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

[Something Amyss]

He's not just using the same word, he's using a synonym

You might want to rephrase that for clarity.

 

[Cazza]

To do with that report. It's their country they can do what they like. The USA should focus on keeping that out of their country then forcing yet another country to do it their way.

 

[Avalanche91]

It'll be the new 'No Russian' in COD 9; Fantasy Warfare

In all seriousness, as a gameplay element its just in poor taste. As a plot or storypoint however, it can actually work. It would work great in a game like Silent Hill.

 

[Appleshampoo]

Depends on the context really. If it's purely just a 'Rape this person so the news will go batshit and people will the game for lulz' then no, I don't agree with it.

However if it's in a story context and it is made to look as unpleasent as possible to make you really hate the the enemy you're fighting, then yes, I'm all for it.

I mean I'm not getting excited at the opportunity to watch some rape, I just like having a reason to fight the enemy, and to really get involved. Seeing a character you like have that happen to them makes you just want to go pwn someone even more. It's all well and good for the game to tell me I'm supposed to hate these bad guys, but unless I see them first hand doing bad things then I don't really care.

No russian in MW2 is a perfect example. You see first hand just how much of an asshole the bad guy is, and it makes you WANT to get him. If they cut that and just told me he did bad shit I'd be like 'k whatever'.

 

[Glamorgan]

No, there's nothing wrong with putting rape into a game, provided it has the correct rating. Rape is depicted in movies without consequence, and even if the media kicks up a fuss about "rape simulators"Which is exactly what Rapelay is, rape should be allowed to be depicted in games. Ratings are ratings for a reason, and rape is, (or should be) allowed to be depicted under the appropriate rating. Which doesn't actually exist in Australia.

 

[Fishyash]

Hmm... the idea itself, maybe. I don't know I kinda have mixed feelings about it that I don't think I can explain.

However, I don't think the world is ready for this yet. The majority of the public will be disgusted while the news has a field day on the subject. Not to mention all the blogs of rape survivors having PTSD triggers (I would assume that at the back of the game box that there would be a warning but would it stop them?).

Because hey, it's just a video game right?

 

[postblitz]

sure, add rape since we're slashing people's throats (among other things) anyway..
but don't make it biased: feature rape like the disgusting thing it is from both sides(without gender bias), and make it available for the enemy as well.

that should make things interesting

 

[Char-Nobyl]

My question is that if there can be games like Manhunt, the Punisher(PS2), and Dead to Rights:Retribution which has excessive violence in them where the player can interact and commit such acts, is it acceptable to have games that feature rape cut scenses

Well, yeah. That's different than what you asked, but yes. I don't think rape should be trivialized as a plot device, but it's free for use in novels, film, etc. One of the greatest Civil War novels of all time (Andersonville) featured a rape scene, and it was well executed, at least in the sense that it wasn't eroticized in any way.

or options for the player to interact with other characters and rape them?

...wait, nevermind. There's the poll question.

No. And if it's a player option in a game, it wouldn't be in a mainstream or even professionally-produced indie game, anyway. Simply put, there are very, very few games where a narrative can continue uninterrupted after the protagonist has raped someone, mostly because it strips them of anything resembling 'heroic' status and will likely offend the sensibilities of a part of its already limited audience.

It seems like many games have no problem allowing players the option to stab someone in the throat,

Mhm. Because stabbing someone in the throat is infinitely more morally objectionable than stabbing them, say, anywhere else that would still kill them.

and people have expressed desires to have the option to kill children in games like Fallout 3,

Ah, yes. Little Lamplight.

See, here's the thing about that situation: the kids weren't kids. They were preteens, certainly, but they were also more morally bankrupt than most of the other Wasteland factions. They had perpetuated a society that sheltered kids until they were sixteen, then exiled them to a town that was regularly ravaged by mutants and slavers, out of the belief that everyone over sixteen was inherently evil.

Of course, killing them all would be horrendous. Just kill the tinpot dictator in charge, and then put them on the road to a society that doesn't feed children to super mutants on the kid's birthday.

Anyhoo, back on topic. Where were we?

but few games seem to touch on the subject of rape. 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?

...yeah, still no. See, in both of those examples, there was a reason behind it. In the latter, it was survival. In the former, profit. Significantly less noble than the Manhunt example, to be sure, but ultimately, you're not just doing it because you have the option to. It's a job, in other words.

Now, tell me: how many situations would arise in a game where you would be called on to rape someone? Can you honestly say that it would be a feature for any other reason that simply for its own sake?

EDIT: People seem to be focused on the idea that women would be the one's being raped,

Yeah. Because that's how it usually happens.

but what about the idea of heterosexual or homosexual men being raped?

Okay, same question as before: dictate to me a set of reasonable circumstances within a game that would call for your character to anally rape another man.

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.

 

[Vetinarii]

EDIT: People seem to be focused on the idea that women would be the one's being raped, but what about the idea of heterosexual or homosexual men being raped? Would you still feels as strongly opposed to the depiction of rape if the victim was male? What about if the rapist was a woman?

By the definition of rape women cannot rape without being really stupid and sticking a finger or object into a male orifice.

Also I answered the poll by answering the question: "Is featuring rape in a game going too far?" because the actual poll is getting ahead of itself. A lot of thing have to happen before we start considering that option.

 

[Phisi]

Well... according to Australian Law, someone cannot give consent if under the influence so all media that has the guy waking up next to the ugly girl has rape in it or is suggesting rape (methinks that having rape in games makes it illegal/refused classification etc anyway) but if yu mean it being suggested or implied, then Dead Island already has rape in it.

