Journalism Against Uncensored Fiction
In 1922, Walter Lipmann used the phrase "manufacture of consent" to describe the complex process of centralizing public opinion for its presentation to Democratic forces, instead of relying on an inconsistent and uninformed public. Journalism is one of the means opinions can be centralized with the required consistency and factuality for any public-adhereing force. Based on how gaming tabloids have acted, the opinion they have been centralizing to the public-adhereing fiction creators, publishers, and platforms is one that supports fiction censorship.
Gaming journalists, informed by their expert opinions as radfems and progressives, manufactured consent for censorship against fiction. The core opinion being centralized wasn't actually a radfeminist or progressive idea, instead it was an Anti-Fiction idea. The Anti-Fiction activists want fiction's content/expressions restricted, censored, and sometimes criminalized. Radfeminism and progressivism is just a costume that informs what fiction will be targeted and scapegoated. Religious conservatism is another costume that can inform the fiction scapegoating and targeting. The #1 enemy of uncensored fiction is the anti-fiction restrictions/censorship policies.
[Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 never released in Western regions because of anti-fiction activists' articles against the previous games.[a-1] Instead, the English version of the game released for the Asia region. Additionally, following Sony's censorship policies that were enacted in 2018[a-2], Dead or Alive Xtreme 3's expanded re-release "Scarlet" was censored on PlayStation 4[a-3] [a-4] [a-5]. The Switch version of DOAX3 Scarlet released uncensored, although the Senran Kagura collab (despite being more censored than its original DOAX3 Fortune release) was exclusive to the PlayStation 4[a-6]. Arguably, anti-fiction articles like these inspired Sony's anti-fiction policies. Note: Sony's censorship policies that superseded age-ratings boards (CERO, ESRB, PEGI, ect.) were still active as of 2025.[a-7]]
[Originally, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3's VR update was going to have interactivity.[b-1] However because of anti-fiction articles published in Western publications, the VR mode released as a model viewer. Source [b-2] is a Japanese article that neutrally reported on the Western articles against the VR mode, showing that the controversy was from Western-led, anti-fiction publications. Koei Tecmo's Yohei Shimbori stated to PlayStation Universe when talking about restricting the sexualization in Dead or Alive 6, "There are a lot of different things involved in this approach. With DOAX3 we probably took it a little too far with the way things were shown in that game, and with the VR version we got a lot of flak for that." [b-3]
[This final article is truly awful because the author failed report on the actual controversy. The author falsely claimed it was about a "supposed Widowmaker butt nerf" in the title. She outright stated the controversy was about the "size of Widowmaker's butt" within the article.[c-1] She downplayed the actual controversy which was about Cammy's leotard having shorts added on top of it for the Overwatch 2 outfit. The PCGamer article even crops the the image that would've shown the censorship. Both Street Fighter and Overwatch 2 are rated T. The censorship was made under Blizzard's anti-fiction restrictions. The censored outfit can be seen on the following Destructoid article: Overwatch 2’s Street Fighter collab brings out the brawlers—and the Widowmaker booty. Intrestingly, this Destructoid article is clearly written with intent to market the collab. Despite showing the censorship in the article's image unlike the anti-fiction PCGamer article, the Destructoid article has no mention of the censorship despite its praise for "Widowmaker booty."]
How Companies Responded to Journalism by Creating Anti-Fiction Restrictions
PR firms and quality assurance teams read the many anti-fiction articles that verbalized a public opinion against freedom of fictional expression. The consent of the public for fiction censorship was centralized and presented by the tabloids. To censor/restrict fictional expressions, companies established ethics departments with the goal of censoring fiction as middlemen. For example, Square Enix's ethics department restricted Tifa's chest with the black sports bra.[1] Alternatively, companies took input from their localization teams, like Bandai Namco[2], and made middlemen localizers serve as the fiction-censoring consultants.
Contacted by external help, companies worked with independent consultants that ensured fictional expressions were restricted to adhering to the latest consultant dogma. For example, Square Enix had a working relationship with the consultancy group Sweet Baby inc.[3] The series designer and creator of Enix's Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii, questioned the restriction of Body Type A and B replacing male and female while promoting Dragon Quest III HD-2D.[4] Decisions made by middlemen consultants like Body Type A and B were considered unnecessary by the series designer. While not inherently an anti-fiction restriction imposed on creators, Body Type A and B is usually the result of consultant-led and publisher-led restrictions on the fictional expressions of creators (just like with Dragon Quest III HD-2D).
