Tag Archives: Rape culture

Interview: Kyrie Ru of Overture Interactive

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Medium Difficulty

[Trigger warning: this interview involves discussion of depictions of rape and sexual violence. Links may be NSFW. Medium Difficulty does not endorse the views contained here, but believes that they are worthy of presentation and discussion.] Could you describe Kurovadis? … Continue reading →

Posted in Features , Interview | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Against Diluting Censorship

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Lana Polansky

Lana Polansky “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” -Soren Kierkegaard The past few weeks have been dogged by some rather unsavoury aspects of videogame subculture regarding rape culture and … Continue reading →

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“I’m Not Offended”: The State of Discussion and Contagious Ideas

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Edcrab

by Edcrab Assassin-women in nun costumes, being killed. No, not a B-movie, I’m describing the Hitman trailer which most everyone has seen and rolled their eyes at. It didn’t “feel” Hitman. It was widely disparaged and derided, seen as laughable, sometimes seen as indicative of all that is wrong with gaming. I saw it as indicative of a marketing department that couldn’t feel Hitman on the feelingest day of their life with an electrified feeling machine, and I wondered whether that kind of violence against women in fetish wear is what the demographic longs for or whether it’s merely what they’re expected to long for according to the extensive research of ad agencies. Tycho thought it was ridiculous too. But he also felt similarly about the response to it, and as is so often the case with this strange beast called the internet, it prompted a discussion in kind. In Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation | Tagged Child's Play , Diablo 3 , Dickwolves , , , Freedom of Speech , , , Penny Arcade , , Shattersnipe , | 13 Comments

Octopus Sashimi: Examining the Polemics of Tentacle Bento

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Kyle Carpenter

Editor’s note: the following is a discussion of the status of non-consensual sex in culture and fantasy, and necessarily employs some very charged terms. Please be warned before reading. If you don’t feel comfortable continuing, know that you have our sympathies. By Kyle Carpenter Tentacle Bento, the source of another whirlwind argument regarding the fictionalized portrayal of rape and its place in culture, is going to fade into obscurity within the next few months, but is for now the centre of much deserved discussion.  In many ways a microcosm of the furor that arose over the infamous Penny Arcade “Dick Wolves” fiasco, Tentacle Bento refocused the debate because of the way the game implicitly revolves around the goal of rape, as opposed to a throwaway line in a gag strip. The polemics of this argument are becoming well practiced. On one side, there is the suggestion that Tentacle Bento plays into a Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation , Features | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , Penny Arcade , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments