Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. ～ C. S. Lewis

In light of recent policy changes, I’ve made the decision to suspend payments on Iridescence. The game has been PWYW for a long time now and I’ve never made more than a couple of hundred dollars in total. I don’t have any delusions that this will make a difference in any meaningful way to Itch’s bottom line. Call it self-satisfaction if you want.

I want to be very clear: Itch is not the enemy here, though the fact that they’ve frozen payouts to creators who were, until yesterday, in compliance with policy, is inexcusable. Collective Shout, the activist group who orchestrated the action which led to pressure from payment processor companies, are most directly to blame in this instance. But they are not the first interest group to get their way through moral handwringing and lies. There have been many before them and there will be many more. This is something much bigger.

Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal have an unimaginable amount of power when it comes to abridging freedom of expression. The new restrictions they’ve put into place, which Itch is now beholden to capitulate to, are a step towards a future I do not want. Regardless of my personal views on adult content or the subject matter of the games being targeted, I do not want three massive profit-driven corporations dictating what is and is not permissible across the globe.

The ongoing pressure for online storefronts to delist adult-oriented material is a worrying trend with no indication of slowing down. Nobody wants to stick their neck out for objectionable material and be accused of being a sicko, but it is naive and short-sighted for any of us to imagine that our own freedoms could be taken away by the very same forces that threaten our enemies.

Itch and Steam have bent the knee, but platforms are not the problem. Payment processors are.