There are days, I swear, when the world looks very bleak. Even when the sun is shining.
Tokyo, Japan (CNN) — The game begins with a teenage girl on a subway platform. She notices you are looking at her and asks, “Can I help you with something?”
That is when you, the player, can choose your method of assault.
With the click of your mouse, you can grope her and lift her skirt. Then you can follow her aboard the train, assaulting her sister and her mother.
As you continue to play, “friends” join in and in a series of graphic, interactive scenes, you can corner the women, rape them again and again.
The game allows you to even impregnate a girl and urge her to have an abortion. The reason behind your assault, explains the game, is that the teenage girl has accused you of molesting her on the train. The motive is revenge.
It is little wonder that the game, titled RapeLay, sparked international outrage from women’s groups. Taina Bien-Aime helped yank the game off store shelves worldwide.
My first reaction was: “I sure hope it’s not just ‘women’s groups’ that are outraged, otherwise we’re doomed.” (Women’s groups being, on the whole, remarkably useless except when they’re worse.) But then I had a sip of coffee and reminded myself that maybe now we’ve reached the point where it can’t get any worse and that things are therefore bound to improve.
Is it possible, you think?
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Andrea adds: Darkness comes before the dawn.
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I think womens’ groups are just the only ones worthy of quoteing on this – everyone else is just an observer with no stake or particular knowledge. Maybe one of the anti-pornography pressure groups would do, too.
The publishers had an excellent idea here: Make a game that’s deliberatly pushing the social limits and watch the resulting outcry… and then people will buy it just to see what all the fuss is about. Good publicity.
As a mother of a son I have to disagree with Raven. As a human on this planet I have to disagree with Raven.
If only half the world’s population is allowed to speak out against this then I am sorely tempted to take my son, daughter, and soon-to-be-born daughter and head for the hills…
Do I tell him it’s none of his business since he doesn’t have a vagina?? Do I tell him it’s better just to not know about these things?? Do I tell him that as long as it doesn’t affect his sisters or me, it’s just none of his business??
And, yes I get what you’re saying in the capitalistic sense, Raven, but really I would never have believed that someone would call the publishers’ idea excellent. Anywhere. Of any gender. Wow.
Suricou – When women are exploited like this, it affects all of society.
“everyone else is just an observer with no stake” – Surely you jest!
So, if an actual woman gets raped because some guy is getting off on this ‘game’, living out his fantasies, the woman’s husband is “just an observer with no stake”? Come on…
You misunderstand. I mean that it’s not enough to just have a stake in the issue – I mean that, for someone to be worth interviewing in the media, they need to have a specific and clear reason they were chosen. Even if it’s an issue that affects everyone, you can’t just go out and grab someone at random off the street.
I think you CAN just grab someone off the street when the issue is as cut and dry as this. The game is filthy.
Yeah, Jordan, it is filthy, but who is responsible? Should some overseeing body be regulating which video games are published? Who was this Equality Now, and how did they manage to get the game pulled off of shelves worldwide?
OF COURSE the publisher of this game is responsible for its content, and store managers are responsible for what they stock on their shelves. But both the publisher and the stores are in the business to make money, and this kind of filth sells. Big time.
In fact, we have to be a little bit careful bringing it to the public’s attention, as there are plenty of people who will go and buy it just to see what all the fuss is about.
And then again, you can’t control the internet.
I think the message from this story is that you can’t be too vigilant about your child’s internet access. And you really need to keep away from stores that sell anything like this. And if a store is really awful, maybe you can work with civic authorities to clean it up, but that is a bit of a crap shoot, because public tends to side with the poor store-keeper who is just trying to make a living. And again, controversy sells