Why is rape in gaming largely ignored?

[josemlopes]

Well, it's the same sort of deal as when you hear of a female teacher having sex with one of her male students. A lot of guys, and I'm guilty of this myself, will often say shit like "Where was she when I was in school!" and such things. So it's no surprise that kind of mentality gets dragged into games as well.

But to be honest, I'm glad rape isn't touched upon. I mean, look at how consented sex is treated in games... I can only fathom how terribly bad sexual assault would be covered in a video game.

I hope no one posted this yet

(cant find better quality, sorry)

 

[kilenem]

I'm just going to make a asumption. Most video game writers are male so when men get rapped its from the perspective of a male. If Tomb raider did have a female writer I don't see any problem with it. I don't think women would be able to do a story properly about male rape because men face different responses as coming out as a rape victim. If a dude gets rapped he probably just going to be told stop being a *****. Assuming its heterosexual sex.

 

[AntiChri5]

I'm just going to make a asumption. Most video game writers are gay

I....what? Just....what?

What on earth leads you to that assumption?

 

[kilenem]

I'm just going to make a asumption. Most video game writers are gay

I....what? Just....what?

What on earth leads you to that assumption?

Really sorry if I offended any one I really meant to type male. Not gay. I feel like an douche. Will not be surprised if I get banned off the forums

 

[Something Amyss]

Because games, like all media, tend to reflect the attitudes of the society that makes them, and our society has a distinct double standard when it comes to male victims of rape.

Is it really that much of a double standard considering that if rape is brought up in gaming it tends to be shouted down regardless of the gender of the person involved?

 

[Gamer87]

I agree that there is a double standard. And rape is horrible no matter who is doing it to who. But many times when female on male rape is being portrayed, it is done in a way that sexualises the woman and is intended to arouse the audience. The scene in Far Cry has a very attractive woman having sex with the player character in first person view. Fanservice anyone?

Now I can't really comment on any of these other ones, except FEAR 2 where Alma is also sexualised. In the game she appears in three different forms, yet it is the "hot" Alma who has sex with Becket. If they really wanted to make it about a horryfying rape, they should have used her scary, undead-looking form. Instead they used her sexy form, making sexy movements as she gives the main character a mindfuck lapdance.

From a perspective of portraying the trauma of rape in a realistic way, FEAR is really good in this way. Except many fans were mad at the FEAR 2 main character for considering it rape. Many fans find Alma hot and actually wished to be in the victim's shoes. I for one was pleasantly surprised when the FEAR 2 ending went from having to kill a cool character before she kills you - to finding out she only wanted to have your baby. And she IS goddamn cute.

(although that is a bit wrong since her emotional maturity is that of an 8 year old)

 

[TaboriHK]

All of your examples are males, and to equate a male being raped by a woman (and 99% of the time, an attractive one at that) to a woman being raped by anything is silly. I can say as a guy, I don't take men being raped by women seriously. Sorry, I don't. It's not near as prevalent, to the degree that you have to wonder what point the game writer is trying to make. It's never, "males being raped by women is a serious issue."

 

[laraem]

Because you can't convey the feeling of being raped in a video game, there's always a detachment.

In almost all cases, It happens to a character in a cutscene. QTEs during a cutscene still count as cutscene. It might tickle your empathy gland but nothing more. If you don't have control similar to normal gameplay, it's just another cutscene.

Integrating it into gameplay as a narrative experience has never been done properly, and would be rather unsettling propably. I'm thinking of scenes like the microwave hallway in MGS4, the end of SotC, or similarly scripted things like bossfights you are meant to lose. It would hit closer to home, because it would happen to your projected self in the game, not an actor in a cutscene. It would be pretty disturbing, and would require the global narrative to support and contextualize that scene, which is propably pretty hard.

QTE, see that's an interesting mechanic that could work in the future when game writing evolves to be capable of handling more serious issues in the same way a well made, well directed, well acted, and well written film does. A long and unwinnable QTE could be a fucked up but interesting way to have a rape scene in a game, but the whole thing would have to be 100% relevant to the game, have long lasting effects on the narrative and characters and be taken at its utmost serious. It also would probably best that it not happen until the industry itself is much less sexualized and mature. But in the right game it could be an absolutely powerful moment.

 

[Spartan448]

Just so you know, FC3s is implied to be consensual. The murder is not however.

 

[Nomanslander]

Because in the game and even film industry, female characters with rape in their backstory has become so commonplace, it's become down right annoying. It's writers shorthand for, "I don't know how to created unique characters," it's the lazy way to give a female heroine motive to do the things she does, which is always acting like a crazy *****, which is always joked about by sexiest men that don't know they're sexist.

"Hey, all women are crazy!"

Ever heard someone say that before?

