CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses sexual assault and incest.
No Mercy, an online video game that depicts rape and incest, raised alarms this week before promptly being geo-blocked in Australia.
The game was released on Steam, one of the world’s largest online video game stores, on March 22 this year. However, the wider public caught wind of it this week, leading to its ban from both Australia and Canada.
The incident with No Mercy has raised many questions about Valve, the parent company of Steam, choosing not to moderate content that appears on its platform. Or whether it plans to do anything to prevent similar games from being sold in the future.
What is No Mercy?
No Mercy, as its Steam description states, is a “3D choice-driven adult Visual Novel with a huge focus on Incest and Male Dominance.”
Choice-focused visual novels make up a large portion of NSFW games on Steam, thanks to their ease of creation. Players are given a series of scenes they can click through, with dialogue choices along the way. In certain visual novels, these eventually lead to sexual scenes as a ‘reward’ for your choices. For No Mercy, these sexual scenes are with multiple female members of the character’s family.
The game further states, “After your mother’s affair shatters your family, you take on a new role: not to fix what’s broken, but to claim her for yourself.”
“In this game, you’ll either become every woman’s worst nightmare… or rather: the best dick they’ll ever have. Never take ‘no’ for an answer.”
The game was developed by Zerat Games and was available for $17.75 AUD. No Mercy is the developer’s first and only title, partially funded on Patreon. It’s unclear if the developer plans to release more games in the future.
As of the time of writing, the game has a “Very Positive” rating on Steam, with over 100 reviews. However, one of the top-rated reviews for the game doesn’t recommend the title.
“While the scenes are nicely done for the most part, having no option to play a “nice guy” or a “good guy” is not right.” user Drachster said. “This is the most depraved game I think I have ever personally played.”
How did this happen?
As a platform, Steam has notoriously taken a hands-off approach to moderating the games that appear on its store. In 2018, Valve declared it would not moderate content on its platform except where legally required.
“If you’re a player, we shouldn’t be choosing for you what content you can or can’t buy. If you’re a developer, we shouldn’t be choosing what content you’re allowed to create,” said Valve in its statement.
David Smith, the Digital and Social Producer at ABC Gamer, said, “In practice, [Valve’s decision has] been a handwaving of responsibility that has allowed the proliferation of extreme and extremist content.”
“In trying to ensure developers aren’t restrained in what they can publish on Steam, Valve has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. In trying to remove itself as an obstacle to developer creativity, it has unleashed a plague on its own platform and then turned a blind eye to it.”
According to Statista, an average of 41 games are uploaded to Steam per day. These games range from big-budget releases from expensive studios to small games released by independent developers. Valve does not manually approve any of these games.
To sell a game on Steam is as easy as building a store page and paying $100 USD. This has inevitably led to all sorts of games appearing on the platform and being recommended to gamers of all ages. These can range from misleading and broken games, to extreme pornographic titles like No Mercy.
Many have criticised Valve for this approach, including the US Senate. However, Valve remains unphased and seems unflinching about changing this policy.
The Australian Classifications Board told PEDESTRIAN.TV, “Where specific titles on Steam have been identified as non-compliant or potentially in breach of classification legislation, the Department has engaged directly with the platform. In each instance, including the case of No Mercy, Steam has voluntarily removed the offending content from its Australian storefront.”
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Valve for comment, but have yet to hear back at the time of writing.
What are the dangers of allowing these games on Steam?
One of the dangers of video games like No Mercy depicting sexual violence towards women is that it can normalise misogynistic beliefs and harmful gender stereotypes.
As the game proudly advertises in its description, this is a purely violent fantasy that players get to indulge in. This reinforces toxic and harmful beliefs in men and puts women at serious risk.
In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, CEO of Women in Games Dr Marie-Claire Isaaman shared, “The fact that a game like this is available on Steam — one of the world’s largest gaming platforms — is utterly unacceptable. It sends a clear and distressing message: that violence against women is not only tolerable but playable. That message has no place in our industry, our communities, or our society.”
Another issue with having such a big store like Steam host these types of games, is it enables imitators to do the same. “If even one of these ‘rape’ games finds success on a platform like Steam, 100 imitators (that parent company Valve will also do nothing about) will try to capitalise,” said Smith.
What happens now?
Several people have taken to social media to demand the game be removed from Steam entirely.
Collective Shout, a grassroots organisation that rallied to remove Andrew Tate‘s instructional sex trafficking course on Spotify, has gotten involved. It’s launched a Change.org petition calling on Steam to remove No Mercy from its platform worldwide.
Rhea, a supporter of the petition, said, “I am a survivor of multiple instances of sexual assault and abuse. As a gamer, I am surviving sexual abuse, threats and just plain female shaming all the time,” she shared in her response to the survey. “There is such an embedded culture of misogynistic practices, abuse, belittling and toxicity in the male gaming community that I am terrified [of] what behaviour that games like No Mercy will produce.”
Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper said that by treating rape as entertainment, No Mercy puts all women at risk.
“Steam is complicit. In hosting this rape simulation game, they are endorsing crimes of violence against women,” she said.
Some publications have connected this game to the upcoming Social Media ban, using it as an example to advocate for keeping children off these platforms. Smith, however, urges people not to get their hopes up.
“This won’t change when the Albanese Government’s social media ban takes effect in Australia later this year,” shared Smith. “As gaming services like Steam are excluded from these laws, Valve will not be compelled to verify the age of its local users.”
The closest Valve has come in addressing users purchasing uncomfortable games on their platform came as an update, which allowed users to hide shameful games in their Steam Libraries. Before this update, users could visit each other’s profiles to view what games they own, or visit store pages themselves to see who else owns the game. Now, users can hide select titles from friends viewing their profiles.
Valve hasn’t announced any content moderation plans yet. This means future games like No Mercy will continue to show up without changes from Valve.
“I struggle to think of many other digital game stores that would be comfortable hosting a game like No Mercy on their platform,” admitted Smith.
“For a platform of Steam’s scale and popularity, with an enviable position as a global tastemaker, to take no interest in the games people are publishing and that its users are being served is mind-blowing.”
Help is available.
If you’re in distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online. If it’s an emergency, please call 000.
Under 25? You can reach the Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
Image credit: iStock
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