 

[aoi287]

Having a game that centers around the player character running around raping people would be in pretty poor taste, but I certainly think it has the right to exist. I personally would be revolted by it, but I'm revolted by all kinds of other stuff and agree with its right to exist as well. For example, NTR. I hate it, but other people are into it, so good for them.

At any rate, it's just a game. Pretty sure people can differentiate between fantasy and reality, no matter what the content of the game is.

 

[Treblaine]

I wish the OP wouldn't have a double-negative in the poll as .

"is it going to far" becomes "IS is not right" with the opposite "No. Is it NOT NOT right."

The question is essentially "Rape in games. Yes or no"

The problem is if you just immediately select yes in approval of rape in game you are actually agreeing that that would be going too far-and so you are against rape in games, rararrgh MY BRAIN! If you immediately select "no" without reading you are actually saying it isn't going too far.

I hate it when people say "don't forget to do X" and if I say "I will" is that "I will forget", but if I say "I won't" is that "I won't forget" or "I won't do it".

 

[greenapples]

A game with its main theme as rape isnt in good taste, but neither is a game with its main theme being personal assassinations but I can list a dozen games that fit the latter that arent criticised and enjoyed by many.

its a matter of taste; if you enjoy it, play it. if you dont, dont. Shooting hundreds of faces off in a game isnt gonna make me a mass murderer, why would playing a game involving rape make me a rapist?

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

A successful rape would probably get the game banned.

An attempted but foiled rape would probably not.

 

[TheGreatAndPowerfulZOG]

I don't know what the laws are like in Europe and around the world, but in the US we have some pretty strongly worded protection of the freedom of speech in our constitution, and the Supreme Court recently confirmed that video games will be considered speech. So, no, it should not be banned, and anyone trying to make laws against this kind of thing is imho a reactionary.

 

[Liviola]

If a game realistically depicted your character (in first person view) being raped and everything leading up to it and after it, I'd say it'd probably be one of the most horrifying experiences you can create for a game. Pretty much on par with the scenario of having to watch yourself slowly being tortured and cut apart. It could show the terror and powerlessness of such an experience (without the pain, but rape is much more of a psychological form of abuse), and perhaps make people who don't really consider the seriousness of what it means to be a rape victim rethink their position.

When most people think about rape, they think of a victim who is completely different from them and has nothing to do with them. But to put that experience in front of someone, especially in the medium of a game (that has a fundamental feature of the freedom of control), and then take that control away from the player, that brief period of time you will know exactly how traumatising and torture-like rape actually is.

I think in that kind of a context, rape is in the game for the purpose of making a strong statement (against it). For any reason that comes short of that, it would at risk of being unnecessary or kind of glamourising it, because it's not a fun topic despite the fact that lots of immature guys (and some girls) seem to love joking about it and throwing the term "rape" around casually.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

I was gonna throw out a worthless smartass reply, but this topic actually made me think.

As I see it, rape is a subject that is almost never directly explored in visual media, which means that there's plenty of ground to be broken, and a lot of interesting themes to be explored... and if you think that sounds absurd, I suggest you take a look at how many classic movies, books, songs, poems and games have been lauded as revolutionary for taking subjects like murder seriously and exploring the psychological and humanistic aspects of it, despite the act of murder being an even bigger IRL taboo (to be fair, though, the intentions behind the act are waaaaaaaay easier for an author to justify); I'd actually wager that there's even more depth to the subject of rape to be explored when compared to murder, due to the fact that murder stories tend to be one-sided and focused on the perpetrator due to the victim not doing a whole lot of anything after the crime is committed, whereas rape by itself results in a victim with a great deal of psychological, emotional and physical trauma to overcome.

This is all hypothetical, however, since this has never really been done before, largely due to the fact that rape itself is a huge societal taboo (for good reason), but upon further reflection, I believe the skirting of direct representations of rape actually has to do with the fact that we've already got a fervently-enforced taboo against explicit depictions of all forms of sexuality in all forms of media (but ESPECIALLY mainstream visual media, where it's downright ILLEGAL).

Remember the shit storm caused over the consensual unclothed pouncing in Mass Effect? Of course you do. Remember the last time you saw actual penetration in a sex scene in a movie that had a plot and a budget? Of course you don't. So many 1st-world countries have demonized sex as a terrible, corrupting, unnatural act despite the huge role it plays in the human experience, and have, in turn, outlawed graphic (read: no-bullshit) depictions of sex from the same movie theaters that display countless high-grossing torture-porn movies that depict teenagers having their ribcages splayed open by grotesque monsters. Now, this is the kind of bullshit most media purveyors will avoid like the plague, and we're still only talking about the consensual, everybody-involved-is-having-fun kind of sex. To take it a step further by depicting illegal, non-consensual, possibly violent sex in a way that doesn't try to be cute about it, is practically suicide for the investors, because it gives prudes that much more shit to fling when they campaign to have it stricken from the face of the earth "for the children".

With all of that being taken into account, where I stand is that rape as a subject, or even as a gameplay element, is not an intrinsically awful idea, and could even yield results with a great deal of artistic merit if done sensibly, tastefully, and taken seriously (how to go about achieving this is a question best left to minds greater than my own). However, implementing it in the same fundamentalist countries that think a penis entering a vagina is the single most foul image that could possibly be witnessed, and trying to set that precedent in a fledgling form of media, no less? Objectively. Bad. Idea.