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Quinn Urges Distributors to Drop Rape Video Game
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 23, 2009
Modified Feb 23, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 23, 2009
Modified Feb 23, 2009
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For those tired of assaulting prostitutes with crowbars in Vice City, there's the Japanese virtual "rape game" entitled "Rapelay," in which sick bastards can sexually assault a mother and her two daughters, among other simulated depravities. Following outcry, Amazon, eBay, and Overstock.com pulled Rapeplay from their sites, but it's still available elsewhere. Today Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault asked computer game distributors nationwide to refrain from selling Rapelay. A thorough review on Something Awful reminds us (ugh) that rape in video games goes back at least as far as the notorious Indian rape level (NSFW? video) in the 1982 Atari-compatible game Custer's Revenge. According to Something Awful's sardonic description, "RapeLay is the Gears of War to Custer's Combat... It was a simpler time. A better time." At today's press conference, Quinn said, "The fact that such violent and atrocious acts are being marketed in the form of a game makes it even more disturbing and trivializes the violent nature of a sexual assault."
Tagged
christine quinn
rape video game
rapelay
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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