Japan to ban "rape games"

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Following the controversy stirred up by Rapelay, Japan is now moving to ban all "rape games."

http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/05/28/rape-games-are-now-banned-in-japan/

TBS news reports that all rape games will be banned from sale or production in Japan. It has been decided. It is estimated that this particular genre takes up about 10% to 20% of the entire industry but the PC software independent review committee has made the decision to ban all these games. The PC games review committee had originally not seen it as a problem, but now it has come to the point where the entire game software industry has to comply to the new restrictions.
The news article reports that the reason for doing so started with the campaigning efforts of the International woman’s rights organization Equality Now which had started due to the problems found with the sale of Rapelay in other countries.
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Note that I don't think anyone disagrees that rape is disgusting, and these games are despicable, but given that this is a gaming forum and this is "vs. mode" I'd be interested to hear whether people think this type of game should be considered protected speech or not?
 
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Pedophile kidnapping games are sure to go next. Better stock up on 'em like the gun nuts grabbed guns when Obama took office.
 
Rape is despicable and you may find the games disgusting but unless anyone can prove that playing those videogames leads to becoming a future rapist, I don't see the issue. Is it being sold to minors? What exactly is the problem here? Japan is usually liberal about shunning such products yet making millions from them.

Also, I just found this on Giantbomb's page for RapeLay

Nature of the sex


Although the main occupation in Rapelay is raping, the actual raping involves no violence nor torture, the characters only resist for a brief period before giving in. RapeLay despite being a sex-themed adult only game, the characters have their private parts hidden by a pixel filter. This is because in Japan, it is illegal for genitalia to be uncensored.
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I'm not on the fence about this at all, I think that they shouldn't be banning these games. However, I don't expect Japan to stand by the creators and consumers of these products.

By the way, how are these games more despicable than say, the games that come out where you can kill innocent people?
 
I think the key thing is that the PC game review committee didn't see it as a problem until that organization put pressure on them. Banning it isn't the best option, especially when those in charge of regulating the industry don't see anything wrong with it.
 
To play devil's advocate.. What sort of content do you think would make a game "ban-able"? What line would it need to cross to justify being outlawed?
 
Games involving any illegal activity, anything immoral, disgusting. If there was a game where you played as a fat kid eating Twinkies and orange soda while listening to Linkin Park and crying about homework, I would want that banned too.

But that's just under the scenario of Japan banning every "bannable" game. I don't think anything should be banned.
 
[quote name='DarkSageRK']And all is right with the world again.[/QUOTE]

Drinks for everyone!

tentacle_grape_soda.jpg
 
I don't like the idea of a game were rape is an objective, but I don't like the banning either. It certainly should be kept away from children if nothing else.

The fact is that all kinds of illegal activites are represented in the virtual realm. Most of us has played games where killing is an objective whether it is Mortal Kombat, Halo 3, or COD4. Drug activity? GTA. I'm not even going to address the hentai out there.
 
[quote name='DarkSageRK']And all is right with the world again.[/QUOTE]

That's great, I just downloaded RapeLay and I can get with this whole " rape game " thing. It's more so an adventure game than anything. They never even really show anything that could be identified to anyone as rape. They just have text boxes telling you what happened ( i.e the girl being chased to the bathroom, locked in, etc etc ) and then a sex scene. There is also " chikan mode " where you feel up the girls, but there's nothing particularly gruesome or messed up in it. There's no sock in mouth, girls clothes ripped up, blood everywhere, nothing sick like that. If anything, they just put the name " rape" on a regular sex game and changed the words in the boxes.
 
I'm also playing Devil's advocate but rape games aren't comparable to games where you shoot things up. Most of the time, war games depict you as holding off an assault to save your country/planet/family or something like that. For the most part, the people you're killing are bad guys. Is there any legitimate reason to put rape into a game? Can you say that those girls are bad and should get raped? I read Hova's description and it still doesn't sway my opinion. It might not be graphic but we shouldn't be playing "rape" games.

Before anyone brings up GTA, remember that most of the wanton violence in the story is against bad guys or other mobster types. Anytime someone runs over a pedestrian, it's a personal decision and not one made by the developers. You don't have to go crazy and become a serial killer but the option is there. It seems that rape games are there for the sole reason of hunting down and violating girls.
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']I don't really understand why someone would want to play/develop that game in the first place.[/QUOTE]

To laugh our asses off at how poorly made it was.
 
