RapeLay the videogame is profiled in Carolyn Price’s article, “Banned Video Game RapeLay Goes Viral.” In the article, Price explains that the game has been banned in Japan (where it was originally produced) due to the efforts of international women’s rights groups. However the game has gained popularity despite the ban.
Price quotes the premise of the game which begins as players: "choose a method of assault on a teenage girl at a subway. Gamers can grope her and lift her skirt. Players molest the girl, and even assault and rape her sister and mother.”
Hentai Goes Viral
The game is classified as hentai, a form of anime/cartoon pornography. The goal of the player in this hentai videogame is to rape two teen-age girls and their mother, and “to make the three women sex slaves, so the player can rape them whenever he desires to” writes Price quoting the game’s premise. If the rape victims get pregnant the player character can force or convince the females to have an abortion.
The women's rights group Equality Now posted an article on the EqualityNow.org website, "Japan: Rape Simulator Games and the Normalization of Violence," that condemns the game for the objectification of women, child pornography (the players first victim is a 12 year-old), and violence toward females.
But as Pelpina Tripp reports in her article "Rape Game 'RapeLay' Gets Viral Online," the game is gaining popularity and is readily accessible. Tripp reveals that "Despite the international ban, the game is shared viral online where it's available for everyone." She explains that "It only took me a simple search on Google to find several Web sites where the game is available for download often for free."
Evil Videogame Character
Essentially the player portrays the character of a rapist who assaults women and children. International women’s rights group found the premise of the game highly objectionable. Kyung Lah of CNN asked “ Why Would RapeLay thrive in Japan? ”
Lah interviewed Kyle Cleveland, an associate professor of sociology at Temple University in Japan, seeking an answer. Cleveland surmises that the cultures of east and west differ and “the outrage from critics is borne through the prism of their own cultures…an entirely different cultural norm than what exists in Japan.”
Cultural Differences Reflected in Computer Games
Cleveland adds that “Japan has ways of expressing sexuality that are practically indecipherable to a Western sensibility…the Japanese don't often understand or acknowledge the critiques that are made against them.”
The creator of the RapeLay videogame, “Nogami Takeshi” expressed dismay at the outrage over the game. In response to CNN’s report on the videogame,Takeshi sent an open letter to the television network. Tsurupeta.info provided a translation of "An Open Letter to CNN by Nogami Takeshi."
Defending RapeLay
The translated letter reads “As a Japanese citizen, I am deeply offended by the insulting implications of that so-called expert who associates Japanese people at large with heinous criminals….Those products are developed for rational adults….You surely don't believe that a rational adult would be influenced by such a game into committing rape, do you?"
Freedom of artistic expression is at issue, and like Takeshi, proponents of the videogame do not believe that make-believe game play will lead to actual deviant behavior. Defenders point to the low-crime rate in Japan and insist that the game is fantasy and escapism. The common refrain of videogame enthusiasts on forums who defend the game is - “it’s only a game.”
Condemning RapeLay
But researchers at Iowa State University have completed a study that indicates videogames influence behavior. The study is featured in the March 2010 issue of the Psychological Bulletin; however, the researchers investigated the influence of violent videogames on children’s behavior, not the influence of videogames on adults.
Nonetheless, as implied by the article title “Nailing the Coffin Shut on Doubts That Violent Video Games Stimulate Aggression” - many individuals believe that videogames can influence behavior of the player whether adult or child? The article was written by Rowell Huesmann, and it is also published in the March 2010 issue of Psychological Bulletin.
Huesmann states in the article’s concluding sentence, “It is time for the public health establishment to accept the fact that playing violent video games increases the ‘risk’ that the player will behave more aggressively.” Accordingly, after public outcry, the videogame RapeLay was banned in Japan.
Marian Henderson - I was in the Marine Corps for 12 years, and after completing my last four-year enlistment, I became a Merchant Marine. I worked aboard ...
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