Allow Nudity
Since the creation of twitch creative last year, there's been a great community growing. Twitch has made a new and exciting platform for artists to connect with their audience that hasn't really existed before. It allows for such a personal connection between the art, artist, and viewer. When I see artwork from an artist that I watch regularly, not only do I see their beautiful creation, I remember special moments when they completed a section of their work.
On October 28th, 2015, when Twitch creative was announced on the Twitch blog they wrote, ”We expect to learn much about what is, and is not, appropriate for Twitch as the community grows.”
After a year of silence, I hope that the community can get some answers and solutions to this important issue.
For clarity here are the terms of service regarding nudity.
For Twitch gaming:
“Nudity can't be a core focus or feature of the game in question, and modded nudity is disallowed in its entirety. Occurrences of in-game nudity are permitted, so long as you do not make them a primary focus of your broadcast and only spend as much time as needed in the area to progress the game's story.”
For Twitch Creative:
“We are working on ways to ensure that artists can produce the work that they want, while also fostering a safe space for the community as a whole. We ask that you refrain from creating or using depictions of nudity or extreme violence until those features are implemented.”
For gaming, nudity can't be the primary focus. For creative, nudity can't be shown at all.
These rules imposed upon the creative community, cripple creators and the viewers knowledge from such a fundamental core of drawing, the human anatomy. Artists want to share their creative process, including their skills as they improve. How can they improve when the necessary knowledge of human anatomy is forbidden?
When game designers make a choice to have nudity in their games, the majority of the time it's for sexualized purposes.
However what the creative community wants is to at least have nudity as an educational tool to build upon our skills as artists to further our understanding of anatomy.
Today you can view nudity in games, however if there's a drawing thats somewhat suggestive it's a bannable offense.
Just as flowers, sunsets, and mountains are useful tools in the artist’s toolkit, the unadorned human body can be an essential tool to express the pure emotion of what the artist is trying to convey. Artists use nudity as a tool to focus attention on the human form, and not irrelevant aspects like how their shirts are buttoned, how clothing is being draped, or whether they are wearing the most stylish kind of hat. And if the point of art is to primarily express ideas about the nature of humanity and our role in the world, then it would be natural to expect the nude body would be among the most powerful of those expressive tools.
Artists deserve the same level of freedom as gamers. To put a lid on our talent diminishes the range of appreciation for the human condition and causes us to constantly edit our creativity.
I want the artwork I experience to be created with the best training, the most creative ideas, and the widest freedom to use all those things to make the most excellent works that best efforts can achieve. To do any less would make the world a worse place to live.
You allow gamers to play their games. Allow artists to create their masterpieces.
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Spencer commented
Twitch creative won't be able to grow if this doesn't happen!!
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Kay Eff commented
Let art be art Twitch
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Robo J Hoff commented
I am not arguing for or against this. I have a degree in art and I took several years of life drawing so I understand how important it is. However, the argument is based on “For gaming, nudity can't be the primary focus. For creative, nudity can't be shown at all.” Furthermore, the above article states, “Nudity can't be a core focus or feature of the game in question, and modded nudity is disallowed in its entirety. Occurrences of in-game nudity are permitted, so long as you do not make them a primary focus of your broadcast and only spend as much time as needed in the area to progress the game's story.”
Here is the big difference. If a nude character walks by on stream, the cast isn’t going to stop and focus on it. Nor are they going to erase the character and re-draw him. They probably aren’t going to mention it and will move on, knowing Twitch could ban them. If you are doing a create stream to practice drawing Michelangelo’s David or or Goya’s The Nude Maja, you will be spending time focused on that. There is the difference- the amount of time spent on screen focusing on the nude. If they allowed this greater focus in creative streams, then gamers would come back and say they should be allowed to play games with larger nude parts and so on. Twitch has limited the focus because a gamer has no control over if a nude character walks by, but they can control how the streamer reacts to it. However, a creative streamer has control of their content.
Like I said, I understand the argument and I am sure people will not like my response, but I think the greater picture of the “focus” is being missed. -
Juan F. Calle commented
Jamie is 100% correct. Don't be afraid of art, Twitch!
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Justin commented
Disallowing nudity prioritizes violence. Games are increasingly violent, but these games are allowed, but a little bit of genitalia scares Twitch?
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Whitney Phoenix commented
For Twitch to maintain a double standard which allows gamers to depict nudity (including in a sexual context!), yet would censor an important component of the 'body' of work of a Da Vinci or Michelangelo, is blatantly hypocritical, and an injustice to art and artists alike. This policy deserves prompt consideration and review. Thank you, Mr. Chestnut, for bringing this issue to the forefront!
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Anonymous commented
I agree. Do not take away creative expression.
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Heaps commented
Nudity is NOT porn. Nudity is the human form without clothes. Porn depicts a sexual act. The line is clear. Create an adult area if you have to, you can put games like Rust in there with it.
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Anonymous commented
Nude drawings are a basic fundamental element of artists everywhere.
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Marianne Phoenix commented
As someone who appreciates art and artists fully, this article says exactly why nudity is essential to full creativity. There is nothing more expressive than the human body, in any size, shape or form.
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Juan F. Calle commented
Don't be afraid of art, Twitch, no matter what form it takes.
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cullen9 commented
Nudity and violence is allowed all over gaming, but not allowed in creative. Creative equality is important, and banning nudity and then calling it porn, or graphic, or obscene is ridiculous.