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The Danger of Sexually Criminal Games
Colin Campbell is Editor-in-Chief, Online for Edge.
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Most games are simulations of real-life experiences; glamorous and exciting fantasies of activities that are denied to us in real-life, whether that be running an NFL franchise or blowing off some dude's head.
Now, new experiences are being offered that force us to consider what is appropriate or otherwise as interactive experiences, even for adults. We can mostly agree that it is okay for Niko Bellic to mow down some innocent, or shoot a cop, or murder a rival. These are all vile crimes that we accept as entertainment for adults. But very few of us believe it is okay for a character to take on the role of that most disgusting criminal, the rapist.
Last week, Amazon pulled from sale a Japanese Hentai game called RapeLay in which the main character indulges in the most horrible and violent sexual crimes. Nobody believes this to be an unreasonable course of action by any retailer. And yet, if Amazon had pulled Grand Theft Auto 4, the hue and cry would have been immense. It looks like we are okay with casual mass-murder, but not okay with rape.
It would be facile to try to make the case that 'if murder is okay then rape should be too'. It is understood in our culture that there really is such a thing as the heroic killer; but never a heroic or like-able rapist. Rape in entertainment is almost always about the victim's response to the crime; never about the criminal's motivation. Rapists in fiction, unlike murderers, are afforded zero sympathy by the writers and by the audience. Rape, also, is not just a disgusting crime; it is also a potent symbol of oppression, a favored tool of oppressors throughout history, and today.
Jokes, an area where all taboos are broken sooner or later, rarely touch on rape. Gags and skits about rape are not unknown, but they are about as culturally acceptable as jokes about race-lynching or the Holocaust.
Games about Rape
But here we are, talking about games about rape. As games become more graphically realistic, and as game-makers become more sophisticated crafters of experience, so the realism of the fantasy is 'improved', and so the reach of fantasy lengthens. The rape game of today is a very different proposition than, say, Custer's Revenge. One was a crude expression of ignorance; the other is a detailed fantasy world allowing for multiple expressions of sexual violence, and delighting in the pain and trauma such activities induce.
There can be no doubt that watching someone die in a videogame is a vastly more realistic experience now than it was 20 years ago, even when you consider the rich and varied 'unrealistic' stylization of killing in games. It follows that simulating a sexual crime now is a far more realistic experience than it ever has been.
Worse, there is a vast market for rape as entertainment. The fantasy of rape is not uncommon; now the market is being offered new and potent tools through which the fantasy can be indulged.
As members of a business that creates everyday fantasies, we must confront our response to the existence of ugly fantasies. I have no doubt that graphically realistic games will be widely available in the near future, that depict all manner of sexual depravity. Do we, as a business, acknowledge any responsibility about this trash? Or do we hope that the public's response will be to divorce one set of fantasies from another, as we divorce pornography from other forms of visual entertainment?
Not only this, but the time must be coming soon when a game-maker is able to tell a story about sexual crime in a sympathetic way; how far are we from a 'game' that attempts to tell the story of a rape victim and which, inevitably, features the crime itself as part of its narrative? (Roberta Williams' 1990s horror game Phantasmagoria featured a rape-scene, and violence against women, but did not dwell on the emotional impact of the crime, so much as the gothic disturbances that had promoted the crime).
When such a product becomes available, will we, as a business, be able to present it as an important work, or will it be engulfed by the monstrous market for violent, interactive pornography?
Unfortunately, a retail ban on games that glorify rape is going to be no more effective in stemming the availability of such products, as a retail ban on violent, sordid pornography has been. We are entering a world where every taste is accommodated by easily downloadable entertainment, and games are just a part of that mix.
But games, unlike books, pictures and videos, involve activity. This, and gaming's relative newness, presents a difficulty. Without encouragement and education, the public at large is not going to be so willing to make a complete disconnection between games about football or petals on the wind, to games about rape, in the way that they have about, say, a Tom Cruise movie and a shameful skin-flick. If we are unable to recognize this problem and deal with it, we will be unable to cope with the difficulties it will present.
-------------
Most games are simulations of real-life experiences; glamorous and exciting fantasies of activities that are denied to us in real-life, whether that be running an NFL franchise or blowing off some dude's head.
