The "R" Word

[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.

 

[unoleian]

Was this made for the New Yorker? It's bloody obscure enough. That one took some thought.

 

[Darkmantle]

This is brilliant!

I got it after only a couple seconds, I love visual metaphors

 

[Something Amyss]

Wait, no. Errr...let me backpedal a bit here...

What you did there. I see it.

Well played.

Also, why is my captcha shaking? Is is scared of the angry mobs?

 

[weirdee]

that better be a fixed gear bike

 

[Something Amyss]

but I agree...there was no "rape" and the whole thing was an over reaction

Yeah, when one of the guys behind it said she would be raped and it would define her character, there was definitely no rape there. And definitely an overreaction to call it what it was actually called at that point. What drama queens, using words and concepts handed out by people promoting the material.

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.

To be fair, I don't think most people were bugged by her getting the "shit beat out of her" in the trailer. After all, this does happen, especially in these "gritty" reboots and in the "rise of" sort of deals.

Most people weren't bothered by sexy nuns in Hitman so much as they were bothered by women who strip down to fetish gear for a fight scene intended to fetishise violence. Similarly, most people weren't bothered by Lara getting the short end of the stick until one of the dudes tried to give her the....Short end of the stick. it was worsened by the promotion that this would be a rape scene, up until someone actually listened to the outrage and went "woah, rape? Nah, he's giving her the heimlich! He just...Missed..." Though, ideally, it would be Nathan Drake getting the crap kicked out of him.

 

[Something Amyss]

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

Mmmm...Straw-arguments. In this fictitious world, did people complain about Metroid: Other M because the main character was female?

Seriously, there are clear paths to doing this sort of thing without criticism. Well, ANYTHING will get criticism, especially on the internet. If someone gave everyone a thousand dollars, at least a few people would complain because they had to report it on their taxes or something. But a meaningful level of criticism. This world where people are afraid to try doesn't exist. The lager problem is the industry mentality that "dudebros" don't like women in their clubhouse.

 

[Kopikatsu]

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]

The PC of Fear 2 was pinned down and raped onscreen while you were still controlling him, and nobody gave two shits then.

For this reason, I can't take the people complaining about Lara's treatment seriously. Call me when she gets gangraped on screen while you have to try and struggle against it via quicktime events, because then her situation will have been worse than Beckett's...but not before.

 

[Comando96]

Took me a while to get that one.

Spoiler

Crystal Dynamics (tomb raider near rape scene)won the "Rape" race going backwards.

If you don't know what "won going backwards means" I'll need to start off at the beggining...
When mummy and daddy love eachother alot and want a baby....

 

[Kopikatsu]

Took me a while to get that one.

Spoiler

Crystal Dynamics (tomb raider near rape scene)won the "Rape" race going backwards.

If you don't know what "won going backwards means" I'll need to start off at the beggining...
When mummy and daddy love eachother alot and want a baby....

I thought the joke was that they're backpedalling so hard that they outpaced everyone else.