nicked on 12/6/2009 at 19:08
OK, I'll retract my blanket statements. I'm no expert; I'm playing devil's advocate to a certain degree. I don't think any form of game or media should be banned without at the very least some tangible proof that it is detrimental to society.
If an act of violence is ever proven to be directly caused by computer games affecting an otherwise sane individual (and I don't believe this would ever happen), I would seriously reconsider my position on violent games, and, without bias, I certainly
should apply the same logic to rape games.
That said, there is a difference. Violence in games is usually at least partially justifiable; in the context of the story it's a means to an end.
"Rape [...] can never be justified. There is no context that can elevate it, no noble cause served or Herculean task achieved through the commission of a brutal sexual assault." (From (
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/the-needles/6127-You-Cant-Be-the-Hero-If-Youre-the-Rapist) this article, which makes a lot of valid points better than I could.
The question is, would a person with the potential for rape be more likely to be influenced into it by a rape game, than a person with the potential for violence to be influenced into it by a violent game?
Perhaps not, and I don't have any statistics to answer that question. My gut feeling is yes, but then I freely admit I am probably making a knee-jerk reaction based on my abhorrence of the crime of rape.
Koki on 12/6/2009 at 19:33
Quote Posted by nicked
That said, there is a difference. Violence in games is usually at least partially justifiable; in the context of the story it's a means to an end.
And rape can't be? It's not in RapeLay, but neither is the violence in JFK Reloaded. That doesn't mean there can't be a game where rape is justified, since there are hundreds where violence is.
june gloom on 12/6/2009 at 19:36
I know how EU02 feels.
also what the fuck Koki?
nicked on 12/6/2009 at 20:06
Quote Posted by Koki
And rape can't be? It's not in RapeLay, but neither is the violence in JFK Reloaded. That doesn't mean there can't be a game where rape is justified, since there are hundreds where violence is.
OK, when you find a game where rape is used in a valid end-justifies-the-means situation, let us know.
demagogue on 12/6/2009 at 21:20
Quote Posted by nicked
That said, there is a difference. Violence in games is usually at least partially justifiable; in the context of the story it's a means to an end.
For the record, at least in US law, there is a difference between sex and violence as far as censorship goes.
Courts hesitate a lot more to censor violence because it almost always involves some intrinsically public issue, where they feel it's important for people to see the consequences of social choices ... like war or crime. Games undermine this a bit, but even in things like comics the courts historically didn't like to censor it because even dealing with war or crime in a really detatched way, for fun, it's still something they feel people should see to know what can happen.
Whereas sex is intrinsically private, and even when it involves something public (rape as a crime), there's still a private aspect (the privacy of the victim, or a depiction of the act itself beyond the violence of it). So it's much easier for courts not to see a reason why people *need to* see it to make good "public" decisions.
Jason Moyer on 13/6/2009 at 04:39
Quote Posted by nicked
OK, when you find a game where rape is used in a valid end-justifies-the-means situation, let us know.
I could give an example but since it's the very end of the game I'd rather not just post a huge spoiler.
june gloom on 13/6/2009 at 08:45
Why does that make me think of the source of the "a cat is fine too" meme...
