Anti-porn group who tried to ban GTA 5 claim credit for Steam’s sex game crackdown

Australian org Collective Shout declare “victory” after Valve policy change

Image credit:Rockstar

Valve recently changed Steam’s rules and regulations to give banks, payment processors, and internet service providers some control over the definition of acceptable “adult content” on Steam, in line with their own respective policies. As Valve suggested to RPS in a statement, it was either that or risk a credit card firm or bank blocking Steam purchases at large. Alongside all this, Valve also delisted a bunch of sexually explicit games , including a number of games that depict incest.

Valve have yet to specify which games they’ve delisted as a direct result of the policy change, or which particular institutions prompted them to make this rather momentous shift. But it looks increasingly like the result of an anti-violent pornography game campaign directed at Valve, Mastercard, Paypal, Visa, Paysafe Limited, Discover and the Japan Credit Bureau in early July, carried out by Australian pressure group Collective Shout. This is the conclusion offered by Collective Shout themselves, anyway - they’ve described the Steam delistings as a “victory for child safety campaigners” , while commenting that they are now being sent misogynistic abuse and threats by players in retaliation.

Founded in 2009, Collective Shout have long called for the banning or delisting of games they regard as violently sexist, exploitative and abusive, as part of a wider campaign against the sexualisation and objectification of women in media. Much of their campaign is based on the argument that there is a causal relationship between such representations and real-life abuse. On their About page , they quote a 2016 meta-analysis of 135 studies of media sexualisation carried out by L. Monique Ward. I don’t have the permissions to access it, but according to the abstract, exposure to “sexually objectifying portrayals” of women is “directly associated with a range of consequences, including higher levels of body dissatisfaction, greater self-objectification, greater support of sexist beliefs and of adversarial sexual beliefs, and greater tolerance of sexual violence toward women.”

Image credit:Sony

The latest action against Steam appears to have begun on July 11th, when Collective Shout published an “open letter to payment processors profiting from rape, incest + child abuse games on Steam” . The open letter cites Collective Shout’s previous call for the removal of an outright rape simulation game, No Mercy, and states that they have “discovered hundreds of other games featuring rape, incest and child sexual abuse on both Steam and Itch.io”. It does not share any details of the games in question.

As a result of this letter, Collective Shout claim to have brought about the delisting of 500 games from Steam, a statement that Valve have yet to corroborate (and which as PCGamer observe, appears to include a number of duplicate entries). They’re also calling for the removal of a further 82 games “tagged with rape and incest”, without sharing names.

I think it would be constructive for Collective Shout to specify the games they’re referring to publicly, and to articulate the context of the sexual content they’re objecting to, given that some of their previous campaigns against “sickening” video games make assumptions that border on misinformation. In 2018, for example, Collective Shout endorsed a petition for a ban on the sale of Quantic Dream’s Detroit: Become Human in Australia, declaring that it features “child abuse and violence against women.”

I am no great fan of Quantic Dream, who have been accused of cultivating sexism in their workplace and who have a track record for using sexual violence to define their female characters , but it seems important to insist - as the petition itself acknowledges - that the scenes referred to are, in fact, designed to create empathy for the victim as part of a story about social injustice. They are not wish fulfilment for abusers. Collective Shout’s endorsing of the petition suggests minimal familiarity with the game they’re trying to ban.

Image credit:2K Games

In 2014, similarly, Collective Shout called for a ban on GTA 5 ’s sale in Australia, summarising it as a “video game that encourages players to brutally murder women for entertainment”. I think it’s fair to say that Grand Theft Auto ’s portrayal of women has long been abysmal - this is the series that turns sex workers into health packs and yes, lets you kill them afterwards to recover your fee. I’m interested to see whether GTA 6 changes the record here - it has a female protagonist (and an often-underdressed male co-star), but is also partial to booty shots in trailers.

At the same time, GTA has never been a series designed to indulge fantasies about murdering women and sex workers. The Change.org petition in question does not place its allegation in the context of a farcical open world simulation in which it is possible to brutally murder everybody , from pimps to the police. Again, it does not give much indication that Collective Shout and the organisers played the game they’re trying to have removed from sale.

Valve’s change of policy has prompted an outcry from developers of erotic games and journalists who see this as continuing a pattern of financial institutions using their control of transactions to silence ’taboo’ expressions of sex and sexuality - a push for conformity that may accompany a sincere desire to protect children and women from exploitation, or may simply use that professed desire as camouflage for, say, a conviction that trans and queer people are deviants, and that sex work of any kind should be illegal.

The discovery that Collective Shout may have goaded Mastercard and co into demanding changes has fuelled this argument, given Collective Shout’s connections to certain fundamentally religious and conservative-leaning organisations such as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and Exodus Cry - both of whom signed Collective Shout’s open letter from July 11th.

In an investigation for Vice, Ana Valens dug into the history of these groups, which I’ll summarise with a few pieces of information from my own research. Exodus Cry are an American Christian non-profit advocacy organization who seek the abolition of the legal commercial sex industry, from porn to strip clubs and sex work, as well as illegal sex trafficking. In 2013, their founder and CEO, Benjamin Nolot, compared abortion to the Holocaust and described gay marriage as an “unspeakable offence to God” , though he says his views on these subjects have changed since.

Image credit:Rockstar Games

NCOSE, meanwhile, were founded by American clergymen in the 1960s, and have asserted that pornography at large is a “public health crisis”. Katherine Cross wrote a piece for Game Developer in 2018 about NCOSE’s previous attempts to have games featuring “sexual exploitation” removed from Steam, concluding that “what these groups actually want has nothing to do with the dignity of anyone, and everything to do with restoring a traditional gender order that criminalizes both sexual expression and sexual labor.”

As for my own take on the situation, I don’t think it can be disputed that violent sexualised media contributes to a culture of violent sexualisation, but the extent of that contribution is difficult to identify and as such, needs to be addressed case-by-case. Collective Shout, so far, have avoided going into details - they haven’t disclosed which games they consider abhorrent, or explained why these games in particular are in contravention of Steam’s existing prohibition against games that promote hatred, violence, or discrimination based on gender, or which “exploit children in any way”.

Collective Voice may be sincere in their anger and desire to protect women and children, but it’s not enough to say that certain topics are self-evidently unfit for representation in a work of fiction, and enlist vast financial corporations as enforcers - particularly when your choice of affiliations suggests you may have ulterior motives, and particularly when you have a track record for getting important details wrong.

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.

All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.