “approved” of.
Games stop being just works of art when they decide to instead become fascist propaganda or borderline illegal.
Steam and Valve have no control over what games are added to our database.
You misunderstand me: I am saying that a game in one of those two categories does not have to be included on this site if said game’s on any storefront; Steam is just an example of a popular one. In other words, this site has its own power to not recognize those games, regardless of if they’re recognized elsewhere.
It is quite easy to avoid content you don’t wish to see or participate in.
In what way? Since there don’t seem to be any “Mature” or “Adult Only” tags for games here, they can’t be filtered in or out on a non-individual basis, which would be tedious to do otherwise.
Thank you for your feedback and we hear and understand your concern.
To provide some historical context about Grouvee’s database I will highlight that Grouvee is a platform that obtains its data from GiantBomb. The vast majority of database entries are those that are fed by GiantBomb into Grouvee. This is an automatic process by which submissions made to GiantBomb are then vetted and approved by GiantBomb moderators.
Of the data in the Grouvee database, a much smaller percentage is submitted directly by Grouvee users to Grouvee. These are not automatically approved and are vetted by a small but diligent group of curators.
The founder of Grouvee is currently working on a transition from GiantBomb to IGDB data as the primary backbone and database feed for Grouvee. This will involve a number of changes to the backend data on Grouvee and align entires and features with that of IGDB.
As such potential improvements to curation, filtering and data tagging may be made available at a future date. At present we don’t have a public roadmap that details all of the changes, but more details will be shared when available.
Please note that Grouvee has a very small staff of part-time volunteer admins, moderators and curators supporting the site’s founder, who is its sole developer. This team works very hard to try to create the best possible experience for all of its members, and the founder endeavours to provide a database that meets the membership’s needs.
We will take your recommendations under advisement and share them with the founder for consideration.
I thank everyone in the thread for their comments and will close this thread with the confirmation that Grouvee staff will discuss all arguments presented for consideration as it pertains to the current GiantBomb and future IGDB data housed in Grouvee.
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