[quote name='depascal22']
Before anyone brings up GTA, remember that most of the wanton violence in the story is against bad guys or other mobster types. Anytime someone runs over a pedestrian, it's a personal decision and not one made by the developers. You don't have to go crazy and become a serial killer but the option is there. It seems that rape games are there for the sole reason of hunting down and violating girls.[/QUOTE]
If GTA had a fully functioning rape game within it-- you could engage in the rape game with any pedestrian walking about-- and it was fully optional, would you take less offense to it since the game wouldn't force you to commit the acts? Or would you be just as offended since the option is there for the players to take?
 
[quote name='Koggit']imo right to safety > free speech, i'd support the ban 100%[/QUOTE]

Your real name is Jack Thompson isn't it?
 
I'm against any sort of rape in games no matter what the type. I wouldn't buy the game either way but I might be slightly less offended if it's buried somewhere in the game kinda like Hot Coffee. The problem is that this isn't banging prostitutes.

These rapes aren't buried inside the game though. The main point of these games are to hunt down and find girls to violate. It isn't a side quest or optional mission. They're RAPE games. It's not a sandbox game. It's not a RPG. It's a RAPE simulation. I find it offensive and draw the line here.

Free speech can suck a dick if it means people are sensationalizing rape. I don't believe video games make people violent but I'd rather not have anti-social awkward gamers even come close to thinking that rape has any sort of artistic merit.

Let's examine movies. Murder in movies can be artistic. You'll sit through a movie that has a murder in it but how many of you were uncomfortable during the rape scenes in The Hills Have Eyes? Graphic rape or any kind of rape is inappropriate in any kind of setting.

Would you ask your mother for Grand Rape Auto next Christmas? Would you leave it sitting around for your younger sister to play? Feel the same way about GTA?

EDIT -- Just to clarify. I don't believe that video game violence equals real life violence but sometimes a line has to be drawn. Rape in video games isn't appropriate in any shape or form. This isn't shooting Nazis. It's raping young girls. Please stop acting like there's absolutely no difference.
 
[quote name='depascal22']I'm against any sort of rape in games no matter what the type. I wouldn't buy the game either way but I might be slightly less offended if it's buried somewhere in the game kinda like Hot Coffee. The problem is that this isn't banging prostitutes.

These rapes aren't buried inside the game though. The main point of these games are to hunt down and find girls to violate. It isn't a side quest or optional mission. They're RAPE games. It's not a sandbox game. It's not a RPG. It's a RAPE simulation. I find it offensive and draw the line here.

Free speech can suck a dick if it means people are sensationalizing rape. I don't believe video games make people violent but I'd rather not have anti-social awkward gamers even come close to thinking that rape has any sort of artistic merit.

Let's examine movies. Murder in movies can be artistic. You'll sit through a movie that has a murder in it but how many of you were uncomfortable during the rape scenes in The Hills Have Eyes? Graphic rape or any kind of rape is inappropriate in any kind of setting.

Would you ask your mother for Grand Rape Auto next Christmas? Would you leave it sitting around for your younger sister to play? Feel the same way about GTA?[/QUOTE]
Let's be honest here, no one in Japan is playing these rape simulators because they are games. They are playing them because they are basically interactive hentai. Ban these and you might as well ban hentai that is centered around rape.
 
While having rape games may imply bad things about your society(I imagine these games sell to socially maladjusted people), I think they should find out why there so popular(besides the obvious) and work on fixing that, rather than banning the game to make it look like no problem exists.
 
Aren't all video games basically interactive movies/hentai? The tell stories, establish mood, and offer a conclusion.

It doesn't matter why people are playing it. The fact is that it crosses the line for civilized people. I'm not into hentai and I'm really against rape hentai but it's the interactivity that bothers me.

There are absolutely no reasons anyone can give that would make interactive rape appropriate at any level.

EDIT -- I like iitachi's point about Japanese society as a whole. What the hell makes the Japanese think this stuff is acceptable? Japan seems to be a pervert's dream land. Panty machines. Schoolgirl rape games...yeesh.
 