Well based on what game and film writers think, it's always because of some rape backstory, which is the only thing writers can think up of justifying a female characters actions. It's the superhero equivalent of witnessing ones parents or loved ones being murdered. I mean... its so overly done, you can choose any random movie or game with a female playing more than just some supporting role, and you can expect them to have that backstory. This week I watched the movies Thelma and Louis and 300: Rise of an Empire - mind you not looking for it - and guess what? No matter how little those two films have anything to do with one another, because there was strong female leads in them, guess what their backstories involved?

>>

 

[Piorn]

Because you can't convey the feeling of being raped in a video game, there's always a detachment.

In almost all cases, It happens to a character in a cutscene. QTEs during a cutscene still count as cutscene. It might tickle your empathy gland but nothing more. If you don't have control similar to normal gameplay, it's just another cutscene.

Integrating it into gameplay as a narrative experience has never been done properly, and would be rather unsettling propably. I'm thinking of scenes like the microwave hallway in MGS4, the end of SotC, or similarly scripted things like bossfights you are meant to lose. It would hit closer to home, because it would happen to your projected self in the game, not an actor in a cutscene. It would be pretty disturbing, and would require the global narrative to support and contextualize that scene, which is propably pretty hard.

QTE, see that's an interesting mechanic that could work in the future when game writing evolves to be capable of handling more serious issues in the same way a well made, well directed, well acted, and well written film does. A long and unwinnable QTE could be a fucked up but interesting way to have a rape scene in a game, but the whole thing would have to be 100% relevant to the game, have long lasting effects on the narrative and characters and be taken at its utmost serious. It also would probably best that it not happen until the industry itself is much less sexualized and mature. But in the right game it could be an absolutely powerful moment.

I agree with most of your post, but QTE's are not the way to do it.
Watching a movie while someone throws rolled up pieces of paper at you that you need to swat away isn't immersive or engaging, and certainly doesn't enhance the experience.
That's why I said it in my original post.

It would have to be in gameplay. It can, or maybe must, be heavily scripted, but it must still feel like gameplay.
Take the ending of SotC again. You are being sucked into the Well. That could've just been a cutscene, bam and it's over.
Instead, you still control your character like usual, but you face an unwinnable struggle as yourself in the game. You lose, not your character.

That's a thing that's unique to games, have things happen to you, the player. No other medium can properly do that.

 

[Netrigan]

All of your examples are males, and to equate a male being raped by a woman (and 99% of the time, an attractive one at that) to a woman being raped by anything is silly. I can say as a guy, I don't take men being raped by women seriously. Sorry, I don't. It's not near as prevalent, to the degree that you have to wonder what point the game writer is trying to make. It's never, "males being raped by women is a serious issue."

From what I've read on the subject, a woman raping a man isn't as traumatic as the other way around, but it leaves some serious psychic scars afterwards, partly due to the fact they don't know how to discuss the violation. You tell your friends some girl jumped you while you were asleep and they don't get you're troubled by it... because the media tells us it's sexy fun time.

And if a man rapes you, then you have to deal with a whole bunch of stuff you're not equipped to deal with and you run into the "I would have fought him off" victim blaming stuff and on and on.

 

[Cecilo]

Because if it's legitimate rape the game has a way of shutting it all down

LOL

I actually properly laughed at that.

Now the people on the train with me think that I'm weird, I hope you're proud of yourself.

I fully expected to get banned for that one.

We live in a world where the tough guy image implies there is no such thing as raping a man, that men will never say no to free sex and that forcing a man is simply "foreplay".

It's no surprise that it has leaked over into video games, its the exact same thing as the dramas that get stirred up whenever a fantasy female is put into a chainmail bikini, but nobody points a finger in outrage towards us.

We also live in a world where the current definition of rape in the west (US) only applies to male on male or male on female, or if you are using objects, Female on male or Female on Female. Forcing someone to penetrate you is not part of the current rape definition. So. Yaknow. There is that.'

Source - http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-eric-holder-announces-revisions-uniform-crime-report-s-definition-rape

" The new definition of rape is: ?The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.? "

 

[BoogieManFL]

Hm. There are lot of movies and TV shows where it's a thing and people aren't up in arms about it. It's fiction.

End of story.

 

[NoeL]

The scene in Alpha Protocol is not rape. If you say no, there is no sex. She frees you and leaves. The sex only happens with consent.

I haven't played the game so my info may be false, but I've heard that if your "speech" or "persuasion" or whatever stat is too low she ignores your request and rapes you anyway.

 

[happyninja42]

Since you gave several examples of male rape, or implied male rape, I'll comment on that first.

It's a weird double standard in our culture, that invading the body of a man, isn't considered as reprehensible as a woman. Even if the exact same act is done, it's handwaved away, and is often used for comedic purposes. The chicken being stuffed up the cop's ass in Me, Myself and Irene, for example. Or the joke in that Adam Sandler movie where he's the son of the devil, where they keep shoving various things up Hitler's ass for laughs. If you did this to a woman, it wouldn't fly. And I agree it's a double standard, and I don't really have an explanation for it other than our culture just doesn't seem to give a shit about it. They don't consider it a violation of the person in question, because he's a guy, he'll get over it I guess. *shrugs*


Now if you are asking in general why games don't use rape more often, I think a major part of it, is that your player base might be rape victims. Unlike death, rape is something you can survive. Nobody who has died, is going to be playing your video game, so they can't complain about how your depiction of murder brought up painful memories of their past trauma. Rape victims do have this very real situation in front of them if they play a game, or watch a movie, or read a book that includes rape.

