What the hell is wrong with men? (gaming industry)

[DuesToTheDirt]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c23l4ml51jmo

Now I'll start by saying I'm not a gamer. I do know that many games are based on violence, and some include rape scenes. But this is horrendous, and worse than I realised. Excerpt from the above article, by a video game actor:

"I turned up and was told what I would be filming would be a graphic rape scene," she said.
"This act could be watched for as long or as little time as the player wanted through a window, and then a player would be able to shoot this character in the head."

"I had to [vocally] match the scene and through the glass in the booth was the entire team, all male, watching me."

What the hell? This is basically porn, and I hadn't realised that actual actors had to play out the parts to help make the game. And I'll bet that if women were designing these games they would not include rape.

I'm particularly interested in the views of women gamers - or game developers - on this.

I believe the actors should know what they are being expected to record ahead of time so they can say yes or no in an informed manner.
But I do like sex scenes in games but not between non-player characters in the background. I like it as part of character development.

OK, fair points. But what about rape? Is it ever justified to include rape in gaming?

I feel the same about rape in games as in movies. It shouldn’t be gratuitous and but if it genuinely moves the story on in some way or is part of a story I’m not totally against the idea of it being included. Healthy sexual relationships as part of a game and character development don’t bother me at all, but I agree with the actors in that news article, they should be prepared and have intimacy coordinators.

Questions about whether sexual violence should be included in media and if so how should be addressed. Treating it as part of the “entertainment” sickens me and I don’t think games and media that do this are acceptable.

If it furthers the development of the story or environment, yes, I have no issue with it. If it’s gratuitous, then no. I don’t believe a game has to only have the nice parts of life.

It's the pornification of culture. People are so desensitised to sexual violence due to the ubiquity of porn, that media is becoming more extreme.

There was a game made in 2019 called Rape Day which is about a serial killer and rapist who kills and rapes women during a zombie apocalypse. It was eventually cancelled due to online petitions but it just goes to show how violence against women is seen as entertainment.

Children are playing these games and perpetrators of sexual assault are becoming younger. I always find it interesting how misogyny is considered acceptable entertainment but taboos like racism aren't. It's argued that rape happens and it's realistic to portray it - for example, Game of Thrones - however racism happens but it's deemed too offensive.

It's also interesting how these gratuitous games don't include the sexual assault of men; that also happens. Yet again demonstrating how the sexual abuse of women is recreated for titillation and entertainment.

I have felt uncomfortable in sone games, ie heavy rain, where I play various characters and when playing the female one, there are scenes when someone is attacking me and it's clear his outcome is to rape me. I have to do quick time events to avoid this.

That felt very uncomfortable to me.

I am fine if someone wants to murder my character (ie tomb raider) but moving it into the sexual feels so weird.

So I wish they'd avoid that in games. Particularly if it's part of "the action".
Actual consensual sex in games doesn't bother me. I play games like assassin creed where I can choose to have sex with any sex characters who offer. Or decline.

This is an issue in the metaverse, there was an underage girl who was gang raped while gaming using virtual reality.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/05/metaverse-sexual-assault-vr-game-online-safety-meta

As a prolific gamer there's actually very little rape or even sex at all in mainstream gaming compared to TV, books or film.

I tend to play single player games with a strong narrative thread, so exactly the sort of game you'd expect to see this sort of thing, and I can't think of a single game that's involved a rape scene. The closest I can think of is one of the new Tomb Raider prequel games where its insinuated that Lara Croft is going to be sexually assaulted, and its used as short hand for "This is a bad man, so its OK that Lara Croft is about to commit her first murder" (Its taken as read that the next 250 murders are all going to be of bad men as well)

Even normal sex scenes in RPGs like Mass Effect are generally some kissing, a bit of groping and then fade to black before any actual sex occurs. I understand the recent Baldurs Gate game is a bit more explicit but from the article above it sounds like they've tried to do things right, with intimacy coordinators etc.

Obviously, I'm talking about mainstream gaming here, there's loads of "porn" games out there, but they tend to be made by a couple of guys in their basement. There's no women doing motion capture or voicework for them.

Obviously as in TV or film, there needs to be safeguarding involved with filming sex scenes. People should know in advance what they're being expected to record, and there should be intimacy coordinators involved where appropriate. But at least with games everyone involved is generally fully clothed the entire time!