[Review]Violation: Rape in Gaming

[Ancient History]

No, fuck that. That entire essay is tone-deaf whining. TinyMUD, the ancestor of all modern MUDs/MOOs/MUXes/etc. including LambdaMOO came out in 1989. FurryMUCK came out in 1990. Hell, Tapestries MUCK -- a game entirely based on freeform furry sex -- came out in fall 1991. Hell, LambdaMOO was out in 1990.

Unless the people from Lambda were the most sheltered, clueless people on the Internet the author of that drivel was clearly taking poetic license to create a mock-epic that didn't know it was a mock-epic. And I think that the latter is fucking obvious to anyone who reads the whole thing in historical context.

Dribbell is being twee and presenting an incident he heard about second- or third-hand in an article to people that are still in awe and amazement at the PC revolution and barely know what a modem is. So yes, of course it's drivel. But it might be the first such incident actually written about for an audience beyond the MUDs themselves. You have to keep the intended audience in mind for this, even if Dribbell is an intolerable twat about it all.

[DSMatticus]

she notes that the idea that "every male is a rapist" is rape myth bullshit.

To be clear, Camile Paglia and Catherine MacKinnon both argue things that really do equate to this:

Minus ten points

To be fair, many of MacKinnon's antipornography arguments straddle the "sexuality is exploitive" line and are full of statements that boil down to "pornography is exploitive because exploitive pornography exists" with a healthy helping of emotional appeals. She would not carry the ramifications of such statements all the way to sex, because "that would be crazy," but there isn't anything in particular that stops you from doing so.

But that is pretty much the exact opposite of something Paglia would write, though. Because Paglia is a rape apologist.

[Kaelik]

she notes that the idea that "every male is a rapist" is rape myth bullshit.

To be clear, Camile Paglia and Catherine MacKinnon both argue things that really do equate to this:

Minus ten points

Perhaps you could go possibly as far down the post as to read what Ikeren actually wrote, which is that even though they have not explicitly said it, it is the logical extension of the arguments they have made and our existing laws on consent.

You could in fact actually read what someone types before you start criticizing someone by linking to an article that does not dispute even a single thing they said.

[Kaelik]

But that is pretty much the exact opposite of something Paglia would write, though. Because Paglia is a rape apologist.

Didn't Paglia do a complete fucking 180 some time in the last 15 years? I vaguely remember her once being like a real feminist, but see no signs of it currently.

[Starmaker]

Paglia is a disgusting gender-essentialist homophobic twatshitter.

That “Heather Has Two Mommies” business gives me the creeps! — and it can only confuse a kid.

I’m completely against that two fathers, two mothers stuff. I think it’s gay activism gone horribly awry — people making political points without regard for a child’s realistic social and developmental needs.

[Fuchs]

Paglia is a disgusting gender-essentialist homophobic twatshitter.

That “Heather Has Two Mommies” business gives me the creeps! — and it can only confuse a kid.

I’m completely against that two fathers, two mothers stuff. I think it’s gay activism gone horribly awry — people making political points without regard for a child’s realistic social and developmental needs.

Too bad for her that even a "normal" kid is not too unlikely to grow up with either a single mom, and no father, or a set of divorced parents and their new partners, essentially getting 2+ mothers/fathers.

[Username17]

MacKinnon may not have literally said that "all sex is rape" but her actual position isn't super different from that. Her "anti-pornography civil rights ordnance" idea was particularly noxious. The idea was that rather than attempt to make pornography literally illegal, to simply allow people to press civil suits against pornographers on the specious reasoning that pornography was itself a violation of the civil rights of women.

In short, to shut down pornography not by making the work itself illegal, but by empowering anyone who wanted to drown pornographers in nuisance lawsuits. The equivalent would be something like "We aren't making it illegal to print newspapers, we're just empowering anyone who wants to take legal action against newspapers who print stories that make them feel bad."

The whole concept was obviously an attempt to chill free speech, and was recognized by the courts as such and struck down. If you're writing legislation that allows literally any woman to sue any store for having sold something that shows a woman in a sexual context, you're equal parts dangerous and insane.

-Username17

[Ikeren]

And I was particularly referring to MacKinnon's "Toward's a Feminist Theory of State."

@Kaelik: Thank you. And you're right about Paglia writing wildly divergent things at different times.
@Koumei: Why don't I just quote myself? Maybe I'll add some emphasis so you don't get confused.

The simple of it is an extension of the "in unequal power structures, no consent is good consent." --- Teacher/student consent isn't good consent even when they're both over the age of consent in whatever region they are, and we generally don't have too much trouble with this. If you're a feminist arguing that there is a strong patriarchy, suddenly women can never meaningfully consent to sex (MacKinnon), (this is the part that extends logically from there, but MacKinnon doesn't harp on) and all sex is [thus at least] ethically suspect. (Which leads other commentators to suspect and or jump to rape.)

I will admit the "and" in the last sentence should be a "thus," or even more clearly, "thus at least." I apologize most profusely.

[Ancient History]

Conversation on Role-Playing Game Rape (1999)
by Anne C. Moore

This is a forum discussion of rape in RPGs, mainly tabletop and LARP, that was held by a group of women interested in roleplaying on the Sixdegrees forums. I mentioned before that this wasn't an academic book, and looking at the first couple of essays I think I'm beginning to see why, but I digress.

Several women have mentioned either having had their female characters raped or knowing other people whose female characters were raped.

