Dolphin Barn’s gladiator management sim Domina lost any appeal it had when, from May of last year, the developer began inserting screeds against “soft” men and LGBTQ people. (opens in new tab) in the game’s patch notes and forum discussions. The game’s official account has been banned from both Twitter and Bandcamp, with the person previously assimilated support for trans youth with pedophilia (opens in new tab) on the former platform.
Now the developer says it’s temporarily banned him from posting on his own game’s Steam forums, though he can still post Domina patch notes, the latest of which is (opens in new tab) accuses Valve and Steam Support of being “cowards”. Meanwhile, Domina’s “Mostly Negative” recent reviews are full of references to developer opinions, the game’s forums are a battleground, and Dolphin Barn’s recent ban shows that Steam’s quintessential laissez-faire moderation is turning its attention to direct the game.
Dolphin Barn posted a screenshot via his personal Twitter account (opens in new tab) with a post explaining the ban: “This is the second time one of your posts has violated our discussion rules and guidelines, specifically insulting or berating another user. We’re also seeing a trend of abusive messages being sent when players will be banned from your hub.”
Following a request to the user to adhere to the Community Guidelines, the post details the developer’s actions against negative Steam reviews and a possible way for Valve/Steam to escalate: “We also want to make it clear that your Steam -Don’t reverse moderator decisions or enable rule violations in your hub. Future disregard of our rules and guidelines could jeopardize our business relationship.At the time of writing, Valve has not confirmed the details of its communications with Dolphin Barn.
A quick read of the game’s recent reviews touches on one of the developer’s sticking points with Steam moderation: that it’s influenced by “fraudulent reviewers” and that its efforts to flag those reviews are hampered by Steam moderators. Most of those reviews cite the developer’s well-publicized anti-trans screeds, though some seem to criticize the game for the classes and features available in Domina’s beta branch, which will be made paid DLC in the live version — a possible wrinkle for the review moderation question.
The comments about several negative reviews, meanwhile, have featured fans of the game spewing despicable swear words at transgender people. Again, whatever merit Domina has had as a gladiator management sim, it doesn’t seem to be. from someone worry at the moment.
Valve’s stance on store moderation is that it won’t monitor content unless it’s illegal or “straight-up trolling.” (opens in new tab) That stance has been somewhat unique in the tech sphere, as companies like Twitter and Facebook have adopted stricter moderation policies in the face of online harassment and misinformation.
Previously Removed Valve School Shooting FPS Active Shooter (opens in new tab) based on trolling and customer abuse. Domina may present another challenge to delisting based on that precedent, as the play yourself is less of an issue – although the developer’s use of patch notes as a vehicle for swear words may represent a more gray area.
This is a fascinating fringe case of a strange individual trying to cross the boundaries of a largely permissive system and so far only met with opposition from the grassroots. We’ve reached out to Valve for comment and will update when we hear back, and time will tell if the company takes further action or if Domina’s developer is getting less and less profit from a years-old indie game and the outcry surrounding its psychosexual patch-up. notes that make gruesome ruminations about the genitals and sex lives of gays and transgenders.
The game’s latest update has a certain defeatist tone: “At this point, it’s doubtful that Domina will receive future updates on Steam,” although Dolphin Barn’s activity over the past year and the change doesn’t lead me to believe that we the last of him.
Unlike the temperate swamp surrounding Domina, Nexus mods removes a homophobic Spider-Man mod with the simple message “We don’t and won’t argue this with you (opens in new tab)offers a refreshing contrast, with institutional moderation refusing to give a bad faith actor the benefit of the doubt.
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