I’m not sure if I am more surprised that game journalists like Eurogamer, Kotaku, PCgamer, Polygon, and the like aren’t decrying the very existence of Trap Shrine / 女装神社…
…or that there is actaually a game titled Funbag Fantasy: Sideboob Story, that costs $44.99 USD, and is also a direct SEQUEL to Funbag Fantasy. Another breast-centric hentai game that seriously costs $44.99 USD too. W T F
I am in no way shaming people and their preferences… let your -freak- kink flag fly, boo
I obviously do not fall into demographic for these games but i really do not understand their existence. If you need some material to wank off there are… well …certain websites on the internet for that.
So, to understand you, could you verify this:
Basically while you don’t mind the content existing on Steam, you’re surprised that others aren’t making a big deal about it?
If that’s correct, i don’t see why they should make a big deal about them. At least these are real games; and i’m not sure if you’re aware but adult visual novels can be very expensive. The only reason to make a fuss about it is if you don’t want any adult content on Steam, and i would acknowledge that as a valid point of view.
Why play any game when you can just go look at videos or pictures of whatever that theme is on the internet? Why play Civilization when you can just read about history?
High price is rather a common thing with things aimed at a niche but appreciative audience. Look at train sims for example, these are not aimed at the general public. They’re for the “enthusiasts” and when it comes to sexual kinks those willing to deliver the weirder stuff knows to charge for it.
As for why anyone would care, only reason I could see why anyone would care would be out of a desire to deprive others of things they enjoy for ones own self righteous ideals. So I can see why you’re confused the mentioned outlets arn’t as that’s what they specialize in.
As for those of you who think it’s just wank material and one could just go get their rocks off to porn available for free everywhere these days. Well if you’re really interested in understanding the allure for adult VNs feel free to PM me and we can have a discussion about it.
My one detraction is that the term “trap” and associated tropes can be offensive to transwomen due to the implication that they only present as women to trick (“trap”) straight men into awkward situations or worse, such games reinforce this false and harmful stereotype that has resulted in violence against real people. That could be a reason people could “make a big deal” about “Trap Shrine”, nothing to do with sexual content. That they haven’t yet could just be the journalists typically interested in this subject haven’t noticed it yet, or don’t want to bring up bad trans-related news today, since it’s Trans Day of Visibility and all.
“Trap” is a genre descriptor hijacked by censorious concern trolls. It had never before been associated with transsexuals until the term became better known to the general public and people only interested in garnering outrage decided to take offense at it. Particularly with the rise of the joke-philosophical question “Are traps gay?” that quickly spread to reach outside the originating communities.
Here’s my problem right. Trap was a defined thing. Then outsiders heard it and decided on their own interpretation and then proceeded to lambast people using it as originally intended due to their own un- or intentional misunderstanding of the whole thing. Now trying to enforce their definition of the term trying to make it taboo.
Hiding behind “harm to real people” might make it sound like a worthwhile cause but it’s more often than not merely an excuse to “deprive others of things they enjoy for ones own self righteousness”.
Also to the point is that trap content is almost always about accepting the trap for who and what they are. Not rejecting nor harming them, it’s almost always about the “trappee”'s own confused feelings and discomfort but reaching beyond that to accept the situation.
So just to recap: Traps are not transsexuals, it is not a slur or an attack on anyone. It is merely a genre descriptive term for a specific type of erotica. Like “bondage” or “red heads”. Offense here was entirely taken, not given.
I realize that there are a lot of non-developers selling non-games with adult content to make some quick money and you could definitely criticize that. However, that doesn’t apply to all adult games. The ones that are popular aren’t popular just because of the adult content. Gameplay is still important. Otherwise people just search for the game images on the internet instead of playing the game just like you suggested.
I understand that, and I agree. However, while traps aren’t meant to be depictions of trans people, they do bear a similarity to a real stereotype that exists and has caused violence, hence people taking offense at the tropes and more specifically, the name. You’re right that a lot of it is about the superficial features and (likely imagined) implications rather than the plots and actual point of these stories.
In a world where this stereotype about transwomen didn’t exist, there’d be no problems at all with trap games, they’d just be seen as their own thing. Unfortunately, in our world, trans women struggle with the public perception that they’re “just traps”. In case my previous post wasn’t clear: Getting rid of trap games is definitely NOT a solution, I merely wanted to explain why some would think that. A solution would be more mainstream visibility for trans people, so that dumdums can stop equating trans women with traps so they don’t have to deal with that, and so trap fans can enjoy their games, manga, etc in peace.