Now, new experiences are being offered that force us to consider what is appropriate or otherwise as interactive experiences, even for adults. We can mostly agree that it is okay for Niko Bellic to mow down some innocent, or shoot a cop, or murder a rival. These are all vile crimes that we accept as entertainment for adults. But very few of us believe it is okay for a character to take on the role of that most disgusting criminal, the rapist.
Last week, Amazon pulled from sale a Japanese Hentai game called RapeLay in which the main character indulges in the most horrible and violent sexual crimes. Nobody believes this to be an unreasonable course of action by any retailer. And yet, if Amazon had pulled Grand Theft Auto 4, the hue and cry would have been immense. It looks like we are okay with casual mass-murder, but not okay with rape.
It would be facile to try to make the case that 'if murder is okay then rape should be too'. It is understood in our culture that there really is such a thing as the heroic killer; but never a heroic or like-able rapist. Rape in entertainment is almost always about the victim's response to the crime; never about the criminal's motivation. Rapists in fiction, unlike murderers, are afforded zero sympathy by the writers and by the audience. Rape, also, is not just a disgusting crime; it is also a potent symbol of oppression, a favored tool of oppressors throughout history, and today.
Jokes, an area where all taboos are broken sooner or later, rarely touch on rape. Gags and skits about rape are not unknown, but they are about as culturally acceptable as jokes about race-lynching or the Holocaust.
Games about Rape
But here we are, talking about games about rape. As games become more graphically realistic, and as game-makers become more sophisticated crafters of experience, so the realism of the fantasy is 'improved', and so the reach of fantasy lengthens. The rape game of today is a very different proposition than, say, Custer's Revenge. One was a crude expression of ignorance; the other is a detailed fantasy world allowing for multiple expressions of sexual violence, and delighting in the pain and trauma such activities induce.
There can be no doubt that watching someone die in a videogame is a vastly more realistic experience now than it was 20 years ago, even when you consider the rich and varied 'unrealistic' stylization of killing in games. It follows that simulating a sexual crime now is a far more realistic experience than it ever has been.
Worse, there is a vast market for rape as entertainment. The fantasy of rape is not uncommon; now the market is being offered new and potent tools through which the fantasy can be indulged.
As members of a business that creates everyday fantasies, we must confront our response to the existence of ugly fantasies. I have no doubt that graphically realistic games will be widely available in the near future, that depict all manner of sexual depravity. Do we, as a business, acknowledge any responsibility about this trash? Or do we hope that the public's response will be to divorce one set of fantasies from another, as we divorce pornography from other forms of visual entertainment?
Not only this, but the time must be coming soon when a game-maker is able to tell a story about sexual crime in a sympathetic way; how far are we from a 'game' that attempts to tell the story of a rape victim and which, inevitably, features the crime itself as part of its narrative? (Roberta Williams' 1990s horror game Phantasmagoria featured a rape-scene, and violence against women, but did not dwell on the emotional impact of the crime, so much as the gothic disturbances that had promoted the crime).
When such a product becomes available, will we, as a business, be able to present it as an important work, or will it be engulfed by the monstrous market for violent, interactive pornography?
Unfortunately, a retail ban on games that glorify rape is going to be no more effective in stemming the availability of such products, as a retail ban on violent, sordid pornography has been. We are entering a world where every taste is accommodated by easily downloadable entertainment, and games are just a part of that mix.
But games, unlike books, pictures and videos, involve activity. This, and gaming's relative newness, presents a difficulty. Without encouragement and education, the public at large is not going to be so willing to make a complete disconnection between games about football or petals on the wind, to games about rape, in the way that they have about, say, a Tom Cruise movie and a shameful skin-flick. If we are unable to recognize this problem and deal with it, we will be unable to cope with the difficulties it will present.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Wow, it's horrifying to read that such a game has been developed, but unfortunately, not surprising. It's true that neither retailers or government can stop such games from being created & distributed by the morally bankrupt bottom-feeders of society, but that doesn't mean that retailers or government shouldn't make every effort to eliminate this filth. I firmly believe in liberty and freedom of speech, but the sad reality is that there are certain things (such as child pornography) that are so vile that they should never be published in any format. This rape game is definitely one of those things.