Oh, don't get me wrong, rape is sickening and I have no interest playing such a simulator (other than to see exactly what one of these games constitutes)

But it's odd that the last stand of morality for video games "taking it too far" is a rape simulator. We should be equally disgusted about killing people, but we're not. Niko Bellic wasn't forced to go down the path where he would be forced to kill others, he chose it. A game that casually portrays murder should be at least in the same realm of one that casually handles rape.

But it just isn't in the same realm. Anyone rational will tell you that-- the squakers will say different, of course, but it is different. It's an interesting commentary on our society and what we find acceptable.
 
Hentai is animated fantasy porn. Porn is an adult movie. Not that big of a gap is it? Budgets might be completely different but there are some indie films out there with the same budget as porn. Hentai might be about some crazy nonsensical stuff but it still tells a story and offers a conclusion doesn't it? At it's base, it's still a movie.

EDIT -- To be clear about what I find acceptable, I don't play GTA. I do play shooters but usually stuff like Resistance and Halo. I have played sandbox games like Just Cause and GTA III but I spend most of my time trying to accomplish the stunts and trying different vehicles.

EDIT #2 -- Murder should be worse if everyone took the humane point of view. That being said, our soldiers are trained to kill in the name of our country. People will kill to protect their family. There are many instances where murder is acceptable or understood such as, hey there it is, the rape of a daughter/sister/mother. There are absolutely zero instances where rape is acceptable.
 
Well, I suppose I can meet you halfway on that. Still don't think it's a real excuse. Like Skinemax movies, yeah there's a plot, but only about 3 minutes at a time between 15 minutes of fucking.

On your second edit, yeah that's very true. Heck, in middle eastern countries they've got those honor killings that are about as fucked up as it gets. You can kill your daughter if she brought great shame on your family name, out in the middle of the street with a crowd in broad daylight. Worse than the medieval days when you'd pack a picnic lunch and take the kids down to a guillotining.
 
I'm not trying to compare hentai to Hitchcock but you got my point.

I wasn't trying to go as far as honor killings. I'm just saying that murder is acceptable even in America during certain circumstances. Someone breaks into your home, someone threatens to kill your family, etc. Basically, murder to prevent another violent felony is acceptable in America.

There aren't any circumstances where rape is appropriate. Hell, we even have laws that make guys rapists when they have sex with consenting underage girls. Rape just isn't acceptable in civilized society.

To get back to iitachi's point. I've read that Japan has the lowest crime rate in the world because criminals know they will definately get caught. Maybe that makes them so repressed. They never go out and act on their urges so they just delve deeper and deeper into the world of internet porn/hentai. I'm not saying we should be able to act on those urges but there's got to be a point where the Japanese give kids a better outlet than some of this stuff that comes out. Can anyone from Japan give a better picture of what's going on over there?
 
Give me rape games or give me death!

Ehh, I don't see the big deal. Even if there was some sort of ban, this stuff would get out anyways. They'd have the rape game arcade equivalent of speakeasies. Excuse me while I go pitch that to an investor.
 
RapeLay update guys, after you finish the game and rape all three of the girls, they become " broken" and you can have consensual sex whenever , however, and wherever you want with them. Technically, the bulk of the game isn't even rape.
 
[quote name='Koggit']imo right to safety > free speech, i'd support the ban 100%[/QUOTE]

And once you lose that free speech for your "safety", since we no longer can speak out, the Government will take our safety.

There is a reason that Freedom of Speech is our First Amendment...
 
So they get rid of the girls' self worth as a storyline? The game is messed up any way you look at it. It only makes even more stupid that the genitalia is pixelated.
 
[quote name='georox']And once you lose that free speech for your "safety", since we no longer can speak out, the Government will take our safety.

There is a reason that Freedom of Speech is our First Amendment...[/QUOTE]

To strengthen these words. Those who trade freedom for safety deserve neither freedom nor safety.
 
[quote name='davo1224']So they get rid of the girls' self worth as a storyline? The game is messed up any way you look at it. .[/QUOTE]

i thought it was creative
 
[quote name='HovaEscobar']i thought it was creative[/QUOTE]

Seriously?

And this really isn't a freedom of speech issue. Freedom of speech doesn't cover everything like yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre.

