The Super Seducer series has been having a hard time lately. The controversial series comes from professional pick-up artist Richard La Ruina, and acts as an interactive instruction manual for men to be successful with women. While the first two games in the series, both released in 2018, drew heavy criticism for the moral questions surrounding its premise, their releases were relatively uneventful (aside from a planned release on the Playstation 4 that was pulled shortly before release). The third game, initially set for release February 15th, has been plagued with issues.

The first sign of trouble was on February 3rd, during Steam's Game Festival promotion, where indie developers were allowed to release demos that would only be available for a limited time. Super Seducer 3's time was more limited than expected, however, as the demo was unceremoniously pulled only an hour after going up. Then, on February 11, Steam rejected the submitted build, citing the sexual imagery featuring live-action actors. (While plenty of explicit games can be found on Steam, they all feature animated characters rather than real people.) Since then, La Ruina has been censoring those scenes and resubmitting to Steam, before receiving a third and final rejection today, as Steam has totally banned the game from its storefront.

The game's future at this point is uncertain. La Ruina stated shortly before the ban that alternate storefronts (specifically, Epic Games Store and GOG) had rejected it, and that other methods were "not very attractive." Since the ban, however, he has stated he will have something ready for this week, and that the version he is aiming to release will be the original, fully uncensored version. The first two games were also expected to release on the Nintendo Switch in February of this year, with the third given a tentative date of late 2021, though that date came and went with no release, and only a brief mention from La Ruina that the release was still on track. He has also mentioned he may work on a similar branching path, FMV series focused on the horror genre, tentatively titled "Horror Seducer."

GBAtemp was lucky enough to receive a censored version of Super Seducer 3 for review prior to its initially projected release date. If you'd like to see exactly how bad the censored version (which has also been submitted to and rejected by Valve), you can read or watch our review here.

Steam have BANNED and removed Super Seducer 3 from the store. They will not allow it to be released in any form.

Our page is gone and 61,700 wish lists are gone.

Prior to this they told me expect either “approval or feedback”.
We repeatedly said we’d do whatever they needed pic.twitter.com/hVuDcvzL2n

— Richard La Ruina (@RichardGambler) March 20, 2021

 

[RedBlueGreen]

they wouldnt get censored if they made the product the market wanted. this is how capitalism works, dipass.

There's a market for games like this. It's niche but there is money to be made, and the first 2 games are on Steam. This one has no nudity same as the first 2, but has scantily clad women in a strip club scene. Steam has much worse stuff for sale than this game. I wouldn't be surprised if they're rejecting it because they're afraid some dumbasses will cry about how it's objectifying and exploiting "real women" (or as is the case to any sane person, consenting actresses playing fictional characters). Idiots do love to virtue signal to make themselves feel good, even if they're hypocrites and enjoy similar stuff when it's a medium they like or it appeals to them specifically.

I don't care for games like this, but Steam has way worse stuff than this for sale, and even has live action movies with nudity for sale (which violates their no real nudity stance they're using to reject games like this despite it not having nudity). Saying this game violates their rules is absolute nonsense.

Dating Sims sell. This will sell too. Niche products have always been a thing and they will continue to be a thing. You don't develop a work of art (yes, even this is art) to appeal to everyone, that leads to dumbing down games and resulting in a relatively mediocre experience. While this game would surely be bad to begin with, it's developed with an audience in mind, and those people will pay for it.

And let's be real here, the people who would bitch about this game and boycott it probably watch lots of shows with nudity. There are way more "damaging" games than something like this. The worst that comes out of this game is we get a bunch of awkward guys trying to pick up women using whatever cheesy lines they got from the game, and while it would be annoying, it's not harmful (yes it might be harassment, but I guarantee the people who will make a stink about it are just as bad, that's usually the case).

 

[Louse]

Does the market not want it or do a few vocal types not want Steam and a few other prominent sites to carry it and they in turn bent the knee? Rather large difference there.

I wouldn't know, I use Origin. Seems rather conspiratorial to me, however it might be warranted regarding this subject matter.

I'd really like to hope that the majority of people in the market for games wouldn't enjoy the objectification of women in a game, even if the resulting game is laughable at best.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

(or as is the case to any sane person, consenting actresses

very important clarification there

 

[SG854]

nothing of value was lost.

it's not a "play as a kkk member" level of obviously evil, but it's more of a ludicrous level of "people thinking abusive behaviour is smexy"..

Alot of people think being abusive is fun look at GTA. It's a video game though highly doubt it'll apply to real life.

 

[FAST6191]

I wouldn't know, I use Origin. Seems rather conspiratorial to me, however it might be warranted regarding this subject matter.

I'd really like to hope that the majority of people in the market for games wouldn't enjoy the objectification of women in a game, even if the resulting game is laughable at best.

