The New York City Council has discovered RapeLay. Although hentai games have existed in the underground of Western internet culture for several years, and have existed as their own market in Japan for far longer, it was inevitable that they'd one day come to the attention of the mainstream on our shores.
Of course, I'd hoped that our wider intro to this kind of material would be something of value, and not something like RapeLay, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. After all, in the world of far more mainstream console titles, it's perhaps unfortunately Rockstar's shockers that brought to the attention of "everyday people" the mature potential of video games -- it's decidedly a shame that these are our watershed moments.
Nonetheless, I've decided to play the game, so you'll be hearing about it from me in some capacity in a few weeks or so. Can't tell you how much I enjoyed the contributions of the SVGL audience, and with that in mind, I decided to extract some of my favorite quotes and points of view from the community for consideration here.
These are the comments that stuck with me the most as I mulled my decision. Thanks, dudes.
Your Comments
"What if Lolita had been ignored because it involved a pedophile? Is Blue Velvet suddenly a bad film because it has rape? Even if the game handles the subject matter poorly, it should not be dismissed only because it is a game talking about rape." -L.B. Jeffries
"I'm just going to ask the obvious question here: what makes rape so much worse and so much less acceptable than all the other gleeful, murderous violence we act in games all the time?" -Kylie Primus
"Now this isn't to say mainstream culture doesn't "sex up" rape in many ways. [Law & Order: Special Victims Unit] is really good at shaming while titillating." -Robert
"Regardless of where you think the problem lies -the subject matter, the commenters or both- more talk is the only way to address it." -nescire
"After all, whether we're talking about an uninformed 'expert' on Fox News or legislators drafting a new bill to restrict game sales, the first point of defense in support of denigrated media is always: 'But you haven't even played this yourself!' -Jason T.
"People want to cry foul about this game, but you live in a world where it was created and is being sold, let's not be so shocked here. Why are videogames the medium that is too sacred for this kind of content? Does interactivity set it apart from snuff films so much?" -axion
"Individuals can decide where their own boundaries lie, but any expressive medium deserves to be unrestrained in scope. Terrible and ugly things are just as valid as anything else." -Mike
"Rationalizing discriminatory treatment of a product after the fact doesn't make it any less reprehensible. The bottom line is that creating a purely subjective 'hierarchy' of 'porn' is... well, either flawed or amusing." -Danakir
And On The Other Side...
Finally, from outside SVGL, the other side of the coin courtesy of Terrence at GameCouch -- check out his article in which he writes, among other things: "Defending RapeLay doesn’t defend Grand Theft Auto or similar games; it diminishes them"; "For people defending RapeLay, can you explain what it means when you rape a child?", and "We can defend our right to play violent video games without defending every form of electronic entertainment which comes across our table. Placing RapeLay under an 'it’s just a game' tent doesn’t help our cause."
I also rambled, in some state of fatigue, on the topic with Evan and Mike on the Yet Another Gaming Show podcast over at Fancy Pants Gangsters.
Incidentally, does anyone else think it's amusing that the City Council is responding to the game's existence by asking distributors to pull it? Um, just where do you think it's being "sold" here? Love how the Metro article immediately goes into GTA next, too. Sigh.
Okay. Let's take a break from that for a little bit and talk about nice things, like Flower and Noby Noby Boy, 'kay? Stay tuned.
