Japanese games group to ban twisted 'sex torture' sims
About time
One of Japan's two software rating organisations will no longer support the sale of sick rape games in the country.
The decision follows protests from civil rights campaigners in the US who have been demanding titles like RapePlay be made illegal in Japan. In February, they successfully persuaded Amazon's Japanese operation to stop selling the so-called game.
RapeLay allows depraved players to stalk and sexually assault young women - and score points for doing so.
It's not the only product of its kind, and Japan's Ethics Organisation of Computer Software (EoCS) this week said it would ban all "sexual torture software", part of a plan to control content that "deviates extremely from social norms", newsagency Associated Press reports, citing an organisation spokesman.
RapeLay developer Illusion maintains its twisted offering is legal under Japanese law.
Unlike the UK's British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which vets games before they can be sold in Britain, the Japanese organisation's ratings are not legally enforceable. However, most retailers abide by its judgements, and will not offer uncertified titles.
EoCS primarily focuses on PC sofware. Its counterpart, the Computer Entertainment Rating Organisation, rates console titles. ®
COMMENTS
Oh great...
Those statistics aren't even viable. Considering how Japan's society differs from UK, I could put my finger in reported crimes higher. Since most Japanese are shy, they are rarely to go about reporting it with the fact that if they had their pictures shown to the public, it could defile there status. It is just how Japan runs these days and age. I say the radiation did it but whose to know? All in all, it is better to have a game where people can take there fetishes out on than on real people. It is NOT good however to have parents buying such games for their children. Knowing how many parents seem to not care for 17+/M games for kids around the age of 13 or having a sibling do the purchasing at that. All in all, if they didn't like it, they already did ban it from Amazon.com. Leave the wierd stuff in Japan, stay in Japan. In the sense that aslong as it was just only being sold in Japan, I don't see the issue here unless there were a horde of hungry raping US perps looking for some new skills oO;;
More on murder simulators
Just to clarify my post on games where you murder innocents.
In Thief innocents include cooks, maids, wives etc who if they see you (in which case you suck and shouldn't be playing Thief but never mind that) will run and either call a guard or sound the alarm. Thief 1 and 2 have expert mode challenges of "Don't kill anyone" but Thief 3 doesn't. In fact, in Thief 2 many players who read a love letter after killing its writer voluntarily chose to avoid killing in future because that is far more potent than any game mechanic preventing you.
In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, you frequently meet prisoners, receptionists etc who beg you to let them go. Also you often meet people being mugged who stop and thank you if you fight off the muggers. You can kill either group where they stand in order to make Force Lightning cheaper to cast. You also get to condemn a family to a slow starvation by taking all they have of value. The list goes on. If you want to play a caster type character you will be pretty weak on the light side so all these murders and other atrocities are required of you.
Might and Magic 7 includes a mission to murder someone's ex. The mission involves no fighting to get to her since unless you go in invisible you don't have a chance. Rather you infiltrate the town where she lives, cast one high-damage spell on her and teleport out before the guards have time to do anything. She dies quickly since she's non-combatant.
World of Warcraft has a mission where you have to murder farmers and collect their skulls as souveniers (actually the skull collecting is a second mission you can do at the same time, for someone who is depressed that he doesn't get to go out and murder people anymore) - the farmers aren't very tough as long as you keep away from the guards dotted around the place.
Warcraft 3 has a mission where a demon is trying to consume the life energy population of a city. The logical answer to the hero is to kill everyone before he can. Nice. Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne has a mission where you must kill all the refugees from a previous campaign. Women, children, don't let anyone escape.
Star Trek: Birth of the Federation cannot be won without orbital bombardment.
In Max Payne 2 you get treated to a rant about the evils of videogames if you make it through one level without gunning down the two old ladies and the sleeping man. Otherwise you get a rebuke for letting bystanders die instead.
This is just from memory. It occurs to me I never tried to murder Humpty Dumpty in Alice. Anyone know?
the
The problem is that people that support these kinds of measures are under the delusion that certain fantasies lead to real world results.
They do this whilst blindly denying that other kinds of fantasies do not lead to results.
e.g. supporters of this move believe rape games make people rape (if they don't believe this then what is the problem?)
However at the same time a large number do not believe that violent games where you kill people lead people to want to kill people (whether that's by murdering people on the street or joining the army to murder them for some political ideal)
end of examples.
This "interesting" belief is no different to the extreme porn law foundings, that have less than zero evidence (any evidence in support is easily disclaimed - the only support coming from common sense narrative and prisoner survey) whilst the evidence against is convincing.) Or the notion that strip clubs increased crime (while statistics showed crime decreased in areas of London.) This can be extended to the lolicon debate with zero effort.
This is quite overtly a case of moral outrage against something people view as abhorent, whilst serving no purpose other then to punish the few to inflate a handful of egos.
As to crime rates in Japan all measures (quantative and qualitiative) point to secual offence being far less of a problem in Japan that it is in other modern nations - including my personal experiance of talking to Japanese woman.
Interestingly over the course of today I've decided Japan is an increadibly interesting nation to direct further studies, so once I finish my degree I feel it's a place that has many an interetsting social phenomena to study.
@Tony Smith
This is absolutely, incredibly chilling. And I'm talking about your rabid, kneejerk, ill-thought-out pro-censorship rant. Neutrality? Thoughtfulness? Evidence of any semiconscious consideration of policy and personal freedom? I wish any single one of those had been present in your screed, but all were absent.
That one single article has, for me, dramatically blackened the Reg's reputation. And the fact that nobody else from your organization stopped that drivel from being posted says very little for your entire staff and editorial policy.
@Greg - a collector of banned things
Don't forget to visit your local bookseller and stock up on all the current banned books. That way you'll have a nice collection of good literature in no time and plenty of material when 451 day comes.
