Duke Nukem Forever and 'Rape'

[Jason Moyer]

The funniest part of the big "DNF Alien Rape" controversy, is that it doesn't even say that the girls were raped. To the contrary, all of the dialog from the impregnated girls (including the Holsom twins) implies that it was consensual. "Sorry Duke, but it was my first time with an alien." "I didn't realize swallowing would be so bad."

The story as presented in the game is that the aliens are abducting our babes and impregnating them. It doesn't say they were raping them. I dunno wtf Sterling was talking about when he said the raping was graphically depicted - the girls are half-naked (with their goddamn panties on) and being held in place by tentacles growing from the hive walls. It was an obvious parody of the humans implanted with chest bursters and embedded in the walls in Aliens. That's it.

Also, the architecture in that level is phenomenal. Everyone's too preoccupied with being offended by something that isn't actually in the game to talk about it, but the graphical design in the hive is fantastic.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Wait, people actually pay attention to Jim? Weird. I'm not kidding, I seriously thought that this website just ignored him.

Some of us do...

Didn't even realise. Carry on, then.

You misunderstood. Let me clarify:

(...) I seriously thought that this website just ignored him.

Some of us do...

Clarified!

Wait what? I think you've got your formatting wrong there. You reversed who said what.

 

[Dingo John]

Yeah, I tend to do that...

Nevertheless I think you get what I mean.

 

[busterbeam]

Forgive me for this but I have to ask...

What would it actually take to offend some of you? Do you just shrug and feel nothing over everything? What is your 'line'? What does it take to make you feel ill and grossed out?

I felt ill and grossed out when it turned out Fallout 3 wasn't a reincarnation of Van Buren but Oblivion with guns and glue-huffingly idiotic writing. I felt the same when I found out activision, owing it's existence to PC gaming now gives it the middle finger, declaring there won't be LAN support.

I'm feeling similarly now that the IP of games I really enjoyed, like X-Com is raped by moronic FPS spinoffs. When's the last time you saw a game like X-Com Enemy Unknown come out?

I'm feeling similarly when ubisoft and similar companies makes it clear they treat me like a potential thief and lock down the product I paid for, rendering it unusable with layers of broken, shoddy DRM.

I'm just as shocked when I see Sony's practices and policies, the abhorrent and vile way they deliberately attempted to exploit the justice system just to stick it to geohot even more, or the way they treat their consumers like garbage.

There are many, many things that ire me. Many companies, many policies and many decisions. In light of all that, rape jokes are the least of my concerns.

I'm really not sure how to put my reaction to this post into words. SWEET CHRIST.

 

[DJStickyWicket]

Sure are a lot of white knights in here. OMG ITS OFFENSIVE. Implied rape wouldn't turn heads in a movie, why should it in this case?

 

[BSCCollateral]

You make far to many sub quotes.

My point still stands. If you don't like the game, take a hike. There's no need to tell people who enjoy it that you think it's shite.

That's not how it works.

The publishers have the right to release "Duke Nukem Forever", we have the right to point out it's disgusting.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I didn't buy Duke Nukem Forever partially because the reviews were horrendous and partly becuase I'm a girl and I don't think that game was made for me in mind.

I'm not entirely sure why you are picking on Jim when every other review on the internet of DNF was bad, rape or no.

I actually have a lot more respect for Jim now after reading that article, I wouldn't have expected him to stand up for that point of view. I had assumed he was a lot more crass. My bad.

 

[Atmos Duality]

The captive women being impregnated in Duke3D was NEVER used as a blunt rape-joke.

If you killed the women (or if they died accidentally) you were PUNISHED with enemy spawns (I can think of one except to this, and that's the end boss fight in Episode 1). They were there as probably the only "serious" element to the entire game.

The last "canon" Episode of Duke3D (and I cannot believe I just used "canon" to describe a fucking Duke Nukem game) featured the aliens achieving their goal: They manage to get a human woman to birth a new queen.
Your goal is to kill said queen (which DOES have a very low-brow punchline associated with it...but it still makes sense from Duke's perspective).

What Duke Nukem Forever did was take that concept and twist it into some seriously warped attempt at "humor". It wasn't even the implied rape or forced impregnation that appalled me (if it shocks you, then you haven't seen as much sci-fi or at least as many B-movies as me; it's not an uncommon trope), it was how Duke responded to it that was just plain wrong.

 

[BSCCollateral]

But telling everybody that they're a rapist for playing a game where there is the mild suggestion that women were raped. Well it's too far.

Yes, I agree that's going too far.

So, why do you feel obliged to defend the game? Reflex? Spitting out programmed talking points?