Poll: Is featuring rape in a game going too far?

[Guilherme Zoldan]

Well it wouldn't be wrong to have it in games. Its just a bunch of pixels.

Would it be tasteless? Depends. In a silly Japanese porno game it would be just normal. In a weird artsy European game it would be strange at best. In a tripple-A American action-rpg? Oh boy that would be cool just to see how shocked the soccer moms would get.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

I don't care. If it can successfully get your point across (whatever it may be) than use it. Ends justify the means...

Hey, we have tons of murder in games, one would think that people in this day and age wouldn't willingly bind themselves with those provincial notions of "decency" and "morality".

 

[ckam]

Penn sums up pretty well, what I want to say. So, no. Depicting im/moral acts is not going too far for a game, movie, book or anything. Hell, I remember rape happening in the Bible, and everyone was OK with that...

Also, does it really matter one way or the other?

 

[ExileNZ]

Honestly it's down to context, if its meant to be promoting it or using it to entice then no. If its making a valid point or adding to a story then yes.

You know, whatever I was going to say, it probably wasn't going to be better than this.

That said, OP seems to be going beyond 'including' and more talking about "giving the option".

Violence aside, I can think of very few games where actually having the option to rape someone would have anything going for it, whatever their gender.

 

[zenoaugustus]

Rape as a plot point? Sure.

Rape as a gameplay feature? HELL NO.

Agreed 100%. I don't think it is in any way acceptable to let the player rape someone. That's just breeding all kinds of bad mojo.

And... Genocide isn't? I am sometimes disturbed by what people think is perspective.

I'm not against rape in a game. Evil actions and all that. The bad mojo argument is basically saying that objects cause crimes instead of people. However, the inherent mature rating will be inevitable and that means that the number of developers willing to take a risk is close to zero.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.323232-Poll-Is-featuring-rape-in-a-game-going-too-far?page=3#13239877

That basically defines my stance on this issue. And what exactly do you mean by "the bad mojo argument is basically saying that objects cause crimes instead of people"? Because when I said bad mojo, I really did not mean anything of what you said. People cause crimes. I think that is fairly obvious. I just think rape as an in-game action isn't a good addition to a game.

 

[kittii-chan 300]

how come in that video CNN (american company I think? not Japanese anyway.) thinks that they can tell Japan's government what to do? screw them.

OT: not really. Its in films and stuff so...

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

Is it unacceptable in books, or movies?

No.

There is your answer. Games vare a media just like them.

 

[Z3RO180]

i dount really know were i stand on the subject i mean movies have had rape in them before like last house on the left and got to hell and those movies got banned for years so for a game to have rape is pretty much well i dount know.

 

[GrimHeaper]

Regulate japan video games?
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH.
Also consensual sex underaged in certain states is considered rape.
Consider rape from one country to the next imagine if you will this line as the border
18 legal
--------------------------
16 legal

 

[SpartanBlackman]

There is something wrong in a society where rape is hated and vilified more than murder and war.
How the hell can a game about chainsawing people in half generate less controversy than rape? I mean, rape is bad, but it is the lesser of two evils compared to people exploding in bloody chunks.

 

[veloper]

We shouldn't care.

The game won't appeal to me personally, but I do play games where the main goes on senseless killing sprees.
What's wrong in IRL, is only fake within a game.

 

[AdamRBi]

Outside of an AO title why would you want that option? Realism? I thought we were past this.

Killing and Murder have a place in popular titles because it spawned from the game mechanic of killing your enemies to resolve the conflict. 99% of the time that's the point of the game is to resolve some given conflict. Rape, as far as I know, does nothing to solve conflict especially in the context of what many games task you to do.

Giving Fable 3's protagonist the mechanic of raping others would not add anything substantial to the game. We aren't going to be raping bandits or witches to collect the trinkets to continue the story, that's just silly.If I had to make up a reasonable excuse for one, the best I can dream up would be a mafia/gang simulator where you can capture woman from opposing gangs and have the option to "add insult to injury" as a method of provoking attacks for reasons of douchbaggery or traps.

Rape as a plot point, anything goes when handled properly. We know this. But unless it serves some greater purpose to the game tossing in a Rape Mechanic seems more unnecessary then obligatory collectable trophies.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

**snip**

I actually mentioned this in a private conversation not too long ago.