It's a very touchy subject, and rife for problems and negative feelings being generated by your work of art. So, I think, for the most part, developers avoid it to avoid the issue entirely. And I think this is a good thing really. I'm not the kind of person that shouts for developers to remove anything that might be offensive or painful to anyone/everyone that might see their product. I've got my own issues with some things, like people falling down stairs in movies, and people with schizophrenia being depicted in movies, but I don't demand that creative types never use those things in their stories. But I also don't think that all things like this, personal emotional traumas are created equal. My issues with people falling down stairs comes from my grandmother being found dead in her house at the bottom of a flight of stairs. She fell down them, and couldn't get help, and died, likely very slowly and painfully. My issue with schizophrenics in movies stems from my brother who is totally nuts, and was a terror to my family for years because he was so unstable. I don't like seeing them in movies very much, but I don't suddenly jump on twitter and demand the developers remove that content because they were insensitive to my pain.

I also however, don't have a problem with rape victims complaining about this type of thing. *shrugs* Maybe it's hypocritical of me to say it's cool for them to have a problem with that content in media, but that I don't really have much of a legit gripe, but it's how I feel on it.


Rape is a very painful, raw, touchy subject, and it's very very hard to broach it without potentially causing some very negative feelings in someone involved. In general, I think most people, and as a result, most game devs/creators, decide it's just not worth the trouble to include that particular story element in their work, when they could probably use something else just as easily, and cause less stress with their audience.

Just so you know, FC3s is implied to be consensual. The murder is not however.

Yeah, I always got the impression with that scene that it was just the point at which the "movie" caught up with the actions of the player. That he didn't pass out before, or at least had woken up earlier, but that they just didn't show us the player, the parts before. They fast forwarded to the sexy fun time with the freaky native girl with painted boobies, because you know, boobies.

 

[Ramzal]

It's a thing. It happens. It's even a topic that is included in literature, movies, and shows. Why should it be removed from video games? Why are video games the exception? Why should we make it so that certain topics are not allowed within video games at all? If it happens in real life, I fail to see why it should be up to the public to dictate what is expressed artistically in content that is made by those who created it. Rape (like murder) is a crime. It's something that is done to establish "Power" and it has almost nothing to do with sexual desires. Maybe the creator of the content is trying to get across a point as to what that character is if he/she is raping someone.

Maybe that character has felt powerless their entire lives and this is how they establish that they have some form of control of the events in their lives? Maybe it was done to them, so they see very little recourse than to do it to others?

 

[Kopikatsu]

I'm pretty sure rape is a thing somewhere in a metal g ear game but cant for the life of me remember where.

Someone gets raped in pretty much every Metal Gear game. Meryl in 1, Paz in Peace Walker and Ground Zeroes, EVA in 3, etc.

 

[happyninja42]

It's a thing. It happens. It's even a topic that is included in literature, movies, and shows. Why should it be removed from video games? Why are video games the exception? Why should we make it so that certain topics are not allowed within video games at all? If it happens in real life, I fail to see why it should be up to the public to dictate what is expressed artistically in content that is made by those who created it. Rape (like murder) is a crime. It's something that is done to establish "Power" and it has almost nothing to do with sexual desires. Maybe the creator of the content is trying to get across a point as to what that character is if he/she is raping someone.

Maybe that character has felt powerless their entire lives and this is how they establish that they have some form of control of the events in their lives? Maybe it was done to them, so they see very little recourse than to do it to others?

I think one distinction of merit between video games and other forms of media is the tendency for games to put the player in the role of the protagonist. Many people, myself included, inject ourselves into the role of the character we are playing. So then, if you subject the main character to a rape sequence, it becomes more immediate and personal, than if you are just watching it on screen in a movie, without the added layer of connection.

 

[omega 616]

It wasn't recently, I dare you to mention the whole ground zero's rape stuff.

This conversation always turns into "we murder people in games, so why isn't rape ok?".

Thing is killing is cathartic and people do it for sport (though when you do that, it's called hunting 'cos telling the missus "I'm going killing" sounds a little grim, hunting is more palatable). Who hasn't thought "I wish I could kill my boss (or insert person pissing you off at that point in time)". Then when you have killed your foe, that's it for them ... no pain or memories of the event. In rape, that person is shaped and molded by it and they get to live the rest of their lives with that memory.

It is easy to write for a person who dies, writing for a rape gets tricky! So it doesn't happen often, so when it does get written it ... it's not handled with the sensitivity it deserves.