hi! i have a successful itchio account where i've posted many non-porn games, as well as a book ( https://quakeroc.itch.io/ ) and where i'm planning to eventually release games/VNs more oriented toward my primary fetish communities (macro, feet, etc) that i already do written commissions for. i have a lot on my mind about the recent revelations that itch stripped away certain features (namely, acting as the middleman between the products and the payment processors of choice) from certain users, and i'm going to try to say my piece without too much speculation or fear.
what i don't know:
- whether these restrictions are at a few targeted people or the start of a systemic change
- whether payment processors, when directly sent to from itch, are able to see what games the payments are for
- whether this is blown out of proportion fearmongering or a legitimate crisis seeding
what i do know is that i won't stop making what i want to make. payment processors, paypal/stripe/etc, are all pieces of shit that we nevertheless have to play around because corporate bigwigs faint at the sight of something as basic as a side-booby, but there really aren't any serious alternatives. like, what, am i gonna ask people to western union me their commission shit? lmfao.
as it stands, i keep my info as far away from my paypal as possible. i use an email divorced from LITERALLY everything else, don't let people send messages when they commission me, etc. it's all i can do now. the problem comes in that i want to release anthologies of adult-tinged works on itch, as well as blatant macro porn games (with a lot of heart!) on the platform as well. without the buffer of itch hiding what the payments are for from payment processors, i'd be shit out of luck in that regard. i'd have to self-distribute through dropbox links and individual paypal invoices, which i think you all realize would Suck Ass and be such a Fucking Hassle.
no matter what, though, even if i have to give these things away for free and pay the artists and other contributors out of my own fucking pockets, i am not going to give up on what i want to do. i can't.
there's too much joy in the hearts and reactions of people i write for. there are too many messages from people who play my non-porn games and read my book and say that they get so much affirmation, emotion, joy, etc, from them. i can't give up on making things for people. i can't give up on being an author that creates the things i love so easily.
even if there's no profit in it, i have to keep going.
i just hope itch isn't doing what we fear it's doing.