I think giving a player the option to commit rape on an innocent civilian during a Call of Duty type game (and risk/suffer the consequences thereof) would be a good thing. War is awful. Soldiers rape civilians every day, and a game that brought attention to that (and perhaps allowed the player to either stop it or participate in it) or even made it part of a moral choice would be a good thing.

Obviously you would want to only go so far as the choice, and then fade out or otherwise avoid the actual rape itself, but a game that can make the player feel uncomfortable about a subject they should feel uncomfortable about, and perhaps bring attention to an important topic, would be something I supported.

On the other hand, a game that makes rape the goal, that makes it fun... that disgusts me.

 

[teisjm]

Video games have been showing bloody, sadistic dismembering, and torture for many years.
They have featured murder, not only of armed enemies, but mass-murder of civilians in many sandbox games.
They have allowed you to feed children to monsters.

So don't get me wrong, i'm as opposed to rape as any other sane guy, and wouldn't even try to pretend to shed a tear if a rapist was violently murdered, but this is video-games, not reallity.
Just as the stuff mentioned in the first paragraph isn't justifiable IRL because it's okay in video-games, so is rape not in any way justifiable IRL, but in a game, no-one is beeing hurt, you're simply manipulating pixels.

Movies, books, pictures, sculptures and music have featured rape, yet it hasn't been a problem. Why should games be any different?

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Would you still feels as strongly opposed to the depiction of rape if the victim was male?

...wait, hang on. "Would you still"? Why are you asking as if making it gay rape somehow makes it more acceptable?

What about if the rapist was a woman?

Jesus Christ. At this point, you're just getting more and more off the original question, and that didn't seem entirely stable, either.

I think you misunderstood me. I was asking (very poorly so) if people who think that actions involving rape are wrong because of the idea of a man forcing himself upon a women, would feel the same way if a women forced herself upon a man? The reason I ask this is because, in my personal life I have met people who truly believe a women can't rape a man and that even if it was possible the man should be "thankful" (I kid you not, I was shocked to hear such nonsense at the time).

 

[Spitfire]

OP, you're asking two radically different questions. Should rape be featured in games? Yes. Should the player be able to rape anyone? No.

 

[MammothBlade]

Obligatory rude but SFW crappy picture:

Spoiler

I'm ok with this in principle - it's just a game, and it should not do any harm in 99% of cases, but there hasn't been enough research on how simulators affect peoples' fantasies. Does it encourage or satisfy peoples' sexual fantasies? I think it will have different effects on different people... there might be some rape fantasists who are sated by rape simulators, but it might serve as encouragement for others. So it might be a double-edged sword which simultaneously prevents and encourages rape... I'd think in terms of whether there is a net reduction in sexual offences by rapelay users...

 

[Quaidis]

It's a very controversial thing and needs to be handled appropriately. It would be wrong to make a game where you can stab people in throats and rape their wives. Sends all the wrong sorts of messages. It's also wrong to have a game where a creepy forty year old stalks and rapes young girls and boys.

And honestly, if rape is used as an element in a game to forward story (such as a bad guy raping someone in their killing spree to show how evil they are, or the main character - having been raped - uses it as a reason to get revenge any way possible), it would be far more powerful NOT depicting the rape. There's a vast difference between showing a picture of three guys forcefully jamming their dicks into every hole of a woman, and a large house fire with a shivering woman coming out of it, a character you know from earlier in the story (perhaps one to grow fond of), collapsing in her anxiety when you show up and telling you that _, _ was there. And _ destroyed everything, killed many... Leave it at. Later in the story, perhaps right before the climax, have her say that she's carrying _'s baby. It's far more powerful.

 

[Mrmac23]

It's alright, in some circumstances. Really depends on the context, and if it's interactive then just no.

I can also explain why Rapelay exists. It's a WJT*. A particularly depraved WJT, but still a WJT, so it's one of a kind, therefore we should ignore it.

*Weird Japanese Thing

 

[Electric Alpaca]

Context is everything, and as long as it isn't gratuitous I personally believe there is no real reason to not depict it. Films and books (even music...) all address rape.

The issue being is that rape has only been 'utilised' (for what of a better expression) by companies keen to exploit it for pornographic intention.

The threat of censorship should not be a deterrent, more a challenge to break through. Once upon a time The Exorcist was deemed as demonic, with the common public picketing outside cinemas hurling abuse at those that dared to choose to watch it at the cinema.

Many forget that men can be raped as well. That for me is a massive issue.