This is an issue where something with absolutely no artisitc merit is being pushed on the public as a creative outlet. Anyway you look at it, it's wrong. Please stop trying to use the Constitution as a shield for garbage like this. Madison and Jefferson turn in their grave every time stuff like this is used as an example of first amendment rights.
 
[quote name='depascal22']Seriously?

And this really isn't a freedom of speech issue. Freedom of speech doesn't cover everything like yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre.

This is an issue where something with absolutely no artisitc merit is being pushed on the public as a creative outlet. Anyway you look at it, it's wrong. Please stop trying to use the Constitution as a shield for garbage like this. Madison and Jefferson turn in their grave every time stuff like this is used as an example of first amendment rights.[/QUOTE]

Then why isn't porn banned? It uses a creative outlet (Movies) and has no artistic merit. There is also rape porn, I don't see the difference.
 
to depascal

Says who? You? I believe that Jefferson and Madison knew what they were doing. You probably haven't even played the game or done any research on any rape games passed the title, yet you judge them simply because of the " rape " title and what you think "might" be in rape games. I have, and I've made a good argument as to why they shouldn't be banned ( such as how most of the content in these games can't actually be distinguished as rape, just sex scenes ), but it's all just garbage to you. What gives you the right to judge the games' artistic merit? I suppose having rape in the title and being about rape takes points away from your arbitrary rating system, seeing as you're not *screwed up* enough to actually play the games you denounce. Such attitudes were used against GTA a few years back, while actual players of the game ( i.e the millions who don't kill or hurt anyone ) can say that it's just a game and others who aren't even in the games target audience nor have they played the games claim it's a murder simulator.

You have to understand that for many people, men and women, rape is just a fetish. The government should in no way have their nose in what people masturbate to behind closed doors as long as no one's getting hurt. Unless you can prove that rape games are doing any damage in society ( or at least more so than any time of porn or videogames ) they should not be banned. Simple as that. Yelling "fire" in a crowded area is public, and it does have the potential to hurt many people. Moving the mouse up and down and simultaneously masturbating alone at home doesn't hurt anyone.
 
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[quote name='Hydro2Oxide']Then why isn't porn banned? It uses a creative outlet (Movies) and has no artistic merit. There is also rape porn, I don't see the difference.[/QUOTE]
Rape porn is banned in some countries. I know it's illegal in the U.K. for a fact. Not sure about the U.S. or Japan though.
I thinkin Japan even most regular porn is blurred?
 
[quote name='DarkSageRK']... What?[/QUOTE]

Give Koggit some credit for admitting it. A lot of progressives say they're for free speech..."oh, except for hate speech."
 
[quote name='depascal22']Seriously?

And this really isn't a freedom of speech issue. Freedom of speech doesn't cover everything like yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre.

This is an issue where something with absolutely no artisitc merit is being pushed on the public as a creative outlet. Anyway you look at it, it's wrong. Please stop trying to use the Constitution as a shield for garbage like this. Madison and Jefferson turn in their grave every time stuff like this is used as an example of first amendment rights.[/QUOTE]

Uh, this is a freedom of speech issue, whether you like it or not. You should do what Koggit did and just admit it.

Who decides what has artistic merit? Where is it being "pushed" on the public?

This is a great example of exercising free speech rights, because this stuff is so unpopular.
 
[quote name='HowStern']Rape porn is banned in some countries. I know it's illegal in the U.K. for a fact. Not sure about the U.S. or Japan though.
I thinkin Japan even most regular porn is blurred?[/QUOTE]

Wait wait wait, someone in the UK sits down, watches porn and determines whether or not it is rape? What are the qualifications?
 
[quote name='Hydro2Oxide']Wait wait wait, someone in the UK sits down, watches porn and determines whether or not it is rape? What are the qualifications?[/QUOTE]
On a related note, I think you'll like this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7993694.stm

The search involves tax officials examining websites that feature Swedish strippers, in an effort to identify them and chase them for tax returns.

The tax loss is estimated at about 40m Swedish kronor (£3.3m) annually.

Project leader Dag Hardyson said 200 Swedish strippers had been investigated so far. He said the total could be 500.

"They are young girls, we can see from the photos. We think that perhaps they are not well informed about the rules," said Mr Hardyson, head of the tax authority's national project on internet trade.
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