RapeLay: Japan’s rape simulation video game

“Anti-violence advocates are taking a stand against a video game in which players stalk and rape a mother and her two daughters,” said the Associated Press. Amazon and eBay have banned the sale of RapeLay, a rape simulation video game made by Japan-based company Illusion, and now New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is urging other websites to do the same.

It’s easy to see why people are outraged, said Matt Bachl in Nine MSN. Aside from the “gang rape” aspect of the game, the goal is to make women sex slaves without getting them pregnant—if a player fails, he must force the woman “to have an abortion or risk being thrown under a train and killed.” It gets even worse, but the descriptions “are too violent and graphic to write here.”

“Despite the obvious ignorance and pandering,” said The Escapist, “Quinn's condemnation of RapeLay will no doubt play well with those who see video games as a harbinger of the end times.” But isn’t all this outrage more than a little ironic? After all, this is America—where the appetite for porn and violence seems insatiable, and a lot of people get rich off of it.

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