When Video Games Go Too Far

The game is RapeLay, and the goal, as the title indicates, is to rape a teenage girl. You can choose how to do it and where to do it; you can invite friends to join you; you can even impregnate the girl and then convince her to have an abortion.

by Sarah Sloan

Video games often come under attack for promoting or condoning violence. Fighting—in a variety of forms—plays a central role in many video games. These games range from Alien vs. Predator, a science fiction game that takes place on another planet but nonetheless involves killing as a crucial part of the plot, to games like Grand Theft Auto, where players take on the role of criminals in real cities and participate in assassinations as part of their missions. Critics argue that these games encourage violence and lead to aggression, while supporters maintain that no studies conclusively link video games to increased aggression, and that the games actually have positive benefits, like increasing hand-eye coordination.

Personally, I think these video games are disgusting. I’m shocked at their blasé presentation of brutality. Perhaps I’m too sensitive, but I don’t want to be desensitized. To me, it hardly matters whether these games actually increase physical violence or not; what is worrisome is that violence against others is being promoted and consumed by popular culture.

Although I disapprove of these video games and have no desire to play them, I have reluctantly accepted them as part of our society. But a recent video game from Japan goes too far. It is simply unacceptable, and should be condemned and rejected by gamers everywhere.

The game is RapeLay, and the goal, as the title indicates, is to rape a teenage girl. You can choose how to do it and where to do it; you can invite friends to join you; you can even impregnate the girl and then convince her to have an abortion. The reason you are raping her? Revenge—she claimed that you molested her. The game is despicable; rape is a horrific act of violence, not a form of entertainment, and it is never ever justified. Indeed, the game caused an international uproar, and stores soon stopped carrying it. However, unbelievably, games like RapeLay, where raping women is the central objective, are still popular and widely available in Japan, and the internet has allowed them to go viral. Critics have advocated the banning of such games, yet one defender argued that legally these games should not be restricted because doing so would limit freedom of expression.

But the question we need to ask ourselves as a culture and world community is not whether these games can be outlawed, but why these games are being created in the first place. The idea that engaging in graphic simulations of rape is fun baffles and appalls me. Who is playing them? Why are they playing them? And what can we do to make people stop playing them?

Rape is a problem confronting women around the world—from those in the Democratic Republic of Congo to students at Yale. Games that make light of rape absolutely cannot be tolerated, and it is every video game player’s responsibility to condemn them.

Read more about RapeLay here.