[HoneyBadger]

In Jim's defense, I read the poem and yes, it was very, very dark, but he was also just working with what was already in the game. When you're dealing with the subject matter that happens to be 13 year old blind virgin girls destined to be sacrificed to dark gods, how many directions do you have to go?

It's not like he posted a pedophiliac snuff film. It's just a poem, and it concerned things that are already a reality that we deal with every day: namely Blood Slaves.

And when there's something with that potential to be profoundly disturbing in a shared environment, such as a community forum, it's bound to force it's way out into the open, eventually. Trying to pretend that Blood Slaves represent anything other than what they clearly and descriptively *do* represent is just sticking our heads in the sand, and sweeping a problematic issue under the rug, just because we're not capable of dealing with it.

This is explicitely a thread for art, and while art may be difficult to interpret, especially when it's dark and shocking and negative, it's still the perogative of the one who's experiencing the art to interpret it.

Yes, people should expect to have a choice about what they're exposed to-this being a games forum-because the community and the companies involved have a certain amount of responsibility to advise others about the content they can expect, but doesn't mean that that's they way the real world works.

I don't think Jim meant any harm, either. I also don't think he *did* any harm. Yes, the words he used were very evocative-that's to his credit as a writer-and yes, what he evoked was dark and terrible and hard to imagine-or perhaps the problem is that it was too easily imagined? But you'll notice that he didn't use any of the censored words the forum blots out, and-no matter how good a writer he may be-he didn't force us to think evil thoughts-he just opened the door to them.

Censorship doesn't solve any problems, it just hides problems in dark corners, where they can grow bigger and worse, unnoticed.