Significantly more existential anti-fiction restrictions, like how Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Steam, Google, and Apple all supersede rating boards to censor fiction, is almost never talked about in mainstream gaming publications. And in the rare cases they are, the publications publish anti-fiction virtue signals that support the fiction censorship.
For example, a month after Steam opened its store to porn games and committed to "allow everything onto the Steam Store, except for things that we decide are illegal, or straight up trolling,"[5] Steam began objecting to games with bans and censorship. Here's a quote from a December 2018 Kotaku report on Steam censoring/banning games despite Steam's recent commitment, "Over the past few weeks, the company has removed the store pages of several visual novels, including cross-dressing yaoi romance Cross Love, catholic school visual novel Hello Goodbye, 'story about the love between siblings' (yuck) Imolicious, and cat girl game MaoMao Discovery Team."[6]
Imagine if this author put the "yuck" after the yaoi (male on male) romance game. The Kotaku editors would never allow it. The "yuck" was a statement manufacturing consent for fiction censorship. The opinion of someone against Imolicious was centralized and presented to PR teams through Kotaku, while those supporting fiction uncensorship were left without a voice. This provided foundation for Steam's progression of their anti-fiction policies that affect nonpornographic games and even age-rated (by ESRB, CERO, PEGI, ect.) games, despite the platform allowing for porn games.
[Note the above was before the Collective Shout controversy. Steam has had anti-fiction policies since they banned 2017's The Key To Home. Additionally, Nintendo of America and Europe are not viable for otaku games. Since 2022's Duel Princess ban by Nintendo in all regions and 2023's The Fox Awaits Me HANA ban by Nintendo of America and Europe, Nintendo has superseded age-ratings boards to create their own anti-fiction policies. Specifically, Nintendo of America and Europe have a stance against anime faces for appearing underage, regardless of body type and fictional age.[d-1] [d-2] [d-3] [d-4] Nintendo of America and Europe's post-2022 stance made them the strictest anti-fiction platform holders.]
How Vice Censored Ana Valen's Report Against the Fiction-Scapegoating Organization Collective Shout
Journalists' messages reflect the editors and publisher. This is by design. The articles ultimately serve the speech of the journal. The message is the medium. Journalist sites reasonably won't publish anything contrary to the owners and editors. However, the recent Collective Shout controversy proved how this works against fiction uncensorship advocacy.
Collective Shout is an Australian anti-porn and anti-sexualization/SWERF (sex work exclusionary radical feminist) organization. The organization preformed an email campaign against payment processors to apply anti-fiction scrutiny against Steam and itch.io. This campaign succeeded because Mastercard and Visa (with Paypal and Stripe by extension) already had anti-fiction censorship policies. Collective Shout easily informed the payment processors that Steam and itch.io had additional fictional content that wasn't complying with the paymemt processors' already-existing fictional content bans.
Regardles of what one thinks of former Vice Journalist Ana Valens, she wrote an indepth Vice article reporting against Collective Shout. She wrote her article against the fiction censorship while being woke herself. Ultimately, it was taken down NOT because of journalistic issues, but "due to concerns about the controversial subject matter." Functionally, Vice's owners stood in support of Collective Shout. Seemingly, the only opinion easily allowed to be centralized is that fiction should be scapegoated rather than defended.
Gatekeep The Anti-Fiction Activists
Supporting pro-fiction publications and advocating against anti-fiction publications is incredibly important. The individual journalists are relatively irrelevant when compared to the systemic failing of mainstream fiction-covering publications aligning with anti-fiction activism. Either through the frequent publishing of anti-fiction activism or restricting coverage about fiction censorship, the fiction-covering publications have manfactured our consent for PR teams across the globe to create anti-fiction restrictions.
Automaton Media and Bounding Into Comics are among the few journalistic publications that consistently covered fiction censorship when it has occurred. Without BoundingIntoComics, my previous forum post citing Apple and Google as behind KManaga's censorship would be without a source. BoundingIntoComics questioned Kodansha about the censorship of manga in KManaga, unlike other fiction-covering publications which didn't even cover the situation. KManaga's response to the inquiry revealed that they were complying with Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store's anti-fiction restrictions. As for Automaton Media, it has published numerous articles reporting on the Western payment processors of VISA and Mastercard's censorship against Japanese fiction. In total, both publications have covered Nintendo's, Sony's, Microsoft's, Apple's, and Google's censorship of video games when many gaming publications did not.
Fiction-covering publications have been occupied by the anti-fiction activists for a long time. The Anti-Fiction must be gatekept. They are the enemy of fiction.