The first novel looks kind of cute. I understand it may be just considered “hentai anime trash” by some people, but it doesn’t look like that. If there’s plot, characters etc., I don’t see a problem. It’s a visual novel, so what it offers to the players is the combination of text and pictures. Now that Shuffle and other classic romantic visual novels are available on Steam, I don’t really see reasons for cheaper indie titles not to come to play.
I also checked out Funbag Fantasy and there are two things I’d like to share:
It is understandable why the game is expensive. That’s because these are visual novels with lots of graphical content. Anime pictures like these cost quite a lot. There are plenty of original CGs, and the good artists tend to ask reasonable price for their work; it’s actually much more expensive to produce a visual novel packed with original graphics for every situation than to make a 3d hentai game.
I’ve never seen Steam offer me this game in recommendations, or in sales block. AFAIR I don’t have adult filter on, or I wouldn’t see certain other lewd games as suggestions. I wonder if Steam has some way of telling that I just prefer moe ._. If their algorithms are advanced enough, maybe Steam could just create a safe bubble of preferences for everybody and allow all kind of games in the shop while not displeasing anyone.
Also, concerning what @eishiya, @Fraggles and others are discussing. I don’t know about USA and Europe, but in Russia, “trap” is a transphobic slur. There’s no need for second-guessing, or reviewing the history of the term to get the meaning correct, because it IS used as hate speech, a lot. Pronounced as [trup] instead of [træp], to make it sound more degrading. If the term was gone for good from Russian language, I think that would be for the best. But i don’t think that “trap” characters like the ones in anime and visual novels are the problem. They are often kind, clever, attractive and overall great. The problem is clearly the attitude of real people, and it doesn’t seem like it’s formed by anime and games. On the contrary, people in Russia use their transphobia to trash totally good characters.
I’m glad that that is your take on it and here’s me trying to do my part in that. However the ones who caused this problem to begin with was in large part those who claim to speak on behalf of “the transsexual community”. It’s not as if trap hentai content, which is niche even within the hentai appreciative audience was being consumed by anyone with any tendency to find themselves engaged in night life activities.
What I’m trying to say is that the people who does indeed cause harm to transsexuals and people who even knew trap content exists, much less consume it are very different demographics.
@joxter well Russian’s gonna russian, they have a whole lot of troubles with acceptance of all kinds. We can’t use Russian viewpoints to lambast everyone else. THEY’RE the ones who are wrong, not us. I for one wont give them the sole right to the word. Fight back against usurpation of harmless things by those who wish to use it for harm, do not let them have it.
Edit: Also I’m kind of disappointed none of these titles are on my steam new and trending list.
This is true for the most part, but there’s definitely overlap, and I have encountered people referring to transwomen as “traps” to imply they’re not “real” women and otherwise wishing them harm. Obviously just being a jerk isn’t the same as causing actual harm (whether it be via online harassment or physical violence), but from what I’ve seen, for some people, it’s only one step removed. And, people aren’t born bigots, it’s something they’re socialised into, often via believing stereotypes because no one showed them otherwise. That’s why fighting stereotypes with education is important. Censorship can seem like an enticing, easier option, but it doesn’t do anything to show people why they’re doing more harm than good.
My only issue is the amount of Hentai garbage (or otherwise) that rolls through Steam. Like I understand that people may be into playing mature games, and that’s fine. I’ve got a few that I own/have on my wishlist as well.
But it’s rather annoying for me when I would like to try games like:
and I have to wade through the likes of
(and a majority of RPGmaker stuff)
To be honest, I really don’t even look for stuff anymore, even though I know there are some good game to be had. Maybe this is more a problem with steam curation, I dunno.
I guess the TL:DR is that while I don’t care if people want to buy it, I’d like if there was less garbage with it.
That’s not really a h-game specific issue though, that’s just steam being an open platform to publish games on. You can look at any genre really and you’ll have to go through heaps of rubbish to find anything worthwhile. That’s why you need outside sources and tools to figure out what’s worth having, curators catering to specific audiences are pretty good for this too.
W 