Given we are told that merely having a tight body in a tighter bit of armour/clothing that invites the male gaze counts as objectification then you might find yourself disappointed.

Though as any book on marketing will tell you "sex sells" so I doubt we will see the rear end of it any time soon, and I am not sure I would care to if it is going to be some moral busybodies driving it.

 

[kevin corms]

Other than the fact the game seemed to be stupid and not fun, why ban it?

 

[Jaxom]

Only dumb people (or too young ones) won't be able to differentiate fiction from reality. I watched the two first games from let's plays and didn't get dragged by an irresistible force into the streets to try the game's pick up lines. For the GTA case, I think it's more related to catharsis, like in theatre.

Assisting people by dictating them what they have to think won't make them smarter. Philosophy works that way: see something, analyse it, find what's wrong and right about it, use what you already know to determine if it can be of a good influence for you and your relatives/friends/family/etc. Thinking for others and imposing your view of the world to the others is the true danger.

Take this game for what it is: a game. No more, no less. Let the people who want to buy and play it find if it can bring something to their life. And don't think that hiding horrors or bad behaviours will make them disappear from the surface of the world.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

How will I fulfill my fantasy of sexually harassing women now ??????

*jazz music stops*

 

[CrossOut]

I bet that he will just sell the game on its own website or something or perhaps Epic will buy it? I think it is silly that his game got banned from Steam and is very unfair to hm. Its just a game after all and made in jest. on a brighter note the game from Red Candle games called Devotion that was also banned is now purchaseable from their website here, https://shop.redcandlegames.com/games/devotion

 

[RedBlueGreen]

I'd really like to hope that the majority of people in the market for games wouldn't enjoy the objectification of women in a game, even if the resulting game is laughable at best.

What exactly makes this any worse than a game like GTA? Especially considering GTA has literal prostitutes you can murder, and this is just a conversation simulator for lonely men who think it'll help with their pick up game.

I'm not gonna tackle the "objectification of women" bit, but both sexes get objectified a lot.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

What exactly makes this any worse than a game like GTA?

The people you kill aren't established people with personalities and whatnot(I don't think this game is that bad, tho, tbh)

 

[RedBlueGreen]

The people you kill aren't established people with personalities and whatnot(I don't think this game is that bad, tho, tbh)

They're both fictional characters, the only difference is that one is portrayed by a real person on screen.

My real issue with people criticizing this game for reasons like that is that they've definitely objectified somebody at some point, and I'm sure a lot of them have watched shows and movies that do the same and have graphic nudity. Maybe they should boycott HBO.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

I'm sure a lot of them have watched shows and movies that do the same and have graphic nudity

Video games have been a specific target of stuff like this for a while now

 

[Meepers55]

Such a shame that a hilarious game like this is being put through the ringer.

 

[Kanakops]

Thing is, it wasn't.
Poe's Law is in full force here, and from all the context (and the fact this guy made TWO EQUALLY DEHUMANIZING ONES BEFORE THIS), it seems like he legitimately believes what he's saying.
Oh, and there's a big difference between "questionable hentai" and "game that literally teaches you to dehumanize and manipulate women in real life".
This game shouldn't have even existed. The fact the previous two haven't been wiped off the face of the earth by now is bad enough.

Dehumanize who ? Actresses who are willing to participate in comedy sketches? Why are we speaking for them, they are adults who have made choices but we are talking about them as if they were children who were tricked. It's a far cry from the porn industry where yes, women are dehumanized and there is room for debate.

And the game doesn't teach people how to manipulate anyone, if we try to apply the catchphrases presented in the game in real life, I doubt we will be successful (even if it's possible some people will find us funny since everyone is different and have their own humor.

This game does not introduce all the complex relationships that we will develop over time, this game is fiction and people have to know how to dissociate it from reality. This game is probably not for everyone but does it mean we need to remove it from steam ? No, especially when there is a lot of actual porn games available on the same platform.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Thing is, it wasn't.
Poe's Law is in full force here, and from all the context (and the fact this guy made TWO EQUALLY DEHUMANIZING ONES BEFORE THIS), it seems like he legitimately believes what he's saying.
Oh, and there's a big difference between "questionable hentai" and "game that literally teaches you to dehumanize and manipulate women in real life".
This game shouldn't have even existed. The fact the previous two haven't been wiped off the face of the earth by now is bad enough.

One could argue people like you making proclamations for the good of women is more dehumanizing than what games like this do. Attitudes like this are just as degrading because you're speaking on behalf of people you don't know like they're some sort of voiceless social cause.

I hate to break it you but a lot of women actually enjoy dumb stuff like this, and enjoy stuff like strip clubs. I doubt the actors would've done this if they had serious moral issues with it.