The "R" Word

[Aisaku]

Bravo Critical Miss, you've reached the heights of Penny Arcade where more often than not you can't understand it if you don't digest the newspost first.

I'm sure this will age well.

I liked the story arc from before, and find these one off laughs endlessly trite.

 

[LetalisK]

]You really don't see how watching a girl get the shit beat out of her for five minutes might upset some people? And there may not have been rape, but don't pretend that guy's true intentions weren't ABUNDANTLY clear.

Crystal Dynamics just pussied out by pretending it wasn't.
"Gah RAPE? How did you every come to THAT conclusion?" Just showing that THEY'RE the ones who aren't mature enough to address the subject.

nope...she was going through a difficult situation...male protagonits get the same amount of crap thrown at them

and yeah his intentions were clear...but in that situation its not surprising, makes sen sense in context

plus she bit his ear off...

Not usually within the first 5 minutes of the game.

I never said it was surprising, I was upset that Crystal Dynamics didn't have the balls to admit what it was: So much for gritty modern reboot if "Rape is not in our vocabulary." Hey the Republicans called, they want their oblivious white-bread family values sensibilities back.

Her going all Mike Tyson was the only part of the trailer I liked.

Three and a half minutes of trailer =/= first five minutes of the game.

 

[DaRigger420]

This back-pedaling reference would also work if they showed the guy moonwalking past Michael Jackson... or is that just me.

Crap, now I feel old.

Captcha: Spin Doctor .... aka, What CD needs to hire next time and leave the devs in the labs!

 

[Biodeamon]

a little too high brow of humor there...

i guess you could say that this comic was a critica... hmmm, just had the weirdest sense of deja vu there....

 

[Biodeamon]

nope...she was going through a difficult situation...male protagonits get the same amount of crpa thrown at them

and yeah his intentions were clear...but in that situation its not surprising, makes sen sense in context

plus she bit his ear off...

Hey Vault! How's it going?

Response: I'll disagree that male protaganists get the same amount, volume, and consistency of "crpa" thrown at them as Laura got in that trailer. [footnote]e.g., I've never seen a male character get [attempted]raped in a game, I've never seen a normal human male character get impaled by a crowbar/eaten by a beartrap.

Then again, I've never seen EITHER in a game before, so yeah.[/footnote]

I will say that I don't have a problem with it, per say, but they are walking a difficult line. And by difficult line I mean they could easily just be ramping up the drama and making it a bad game. And I will not play it if it's a bad game, regardless of the subject matter.
[small]although I'd probably need it to be a really good game to personally even want to play a game with that type of grittiness.[/small]

how does one get eaten by a beartrap anyways?

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Is it bad that the first "R" Word I thought of was Reboot?

 

[Darth_Payn]

Welp, this comic would have worked better with some context, like a link to a news article about CD. Loved the line @ the bottom from Miracle of Sound's "Shooter Guy"!

 

[The Random One]

Sorry dudes, this is a miss for me. (You might even say it is... a CRITICAL MISS. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH) This is just saying "hey this is a thing that happened" without offering any analysis or commentary. It's the comic equivalent of a bad standup.

"Hey what is the DEAL with Crystal Dynamics? First they show rape! Then they say their game has no rape! It's like they realized they're probably unable to deal properly with the subject, am I right? Am I right? That guy knows what I'm talking about!"

 

[LetalisK]

Have you SEEN the first five minutes of the game?

*facepalm* My bad, I thought you were still talking about the trailer and I wasn't aware of the gameplay footage.

I would agree with you that male protagonists(or rather protagonists in general) don't go through that kind of stuff within the first 5 minutes. Not that I mind that she did, I rather like them setting up the game that way.

 

[Slayer_2]

I wish my bike had reverse... What, I'm not clueless!

 

[insanelich]

They're going backwards? They've crossed the line?

I hate it when I don't get the joke. Somebody will explain it to me and, instead of laughing, I'll be saying "ooooh, now I get it.. I guess it's pretty clever".

No lulz for uncle RAM I guess....

They're backpedaling so furiously they're winning professional events.

 

[1337mokro]

Oh yes very funny indeed once I figured out that it was about the developers of the new Lara Croft game.

It was quite tasteless to refer to rape as a character building experience, but then again I do have to say that trauma's shape the way people act.

Any kind of trauma really. A paralysing accident, losing a loved one, losing your sanity, etc. The experience of those events stick with you. So I don't think it's the game itself that is being inappropriate. Shit happens and if your trapped in a jungle with murdering scumbags all around you it can get very nasty very quickly.

Just the guy in the trailer was putting it a bit to far.

What the game depicts : Okay, get over it.
How the guy described it : Just no, fuck the moron.

 

[LazyAza]

God I can't wait for the whole Tomb Raider thing to just blow over and be forgotten so I can look forward to the actual game releasing and possibly being great.

Yeah Crystal fucked up their marketing and their devs said some dumb things but at this point can't we all just wait for the game to be finished and on store shelves before we judge it and its creators. I much prefer living in a world where some studios are willing to at least try to make a game with a female protagonist and with the way people reacted to Tomb Raider so many are just going to be too scarred to do it now and the never ending sludge of dood-bro themed action titles will just continue.

"Gasp she's not fully dressed?" SEXIST!
"Gasp she's being beaten up!" MISOGYNISTS!
"Potentially implied rape situation?" OMG PURE EVIL.

Yeah handling the subject of rape half-assed isn't the smartest decision but its not like they went and made god damn Rapelay yet people talk as if that's exactly what they did.

 

[Doclector]

Oh...That's clever. Very much so.

Never understood the controversy, really. I didn't end well for the "rapist", so it's not glorifying it. Is it trivalising? We'd have to see the scene in the full game to know how it's handled on that level, but by the looks of things, it's not saying that rape isn't a big deal.

 

[Rack]

So it's half a joke that doesn't make sense a month too late.

I get it now.