Tomb Raider "Rape Scene" Unscathed By Controversy

Need more rapelay

Its the rapiest bro.

Womb Raider

The thumbs down fairy has stuck again.

Call of Booty: Black Cocks.

Lara doesn't seem to be having much fun in this game.

It *can* be done legitimately. If it's not just for shock value, and is portrayed and dealt with realistically, then it can have a really powerful impact that makes an excellent story. It all depends on how they handle it in game.

And just for this ill buy there game. No because it has a rape scene but because a developer didnt bow down to censorship(I also support devs that implement dx11 and hd texture packs, Recent one was sleeping dogs). Its also done tastefully compared to doing something ridiculous.

Oh yeah and I never support a game with fps caps under 120fps.

So, the video shows some guy putting his hand on Lara's waist/thigh, and then a struggle. Then, she presumably shoots the dude, because there is a gunshot and she's covered in blood. She's sniffling a bit afterwards, but that is obviously because she just killed someone at point blank range.

I'm still wondering where this legendary rape scene is. A guy putting his hand on a girls thigh does not qualify as rape, sexual harassment sure, but she ends up shooting him in the face before it goes further than that. It doesn't even look like there is a 'rape scene'. I don't know what the controversy is here, I watched the video twice looking for something resembling this legendary rape scene, didn't see it either time. I've seen more offensive things in an average play through of GTA, like mass murder, and murdering hookers to get your money back.

... Why is this an issue again?

Maybe they should call it an "attempted rape scene".

BTW she blew his mind. (Get it?)

I agree. Its funny how any type of aggressive touching on a woman is just simply rape. You could just vigorously rug a girl's thigh and that's rape. If it's her calf that's just harassment. Is there like a distance to the vagina where its suddenly considered rape?

If you can touch her, she almost got raped.

Exactly. He does some (maybe sexually) aggressive stuff and then she uses lethal self-defense on him. Girl power. Not exploitation.

Well not to cause a flamewar here (but it's kinda too late now), there's two issues to this controversy. First, that rape, be it implied or not, the very idea that it can happen to lara croft puts an uneasy feeling on the player. And by that i mean that all of a sudden, in a video game that's suppose to be an alternative form of reality for entertainment... rape exist. But people would usually shrug this off, i mean when you lose a WW2 game, do your character gets tortured after the game over screen? (beside world at war where it's the beginning, *cough*). Then the developer F*** it up by saying it's "To give a feeling of protection to lara by the player". THAT'S the issue. Starvation? being hurt? threaten to die by wild animals? sure that's understandable to protect someone from... but from rape? you know there's gonna be people on 4chan who will purposely "let lara get raped" during game over where rape wasn't even needed to be there!

And second, the whole "I can murder people already, why not rape?" argument. Yeah ok... let me tell you something, death is a natural thing. You cannot escape from it, you have to face it. Rape is a crime. It's human desire, not his nature. Murder is something that is a crime that convey the nature of death by human desire upon another person. Rape is to forcefully weaken a person into submitting him or her to the desire of the rapist. Murder and rape isn't black and white because they are both crimes, it's oranges and apple because it completely destroy a person each in their own unique ways.
But if you ask me, I'm not mad at the two issues i posted, i'm more mad that the developers thought they could get away with this controversial free. At first, i expected that the makers of the game would implied the danger of rape as an serious issue but nope! It's just a cheap plot device to show that lara isn't innocent no more, she now faces NEW dangers.
I miss the old "action girl" Lara...

All valid points, and to some, I do agree. However, I'm not arguing that it's inappropriate, nor am I arguing that it should be there, or that murder in a video game is somehow more justifiable than rape. I'm simply arguing that this controversy is over something that doesn't exist. As Daniel pointed out, she gets her thigh touched, her neck, and then strangled to death... which isn't any worse than the horrible fates that await Isaac Clark in Dead Space.

That's all I'm trying to argue here, that there isn't anything to get controversial about, because the content doesn't exist. Now, there may be a scene later in the game where it happens, but the current controversy is over all of 10 seconds in a video, and I don't even see the 'implied' rape. I just see some guy being an *******, touching Lara's leg, then getting shot in the face.

