NOTE [9/26/2023]: This forum thread is nearly 3 years old. Up-to-date Workshop rules information should be found here.
After some discussions with the community on Steam, on our Discord, and among our team about Workshop, we want to clarify our rules on inappropriate sexual content. We have always had rules about sexual content, but, going forward, we want to be more clear about them and how we will be enforcing them as developers, when necessary.
So, this is our clarified policy on inappropriate sexual content on Workshop as of October 5, 2020:
We will not allow content that is inappropriate, sexually offensive, or over-sexualized, such as:
Models that include sexually explicit language
Models with hypersexualized features (for example: over-exaggerated chests, hips, âbulgesâ, etc.)
Additional Clarification
Models with inappropriately exposed skin (for example: nudity, a character only wearing a thong or small underwear, etc.)
Additional Clarification
Models only wearing underwear
Models with modeled genitalia (both visible and hidden)
Models that clearly allude to sexual fetishes (again: over-exaggerated features, fetishistic clothing, etc.)
[Edit 8/23/2021]: Models from a sexual/pornographic source, which allude to their origin and/or violate any other rules
Models that break these rules should be reported to us through Steam, and we will continue to go through and ban/remove models which break the rules when we have the time.
We will not make a content filter to hide or allow this content.
If you have uploaded content in the past which breaks these rules, including content that is currently marked as inappropriate, weâd recommend removing it as soon as possible, as it will be removed from our Workshop when we are made aware of it, resulting in a temporary workshop ban issued by Steam.
You have until October 9th, 2020 to remove models that break these clarified rules on your own before they may be removed by us, unless there is a pressing issue requiring their removal.
Our reasoning for these rules is that Tower Unite is intended to be a place for people to hang out, have fun, and make friends. Allowing sexual, lewd, inappropriate, and pornographic content can make people feel uncomfortable and disrespected, and that is not the environment we want, nor do we desire to make it easier for that type of content to exist in our game.
Please remember to review our Workshop rules and Steamâs rules before uploading, and remember that Tower Uniteâs Workshop does not permit users to upload political, racist, or sexist content either.
Keep in mind that Tower Unite is not complete, and we will continue to add features to our game (such as improved tutorials, Workshop system settings, Canvas system settings, and the improved Condo browser) which will foster a comfortable and safe environment for players to have fun, while still allowing user-uploaded content.
Really glad thereâs a notice about this. Granted, so many people are going to upset, and while this doesnât really bother me, it makes me question whatâs the in-depth threshold on whatâs considered Inappropriate. I have around 90 models of characters that are from a E-rated Nintendo Mobile Game, but considering those have very little inappropriate tropes, I wonder if they arenât allowed, such as the Summer-orientated character models. Weâll have to see though so that we can get a better understanding of whatâs inappropriate and whatâs not.
Does this also include things set to private or friends only? (Kind of overreaching IMHO if so) Also, what about private/passworded dedicated servers later down the road? Will they have an avenue to perhaps load custom content of their choosing directly instead of the workshop?
Really hope someday thereâll be a way for private communities running community condos could use any content of their choosing. (Maybe forced unlisted from the browser, or at least forced password in these cases if paranoid.)
Any content that is published publicly is subject to the rules. The only time an item would be subject to removal while âFriends Onlyâ is if the model is reported.
You may want to clarify what âover-exaggeratedâ means on point #2 because at first glance it sounds incredibly offensive. Labeling women with bodyshapes that include large breasts and wide hips as âsexually offensiveâ and âover-sexualizedâ is not okay. Need some clarification on this one from PixelTail.
Also, underwear and bathing suits are almost identical in design so I fail to see how youâd forbid one of them and not the other - meaning they both must not be allowed anymore⌠so we canât have bathing suit outfits on characters now, in a game filled with beaches and swimming pools? We can even decorate our characters in pool floatsâŚ
And at what line are you going to draw sexual fetishes at? Thereâs a fetish for literally everything out there, including tons of innocent things.
Having a gigantic list of vague rules doesnât really ever help in any games or sites. If anything, it hurts games that are based on customization and expression. I think saying no nudity would be enough.
Hey yâknow what, good stuff. I donât think thereâs gonna be a big thing on banning random models that arenât inherently sexual, but hopefully yâall have good judgement. TU was never meant for models like that anyways.
Kirby is on point, I donât think underwear and bathing suits are necessary to be removed Unless it reveals partial nudity from it, in that case it would just wipe out like 1/4 models in the workshop.
plus canvases can be hosted on a different platform (or your own site) whilst the nsfw models are directly on the steam workshop, which ironically considering the amount of sexual content games, you arenât allowed nsfw workshop content
Much like Kirby has said, these rules are so incredibly vague that at best the lines between what is and isnât covered by these rules are blurred and they canât be enforced particularly well if at all, at worst this ends up being enforceable on a good selection of models in the workshop since the beginning that arenât even particularly sexual in practice but get sweeped under the bus by these rules anyway.
Rules like the following are ones that are probably the most likely to be tripped up or misused I feel:
Models from a sexual/pornographic source
If a model comes from a sexual source but doesnât break any other rules, does it really matter? This feels like something to cover all bases that might be overreaching.
Models with hypersexualized features (for example: over-exaggerated chests, hips, âbulgesâ, etc.)
This is just vague, what counts as an over-exaggerated chest or hips? Stuff like this can very easily lend itself to stylistic choices and not be sexual. This needs refinement to target more specific things a la âhyperâ art because as of the moment it covers a lot of bases that arenât necessarily sexual and may instead just be part of a character or style.
All in all: This needs a bit more time in the oven I feel. The impact that this could have on the current workshop playermodels is massive as of current.
even religion, politics should not be banned completely like you have said unless they are literally disrespecting anyone for absolutely no appropriate reason or context.