Just a few weeks after Hook Up: The Game released on Android, developer Sophie Artemigi was surprised to see the visual novel flagged for inappropriate sexual content.
By the game’s own description, you play as Alex, “a sex positive twenty-something” who matches with her old high school bully on a dating app, so of course, sexual themes are part of the package. But inappropriate? That was unexpected.
Google Play does warn developers that content designed to be “sexually gratifying” is not allowed on the platform, but it can be tricky to know how exactly that’s being enforced. Take 7 Sexy Sins, for example, a game which has the player removing the armor from anime demon girls, only to “snap some pictures… for personal uses”. It’s got an age rating of 12+ and has been downloaded more than 10,000 times without being pulled from the platform.
By contrast, Hook Up: The Game is a narrative game about dating, relationships and learning to deal with past trauma.
Artemigi appealed the decision to find out exactly what had crossed the line in this case.
In response she was told that Google “don’t allow apps that contain or promote sexual content or profanity”, or “appear to promote a sexual act in exchange for compensation”.
“For example”, the response continued, “your app screenshots currently contain an image that depicts sexually suggestive poses and sexual nudity”.
The following image was included as proof, with red rectangles drawn over the offending content.
Image: Sophie Artemigi
You’ll note that the character’s breasts have been highlighted, but so has her belly button, which is just totally bizarre. Accordingly, Artemigi emailed back with her counterarguments.
First of all, Hook Up has nothing to do with sexual acts being performed in “exchange for compensation”, she explained. In an email shown to Kotaku, Artemigi asked why Google was conflating provocatively dressed women with sex workers?
As for the image itself, Artemigi argued that it’s meant to be reflective of the kind of pictures you might find on a dating app, which typically do not allow for pictures that are too revealing. It’s worth clarifying that Alex is not nude in this screenshot, but even if she was, the Play Store’s own policy states that nudity “may be allowed if the primary purpose is educational, documentary, scientific or artistic, and is not gratuitous”.
The illustration, Artemigi pointed out, was a direct reference to the statue of Napoleon’s sister and imperial princess, Pauline Boneparte, which you can see for yourself in Rome’s Galleria Borghese. It’s also pictured at the top of this article.
“That pose was specifically based on classical statues because there’s a reference to Alex feeling like her bully was this Greek god,” said Artemigi. “It’s meant to be about objectifying yourself and finding beauty in one’s self.”
But hey, sex is complicated and so, perhaps, are belly buttons.
After receiving another short reply stating that the screenshot depicts a “sexually nude and gratifying pose of a woman presented in a non-artistic way”, Artemigi asked to escalate the issue to somebody higher up in the policy team in the hopes of speaking to somebody who might appreciate the nuance of the situation.
The final response from her official Google contact once again pointed out that Hook Up was in violation of the platform’s policy, but this time ended with the following sentence:
“Regarding your concern about escalation, I am the highest form of escalation. Next to me is God. Do you wanna see God?”
Yikes.
“It was almost nice though,” said Artemigi, “because it kind of confirmed the vibe I’d been getting. I felt very dismissed, talked down to. At least they were honest in that one email, I’ll give them that.”
When asked for comment, Google told Kotaku that the person who wrote this email has now been removed from the developer support team.
Hook Up: The Game is still available to purchase on the Play Store, although it seemingly remains in breach of the company’s policy, meaning that Artemigi hasn’t been able to publish updates as she usually would.
It’s unclear whether this will have also affected the game’s standing on the platform, but it’s worth noting that despite hundreds of downloads and almost 40 reviews, searching “Hook Up: The Game” on the Play Store doesn’t bring up the game in my search results. Like, at all.
In fact, the only way I was able to find it via search was to use the full name of the developer.
There’s been no such problems over on iOS, although different screenshots are being used to market the game for that platform.