There have been many comparisons drawn between this rape game and Grand Theft Auto, and this is appropriate because GTA (and other games like it) have paved the way for moral decay in the gaming industry and society at large. I understand that this rape game is taking games to new levels of depravity that even GTA wouldn't touch, but honestly, how do you celebrate one and condemn the other? Sentient, moral people must wake up and see the slippery-slope in video games (and other entertainment as well) for what it really is. When we participate in video games that celebrate evil, it rubs off on us. It affects us, whether we choose to admit it or not. The grand majority of people who play GTA don't go out and re-enact the game in real life, but they will assuredly be morally tainted by the experience, and they will be more willing to embrace the next new low (such as this rape game) that video games have to offer.
This rape game and GTA are basically training simulators for a future generation of misogynists.
Don't get me wrong—I love video games, and most of my favorite games have violence in them (such as the Tekken series), but it's naive to suppose that you can participate in the types of games mentioned above and walk away from the experience without any kind of consequences to your moral view of the world. Specifically, men's attitudes towards women.
Yeah... one thing that always frustrates me about the videogame violence debate is that uninformed people often make the mistaken connection that a game like GTA has sex and it has violence, therefore it must have sexual violence, when that is something so horrible not even GTA would touch it. You’re right... even the most well-adjusted among us have violent fantasies, but rape enjoys a strong, thorough, and well-deserved cultural taboo. (Besides, my first argument in defense of GTA—a game that I, personally, don’t like very much—is usually that plenty of “respectable” media portray reprehensible people sympathetically, and I tend to think of shows on TV like The Sopranos, The Wire, or Dexter as examples. However, you wouldn’t see equivalents for portrayals of rapists.)
One detail worth mentioning is that there are plenty of examples of rapists who commit their deeds under the influence, and find themselves with profound and painful regrets later; after all, we’re responsible for what we do whether or not we’re drunk. The fact that such evil can live in any of us is something videogames can explore, but, for reasons Colin mentioned, it would be tricky. I can imagine a “Pulp Fiction” problem arising where a game intends to make you horrified by your actions but instead only makes players excited, causing them to miss the point and come away with the exact opposite moral as intended. It’s a fine line.
I have mixed feelings about Amazon’s pulling of the game, though it certainly sounds tasteless. On the other hand, I can’t imagine what else they would have done; had they not pulled it, it would have dogged them for months and mainstream media would be busy portraying all videogames as this obscure Japanese hack product. On the, uh, other other hand, I do tend to believe we cannot, in good conscience, defend brilliance without defending utter stupidity as well. Otherwise, we’ve become self-appointed moral guardians who know what’s best, and that’s power no one should hold.
"It looks like we are okay with casual mass-murder, but not okay with rape."
It's interesting that the Japanese have such a weird attitude towards women to even produce a game like this in the first place. I don't care that's it's Hentai or aimed at an adult audience it's quite clear that it should not be an acceptable form of entertainment in a modern society.
I've had a read through of the synopsis on Wiki and it doesn't sound like the sort of game a true gamer would play or find interesting. It's marketed directly to perverted men, Japanese or otherwise. This may be and acceptable form of entrainment in a country that still subjugates it's women and views rape as such a dishonourable act, as to suggest that the women invited it on herself (I'm sure this isn't the voice of the majority, but it's certainly an ugly stereotype that the Japanese have earnt themselves). In the rest of the world we take a dim view.
Even looking at it from the point of view of Educating people and approaching the crime with "Sensitivity" I still think any games developer who wants to broach this subject is playing with fire. Maybe some things are best left un-said.
Amazon were right to pull this game. Although I am surprised that a hentai game was marketed on Amazon at all. Usually this is the domain of weird porno pay sites isn't?
Taking control of Nico and walking up behind some innocent bystander and popping one in the back of the head is realistic to a point. I think we'd have more cause for complaint and would expect wider repercussions from censors, if say, after shooting said bystander you then looked down at their cold limp body, to see half their face missing and blood and brain spilling out over the pavement.
I have seen films were this sort of violence is common place and games are catching up fast. Although I don't see censorship being the answer or jumping on the Daily Mail bandwagon, saying that all violent computer games are unwholesome is the answer either! - On release of GTA4 I saw one Daily Mail columnist referring to GTA4 as "Squalled mind poison!" Just a touch strong, may be that term would be more appropriate in trying to classify RapeLay!.
There does need to be more control and more education in terms of who violent games should be viewed by. In my youth I was certainly not allowed to watch films like Nightmare on Elm street, Friday the 13th or Halloween. It may seem comical now because as adults it's difficult to see what all the fuss was about and we watch said movies with tongues pressed firmly in cheeks. But for younger people being allowed to view movies such as these are wholly inappropriate (even with parental consent). It should be exactly the same for computer games without argument. Some parents need to started taking a bit more responsibility in dictating their children's education and entertainment not the other way around.
