Rape in Video Games? Top Aide to Boston Mayor Says Yes at Legislative Hearing

@ Kris O.

I would support a bill banning screaming children.

The problem, as ever is that there is no-one willing to stand up and say that these people are talking nonsense. Largely because the politicians neither know nor care about the facts of video-games, they have only their agenda and a bunch of money to throw at getting votes.

I'm surprised Mayor Menino has time for this. You know how busy he is guarding Boston from the Mooninites.

[...] The rhetoric in Boston is ramping up, with Massachusetts Health and Human Services Director Larry Mayes’ claim that mature-rated games reward players by what the Boston Herald described as “points for… raping women”, among other things. As expected, however, no specific games with this option were mentioned. Why? Because they’re aren’t any ESRB-rated games that contain any such thing. But that doesn’t matter, because selling this type of legislation sadly doesn’t require facts; the people who would support this bill are the types that can’t be bothered to check the politicos’ statements for authenticity anyway. It’s fear-mongering of the lowest order, “low-hanging fruit”, as the Herald sagely decried on Tuesday. [...]

I'm sure there are games out there that involve actively raping women. There's probably a lot that involve stopping rapes and/or catching rapists. However, I doubt any are for sale in the US, so these laws wouldn't apply. Further I doubt the majority of them are for sale period. Most are probably Flash games, so none of these laws target them in any way.

@Bob, I agree, too early in the morning for anti-non-Americanism ;)

I'm finding it hard to get my head around being told that I'm not allowed to post my criticism of a country that prides itself on its Constitution that sets out a given Right to criticise the government. Especially when that same government attempts to encourage other countries to adopt those simple principles of Freedom. Are there different kinds of Freedom that I'm not aware of? I feel like my brain is in some kind of infinite loop....

More Coffee, I think....

Mayes is probably refering to an old newspaper article my teacher once read my class about san andreas rewarding players for raping women and stuffing their bodies in dumpsters.

Oh and it looks like Thompson has already read this article.

If hyperbole was a crime, this guy would get capital punishment. I would find it really funny if various ECA members started either calling for the legistlation of "truth-in-politics" bills, or tax exemption for video games because they cure cancer.
The first option being wishful thinking, but fitting. The second being just as unfounded as these guys' bald-faced untruths. Someone should seriously start asking them not to tell lies. (and engrave it on the back of their hand a la Harry Potter)

"...many of which award players points for shooting people, raping women or setting people on fire."

Oh. My. God. I can't argue about shooting people, but name me one f**king commercial game in recent memory (forget Custer's Revenge, that's so frigging stupid) that gives you points/some sort of reward, for raping someone?!

Perhaps JT can provide us with info on all these rape games.

In The Sims 2 you can have Woohoo. But that's consensual Woohoo so that doesn't count. ;)

@ Mr Keyes

Good. I was going to post my own response to him, but it doesn;t look like that took. here's what I was going to say, though:

Please ignore Jack Thompson. He is nothing more than a demagogue and despite his assurances, the science and studies he cites are misrepresented and sketchy at best. This is a man who thrives on fear and ignorance and as the saying goes, knowledge is power.

First of all, the LA bill failed not because the game industry "blackmailed" the government. It failed because Thompson demanded he be allowed to run the whole thing his way. When they refused, citing that he had to go through the proper channels and procdures that all governments must do, he took his ball and went home. When they asked for him to come back and offer his expertise when it looked like their case was tanking, he refused.

And "Hurricane-ravaged Katrina" my ass. He couldn't have cared less about it at the time. He was quoted at one point as saying, "I have just instructed all of my... experts in the Alabama wrongful death case, all of whom have testified before Congress about the need for your kind of law, to have NOTHING whatsoever to do with your litigation in Louisiana unless I approve it... Lives are at stake, while your [Attorney General] Mr. Foti does press conferences on Hurricane Katrina..." Later he subsequently tried to sue Foti when he wouldn't do as he told him. What a guy.

Secondly, Thompson's assertion that both the VT and NIU students trained on video games is an out-and-out lie. It was briefly mentioned that Seung-Hui cho played Counterstrike in an article that appeared in the Washington Post, but was later retracted when it was proved to be untrue. The NIU investigation is still ongoing and we don't know what if any games Steven Kasmierczak played (though Thompson has threatened to sue both the police department and NIU itself if they don't do as he says and turn over their records.)

