The ethics of video games--Rapelay

I will use Rapelay as an example to discuss the issue of the ethics of video games.

The video above shows the view points of people who support or againist this game.



Story


According to the Wikipedia,"In story mode, the player rapes the three girls in the order of Manaka, Yuuko, and Aoi. The player starts off in the train station. Upon entering the train, the main character commits chikan on the female the main character is currently in the train with. After the main character finishes raping all three girls, the players has the option of free play scenes.
The story begins with Kimura being arrested for groping Aoi on a subway train. His father is an important politician, and manages to get his son released from jail. The next day, Kimura waits outside the Kiryuu family house and listens to their conversation. He follows Manaka, the youngest, to the subway and gropes her on the train. After getting off the train, he traps her in a public bathroom and rapes her, taking pictures of her semen-covered naked body with his cell phone. Kimura instructs Manaka to feign sickness the next day, and stay in her room.

The next day he follows Yuuko, the mother, from her house to the train station where he fondles her on the train. Kimura follows her to the city park, when Manaka calls Yuuko on her cell phone. As per his plan, Manaka tells her that she is in the bushes at the park, and when Yuuko walks towards the bushes, Kimura ambushes her and ties her up. He then rapes her in the park, and takes pictures of her semen-covered naked body before handing her over to his gang of helpers on the side, who detain her for him.

The third day he follows Aoi, the oldest daughter, to the train station and shows her the photo of her tied up mother. Shocked, she can only follow his orders as he gropes her on the train. After getting off the train, she asks Kimura why he is doing this, at which point she remembers he is the chikan who was arrested for molesting her. Getting on a vehicle, he and his helpers take Aoi to a hotel which his family owns, and rapes her, again taking photos.

After having his way with Aoi, Yuuko and Manaka are taken into the room via a secret door. With all 3 captured, he reveals his plans to make them his sex slaves. Of course, Yuuko tries to cover for her daughters, but breaks down in the end, Manaka breaks next, and finally Aoi as well"

What are the issues?

1.Teaching and encouraging sexual violence

According to the research from Dr.Karen Dill ,"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. "

There are lots of protrayals of the sex scences.Rape is a serious crime,and should not put in the content of the game.  

2.The values
"Whether any particular act or practice is wrong is assessed from a cost/benefit analysis—whether the overall costs to society outweigh the benefits" (Waddington, 2007).

Keith Vaz said that the videogames allow the players to join some kind of crime such as rape and shooting people, "[S]omeone sitting at a computer playing a video game, or someone with one of those small devices that young people have these days, the name of which I forget — PlayStations or PSPs, something of that kind –
Well, whatever they are called, when people play these things, they can interact. They can shoot people; they can kill people…they can rape women."

As we can see from the content of the game,the developers assume that the male players enjoy this kind of games.And it is targeted for male players.I don't think it is the real situation.GTA is an example of video games include sexual violence, according to The Age newspaper(June 30, 2008)

"a fitness game for the Wii console had outsold GTA IV as the top-selling console game in Australia."It is a clear example to show that a game without sexual contents can be popular too.

•"Male game reviewers and players may be less enthused by these depictions of women than game developers and marketers seem to assume" (Ivory, 2006)

References:

  

lAnderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E(2000) Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and

Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ,78(4), 772-790

lBoyd,C (2009)Virtual Violence. ACSSA Newsletter,21.Retrieved 24 November 2010, from <http://www.aifs.gov.au/acssa/pubs/newsletter/n21pdf/n21c.pdf>

l Dill, K. E(2010) Making a (Video) Game Out of Rape. Psychology Today.Retrieved 24 November 2010, from <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/how-fantasy-becomes-reality/201003/making-video-game-out-rape>

lHayes, E. (2007). Gendered identities at play: Case studies of two women playing Morrowind. Games and Culture, 2(1), 23–48.

lWaddington, D. (2007). Locating the wrongness in ultra-violent video games. Ethics and Information Technology, 9(2), 121–128.

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