In all artforms, there will always be things that provoke, things that invigorate, and things that offend. In the world of provocative or entertaining material, one of the most prevalent in today's society is the inclusion of nudity, or sexual or otherwise lascivious acts. This has long been thought to be a paragon of offensive material, one that should be shunned, and pushed to the shadows by polite society.



The time has come to end this trend.



A sign of advancing culture in the world in the present day is that of sex positivity is becoming more and more prevalent. Slowly going are the days when we looked upon the actors, the creators, and the creations that include adult sexual content with disgust, and such creations are becoming more and more prevalent and accepted in the mainstream of today. But this acceptance does not come without game-changers willing to step forward and make the changes necessary.



For years, the biggest clincher to the marketing or the passage of adult content has been the market itself. Venues and platforms actively refuse to carry content, much like yourself, citing any number of frankly nonsense reasons for doing so, but if the frequency of adult material on the Internet has taught us anything, and the growth of amateur markets that allow people to become stars in their own right, the allowance and the distribution of such materials is not itself harmful to society as a whole, and it is indeed healthy for the market, for the viewer, and for those involved in its creation.



The following are reasons to consider this request, and methods of implementation that would ensure that such an implementation would go smoothly.



Enterprise: The Free Marketplace of Ideas, to be free, must be allowed to flourish in whatever direction it can. And the diversity of those ideas is what keeps markets healthy. Steam is not without diversity, but there is no reason to disclude markets solely on moral grounds when other markets could be targeted on their own moral standing just as easily. Freedom in expression means freedom in All expression, even that which we might not actually want to see, otherwise, the goalposts of what is "Allowed" begin to move closer any closer to a problem state whenever anyone wishes to put their foot down about what is morally acceptable.



Safety: The systems by which safety can be ensured when it comes to access to materials in terms of those that may not be of legal age to view it already exist here on Steam. Steam already contains an age verification system, as well as any number of methods that could be employed to continue verification, as well as to ensure that user privacy is kept as it should be(Obfuscation of games being played, automatic obfuscation of achievements or trading cards from adult-rated games with a player opt-in of displaying such things, etc).



Legality: Adult material is not legal in all municipalities. However, Steam already has systems in place to verify locality when it comes to where you log in, and what you do. Therefore, it would be no difficulty to implement a system by which certain content would not be accessible in certain nations where the law does not permit access, if Steam is concerned with such things. Even if this were not implemented in such a way as to be forceful(And it shouldn't be), a gateway system could be put into place to ensure that players accept the responsibility for their actions and agree that they understand that some content may not be legal to access where they live.



Opt-In: Players could, by default, be opted out of viewing adult content, which would obfuscate all games, achievements, or content with an adult rating. An option could be added into the menu that would allow players to select whether they see adult content, and whether their participation in adult-content based games is visible to other players.

A healthy approach to sexuality: Taboo has never served sexuality in any good way whatsoever. Enforcing social taboos on sexuality only creates a fearful, anxious, and troublesome mindset in persons of all ages. Any step that we can take, and I believe Steam is a good platform to start on this path, to opening those taboos to question, and indeed bypassing the taboo factor altogether, is a step towards an altogether healthier society, and a healthier social climate all around.



We understand that payment processors may attempt to enforce their own rules regarding what content can or cannot be accessed. It is possible that this could be bypassed as a concern by using payment processing systems that would allow the content in question to be purchased, as well as ensuring that the existing processors understand that Valve is taking every precaution necessary in order to ensure that the material in question does not fall into the wrong hands, lawfully speaking.



We, the undersigned, humbly request that the Valve Corporation, and Gabe Newell, Managing Director of Valve, consider releasing the Terms of Service as it pertains to adult content, and open the market of expression in gameplay to all forms, allowing the powerful platform you maintain to become a paragon of free expression, and an example to the rest of the games industry.



Thank you for your consideration.