Interesting Article Colin.. Thank you !
I don't want to see rape games, but murder is just as horrible of a crime. This part is ridiculous:
"We can mostly agree that it is okay for Niko Bellic to mow down some innocent, or shoot a cop, or murder a rival. These are all vile crimes that we accept as entertainment for adults. But very few of us believe it is okay for a character to take on the role of that most disgusting criminal, the rapist."
As history has proven there always has been, and most likely always will be, enough sick people in this world for them to group up and share their interest.
The logic behind market-banning a game like the one you mentioned, in comparison to say GTA, is a logic of simple rationality. People aren't nearly as offended by GTA as they are by Rapelay, and rape has not crossed the taboo-line yet, as opposed to killing. If you enjoy playing crime-god in Liberty City you're just one of many million people, whereas if you enjoy raping a mother and her daughters in the subway you're part of a very isolated minority of people.
I have to say that it disgusts me how people can find games like Postal or Manhunt amusing. Not because I'm sensitive and think it's explicit, but because I can't find any form of entertainment in all the sickness. It's like going to Auschwitz to have a family picnic. But obviously the market for these games are enough to support their production. If the same could be said about rape-games, we would probably have a minor sub-genre dedicated to them as well. Until then, these games will get banned and prohibited, and only the people who make an effort will get their hands on them.
So in short, my point is that it's not the actual deed or the moral background behind it that determines whether a game is mainstream or not, but rather the general reaction to it. There are people in both extreme ends, some who think anything more crude than Super Mario is a disgrace, and some who can even torture and rape without feeling bad. The mainstream will be positioned in between the two, carefully balancing.
Unfortunately, a retail ban on games that glorify rape is going to be no more effective in stemming the availability of such products, as a retail ban on violent, sordid pornography has been
But it decreases the awareness of such products, as the only people who will know about it are the fucks who want to pretend rape japanese girls and actively seek such software. If it on the shelf at your local retailer you'd get a load of people seeing it. I had no idea such games existed till this article. I can understand porn games, but raping, its fucking ridiculous this trash can be sold.
The unique nature of games is the way they ask the player to become an active participant. As has been rightly mentioned, there would be considerably less sympathy for the perpetrator than the victim of a rape. Yet this is not as significant in films and other non-interactive media because the question of intent never arises when there are only spectators in question.
What other roles would be considered taboo nowadays? Does the fact that you can't play as a Nazi mean that you can't do the kinds of things that Nazis did? In GTA IV you get to choose whether to execute people or not: pretty grim, true, but not the same as execution with genocide in mind. So is it the circumstance or the intent that goes with it that makes an action unacceptable?
Have you been reading the forum or something?
I think that a game that dealt with rape from the victim's point of view, rather than that of the rapist might get much more of an easy time. After all, playing as the victim, being unable to fight off your attacker is treating it with much more sympathy than what I imagine would transpire were you to play the rapist.
One problem, though, is that victims of rape tend to be confronted by friends and loved ones with questions like “why didn’t you fight him off?” and “were you drinking?”, not recognizing the horror of the experience and that it’s no one’s fault but the perpetrator’s. Playing a woman character and beating up creepy old men is certainly a legitimate power fantasy, as Joss Whedon likes to remind us all the time. And, beating up a rapist to prevent him from carrying out the act sounds like one of those videogame moments that feel unimpeachably _good_ (a rarity in these colored times). I would simply worry, though, about shifting the expectations to the victim, since “why didn’t you beat him/run faster/scream louder/etc.” is something that rape victims actually hear, and is painful in the worst way at the worst time.
I took a women’s self-defense class once, back in high school, that began with the teacher telling us that it’s okay to choose to endure the assault, because that is your choice and a legitimate one. In other words, nothing here should be construed to mean you’re obligated to fight back with your fists, or that you’ll be less of a woman or less empowered for not doing so, as fighting can be hard and dangerous and these situations necessarily involve tough choices. So, I guess that’s what I meant. You have a good point, though.
(I should note for completeness that the best option, should it be available, during a bad situation is to run. If at all possible, run! Get to a lighted area or someplace with people. If they want something from you, leave it behind. The best defense is distance.)