I know there are no statistics for this, but it's a weird thought: exactly how common is female PC character rape in RPGs? I mean, obviously it has happened, but given that female gamers are in the minority, it really does make you wonder how often this must come up.

Fairly early on, the threadstarter admits that she's included rape in her character backstories, had NPCs raped in games she's run, and that as a gamemaster once had an NPC rape a player. That's...unexpected, and maybe quite a lot. She does actually ask "How much does player consent matter?"

This was followed up by...well, what you'd expect. Personal anecdotes about how they experienced or used rape in gaming ("he also decided to rape my character simply based on the fact that she had an 18 charisma not because of who she was or where she was or who the NPC was or anything else.") and opinions on how to handle it (general consensus: player consent does matter, and roleplaying rape during a LARP is squicky). World of Darkness games seem to be over-represented in the anecdotes, though nobody seems to notice or make anything of that.

Anyway, you can read the whole thing here: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~acm/WIG/WIG13.html

[Chamomile]

general consensus: player consent does matter

wat

[Ancient History]

Basically, people think it's important that players have some say in whether or not their player character gets raped.

[Ancient History]

Review of FATAL (2002)
by Darren MacLennan and Jason Sartin

Okay, if you aren't already familiar with it, this was an online review posted to RPG.net a decade ago and you can still read it here. It is pretty much the definitive review of FATAL, the most grossly offensive and patently ill-conceived tabletop RPG ever, which is something of a feat unto itself. The review in its entirety was reformatted, abridged, and included (with the authors' permissions) as entry #3 in Violation: Rape in Gaming. There's a footnote that contains a link to the rebuttal.

Since there's not a lot to say constructively in reviewing a review, let me just point out that by this point in the book we've got three widely disconnected sources which are publicly available on the internet, with minimal commentary or analysis. So far, I'm really not impressed with this book, even on a "Okay, it only cost me $XX.XX" level, because I guess I was expecting more original content, and something a bit more academic. But as it is, the first three entries aren't exactly instilling me with hope for the rest of the book; this is

[Prak]

It is pretty much the definitive review of FATAL,

I take exception to that. While there's may be more well known, and not written flow of consciousness style as they read it, mine covered every fucking aspect of that book.

[fectin]

But yours didn't get a crazytown rebuttal.

[Prak]

Yeah, I'm honestly still a little disappointed about that.

[Ancient History]

Yours also came out in 2011. It's a bit like someone trying to make a samurai movie after Akira Kurosawa - no matter how good it is (and 13 Assassins was fucking badass), it will never be as good as Seven Samurai or Yojimbo.

[Chamomile]

Basically, people think it's important that players have some say in whether or not their player character gets raped.

Oh, wait. I misread that as "player consensus doesn't matter" and was momentarily horrified. Never mind, carry on.

[TheFlatline]

I'll note that there are sexual overtones in any vampire literature and that a vampire bite is akin to rape since 9 times in 10 it's not consentual. I won't touch Werewolf and those rape themes with a 50 foot pole.

So forced sexuality as a necessity for continued existence for vampire RPGs is totally a thing I can see someone academically getting into. However, actual rape-rape... It just seems like it's done for juvenile shock value. I mean, especially in World of Darkness, vampires having sex is logistically like poking a raw hot dog through the hole of a doughnut, and about as arousing for the undead involved. Yeah sure you can burn blood and sort of mimic the process but you still have all the intellectual and emotional stimulation in-character of the above analogy. I guess if you're playing a real goddamn monster that's on an express elevator ride to Humanity 1 and gets off on the idea that you're harming people it's a valid "thing", but even then you're a vampire, and there are a litany of different mind-fucks that you can do trivially that have the exact same or even worse effect.

It seems like what most of this boils down to is "what's the most offensive/shocking thing I can do for a reaction from the players? I KNOW! OPEN A 40 LB BOX OF RAPE!"

[Username17]

Someone ordered a 40 pound box of rape?



-Username17

[fectin]

Rape is actually pretty boring. You probably even have it in your house. Generic vegetable oil, or "Canola" is actually just rape.

[Ancient History]

How to Deal with Rape in Roleplaying Games (2004)
by Lydia Laurenson

This is yet another article from the interwebs, available here: http://www.gamegrene.com/node/447

It's essentially a discussion/guide of the do's and don't's of using rape in tabletop RPGs. It hits a lot of the bases brought up in the last couple of entries, and again isn't any sort of academic or scholarly look at rape in RPGs, so there's not really a lot to say in response to a 10-year-old guide for Mister Cavern that really wants to use rape in his or her game but doesn't want to offend anybody at the table while doing so. It also discusses some sidereal issues like in-character pregnancy, seduction rolls, and whether it's okay to rape a character because they're a courtesan/openly promiscuous/have been raped before (no, no, and FUCK NO).

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at yet another non-essay at this point, but it is a little disappointing that we couldn't get somebody willing to go into case histories or discuss specific examples except for the fucking Mr. Bungles incident in the first article. I mean, we know there's been cases of rape present in-fiction in TTRPGs, and there's definitely video games that include PCs as rapists and rape victims, whether actual or potential. Couldn't they find a grad student to collect testimonials of rape in RPG sessions and LARP and run some actual analysis off that?

[TheFlatline]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Thank you Frank!

[Prak]

What I'm really getting from your review is that most, if not all, of the "essays" are available for free online, and so, even if they were any good, it's pointless to buy the book.

[Ancient History]

So far...yes.

[deaddmwalking]

Is there even any obvious editing? Or are these taken from online with no modification or abridgment?