15 Most Controversial Video Games - RapeLay (PICTURES)

Increasingly realistic and widespread, video games have repeatedly become embroiled in hot-button controversies over issues of sex, race, religion, politics, and violence.

Video game critics have decried the more explicit, violent games as everything from "Columbine simulators" to promoters of "religious bigotry and intolerance."

We've taken a look at the most controversial video games ever. Check them out below, and tell us which one you think was the most inappropriate.

RapeLay (2 of 16)

RapeLay is a "realistic sexual simulator"Japanese video game where the player takes on the role of a rapist who stalks and rapes girls in a number of explicit situations, with the ultimate goal of making them his sex slaves. The player's target is a mother and her two daughters. The game is not sold in America and is no longer available on the Japanese developer's website.

Mass Effect

An optional "sexual encounter" in Mass Effect sparked outrage: Conservative blogger Kevin McCullough alleged players were allowed to rape and sodomize characters in whatever way they wanted. Fox News picked up the story on a segment called "SE'XBOX" and claimed the scene involved full on pornographic sex. Psychologist and author Cooper Lawrence claimed the game objectified women and allowed the player to be with as many women as he wanted. However, Electronic Arts, the maker of the game, responded saying that Fox's story contained "serious errors," and some who had spoken out against the game later retracted their criticisms. played the game

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (14)

The Grand Theft Auto series has sparked controversy, criticism, and even lawsuits for its violence, sexual content, and graphic imagery. The 2008 and 2009 version of the Gamer's Edition of the Guinness World Records listed it the 'most controversial videogame series in history, with over 4,000 articles published about it, which include accusations of glamorizing violence, corrupting gamers, and connection to real life crimes.' The Hot Coffee mod (shown here) allowed players of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to engage in a 'minigame' in which the main character and his girlfriend are shown having sexual intercourse

The 15 Most Controversial Video Games (PICTURES)

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Marketing the Game of Rape - scienceblogs.com

scienceblogs.com Category: Feminist Stylings Posted on: June 10, 2009 9:59 AM, by Isis the Scientist

Dr. Isis's blog BFF, Sheril Kirshenbaum of The Intersection, has made a horrifying discovery. Apparently there is a line of Japanese video games where the goal is to stalk and rape the female characters in the game.

The main character of RapeLay, a prisoner who has recently escaped from jail, vows to find and rape the female members of a particular family, two of whom are minor children. According to Honest Gamers (I'm putting this behind a cut for those of you who are at work):

Japanese games group to ban twisted 'sex torture' sims

Register Hardware

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. ® :.

Gamers secretly enjoy getting killed - New Scientist

New Scientist

If you're a fan of first-person shooter games, then you probably think there's nothing more annoying than seeing your character get killed. Actually, part of you might secretly enjoy the experience.

That's what a team of researchers from the Helsinki School of Economics, who studied the emotional state of gamers in real-time, believe. They attached numerous psychophysiological sensors to gamers and monitored their moods as they played the first-person shooter game James Bond 007: Nightfire.

Outwardly, players might seem to hate seeing their character get shot or killed, but their facial twitches, brain activity, heart rate, perspiration and respiration told a different story. Players often showed signs of positive emotion when they character got wounded or killed off.

Similarly, many players showed signs of anxiety, or "high-arousal negative affect", while wounding or killing an enemy. "Instead of joy resulting from victory and success, wounding and killing the opponent elicited anxiety, anger, or both," they write. The research appears in an article published in the February issue of the journal Emotion.

It certainly adds an interesting dimension to the discussion of the negative impact of computer games. It would be especially interesting to know if prolonged gameplay changes a player's emotional response to killing and being killed on-screen.

Via: Wolves Evolve. Will Knight, online technology editor . Labels: games :.