Finally what Jack Thompson won't tell you is that his law license is in order. He was recently tried for a variety of ethical misconduct charges going back as far as 20 years. The decsion is expected next month and could likely result in his disbarment. Thompson has responded by sending the court a "picture book for adults" and threatening to "figuratively" bomb out the Florida Supreme Court building.

To the government of Boston: I ask you is this the kind of person you want working with you? He's already backstabbed the LA government and will likely do the same to you when he doesn't get what he wants and will leave you to pay the legal fees when this bill fails (as it likely will as the language is nearly identical to that of the LA bill he authored). Cut your losses and ditch him and leave him to his failed career.

Go ahead and feel free to sue me, Jack. Everything I've said here is the truth and you know it. You can't hide from that. And you know right now it's come back to haunt you. Otherwise you wouldn't be so desperate right now.

I think he must be playing some hentai PC games or online flash games, or something. He's certainly not playing any games that I can wander over to Gamestop and buy.

Battle Raper, that being said, it's JP in origin I believe. Which is by default more sexually explicit than American games. It would serve America (well, me at least) well if the stigma around specifically adult games were removed. There is currently no blatantly pornographic games being sold in stores, most must be bought online and even then they where made in Japan. Americans, it would seem according to the stereotype, like blood, gore, and porn. Conveniently there is a genre for that, but it is not being exploited. Games as a media form are still in their virginity in America. There have been some in the early days but that was entirely too crude, it would be like saying reading a health book was "your first time". The game industry saw one of the traits of America (love of violence) and made games accordingly. Movies have a separate genre devoted only to pornography, there are more than enough stories involving the topic, so why are games so far behind? Part of the issue is Americans are hypersensitive to anything and everything moral. If it violates their morality it is either Satanic or causes something bad. As such they object to that which there morals deem unworthy. Mediums of all types endured this, now it is games time. So, the important question is, well games continue to shy away from the issue, to appear better overall, or will games finally create a new genre so that video games may achieve what all other mediums have enjoyed, that it will cover a base so broad that one cannot lump one genre with another.

Japanese games have rape scenes????

Really???

Yes, some do. It isn't a taboo there in the context of a game.

"Mayes pointed to several researchers who have found a correlation between such games and aggression."

This statement raises my level of aggression. This is retarded.

Here's a small list of every-day activities that raises your level of aggression:

Standing in line;
Being put on hold;
Sitting in traffic;
Having to call customer service;
Listening to children scream;
Getting ticketed for a traffic violation;
Having your roommate/family/friends/neighbors suck up your bandwidth, while you're trying to get your game on/porndog;
Debugging a program.

So when can we draft a new bill, which makes it illegal for children to scream? Or how about arresting that old lady who's counting pennies on the counter, while your arms are falling asleep from the 60 lbs. of groceries that you're carrying? I'm all for fining officers who pull you over, too. And getting cut off by a 20-year-old, steroid-popping kid in dad's car? Death sentence.

And as for rape in video games? As long as they didn't do some motion capture of an actual rape, who really cares? Rate it "M" or "AO", and let the adults buy it if they so choose. I can buy a gun; I can buy hardcore BDSM and rape fantasy pr0n; but I can't buy a video game that depicts anything more than I can already see on prime-time network programming? Blah.

@DeusPayne

They're located in his imagination.

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear, MonkeyPeaches, happy birthday to me.

If Mayor Mumbles is in fact right to do all he can to protect children, how come he ain't done squat to protect the children of Roxbury and other Black and Brown Southside neighbourhoods from hunger, crime, inadequate housing, dysfunctional public schools, and an utter lack of future employment prospects?

Maybe he should try his hand at remedying Boston's real-world problems before tackling any virtual ones.

Where the hell are all these games coming from?

Can't be Japan, the people talking about these games aren't likely to import any just to make their point seem more valid

What, somehow are features the developers didn't even know about surfacing?

Battle Raper. Although most people wouldn't even call that a game.

Happy Birthday Monkeypeaches.

I hope Mommypeaches and Daddypeaches bought you a very expensive game full of debachery for your birthday :)

This is madness, we must stop Boston from spreading these lies... but how...

I KNOW! *gets up on a grand pedestal* RELEASE THE LITE BRITES!