So, this question got opinion-based takedown, so I want to hear people's thoughts on it here. How would referencing animal abuse affect game sales?

oh yeah that is definitely opinion-based.

There are people who will take moral issue with it, and not buy your game. There are people who might not mind the fact that it is fictional, but personally abhor the reference, and won't play because it would upset them, not because it is morally wrong to reference it in a game.

the real question is, how MUCH would these kinds of things affect your sales?

Like in DbD (I work on it) we have a clown killer. some people are literally deathly afraid of clowns, and can't play in rounds against him.

we also have a barfing killer. people with emetophobia can't deal with that.

so it may affect our sales. but as a horror game... that's a risk we take.

@WG481 also there are se folks that will actively want to shut you down. Think how PETA is active.

Is PETA just wanting people to stop doing anything to animals, such as milk, meat, etc?

@ND523 (wherever he had disappeared to) has had this sort of question answered with LGBT characters rather than animal abuse, but I assume it's around the same sort of thing like you said @Almo.

I'm not a big fan of that particular question either. 😉

@DMGregory great comment

It upsets me that this whole sexuality thing is even an issue. What other people do together is none of anyone else's business.

I'd say it's getting to be less of an issue, but just last week Uganda passed a new slate of laws criminalizing same-sex relationships. 😫

:(

@Almo When you display it in a game you're making it people's business.

Personally I wouldn't care. If people don't like the relationships then they can go play something else, but I don't make money off of games either so it's easy for me to say.

On a um, funnier note, look at this suggested edit I got: gaming.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/305268

I like the suggester's attention to detail.

@nwp not sure I agree there.

it's like kissing your gay spouse in public makes it other peoples' business.

People already get annoyed by straight people making out in public.

yes, but it doesn't mean you get to say "don't be stright"

it says "don't make out in public"

it's not a gay issue.

But there it just is, you have the orientation you have, there was no choice involved. In games and fiction someone made the choice to make the characters gay or straight and being intimate on screen for a reason.

I don't think that matters at all

it's a choice to make characters straight in your narrative

It is. It's also a choice to mention characters' sexuality at all.

Again, personally I don't mind putting gay characters in games at all and get a kick out of pissing people off, but saying it's nobodies business seems wrong to me.

Then again virtue signalling is a real issue. Blizzard adding a gay scene in a shooter to claim they are pro LGBT is problematic in its own way.

It does mean they're at least not anti-gay

and they aren't afraid of loss of sales from people who are anti-gay

Not a completely empty gesture.

@DMGregory Some other countries have an agenda.

It's partly lobbying from American evangelical groups that led to that, so unfortunately it's not something safely distant "over there" - it's still with us here too.

:/

:(