The Rapelay Controversy Controversy Contr...

So, Rapelay is a video game in which you play as the not-so-friendly neighborhood rapist as you have your way with a mother and her two daughters. The game ends when you don't' force a girl to get an abortion and she throws you into a train or when a girl stabs you to death if you do...Naturally when this came to light there was controversy.

That was in 2009, three years after the game was published. In that year the creator Illusion discontinued support and Amazon stopped selling it after the controversy in the U.S. was followed by protest and negative press.

Now its 2010 and Rapelay is back in the news. Not because it has gained or lost support, but because CNN has a new video on the subject, warning parents that kids could download it and then...they will become rapist themselves?

Actually it was nice to hear the speaker, Creryl Olson, talk sensibly about video games, despite the hardcore content of Rapelay. She rightly pointed out that the media coverage was making the game more visible for children who would otherwise not know it exist. In the video below the two interviewees only got the game because they saw all the controversy on the news.

I'm not sure what the news was in the story. That Rapelay is available to download is not really news since I found an online copy dated back to the beginning of 2009. CNN is basically covering its own controversy, which I guess is legit, except that they could be fanning the flames.

Also, they briefly mention it in the video, but no one has really fully expanded on the matter: Why is a game where you rape someone worst than one in which you commit murder? I'm not saying that this should or should not be the case and I don't really have an answer, but I suspect that this is influenced heavily by culture. Though it's an interesting matter since in U.S. criminal law murder is a worse offense than rape, even of a child.

It's also of note that games like Rapelay are more porn than games. Hentai-games come from a line of text choice+ picture experiences that have always been more about story or sexual fantasies than about providing any sort of game mechanics. To that extent I've always considered H-games porn not video games and their purpose sexual stimulation and that alone. Games like Rapelay are more about fulfilling sexual fantasies than anything else, like any fetish porn video.