How Fantasy Becomes Reality

You make some very good points, most of which I agree with. But there are two thoughts that came to mind while reading your post.
— You don't mention the well-established fact that rates of sexual abuse against girls and women in Japan are significantly lower than in most Western countries—despite the fact that sexually explicity comics featuring rape are widespread in Japanese society. This would seem to undercut your claims about the linkage between actual violence and its depiction in media.
— While I agree that it's despicable to make a game out of the depiction of the sexual abuse of women, I can't help wondering how that's any worse than the innumerable games made of the murder of women, men, and children already on the market, in the cinemas, on TV, etc. I don't think you're implying that rape is necessarily worse than murder, though it's hard to see how that implication isn't the logical conclusion of protesting the commercial use of rape imagery while saying nothing about the much more widespread commercial use of murder imagery.

You make some good points as well. The literature on imagery of women in video games and its consequences is small, but it is there. We don't know what the levels of abuse in Japan would be without that media. It's more of a sociological question. What I mean by that is psychologists focus on individual participants - showing them particular content and measuring their reactions - sociologists are trained to analyze and make sense of cultural trends. So, in the small amount of research on this particular topic, there is an influence of video game portrayals - these studies have looked at sexual harassment. There's much, much more research to be done.

In terms of the murder versus rape - the murder aspect has been studied much more by psychologists, myself among them. I recommend the paper I referenced by Anderson and colleagues, for a comprehensive review.

This is old news amongst gamers. See http://www.gamepolitics.com/category/topics/rapelay as a starting point.

I agree about the research on sexually graphic media and its effect on men's attitudes towards women. A cursory read on numerous anecdotes from a certain blog on Japan lends a lot of support.

@Anonymous #1: It's not always simple or clear when using crime rates or sexual abuse rates as numerous factors can affect reporting or even classification of certain behaviour from country to country. Although this is an uninformed guess, I believe unreported crimes tend to be more prevalent in Japan than other Western countries.

...when I go to all their meetings and this is the first I've heard of this video game?

Forty percent of all adult popular fiction books are romance novels, many of which qualify as rape romances. Harlequin Books sells five copies every second. My local public library has an entire section devoted to the genre which is highly visible and in plain site of kids, and it turns out to be larger than the section devoted to, say, science or anthropology, which one has to hunt around some to find.

So I'm having difficulty with the idea that something is totally OK if it's "woman approved", but not if it's not. It would be authoritarian to think so.

As somebody above said, males getting murdered en masse is just everyday entertainment, while woman-in-danger (a single one) qualifies for it's own genre, namely horror.

Since it sounds like the game is banned here in the U.S. I'm unable to check it out for myself to see if it's a single player game, or if a second player competes with the Bad Guy, trying to be a White Knight by attempting to protect and rescue the would-be victim, and getting the girl that way. Does she carry pepper spray, or have a gun, or even a cell phone to call the police? If not, it wouldn't seem to be much of a challenge.

It is well established that violent TV/movies and violent
video games makes the viewer/player more aggression.

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/aggression.html

How does it do this? I think there are two main ways:

1. Desensitization. At first seeing someone beat-up or
killed is very disturbing, but after watching enough
violence and killing, it just stops being disturbing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desensitization_%28psychology%29

2. Ideology of violence. In respectable society violence
is condemned except under certain circumstances, namely
war (especially if it is a just war), self-defense, and
sports. Traditionally, media reflected and reinforced
these values. But as more and more people spent their
childhoods being desensitized to violence, the good
guys using violence to defeat the bad guys over and over
and over again. Shows where the good guy wins yet again,
eventually became clichéd and boring.

so now, for the sake of ratings and sales, the normal
strictures on violence are fading away. Good guys have
become boring, now the deeply flawed hero is now
becoming the norm (i.e. The Sopranos).

Big-budget TV shows and movies though, often try to
at least put a fig leaf on this new glorification
of evil, i.e. "Dexter", "24", where there is at least
some flimsy excuse for serial killing and torture.

Meanwhile violent video games, have pushed the envelope
even further, with some games giving the player the
opportunity to engage in truly evil acts purely for
the pleasure of it. For example:

- "Grand Theft Auto" provides the opportunity to
kill innocent bystanders, prostitutes, girlfriends, etc.
to make a bit of money or purely for the thrill
of it.

http://tvsmarter.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/the-truth-about-grand-theft-auto/

- "RapeLay" provides the opportunity, and actually
encourages the player to grope, stalk and rape.

- “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” encourages the player
to kill non-Christians.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/grand-theft-christianity/

- "Ethnic Cleansing" encourages players to kill Jews,
blacks and Latinos.

http://www.adl.org/videogames/default.asp

Violent media has always desensitized viewers/players.
What's new is that more and more media is pushing
an ideology that glorifies violence to such an extent
that it doesn't need any justification.
"Might makes right", "the ends justify the means",
"the strong should crush the weak".

How sick is a video game that endorses rape??? Would whoever invented it want his mother/sister/daughter/girlfriend/wife to be a victim because of someone who played the game and thought it might be fun to do it in real life?