I do agree though on all of your points, you just missed mine. Point is, there isn't a rape scene, there won't be a rape scene, and that's all.

Nor should it matter if the rape scene exist or not. Anyone with a brain cell can tell ANY studio would NEVER show a rape scene in video game. But if you think the complaints are about a none-existing rape scene, you are wrong. By having that man sexually harass Lara before he meets his end or strangling Lara, it bring an age old issue in fiction and media: sexual fear.
Let's pretend a scenario after you fail, Lara is killed... but her friends are still alive. What will that man do? No one knows of course but if you'd make a list of what could happen next, "raping that girl" is gonna be in it (probably with a low percentage at the bottom of the list of course!). Now imagine the same scenario but this time, no creepy touching or foundling, no controversy. Would you even imagine that the perverted man will do anything sexual? (queue the mind in the gutter jokes). No! Cause even though lara had HUGE melons in games old, there never was a henchmen who said "I wanna motorboat those!"

Sexual fear in a video game is reasonable argument, that I can understand. However, the threat of rape has been presented in video games before, just not for the main character. During Batman: Arkham City, the Joker's henchmen make a joke about what they'd do to Harley if the Joker ever died. Some of those comments include whether she's willing or not. I won't go into details, but the threat is there.

During Bullet Storm, Trish is kidnapped by a member of one of the gangs, and attempted rape is performed. Trish, being tough as she is, naturally avoids it (barely) and kicks the gang members face in, before executing him.

The threat of sexual violence in video games has always been there, but it hasn't been in a main stream title before. So, the whole "motorboat" style comments have happened before, as has the threat. Also, I agree with Pennpsu about the cavalier comments.

I wish I could give you more than one thumbs up. I like you more with each post.

The suggestion of rape, or something approaching it is certainly there. The statement from crystal dynamics seems to support that. It isn't a subject that is common to games, so I think there is a place for discussion here, not just pretend there is no controversy. What disturbs me even more are the cavalier comments about rape here. It even seems some of you have some rape-y fetishes.

I'm actually glad that people are actually arguing either for or against it. Long ago people used to shrugs things off. I'm glad this discussion is actually on the table.

In one word, the gaming community is maturing little by little.

You beat me to it Daniel. She cant be raped. She can be groped on the thigh and the neck but thats it. The devs have really have done it tastefully in my opinion.

I wasn't at E3, GR made the error of sending someone else. I still think I can accurately reconstruct the scene for any skeptics of Dan's statement:

"Sir, there are others waiting and your terrifying erection is extremely inap--"
"HOLD ON I'M TRYING TO GET THE GOOD ENDING"

You mean the only ending.

"Now watch me jump at that bear head first.... oooh yeah..."
"Sir? i'm gonan have to call securi..."
"SHUT UP! YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!"

That's too bad, I wish you could see the rape so every hater could jump on the hate wagon and hate. Who cares?

There are worse things on any media that I'd rather hate on.

Can we all hate Kim Kardashian. I mean common shes not really that hot to begin with. Shes only famous because of a sex tape and because shes rich. Id much rather watch Elizabeth Mitchell.

Elizabeth Mitchell - "Clone Dilemma"

Plus I have a picture of her with her arms up going through a airport. Her spine is wicked messed up. That or her ass reminds me of a duck.

I didn't know you was from Missouri.

This reminded that steam took off a source engine sex indie game from steam greenlight.

Rape has been an element in film and literature for a very long time. It's used to symbolize many different things - the most important being a loss of humanity, as well as a dramatic shift in the power relationship between the two characters and the viewer/reader. If Crystal Dynamics needs that shift in power to create more empathy between the player and Lara, then it's their decision as the creators of the narrative. Arguments like this are just one more reason that video games aren't always considered art: games usually shy away from emotionally difficult scenarios that impact a real-world audience.

