WHEW. So. How about that news post?

For those uninformed, Lioden has officially stated that they're going to start rolling out more self-censorship features. This means that we, as players, can expect in the sometime future for there to be a feature that hides NSFW or gore images, and then some.

I don't know if this is due to our efforts on this topic or not, but either way, it's a HUGE win for everyone here. Thank you all so much for your support!

As with every other edit, I'm leaving the rest of this post the same. But as of right now, I think we can officially consider this a success! <3

EDIT: I'm putting this at the beginning because it's important. The event is over but this is STILL a problem that persists in the game. I implore you to not ignore this for the next year until more people have to go through this again. Thank you. Edit over.

Hi all! I realize this was posted about a year ago, and was met with a very split responses. So I'm here to also post! I please ask that you read the whole post before supporting or not supporting.

So, as the title says, this suggestion is to hide gore or bloody images for players who are sensitive to that sort of thing! Everyone pretty much gets the gist of what this is, as I have seen old topics like it. But I figure some people might have questions, so I'm prepared to answer those! Let's start with a bit of FAQ.

Q: This game is 16+, and should have gore/blood (and other adult themes) in it, as that's how lions work.

A: Sure! This game is 16+, but that doesn't mean everyone 16 or over wants to see a fairly realistic drawing of an elephant with its face torn off. Not seeing blood/gore wouldn't ruin an integral part of this game, such as taking away breeding, another 16+ topic. As for the "that's how lions work" part, well, this game isn't *really* that realistic, now is it? We literally have an event based around the apocalypse. We have green and blue and pink lions. We meet a manticore and fight with heaven and hell.

Q: Why not just disable the whole event?

A: Why should someone have to cease from playing the game because of something that can easily be avoided? Events are such an important part of this game and community, and to force someone not to be a part of it because they're sensitive to seeing images that depict terrible things isn't a good way to handle this. If someone wants to still participate, they should be able to! Also, the March event in particular also helps to raise funds for anti-poaching organizations. To force players to hide the event could negatively impact funds raised.

Q: Why can't you just use adblock and block the images that way?

A: First off, that would require having to look at the images first in order to get the image url to block them. Secondly, that doesn't work on mobile, which a LOT of players use primarily! Having a toggle would be much better suited for mobile players.

Q: Yeah, but I want to see gore.

A: You can! The idea I have in mind is a toggle that appears on a users page in the same area you would change your password. There, you can use a toggle to disable gorey images. Maybe in the future, if enough support is gained, there can be support for the sexually explicit images of lions in the February event.

Q: But there's so much other triggering stuff besides the event! How are you gonna hide that?

A: Simply put, you don't need to. If you don't want to interact with bloody looking lions, you don't have to. However, in order to enjoy the game to its fullest, you DO have to play the events. There is literally never a point in time on this site that there isn't an event going on.

Q: What would the images be instead?

A: Depends on what's easiest to do! It could be a blurred image instead, or the image could simply not load in, or it could just be replaced by a generic "BLOCKED" sign or something of the sort. It could also be an option to hide ALL event images while still keeping the event text up. Honestly, anything to make people more comfortable would work!

Q: Why should the devs waste time on this?

A: Well, because the players are important! Without them, there would be no game, and no matter how small the minority who NEED this are, the people who want it are probably a larger group in total. I'm uncomfortable with seeing this stuff, sure, but I'm not having a panic attack upon seeing this and being forced out of playing the whole game for a month because I physically cannot stand seeing it, like others are. I see no reason why people should be excluded from the fun of this game because of things that are out of their control, and I'd hope that the devs can see that too.


These are just some frequently asked questions I noticed on other similar boards I thought I'd take care of, but if anyone else has questions, please feel free to ask those! I'm very willing to talk to anyone who's interested in supporting, or anyone who is wary about supporting.

:::EDIT:::

Bezthiel made an absolutely excellent point, that I'm going to quote here:

"If the ToS says:
6.1
You are bound by, and must comply with, our Code of Conduct.

6.2
You also agree that you will not in connection with the Game:
breach any applicable law, regulation or code of conduct;
publish or send any Content (including links or references to other content), or otherwise behave in a manner, which:
is defamatory, threatening, harassing, invasive of privacy, offensive, vulgar, racist, hateful, discriminatory, obscene, pornographic, sexually suggestive, misleading, abusive or deceptive or which attacks sexual orientation, promotes self-harm or eating disorders, involves murder, rape, suicide, terrorism, excessive gore or hacking;

Then these are things that I can reasonably assume are not mentioned in site context.

Yet rape, suicide, and gore certainly are. We should either be warned or be able to opt out.

And before anyone says "but the newspost!" The 'excuse us for being blunt' is not the same as 'you will be shown pictures of horribly tortured, maimed, animals'. A warning is blunt."

A few suggestions have been made about the overall functioning of the system! In general, it seems a lot of people enjoy the idea of just disabling explore images in general. This is a simple solution and could work wonders for everyone.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have suggestions where players could pick and choose which images to disable, whether that be by a category (NSFW images) or by looking at a list of image descriptions and disabling them that way.

To reflect these options, I've changed the name of the topic from "Hiding Gore for Players" to "Hiding Triggering Images for Players" as we've come to the conclusion that it isn't just gore that's the problem.