I've been keeping up with the discussion in the blogosphere around the game since I initially brought it up, and it's worth noting that I've yet to see feedback from anyone that's based on more than a description of the game, or a commentary on the themes they believe it espouses.
I won't accord too much more space to it here, but I thought I'd point out that the worst thing about RapeLay is not that it's a "rape simulator". It's that it's not a rape simulator, if that makes sense (not that I'd advocate for such a thing, either). It starts out with a creepy premise -- stalk and rape three women, two of them high school girls, and make them sex slaves -- but from there, the primary gameplay really revolves around simulating conventional sex, kissing and all. Even the initial interactive "rape scenes" look like little more than BDSM-lite. I think the problem here is actually this massive disconnect, the fantasy that a violent introduction can lead to unions that actually appear romantic or arousing.
I'll say it plain -- most of the gameplay in RapeLay is not directly upsetting (if you can stomach getting past the first part where you molest girls on the subway who like it, which is tough to do, not only because the game design is clunky). I was actually more unsettled by Yume Miru Kusuri, which is far less violent, because it has such a detailed narrative around the things I found disturbing -- in spite of the fact that overall, I think, it aimed to be positive and sincere.
This is the most surprising and, I think, dangerous thing about RapeLay -- especially as I was trawling around forums looking for responses to the game, I noticed that most of the people who discussed it online appear to be forum kids. Like, people who, judging by their posts, are young teen boys.
I won't make the leap and say that a single computer game is going to "teach" anyone anything, or decimate the sense of morality and real-world consequences that a healthy upbringing can provide, but to know that such a neutered and fetishized presentation of rape is so easily in the hands of young people is what I see as the main problem here.
And I mention this in the Slate piece, but the game has only two endings, and both of them result in the depressing death of the protagonist -- he either suicides or is murdered by one of his victims. If I had to guess at what RapeLay's about, I'd say that the people comprising its target audience know they're ill. They want to feel bad about it, and they want to be punished for it. Of course, that's no defense for a theme like this, but I do find it understandable, if depressing.
For me, the most important thing to do in an article where I had a larger audience was to make quite clear that RapeLay is not a product of what we know as "the video game industry." As Slate notes, people are going to make the Grand Theft Auto connection here, but there's no clear analogy. We here at SVGL definitely accorded some time to the "why is rape in a game worse than headshots in Fallout 3" question, but we're not talking about "rape in a game."
Picture a video game where an innocent body was put in front of you, and you then simply had to carve it up until it was dead. Then, it gives you another innocent body, and you carve that one up too. The more gruesome your kills, the more options you unlock. Not because you're a soldier, not because you're a criminal, just because you're some guy who likes to kill. This isn't "game violence," this is a non-contextual murder simulation. Now picture that there's an entire genre devoted to games like that. That isn't play. That's jerking off an antisocial urge.
I'm interested in hentai games still, and I'd like to see more mature themes be accepted in video games, too. Properly contextualized in a story, as Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble aimed to do, I think we shouldn't be afraid to confront the issue of rape in games. But the idea that "RapeLay is the sexual equivalent of headshots in Gears 2" absolutely does not gel, and let's not insult the games biz by having that discussion anymore.
Hentai games are more porn than they are video games. Does that make them safe, walled-garden fantasies, stuff for people to do in their basement where we should leave them alone? Do they instruct human behavior, or are they symptomatic of broader social ills -- as is the fact that games like this enjoy an audience not just in Japan, but in the U.S. -- among young men? If you believe that video games don't translate to real-world behavior, should we leave extreme-themed hentai games alone out of a desire to avoid legislating people's fantasies, no matter how we personally think of them?
You could wage your battle for freedom of expression on RapeLay's behalf if you like. But you can't wage a battle for mature uncensored content in video games on behalf of a game like this, and that's my final word.