This is an interesting discussion...I think of Manhunt 1 and being rewarded for how long you stalk someone before brutality mutilating them. I look at Issac Clarke getting a laser through the eye ball for a failed quicktime event and then I take a look further back at fallout 2 where you used profalactics to avoid receiving an STD whill taking on the role of fluffer in new reno and went on to shoot pickpocketing children so that you blew off legs and arms with a .223 pistol. This seems so tame in comparison. My point would be that actions throughout both recent and past games can be construed as not only contreversial but also vastly more inapropriate than rubbing a leg. It goes back to how desensitized we have become to violence yet sexuality is a no go zone. With cult classic movies like Gummo and tool box murder I am hard pressed to believe that without a cue we wouldn't already imply rape without saying it. What the hell do you think would happen to the little girl in Last of Us if the main character dies? Let's not say... I think their is enough post apocalyptic media to get the picture. It just seems ironic that if you are drinking a beer playing fallout new vegas there is no controversy over the legion crucifying victims and leaving them alive for you to kill but lara gets her leg rubbed and the unspoken becomes implied and crap we have a contreversy. I wonder if it would have been controversial to use a female soldier in CoD's torture sequence...only change the gender of the character. What would that imply?

Don't forget the rape victim in Fallout: New Vegas, or the multiple rape victims you encounter in Fallout Tactics.

But who is saying the subject is a no-go? I don't see anyone here saying that, and the people who are shouting loudest probably have no clue about what was actually depicted. You don't think that this subject is worth discussion? So according to your logic if we can find enough evidence of something in past games its fine to use that again going forward, and we need more rape scenarios so people will become more desensitized, just like violence, that way we wont get upset when we run across them? Problem with your analogy is in games you, the protagonist, are often the most violent character in the game, so to make that leap in logic that YOU would need to be a rapist, not an NPC in a cutscene.

1. Actually I said "This is an interesting discussion to start my comment"
2. with regard to my logic, that is one way of looking at it but you could also look at it from the perspective of how do we weight the things we deem inappropriate. Please understand that to some their are crimes and actions far worse than rape. The puprose of my comment was to bring attention to the fact that everyone is sensitive to different degrees about what they deem to be egrigious acts. What interest me is the attention one atrocious act gets over another. How do we define what is contreversial versus what is not. It seems very relative to me that's all, both the contreversy and the issue at hand.
3. "Problem with your analogy is in games you, the protagonist, are often the most violent character in the game, so to make that leap in logic that YOU would need to be a rapist, not an NPC in a cutscene." Not sure where you are coming from with this one. Actually for the most part games tend to give you a choice if you choose to play Postal and piss on dead cat's head that speaks a bit more to you than the game. Same thing can be said about GTA you are a criminal but you have a choice as to whether you spend 20 hrs simply seeing creative ways to destroy crap and kill NPCs.
4. My point wasn't to deminish the validity of the arguments outlined above but rather to point out why this particular issue is deemed more significant/contreversial than other industry norms which should also raise more than a few eyebrows.

One final thought...for those who like the Assasins Creed series what is the likelyhood of a half english/ half natve american main character stemming from a healthy relationhip in 18th century America? I can provide some implactions for how this may have come about, but I will leave that to you.

Hehe i see you haven't checked out that "White washing" trailer that Sara gunn posted a week or two ago, the whole comment section was all about that.

But that, my friend, is a discussion for another post.

I have not. But will be looking for it later today. This stuff always intrigues me. I think I am going to write a blog about medal of honor and what that actually means today this month. It will speak a bit to this comment, " Problem with your analogy is in games you, the protagonist, are often the most violent character in the game" and what it means to step into their shoes and what they get out of it. Pretend is pretend is real for some?

That was a fun one. =P

Myth about rape #1: only men can rape. (women rape other women all the time).
Myth about rape #2: men only rape women ( the average prison tells us different).

the entire cliche of "the damsel in distress" was built around the male instinct to protect the sexual purity of the female. Unfortunately, when you dig a little deeper into the male psyche, you realize that "protection" turns into a desire for dominance over the female.

That said, the word "rape" is thrown around so much. I was taught it meant "undesired sexual intercourse", but that word has been used to denote unwanted fondling and digital penetration - which I personally don't consider to be the same thing.

I watched the trailer. I saw "unwanted fondling". And besides, Who in here can honestly say that if they were the bad guy in the situation, young Laura Croft would leave imprisonment unmolested?

Encyclopedia Dramatica has it right: Laura was totally asking for it...