In 1922, Walter Lipmann used the phrase "manufacture of consent" to describe the complex process of centralizing public opinion for its presentation to Democratic forces, instead of relying on an inconsistent and uninformed public. Journalism is one of the means opinions can be centralized with the required consistency and factuality for any public-adhereing force. Based on how gaming tabloids have acted, the opinion they have been centralizing to the public-adhereing fiction creators, publishers, and platforms is one that supports fiction censorship.
Gaming journalists, informed by their expert opinions as radfems and progressives, manufactured consent for censorship against fiction. The core opinion being centralized wasn't actually a radfeminist or progressive idea, instead it was an Anti-Fiction idea. The Anti-Fiction activists want fiction's content/expressions restricted, censored, and sometimes criminalized. Radfeminism and progressivism is just a costume that informs what fiction will be targeted and scapegoated. Religious conservatism is another costume that can inform the fiction scapegoating and targeting. The #1 enemy of uncensored fiction is the anti-fiction restrictions/censorship policies.
[Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 never released in Western regions because of anti-fiction activists' articles against the previous games.[a-1] Instead, the English version of the game released for the Asia region. Additionally, following Sony's censorship policies that were enacted in 2018[a-2], Dead or Alive Xtreme 3's expanded re-release "Scarlet" was censored on PlayStation 4[a-3] [a-4] [a-5]. The Switch version of DOAX3 Scarlet released uncensored, although the Senran Kagura collab (despite being more censored than its original DOAX3 Fortune release) was exclusive to the PlayStation 4[a-6]. Arguably, anti-fiction articles like these inspired Sony's anti-fiction policies. Note: Sony's censorship policies that superseded age-ratings boards (CERO, ESRB, PEGI, ect.) were still active as of 2025.[a-7]]
[Originally, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3's VR update was going to have interactivity.[b-1] However because of anti-fiction articles published in Western publications, the VR mode released as a model viewer. Source [b-2] is a Japanese article that neutrally reported on the Western articles against the VR mode, showing that the controversy was from Western-led, anti-fiction publications. Koei Tecmo's Yohei Shimbori stated to PlayStation Universe when talking about restricting the sexualization in Dead or Alive 6, "There are a lot of different things involved in this approach. With DOAX3 we probably took it a little too far with the way things were shown in that game, and with the VR version we got a lot of flak for that." [b-3]
[This final article is truly awful because the author failed report on the actual controversy. The author falsely claimed it was about a "supposed Widowmaker butt nerf" in the title. She outright stated the controversy was about the "size of Widowmaker's butt" within the article.[c-1] She downplayed the actual controversy which was about Cammy's leotard having shorts added on top of it for the Overwatch 2 outfit. The PCGamer article even crops the the image that would've shown the censorship. Both Street Fighter and Overwatch 2 are rated T. The censorship was made under Blizzard's anti-fiction restrictions. The censored outfit can be seen on the following Destructoid article: Overwatch 2’s Street Fighter collab brings out the brawlers—and the Widowmaker booty. Intrestingly, this Destructoid article is clearly written with intent to market the collab. Despite showing the censorship in the article's image unlike the anti-fiction PCGamer article, the Destructoid article has no mention of the censorship despite its praise for "Widowmaker booty."]
How Companies Responded to Journalism by Creating Anti-Fiction Restrictions
PR firms and quality assurance teams read the many anti-fiction articles that verbalized a public opinion against freedom of fictional expression. The consent of the public for fiction censorship was centralized and presented by the tabloids. To censor/restrict fictional expressions, companies established ethics departments with the goal of censoring fiction as middlemen. For example, Square Enix's ethics department restricted Tifa's chest with the black sports bra.[1] Alternatively, companies took input from their localization teams, like Bandai Namco[2], and made middlemen localizers serve as the fiction-censoring consultants.
Contacted by external help, companies worked with independent consultants that ensured fictional expressions were restricted to adhering to the latest consultant dogma. For example, Square Enix had a working relationship with the consultancy group Sweet Baby inc.[3] The series designer and creator of Enix's Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii, questioned the restriction of Body Type A and B replacing male and female while promoting Dragon Quest III HD-2D.[4] Decisions made by middlemen consultants like Body Type A and B were considered unnecessary by the series designer. While not inherently an anti-fiction restriction imposed on creators, Body Type A and B is usually the result of consultant-led and publisher-led restrictions on the fictional expressions of creators (just like with Dragon Quest III HD-2D).
