Steam Wallpaper Engine helps Chinese people with eroticism

Steam Wallpaper Engine is the latest way to escape the strict censorship of all things erotic in China. But for how long?

Strict censorship on erotica

The Communist Party of China wants the best for its citizens. In this way the party wants to protect it against perfidious influences, such as eroticism. This is therefore about as severely censored as subversive political content.

Chinese gamers, mostly single young men, obviously don’t like that. But luckily for them, they found a way out. And in an unexpected way, via Steam Wallpaper Engine.

Steam Wallpaper Engine

As one of the few platforms in China, the game platform Steam is still accessible. That also applies to the app. With this app you can run a video clip or movie on your screen, instead of the boring still background. Of course, that video could be a boring speech from President Xi Jinping right before bed, but there’s a better chance that some naughty content will grace their screens among the many Chinese users of Steam Wallpaper Engine.

By Dutch standards, these videos are pretty decent and we wouldn’t see them as erotically highly provocative. Yet the Chinese government is concerned about this threat to the gaming youth. It is an ongoing cat and mouse game between the Chinese gamers and the government censors. Because if a video is too daring and becomes too popular, it will be removed.

Gamers enjoy while they can

How long this Steam Wallpaper Engine hatch to the outside world will remain open is unknown. The Party will probably eventually put a stop to this too, because the Party always wins. And is always right. But by then the gamers will probably have come up with a new way to avoid the censorship. For the party disposes, but the gamer proposes.

MIT Technology Review