Like it or not pedophilia bothers people more than murder, and simply put Hatred was too over the top, and too similar to other games like "Postal" to really be taken that seriously.MHR said:
That said my counter-argument to things like this is that "teen on teen" sex is fine, let's be honest it's part of growing up and learning about life and there are songs, movies, books, etc... about it already. Teens trying to "get it on" and eventually succeeding is the central premise of most "high school experience" movies such as "Porky's" "American Pie", and countless others. Not to mention it's all over "teenage super mutant" comics TV Dramas, and everything else. Love it or hate it, it's out there. Heck, "teens humping in the woods" is perhaps the #1 stereotypical horror movie victim trope.
I'd be more concerned if the game was legitimizing adult relationships with teens, which you see in a lot of Japanese media, with say teachers banging their students, or businessmen keeping a harem of "Lolis" or whatever. I think age difference is important. While a teen can handle a relationship with another teen a lot of the time, when it comes down to a relationship with an adult the playing field is not even, and it can play all kinds of havoc.
As a final point, the idea of a teenager getting it on with a ghost is no worse than say Buffy The Vampire slayer getting it on with a Vampire. Consider she hadn't graduated High School when she had that whole plotline where she banged Angel, it cost him his soul, and she had to stop him. That's about as mainstream as you can get, and it didn't raise many eyebrows, even if I believe David Boreanaz was a lot older than Sarah Michelle Geller at the time (I can't remember what he ages were, I read it somewhere once alleging it was signifigant) and the ages of the characters were even greater. But again I feel this is tolerable even with the above taboo no just because it's fantasy, but because it's using "super hero logic" that isn't legitimizing anything in reality. Basically the laws don't account for things that don't exist in real life like super heroes carrying an emotional burden far beyond their years, and who have superhuman strength and fighting ability. No real girl is anything like Buffy Summers, and thus the laws are not written to accommodate what might be acceptable under those circumstances.... and to the credit of the show, it did not end well, so you can't exactly consider it an endorsement either.
The point here is that I doubt this graphic novel will be a big deal. On the other hand if they bring out some visual novel that is grounded in reality and involves a student involved in an relationship with a teacher, then I think there would be more problems, and rightfully so.
Besides unless I really misunderstand the point of the game, I'm surprised there hasn't been more "Ick, Necrophilia". I suppose that doesn't matter as long as the ghost manifests as being perfectly human. Sort of like how most people tend to overlook in romance novels that Vampires are actually ambulatory corpses.
