Rape simulator game

[PassionFruit]

Recently, Amazon was selling a game entitled RapeLay made by a Japanese company, which essentially is a game that simulates rape. :o

A game that involves the player stalking victims and then raping them in a virtual world is being offered for sale by online retailer Amazon.com, the Belfast Telegraph's website can reveal.
The shocking 'rape simulator', Rapelay, is set in Japan and carries a sickening game description on the Amazon website. An MP said last night that he plans to raise the issue in Parliament.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...-selling-3d-rape-simulator-game-14183546.html

*trigger warning*

Later on in the article it indicates that it has "key features" which means if a girl gets pregnant you can force her to have an abortion. Not only that, the player can get people to join in the attack.

Now there are a many issues at play here. Like whether Amazon is allowed to sell a game like this. But what does that say about society as a whole? To me it seems that this game will normalize rape, just like other games out there that normalize violence and other crimes.

What really bothers me is the cover, the girls look like sexualized objects which to me can send the message that rape and sex are the same thing.

What are your thoughts?

 

[ranmaonehalf]

well i hear there are games that simulate killing, murder, sex, robbery, larceny etc..

Its just a game. I dont see it causing anyone to do anythign they wouldnt already do.

If people have trouble seperating reality from fantasy or games then thats a much bigger issue.

 

[PassionFruit]

well i hear there are games that simulate killing, murder, sex, robbery, larceny etc..

Its just a game.

True, it may be just a game, but like I asked what does that say about society as a whole?

 

[The Nihilist]

I think the question is what does it say about Japanese society. The answer to that question is that it doesn't say anything as bad as the game in which you stalk and tentacle-rape a girl.
Seriously, though, I play Halo 3, and I'm pretty good at it. You know what it hasn't normalized? Me wandering out my front door and getting headshots on everything that moves.

 

[ranmaonehalf]

seriously its the usually oh my sex... oh head being blown off thats fine.. Sex.. oh my foodness
And its just a game.

 

[ranmaonehalf]

They even have a game where you win by cutting off more heads than anyone else.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/116
Another where you the objective is to kill and eat humans.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=61819
the billions out there where you just kill and kill
halo, counter strike .....
some where you are rewarded for stealing from others with no concern for the law.
Zelda.. RPG games...

And yet for some reason im not going around beating my head into walls, lighting things on fire, stealing coins, eating magic mushrooms. Heck I have not even once today thrown a sonic boom or uppercutted a single person..

 

[Gilyon]

If things like that bother you, never come to Japan.

 

[Verv]

Sounds like a really funny game.

I like the part where somehow you can force your victim to get an abortion -- like, as if you kept in touch with them or something.

 

[Allister]

But what does that say about society as a whole?

Society as a whole did not design the game, produce the game, or even bought the game.

Some will, most wont. If people don't like it, don't buy it.

I personally would not enjoy playing a game where I pretend to rape someone, therefore I wont waste my money on it.

 

[TeddyKGB]

True, it may be just a game, but like I asked what does that say about society as a whole?

Nothing.

We might as well ask what the lawn-watering habits of Natchez, MS say about society as a whole.

 

[quatona]

Later on in the article it indicates that it has "key features" which means if a girl gets pregnant you can force her to have an abortion. Not only that, the player can get people to join in the attack.

Now there are a many issues at play here.

Yes, a couple of things to be considered, and I must admit I have a hard time finding a coherent attitude towards games like these.

Like whether Amazon is allowed to sell a game like this. But what does that say about society as a whole? To me it seems that this game will normalize rape, just like other games out there that normalize violence and other crimes.

Yes, that was my first thought: If apparently there is no problem with games in which you slaughter and torture people - why would there be a problem with a game in which you rape them?
Personally, I don´t feel comfortable with these sort of games.
However, I´m not sure I agree that games like these necessarily normalize such behaviours, though. I am afraid it does to some extent, but the jury´s still out on that.
Personally, I am not much of a gamer. I have been playing "Yetisport" a couple of times, and I must admit it was fun - but I can honestly say that neither had I ever had the slightest intention to treat seals the way I was supposed to in the game, nor did playing the game increase the desire to do so in reality. I seemed to be able to completely cut off this game from the reality it simulated. I see chances, that the same is true for the games we are talking about here.

