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

[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.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'm sure it's not the right way to look at it, but from a movie perspective I'd say that rape in the story of a movie is ok, but rape based porn isn't.

In that vein, rape done by a character to another character as part of the plotline is ok, if handled correctly, (tho FOX will still frame it as 'video game teaches immigrant children to rape american women) but to have it just assigned to a button as another melee attack in the next GTA style game, I'd suggest that's probably not the best move.

 

[ElPatron]

So escapist, do you think games that allow you to nuke towns (Fallout 3), graphically depict killing people (Manhunt), should also feature the option to rape people?

If it is not justified and it's just a "Grand Theft Auto" approach to give you freedom to appear hardcore like other franchise but give it no justification, why should it?

In fact, why is blood/gore related to rape, or why should a game feature both?




That wasn't the best way to start a thread...

Now, if you relate rape to gore and other kinds of violence, that would be justified. But just because a game is bloody should include the option to rape? That only depends of what is in the developers' minds.

 

[LordFisheh]

Rape in most things is going too far.

Not for a moral reason, but because it's usually handled absolutely terribly. It's used in books (fantasy, I'm looking at you) for cheap shock value or to make a villain 'evil', or god forbid for thinly veiled fanservice. Talented authors can and do recall a single beating with ten times the emotional effect than 99.9% of rapes you see in book or film. As with anything in writing, it's only good when done well, which is so rare it's often better not to try, especially as games are already struggling to bring their writing up to par with their graphics and gameplay. And in the end, you can normally get the effect you were trying to create by switching the rape for something else what won't leave the audience going 'is that it? they just go 'ah well' and carry on?'.

 

[Ascarus]

No. If it makes people who are about to rape play this game and NOT rape, how is it bad?

lolwut?

RAPIST: i am going to rape someone today.
RAPIST sees "Rapelay" on the counter.
RAPIST: Oooo, just what I needed to counter my urges. I will never rape someone again.

^^^ exaggerated true story ^^^

If its making a valid point or adding to a story then yes.

i don't know that i agree with this. i have to wonder sometimes, where do we as a society draw the line between what can be construed as advancing a medium and something that is just plain crass and utterly unacceptable anti-social behavior?

 

[TehMightyMidget]

It's hardly a novel concept at this point in Japan, this seems like more America going into others' business.