Significantly more existential anti-fiction restrictions, like how Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Steam, Google, and Apple all supersede rating boards to censor fiction, is almost never talked about in mainstream gaming publications. And in the rare cases they are, the publications publish anti-fiction virtue signals that support the fiction censorship.
For example, a month after Steam opened its store to porn games and committed to "allow everything onto the Steam Store, except for things that we decide are illegal, or straight up trolling,"[5] Steam began objecting to games with bans and censorship. Here's a quote from a December 2018 Kotaku report on Steam censoring/banning games despite Steam's recent commitment, "Over the past few weeks, the company has removed the store pages of several visual novels, including cross-dressing yaoi romance Cross Love, catholic school visual novel Hello Goodbye, 'story about the love between siblings' (yuck) Imolicious, and cat girl game MaoMao Discovery Team."[6]
Imagine if this author put the "yuck" after the yaoi (male on male) romance game. The Kotaku editors would never allow it. The "yuck" was a statement manufacturing consent for fiction censorship. The opinion of someone against Imolicious was centralized and presented to PR teams through Kotaku, while those supporting fiction uncensorship were left without a voice. This provided foundation for Steam's progression of their anti-fiction policies that affect nonpornographic games and even age-rated (by ESRB, CERO, PEGI, ect.) games, despite the platform allowing for porn games.
[Note the above was before the Collective Shout controversy. Steam has had anti-fiction policies since they banned 2017's The Key To Home. Additionally, Nintendo of America and Europe are not viable for otaku games. Since 2022's Duel Princess ban by Nintendo in all regions and 2023's The Fox Awaits Me HANA ban by Nintendo of America and Europe, Nintendo has superseded age-ratings boards to create their own anti-fiction policies. Specifically, Nintendo of America and Europe have a stance against anime faces for appearing underage, regardless of body type and fictional age.[d-1] [d-2] [d-3] [d-4] Nintendo of America and Europe's post-2022 stance made them the strictest anti-fiction platform holders.]
How Vice Censored Ana Valen's Report Against the Fiction-Scapegoating Organization Collective Shout
Journalists' messages reflect the editors and publisher. This is by design. The articles ultimately serve the speech of the journal. The message is the medium. Journalist sites reasonably won't publish anything contrary to the owners and editors. However, the recent Collective Shout controversy proved how this works against fiction uncensorship advocacy.
Collective Shout is an Australian anti-porn and anti-sexualization/SWERF (sex work exclusionary radical feminist) organization. The organization preformed an email campaign against payment processors to apply anti-fiction scrutiny against Steam and itch.io. This campaign succeeded because Mastercard and Visa (with Paypal and Stripe by extension) already had anti-fiction censorship policies. Collective Shout easily informed the payment processors that Steam and itch.io had additional fictional content that wasn't complying with the paymemt processors' already-existing fictional content bans.
Regardles of what one thinks of former Vice Journalist Ana Valens, she wrote an indepth Vice article reporting against Collective Shout. She wrote her article against the fiction censorship while being woke herself. Ultimately, it was taken down NOT because of journalistic issues, but "due to concerns about the controversial subject matter." Functionally, Vice's owners stood in support of Collective Shout. Seemingly, the only opinion easily allowed to be centralized is that fiction should be scapegoated rather than defended.
Gatekeep The Anti-Fiction Activists
Supporting pro-fiction publications and advocating against anti-fiction publications is incredibly important. The individual journalists are relatively irrelevant when compared to the systemic failing of mainstream fiction-covering publications aligning with anti-fiction activism. Either through the frequent publishing of anti-fiction activism or restricting coverage about fiction censorship, the fiction-covering publications have manfactured our consent for PR teams across the globe to create anti-fiction restrictions.
Automaton Media and Bounding Into Comics are among the few journalistic publications that consistently covered fiction censorship when it has occurred. Without BoundingIntoComics, my previous forum post citing Apple and Google as behind KManaga's censorship would be without a source. BoundingIntoComics questioned Kodansha about the censorship of manga in KManaga, unlike other fiction-covering publications which didn't even cover the situation. KManaga's response to the inquiry revealed that they were complying with Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store's anti-fiction restrictions. As for Automaton Media, it has published numerous articles reporting on the Western payment processors of VISA and Mastercard's censorship against Japanese fiction. In total, both publications have covered Nintendo's, Sony's, Microsoft's, Apple's, and Google's censorship of video games when many gaming publications did not.
Fiction-covering publications have been occupied by the anti-fiction activists for a long time. The Anti-Fiction must be gatekept. They are the enemy of fiction.
Last edited:
