Where are we drawing the line with mature content?

General
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This is going to seem like a general moan but it’s more of a question out of sheer curiosity.

So with body pillows added, we’re obviously seeing an uprise of explicit material being uploaded all across the game/community hub and the forums, I wouldn’t say this was an issue if it weren’t for the fact that there are planned crackdowns on mature content (for the parental control settings I’m assuming) but with an item like this you’re essentially endorsing the adult content being uploaded to your game.

I know the body pillows were most likely added for comedic purposes and this post might be over-blowing a joke but it’s a pretty deep under-sight to not think people are going to use them for uploading actual mature content, which is also something to take into consideration when it comes to a potential customers perception of the game and it’s general image.

I understand what goes on in a condo is fair game to whoever owns that condo, but things like this cause conflicts with forum/hub rules (uploading explicit imagery) it could make the implementation of content filters a lot more difficut and affect the game’s public image.

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This is a very important question actually. Bodypillows literally provoke people to have explicit stuff in their condo. While I myself do not have any good ideas, it is very worth discussing this slight issue.

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Well, that’s the thing, right? It’s everybody’s own server. As they say, “Online interactions not rated by the ESRB”. Personally I think people should be free to put whatever they want in their condo. When it comes to the Plaza, I generally think that cursing is fine, but anything past that (bullying, racism, porn, etc.) isn’t appropriate since it’s a public space.

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I can definitely understand your concern over this. Mature content always managed to find it’s way onto GMT servers, so I’m not surprised to see the same actions on TU.

Perhaps one of the main features of the Parental Controls setting should be the ability to enable/disable canvas? It could even be a simple checkbox in the Parental Controls. When disabled, all canvas will display like normal. But when enabled, all canvas items will be replaced with a random color and/or image.

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This is a planned (and most likely upcoming) feature.

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I’d imagine that the devs considered the possibilities of the body pillows before they were introduced. And the content isn’t exactly being uploaded straight to the game, but rather to image hosting sites. But you take a risk in joining someone’s condo, you should take it into consideration that you could easily walk into a condo filled with male models (has happened to me before) or just straight up porn. I think you should be able to express yourself in any way you feel necessary with your condo, while I do see your point it still makes sense to just leave the implementation be. And as long as these things don’t go past people’s condos I see no problem with them.

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While i’m not one to talk since i’d probably buy a body pillow in game (but probably just leave it at that because hoarder), i do agree that adding body pillows kinda suggests that people should be placing explicit content into it.

However, we can’t say this and ignore canvases, i’m not naming names, but i have seen people with mature content on canvases and making mature poses and content with the items, this is also something to consider. Going back on topic:

This can and most likely will affect the games reputation if others see pictures of people doing this while looking at reviews, it may make tower unite look like another game you can place mature content everywhere just because others are doing it, and that could be the minority.

Personally i believe it’s up to the community to try and not get this kind of behavior spread around, i mean fair enough you want your anime waifu’s, but we don’t need to see pictures of a hentai version of it or something, what if a bloody child see’s that and starts questioning it to it’s parents? Then the developers will have to start dealing with angry parents and that’ll probably slow development of the game

Now here i have some possible solutions:

  1. We have the option to enable mature content in condo’s, of course if people don’t do this and then people start getting butthurt the second they see a nipple then it’ll probably have to be forced on the person until it’s removed or something. Of course if the user already has it enabled, then people shouldn’t be allowed to complain. They saw the warning (or they didn’t because they’re idiots), they should’ve seen it coming

  2. We tackle down people who have mature content on canvases/body pillows, now this seems more hassle than it’s worth as, well like i said, it may just be the minority of players doing this. But this is self explanatory

  3. We just do nothing - We do nothing about it, and let the future take the game where-ever it pleases, for the better or for the worst, this is probably the most neutral option

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Most of this post nails it, but this is the point that I think needs to get across the most, it’s stuff like this that’s pretty damaging to the game’s reputation, it’s the same kind of stigma other social experiences like Second Life have gained.

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It shouldn’t be a risk, joining a condo shouldn’t be a gamble, that shouldn’t be part of the experience.

I take it we don’t have automerge.

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This is a risk with many games as soon as you allow custom content. There’s not much you can do to prevent inappropriate material from showing up.