As for sexual harassment, knowledge is the best weapon. I've written an ebook, HOW TO AVOID/HANDLE/LITIGATE OVER SEXUAL HARASSMENT. There is much information in it about what sexual harassment is, how to handle it, and what the laws are (in California). It's also an entertaining read! You'll find it at: http://www.booklocker.com/books/4397.html

I did a radio interview on 2/25 (about the book), which is still up on the LA Talk Radio website. That's at: http://www.latalkradio.com/Sam_Kara.php

No seriously though, everyone talks about desensitization. What about principles people? Is that the only reason you don't go around killing and maiming and raping people? Because it grosses you out? So when you've seen it enough and it isn't gross anymore, you have no problem? No, of course you still have a problem with it. You know it's wrong, even if you may be numb to the knee jerk reaction to it. Maybe that's what we need to start doing more of. We should desensitize people to everything so they can start being rational about things. Maybe if people were desensitized to, say, homosexuality, they would be able to take an objective look at it and realize that there is nothing wrong with it. With rape, you may be less disturbed by the visual imagery of it, but you still know it's wrong. You still understand that it's harmful. Hopefully you're not so weak that you just bounce around life making decisions based on whether or not it feels "icky" or not.

"My own research, and that of my colleagues, has demonstrated that exposure to sexually objectified and demeaned women in video games causes males (but not females) to be more lenient towards a real-life act of sexual harassment."
Why do only males become more lenient but not females?

This whole "the media are desentisizing our kids"-argument does have its points, it doesn't convince me though. What seems to be the real problem here is that the people involved (just like in the recent Facebook thing from Canada; the gang rape) don't understand the severity of rape and what it does to the victim. Which is actually even more frightening than the media desentisizing our kids.

I'm only 19 but I have certainly already seen thousands of digital corpses/murders/[insert act of violence] and produced thousands of digital deaths myself and I'm still a very emotional movie viewer and a very empathetic person. That sort of crap happening (incl. this game) disgusts me beyond belief. So, why am I not a murderer yet (and trust me I never will be)?

Your article was well researched and supported with facts, but you spun a few sources a bit to help with your message... it is hard not to (I also do this a bit in my college research papers).

-While violence in the media has an effect on the human brain, most research shows that "a considerable number of studies have failed to find compelling links between VVGs [violent videogames] and aggression." (Vulnerability to Violent Videogames: A Review and Integration of Personality Research).
-Playing violent video games can often be compared to contact sports (Football, Wrestling, Boxing, Hockey). These sports involve violence, but are generally thought of as a healthy way to work out aggression. A lot of this has to do with exercise, but some is due to the fact that Humans have survived through violence all of their existence, and at some point, we need to get that aggression out some way.
-Violent crime has been in steady decline for the past 20 years, including rape. Coincidentally, video games have steadily grown in popularity in these past 2 decades (even my mother plays Solitaire on the computer).
-RapeLay is an extremely Niche game that very few gamers play. It was developed in Japan, which fills a very small population of that market, even though that sort of media is accepted more in their culture.

While I personally think Rapelay is a horribly disgusting game, others may find entertainment in it, much like how many people enjoy pornography and romance novels (pretty much pornography).
To Censor the game would be wrong in our society, since we are a

I will say that in general, the depiction of women in video games has been fairly shallow (Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball, Custards Revenge, Tomb Raider, even Mario to some extent), but video games are a young medium, and thus, it will take a while till we see the industry mature. Already, we are seeing great strides towards more mature content in gaming(Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Uncharted), and women are starting to become more empowered in interactive storytelling (Metroid, Uncharted, Mirrors Edge, Bayonnetta).

Hey idiots and pseudo-psychologists. I have played and beat Grand Theft Auto, yet I have never stolen a car, shot a cop or beat a hooker after sleeping with her. I somehow still find all of these acts in real life reprehensible and deserving of serious punishment. How do you explain this???

It's simple. Games and entertainment don't MAKE anyone do anything. Nor do they desensitize or lighten the idea of doing these things in REAL LIFE.

I have also played and beat Rapelay. I have no stronger a desire to molest women on a train or rape a family of women until I "break" them and make them my sexual slaves. It's just a damn video game that some can enjoy and some can't.

If you don't like it, don't play it. It's that simple. But don't try to force what you think an "acceptable" game should be on the rest of society.

Different tastes for different people. You don't have to support a game you don't like. I am not a huge fan of MarioKart, but you don't see me trying to convince people not to buy it. I just don't buy it myself. I have played many mariokart games and beaten them; try beating the games you criticize before trying to outlaw the content. There have been many games with much more disturbing content than Rapelay, annoy....er attack those first.

There is no line with freedom of speech. There can not be. For instance I could argue this Article Could inspire rape. You Are in part retelling the story. The problem with censors Is they can Stop a society from being free and do far more harm than good.
Video games are a new media to limit there expression is just not acceptable. Here a simple Example I decide to do a oblivion Mod the tell the tail of Romeo and Juliet, wanting to inspire some people to read the and enjoy the classics. Well and till this year I would of been charged with a dozen charges including corruption of minors.
And inciting violence against children. And who decides wear this line is and is it different if this is smut or a bible game?
And when is it a game or a educational book, there a App that teaches Islam, Should we censor that ? But when a bible that oks rape and murder comes out allow it threw?
Sorry the Price of such safety is Far to high.
And to be frank I read the Studies and it seem to me there full of long winded biased numbers like the breast implant studys that put woman at risk for all manor of illness. That Seamed Sound till some one realized that most women that wear getting implant wear cancer survivors or worked in the sex industry. The Studies wear all wrong because the original researcher was biased or a fool with a Degree. But even if they are right the price for safety is horribly Dangerous And short sited. Do you know Newspaper once wear not allowed to report incest and Rape based on this ridiculous Idea that it encourage reader to commit these crimes?

Your argument for freedom of speech is a good one. For me, I agree that people should be allowed to produce virtually any content. But I think we have to talk about how to keep such content away from young children. And we also should be able to speak out if we find the content deplorable. After all, my saying I don't like the game is free speech too.