About the word "rape" in games - please take a look

I don't like when players use derrogatory language freely because "it's the internet" or "freedom of speech"... However I also think game developers should have the freedom to construct any plot they desire, and if that plot includes a characters past involving rape, then that is part of the story, and you simply shouldn't play it if it's going to trigger you.

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Epicly_Curious wrote:

I don't like when players use derrogatory language freely because "it's the internet" or "freedom of speech"... However I also think game developers should have the freedom to construct any plot they desire, and if that plot includes a characters past involving rape, then that is part of the story, and you simply shouldn't play it if it's going to trigger you.

Yes, I don't like it either when people do something I don't like but I am ok if they do something that I am either neutral towards or for. Because you know, I am a hypocrite with no solid foundation for my opinions.

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DirkAustin wrote:

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Epicly_Curious wrote:

I don't like when players use derrogatory language freely because "it's the internet" or "freedom of speech"... However I also think game developers should have the freedom to construct any plot they desire, and if that plot includes a characters past involving rape, then that is part of the story, and you simply shouldn't play it if it's going to trigger you.

This isn't about a characters story. Did you even read any comments here?

Irrelevant. What is of relevance is that something that isn't intended to hurt someone actually triggers a traumatic feeling among a stranger. Whether or not that happened through the story or two people talking to each other in general chat, is completely irrelevant. What's is relevant is: intention of the affected parties and effect.

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"Someone is a bitch, they’re a [Removed by Admin] — feminine — and if you beat someone, then you raped them. The imagery there for most of us will be the same: a man physically assaulting a woman, not the other way around."

I'm sorry but I've "got raped" in Counter Strike hundreds of times and never once did pornographic images pop into my head. Is this actually a real thing for people? Like, when someone in CS goes "you just got raped" they imagine a man raping a woman? Even if, as it is in most cases, it's a guy saying it to another guy in the context of a video game?

Isn't that just incredibly sexist in and of itself and obviously the result of a tainted world view, where the person automatically associates rape with men in a negative sense.

It just seems very hypocritical to me.

edit: And I think it's kind of hilarious how this person is so very focused on some very specific words that some gamers use to insult others in order to conclude that gamers or gamer language is inherently sexist. But that's bullshit.

Yes gamers use words such as bitch or [Removed by Admin] (and by the way, not all gay people are feminine, so nice generalization there), but we also use gender-neutral offensive language such as asshole, motherfucker (though I suppose motherfucker, is somewhat male-centric) or retard. Or you know prick, bastard, wanker, etc.. which are all male-centric.

This article is extremely biased, to say the least.

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Vakirauta wrote:

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mazul wrote:

It just means that they haven't been in proper therapy yet. So nope, this won't affect me.

Fuck your opinion.

I hope you used protection Vak!

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DirkAustin wrote:

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SlixSC wrote:

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"Someone is a bitch, they’re a [Removed by Admin] — feminine — and if you beat someone, then you raped them. The imagery there for most of us will be the same: a man physically assaulting a woman, not the other way around."

I'm sorry but I've "got raped" in Counter Strike hundreds of times and never once did pornographic images pop into my head. Is this actually a real thing for people? Like, when someone in CS goes "you just got raped" they imagine a man raping a woman? Even if, as it is in most cases, it's a guy saying it to another guy in the context of a video game?

Isn't that just incredibly sexist in and of itself and obviously the result of a tainted world view, where the person automatically associates rape with men in a negative sense.

It just seems very hypocritical to me.

edit: And I think it's kind of hilarious how this person is so very focused on some very specific words that some gamers use to insult others in order to conclude that gamers or gamer language is inherently sexist. But that's bullshit.

Yes gamers use words such as bitch or [Removed by Admin] (and by the way, not all gay people are feminine, so nice generalization there), but we also use gender-neutral offensive language such as asshole, motherfucker (though I suppose motherfucker, is somewhat male-centric) or retard. Or you know prick, bastard, wanker, etc.. which are all male-centric.

This article is extremely biased, to say the least.

Fact is you cant defend the use of the word rape because the meaning is the same only the context is different.

Certain words just hurt more than others. You can say "motherfucker" but not "rape" since its unlikely someone has sex with the mom but being a rape victim is not that unlikely these day. I gotta know, I've got experience.

It's funny how this argument is purely based on subjective grounds. Aren't you just playing word police when telling other people which words they can or cannot use, because there is a possibility someone, somewhere might get offended by one of them?

And using the word "rape" in the context of a video game does not literally refer to the act of physically raping another person. That's absurd. Similarly, calling someone an asshole doesn't literally mean you think that person is someone's asshole. Calling someone a prick doesn't literally mean you think that person is a human-sized penis. Calling someone a faggot doesn't necessarily mean that you think they are homosexual. Calling someone a bellend doesn't literally mean that you think the person you are referring to is the "head of a penis."

The origins of insults have next to nothing to do with their common usage. When people use these words they are not thinking of it in the same context as you are. You think people use these words to deeply offend the people to which these words originally referred to. But that's simply not true, language evolves.

That's why I can call someone a bastard, without having some smart ass point out to me that a bastard is someone whose birth lacks legal legitimiacy and not someone I just dislike, because everyone understands that, that is not what the word means today (or at least in the context that I often use it in). Same is true for cock, motherfucker, asshole, faggot, dick, cunt, pussy, etc...

This is why you simply have to look at the context in which these words are used. If someone uses the word "rape" in a video game, they are not literally refering to the act of physically raping another human being. In that particular context it is simply a synonym for "killing" or "destroying" your opponent. That is how language evolves.

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DirkAustin wrote:

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Can you experience being an asshole though, no of course not but you can be a rape victim.

Keep trying to defend the use of that word but not around me, okay.

There are people playing this game that have gone through this and that's what i meant with the usage of that word in such a trivial way is wrong. If you cant understand that just let it go.

You can experience being raped by a homosexual prisoner in your asshole, in such way that whenever someone says "asshole", you will enter a traumatic state in which you recall all that pain and humiliation that prisoner caused you.

So if it isn't okay to say "rape", it shouldn't be okay to say "asshole" either.