What really bothers me is the cover, the girls look like sexualized objects which to me can send the message that rape and sex are the same thing.

To be honest, I find that interpretation a bit far-fetched and arbitrary. I´m not sure I have an idea how such a game could possibly communicate the idea that "sex and rape are the same thing" (unless the observer is already entertaining this idea, anyway, or is afraid this idea exists out there.)

What are your thoughts?

I feel old.

 

[Cabal]

I've seen people make the point that people will tolerate, say, GTA4, which is chockfull of gang violence etc, but not this Japanese rape game. But it seems like the point of this rape game is pretty much just that, rape, whereas in GTA4 the action at least takes place in an overarching storyline and many of the missions pay homage to classic gangster movies - and given the ending of GTA4 it doesn't exactly send out a GUNS R GRAET message either....

 

[Chesterton]

...oh my foodness...

"My foodness"? LOL, is that a spelling error, or a reference from something I'm not hip to? I love that! Sounds like something Screwtape would say if adapted by Stephen Colbert.

 

[CreedIsChrist]

If things like that bother you, never come to Japan.

haha I agree, I heard of some of the most awful stuff in Japan. They literally can take anything and turn it into a fetish.

I think this video game is a result of our secular society and losing our values. Although maybe the way they portray abortion in this video game will send signals to the public. Cause thats what most men use abortion as(a way to run from responsibility and "force" they're GFs to get them).

Whats wrong passionfruit? Can't handle the fruits of secular society? something that you seem to support very much? Society tells women to dress in the most whorish ways ever, and in return now society objectifys them. So much for "liberation"

 

[.Sabre.]

Violent games cause violence about as much as games containing magic cause people to try to cast spells--i.e., generally speaking, they don't.

I play Oblivion, sometimes as an evil character. Do I act it out in real life? Of course not. I know the difference between games and reality, and I also happen to have a sense of right and wrong.

 

[Bombila]

Although I'd find such a game repulsive, I have to agree that it isn't likely to have any real world effect on people who play it.

Consider that widely watched and popular television programs, including the three CSI shows, all the Law & Order shows, Criminal Minds, Cold Case - all the crime investigation shows, in fact - depict raped women and murdered women in graphic detail, showing bruises, blood, ligature marks, wounds, marks of torture, decapitations, dismembered limbs, and no one raises an eyebrow because no nipples or genitals are ever shown and the bad guy usually gets caught.

Do you think the mere avoidance of showing nipples and genitals would prevent these shows from having the effects people ascribe to violent games?

 

[Cabal]

Violent games cause violence about as much as games containing magic cause people to try to cast spells--i.e., generally speaking, they don't.

I play Oblivion, sometimes as an evil character. Do I act it out in real life? Of course not. I know the difference between games and reality, and I also happen to have a sense of right and wrong.

Right, but then again, the point of RapeLay is to rape, there's no choice aspect, at least not like in Oblivion; there's no "press X to not rape" option.

While I wouldn't necessarily assume that anyone who plays this game is going to go out and rape someone, I wouldn't exactly look at them the same way if they were really getting into it.

 

[Axioma]

I would be more disturbed if there WAS some grand overarching plot to justify a game that was a sequence of rape scenes.

 

[CyberPaladin]

I can't say it's surprising I have seen enough anime to know there is some pretty freaky stuff out there and I was aware there were eroge games out there.

 

[Axioma]

Additionally, I wish my brain would stop trying to think of a deep and immersive plot for a game where the gameplay consists of a sequence of rape scenes. Like, it has rape, but it's also about the human condition and the need for social acceptance, or something on those lines.

Maybe steal the plot of Assassin's Creed and have the thing be an external agency reading the rapist's memory in order to find some crucial bit of information that can't be accessed immediately.

Okay, my brain is really annoying me now. I'm going to go distract it with something.