Tomb Raider “attempted rape” overblown because videogames are interactive

IncGamers: Tomb Raider global brand manager Karl Stewart has weighed in on the whole “attempted rape” issue that has dominated news stories regarding Lara’s upcoming adventure.

Stewart believes that the whole issue surrounding the episode has been blown up because of the fact that videogames are an interactive medium.

[Summons75]

no "attempted rape" overblown because the people who did are absolute morons that want to cry about everything

[Mr_cheese]

Boundaries should be pushed for a wider understanding. It happens in the real world so why shouldn't it be acknowledged in other formats?

[Irishguy95]

Games still have the 'for kids' stamp

[fossilfern]

But isnt the average age of a gamer like 37 or something ? Though im no where near my 30s but I think games should be taken more seriously

[Bimkoblerutso]

Yeah, and it's idiotic, ignorant parents and politicians and advocacy groups walking around with the stampers. It's why so many idiots STILL complain when a child "gets a hold" of an overtly violent, sexual, or otherwise mature game when in fact the industry hasn't been geared towards a younger demographic for close to 20 years.

...not that I actually think that's the case here. This whole thing had more to do with traffic-hungry journalists, I think.

[Princess_Pilfer]

What about the "attempted rape" in heavy rain? Or when a psychopath tries to sodimise the female lead with a power drill? No outcry then. Its a ****ing game people. This is the same stupidity that let those kids try to blame their driveby on GTA a few years back.

[PooEgg]

Why is Tomb Raider any worse then what you get on most crime shows? What you see on Criminal Minds or CSI goes way beyond 'attempted' and often involves murder as well as assault. I don't get it.

[Angels3785]

This is one of my other comments, but I figured it should be reposted here.

"Let me just say that I have no such beliefs that women in games are wrongly shown and I don't actively look for it, but the Lara croft scene was put there for a reason. It was an implied rape, meaning that the male character was about to. Granted it didn't go to far......and that is the point, it was a scene drawing you to the complications of the female character...it is seen all the time in film and it should not be a problem in gaming. I have no problem with it. It drawed emotion so you can empathize with the situation, rape is ALWAYS a common problem among women...ask ANY woman and they will say they are scared to go out at night for a fear of getting raped. If you talk with any women they will tell you a lot of things about creepy characters that they have met in their lives.

Women have to deal with a lot, but this scene did NOTHING to draw attention to a full on rape, it drew attention to the possibility and that the strong female lead had to overcome her situation. To deny the fact that that is what the development team were going for when making a game that is trying to reach the cinematic quality of movies and games like Uncharted is laughable. It is what they were trying to show, people just over reacted to it. WE are also falling victim to denial...saying people are looking for problems...well me AND you are both denying what was going on because we don't want people bagging on our games, face it...its what the dev team was going for, emotional impact through the struggles of being a woman...its real, its raw and its good.

So what I'm saying is that the feminists and the gamers need to meet in the middle because rape was implied though not drawn through and the feminists over reacted and the gamers will naturally deny anything against games. When I first heard about this I immediately thought the anti game crowd was out in full force, but then I saw it and you can tell by the mans physical demeanor from the body language to the creepy subtle laugh to the camera angle that he had "intensions", but the feminists dont see this scene as someone who sees a movie and understands the emotional impact of the situation.

Look at my comment history...I'm not some feminist lady, I enjoy my games to the full extent and I WILL be picking up tomb raider. But look at it logically...go and talk with your woman about rape...show the scene to a non gamer or a woman and they will agree....the guy was about to rape her....but they will also agree it was for emotional impact because nothing happened and the strong female lead overcame her situation. I agreed with you because I dont see what the fuss is about. Especially since in a twisted metal trailer there was a scene that people thought was rape, but in reality the scene didnt fit the bill and sweet tooth is a MURDERER, so you can dismiss that easily. But the Lara croft scene fits because its what the team is going for a cinematic emotional experience, the male (man part of some underground group low morals,stuck on an island) has reason to do something like this. So its all subjective and it is ridiculous to deny that this scene wasn't an implied rape to draw emotion from the player.

Lastly before you say "BUT crystal dynamics denied the implied rape"....they only denied it after one of the lead designers said thats what they were going for ,but it drew too much negative attention http://www.computerandvideo...
Its perfectly natural to deny this so as not to draw to much against the release of the game, they just want to move on."

Hope people can see what I'm getting at.

[BuffMordecai]

Its overblown because everybody in game journalism is a bitch whipped pansy.

[lzim]

I just find it funny that CD came out guns blazing that it isn't 'rape' while ignoring that otherwise it is simply murder.

the Jimquisition about the issue covers most the issues as to why you can't see rape applied to games, as you would in other media like movies, such as Irreversible and Disclosure outside of Sony first party titles, because you can't have a game glorifying the act of rape. The main character can't do it (no pun intended) and not be a villain while any bad guy that does it run around raping people (I'm pushing the angle of women can rape too) has to be stopped but what if the player decides not to? It sends totally the wrong message and apparently is was such a grey area that CD has to state than if you don't do anything you don't get to see Lara get raped.. or hear her screaming (or not) as the scene fades to black..