we are not standing, we are falling

(Continued from part two.)

Still on January 19th, [GIRL] FireballNitro ♥ commented:

This piece of godlike work deserves to be glorified in front of Adolf Hitler.

I can't even respond to that. You have to be a troll.

Moving into the evening of January 19th, [TWC]Stradar said:

Wtf is this Shit sounds like Pro-Choice Garbage!! Please dont bring this shit into games!!

Isn't that the point of the game, though? It's not strictly 'pro-choice' or 'anti-woman' 'pro-life', because you are helping make the decisions on what this young girl is going to do. Now, if that's not something an individual gamer wants to do, that's perfectly understandable. But there are all sorts of games, for all sorts of people; as much as I despise Hatred as a game, and think the developers are wrong to put it out, as a game in and of itself that's all it is--a way to pass time, a way to entertain ourselves. Some of us like to be challenged, some of us just want the easy romp, some want to be scared, some want to harvest cute vegetables and raise fluffy pets. There are games for all of us.

From Sam:

You should totally add item drops like in cs:go. Play the game long enough and you can unlock different skins for your coat hanger.

And the misogyny on parade begins.

Commenter whathump (alienjh) keeps it succinct:

This game looks bad and you should feel bad.

Really? Considering it's essentially a visual novel, and the bulk of the art is one girl, standing by a fence (oh, metaphor), I suppose "looks bad" is your way of saying it doesn't have enough guns, or something. From an artistic standpoint, though, there is animation in each frame--subtle, but it is there. And there are moments of action, though I fully grant you, whathump, it's almost assuredly action you would fail to recognize in the least.

From Numquam on the 20th:

I will not support something coming on steam without given any gameplay examples. And if that video was a gameplay example, this clearly is a poorly done video game and not deserving of being released on Steam. Games need gameplay.

I have to assume that most people are just reading the title of the game, and ignoring everything else that the developers have said on the page. Because thee's a clearly given link to a playable demo; in point of fact, that entire line of writing says:

Try the demo right now at www.locomotivah.com/pregnancy

To me, that says I can click that to go download the demo, and OH WAIT I DID, because I'm not stupid.

From Bananoman:

Can my baby be an alien?

No. Because it's not your baby.

From Pyraax:

The day this gets accepted, the day I leave Steam. Please tell me this is just a troll attempt.

Why would it be? While games that are offered up on Greenlight are in various stages of completion, Pregnancy is one that is finished, so it's not a troll attempt, it's a completed game.

Moreover, you want to quit Steam, you can do that at any time. Doubt Steam--or Valve, the company behind Steam--would care either way.

From Sigurd on January 20th:

this is a joke?

Nope. Next?

An hour later, from the same commenter:

shut up we do not need a fake game.he has write a book about it not a game.

Who are you talking about, Sigurd? What fake game? What book?

From Tsubuyakj:

Anyone els suffering from extreme paranoiya and confusion trying to understand what this is? ...and if its legal?

It's "paranoia", it's pretty clear what it is, both by watching the video and by reading the blurb beneath it.

Assuming you can read, that is.

For the legality of it, sure, if we were shown graphic images of a living, actual fourteen-year-old girl being raped, then yes, it might very well be illegal, and in that case, Steam wouldn't be considering it for Greenlight. We are not shown that.



We are shown rape flashbacks, which are traumatizing for those of us who've suffered such, but are, on the face of those sections of the game alone, simply words on the screen, same as the rest of the game. Pregnancy is, at the end of the day, a text-based adventure start to finish. There are no scenes of violence, there are no real children being abused in a such a fashion; all depictions of Lilla's rape are descriptions, not pictorial representations.

From Asterette✿:

So she's 14 and got pregnant by a rapist/pedo... What decision she would make is obvious.

No so, Asterette. There are women who do not choose to abort, even after rape. I've known people who wouldn't be alive if their mothers had thought the situation was so cut and dried as you seem to think it is.

I'll be clear, here: I think abortion should be a basic reproductive right, until we grow into the kind of society that values all children, raises them responsibly, doesn't beat them, doesn't force sex on them. Since that may never happen, abortion is a necessary medical practice.

But that doesn't mean it's right and proper for everyone. We don't know Lilla's religion, and from the demo, we don't get a strong idea of her family, and the values they hold. She lives in Hungary; does that mean she's in a more conservative region, or not? She's fourteen and she's talking about music she likes and movies she likes, so I posit she's living in a larger city, or at least a suburb of a larger city, but even that doesn't mean much. And keep in mind, the whole point of pro-choice is not "an abortion in every home", but to give each woman who faces this decision the right to make this decision on their own.

Ultimately, taken out of game context, Lilla's situation should be hers and hers alone, but we are also social beings. She fears, at one point (in at least one chosen story path), telling her Aunt Panka the truth, because she's not sure how she will react. And that's honest.

In the most supportive family, in a family who holds a raped daughter, a raped niece, a raped granddaughter to be just as pure and beautiful as she was before the attack, in a family that would support her unconditionally no matter what she chose, it is still a decision. And while her family, her friends, her doctors can advise her on what to do, it's till ultimately her choice.

So no, Asterette, I don't think it's ever going to be that simple, for anyone who faces this decision, no matter who they are.

(Continued in part four.)