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That is true, a possible solution is having a condo rating system. If you see something inappropriate, you can flag that condo as NSFW, and maybe there could be some sort of percentage between NSFW and SFW votes on the condo you’re about to join. Or if the condo host has any decency, he can flag it as NSFW himself. But people can easily abuse this and your place can get flagged even if it has SFW stuff in it. I mean, with the creative freedom we have right now, there’s no way you can properly limit anything.

As @HoneyBadger said, it’s either we have a system where the host labels his condo as NSFW, the devs and community tackle inappropriate condos, or we just do nothing. But the thing is, and as I’ve said before, giving the community such creative freedom is a huge undertaking. There’s no proper way you can limit this, once you give the community the ability to do almost anything, there is gonna be weird shit showing up. I mean, it’s the internet. You signed yourself up for weird shit the second you first got on.

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I agree with this, i wouldn’t bother playing if i had to gamble that every condo i visited did or didn’t have mature content in

Of course there isn’t much you can do to prevent it, but you can add in steps to stop others from stumbling across it if they don’t want too

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Parental controls are a feature that we are working on implementing, although no ETA is known.

The stance on mature content (as I see it) really is server specific. When you are on one of the official lobby servers, you are expected to follow the rules of that server. The official lobby server is sort of designed to be a bit family friendly, although we realize that doesn’t always happen. We try as best as we can to moderate the official servers, and keep them clear of mature content.

With Condo’s however, it is someone’s own server. The condo owner has complete reign over their condo. If they want to play explicit videos in their condo, they are allowed to do so, it’s their choice. The only rules in a condo are whatever the owner decides to enforce, no lobby server can dictate their rules on a Condo. When it comes to Condo to Lobby Chat, banning a player (I believe) will make it so their condo will no longer associate with that Lobby, and their chat should not carry over.

The parental controls planned will allow you to be able to completely disable canvases, by replacing them with stock images that Pixeltail selects. To go along with this, you’ll be able to disable the YouTube player in condos, as well as voice and text chat, as well as other features I haven’t stated here.

I want to say the plan is to have these parental rules condo-specific, so every time you visit a new condo, you can choose the level of blocking you want to enable, but I’m not 100% clear on that. I believe one of the things that might be possible as well is to be able to select a default filter for all condos, and selectively turn things ON instead of off, in kind of a white list type of scenario, but again, this is all up in the air.

Hopefully this answers some questions, again no ETA on when these parental controls would be in the game, but they are a planned feature.

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Really?

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I meant Text Chat. I just woke up and wrote that so forgive me, minor mistake.

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I’ll say what I said in discord just now.

Body pillows - or more accurately: canvas items, are completely up to the owner of the item to control. We aren’t telling them to do anything. We aren’t implying anything by adding the tools. They are simply tools.

How you use canvases is up to you, you can set it to anything. You could set pillow (canvas) to fabric or to different patterns like hearts. It is designed to be in the control of the owner.

Parental controls will come later, but this is an online game. If you’re worried about seeing content that you are not comfortable with - then don’t join other condos.

In short, we’re not going to “crackdown” on mature content, but give tools to prevent seeing said content through parental controls.

This wasn’t an over sight or something we didn’t think about. Canvas itself opens up the possibility to see content that you may not be comfortable with - just like the internet itself. We’re okay with that - but parental controls will help the end user from being subjected to mature content and it was always planned to add parental controls.

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Even though this is unnecessary, I think it would still be a good idea to add “mark as mature” to canvas items anyways. This way, players with matured content disabled can still see safe images in the same condo.

In a similar fashion, allowing the community to create a database of mature YouTube videos would allow players with parental controls to still watch safe videos.

I feel it’s not a good idea to not have a middle-point in this situation. You either risk seeing mature content more often, or not seeing any community content at all. Yes, my idea only works if most of the community tags their mature stuff, but it’s better than nothing.

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I agree with your first point, but the database is next to impossible considering how huge YouTube is.

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I’m glad parental controls were thrown in for people who can’t handle such explicit material, as well as being glad how they did not shut down the entire system due to sensationalism and the over all triggering of all across the world as well as the quote used time and time again to think of the children. Keep up the good work pixeltail games in making sure your doing things to keep free speech possible as it can be as well as making the others still feel comfortable with options for them as well.

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I think you have suggested a good middle ground. The ability to flag canvases (and maybe whole condos) as mature seems like a way to be able to see sfw content (and what ever crazy things people make up with canvases.) While keeping nsfw content out for those who don’t want it. Though it does have the problem of either being abused by the owner or the community, depending on who dictates tagging stuff.

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