For weeks, if not months, I had a certain tab open on my computer. I was not avoiding this tab, but had fallen into a loop of telling myself I’ll get to it eventually. It suddenly became the most urgent open tab I had after itch.io took the unfortunately precedented, but still chilling move to deindex all of its NSFW content. After witnessing the panicked messages on Bluesky from game developers in real time about this sudden hit to their work and income, I decided to finally visit the tab in question. 

It led to me finally playing Taylor McCue’s He Fucked The Girl Out Of Me, an award-winning semi-autobiographical game about a trans woman’s traumatic experience with sex work. Trigger warnings are included in the game for those interested in checking it out. HFTGOOM is the kind of game that is at risk of being lost from the string of NSFW censorship across game storefronts, a sentiment made explicitly clear by its own creator after the game was already deindexed on itch.io. 

Following the character Ann, players experience a short tale of how multiple influences, from pocket-draining college meal plans and hormone payments pre-Affordable Care Act, to mothers who deadname their children and invalidate their identity, to crushes who advertise you as their virgin stepsister despite both labels being wrong, combine to put Ann into a traumatic situation. The game can be finished within 30 minutes to an hour, but will leave most with enough to think about well past credits. It’s an honest reflection on the developer’s part that doesn’t glorify or demonize sex work, or those who engage with it, but instead offers a real and nuanced glimpse into a space many can be quick to look away from. 

The game also does a good job of showing how being trans was inseparable from this specific experience. It weaves in context throughout the story naturally, illuminating any player on matters like sex work’s historical relationship with the trans community, or how the cruel history of what happens to transgender people in prison further encourages a culture of silence. These are not in-depth breakdowns, but effective glimpses into the factors at play. Additionally, the developer’s commentary as events unfold translates how the fundamental need to be oneself while existing in spaces hostile to that endeavor contributed to this traumatic time. And again, it does all of this without trying to speak for a whole community. This is first and foremost a personal story, one that gives much to sit with and possibly relate to but never forgets that it is a specific person’s truth.

This praise isn’t to paint the game as the definitive text on how games can discuss trans people, sex work, sex generally, or any of the other topics it hits — I’m neither qualified to make that determination nor feel that many works should be given a potentially restrictive label like ‘definitive’ — but rather emphasize this game tackles each with a sincerity and honesty that makes it easy to recommend for anyone wanting a worthwhile perspective. It is important that a game like this exists. It is important that environments invested in the availability and preservation of games like this, that allow people to speak about what’s happened to them like this, exist. The actions taken by payment processors and groups like Collective Shout to censor NSFW content are fundamentally at odds with this existence. Speaking charitably, any world in which a game like HFTGOOM cannot safely exist is one invested in regression and malicious ignorance. 

Also, it’s worth stating that games including sex that aren’t as well-written, have different intentions, or just kinda suck, should be allowed to exist safely too. I hold the same anger at HFTGOOM being deindexed as I do for a game that’s sole purpose is getting someone hot and bothered. Everyone should be concerned about what’s happening, regardless of their own comfort with games that include sex and sexual topics, because censorship like this is an insatiable monster. It exploits larger society’s stunted and awkward relationship with sex to bludgeon everything it can into becoming whatever is acceptable for those in power. While discussions about the content and access of games including sexual topics should occur, they should not happen with the presumption that they are automatically harmful or wrong. To take blanket action against anything including topics that are uncomfortable or traditionally taboo, a term as flexibly defined as NSFW or adult-only, is nothing short of squashing the human experience.

If you’d like to hear more about this censorship issue from some of those directly affected, as well as learn what actions can help them at this time, consider reading Radiant G’s piece “On itch.io, payment processors, and the developers and creatives affected” and its Calls to Action section on Press SPACE to Jump.