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This has the stink of Adria Richards-style muckracking behind it too.

"I am offended by someone, but instead of talking it out with that person I am going to go behind their back and try to shame/expose them to the internet!"

It seems really cowardly that Bailey did not try to follow up with the developer or voice her concerns, and then rationalizes away this dereliction of duty by saying "Oh it was a roundtable interview so I couldn't get a word in!" Was that one interview was really her only chance in the world to communicate with Mercury Steam?

Even more craven is writing the article in such a way that it sounds like the developer is aware of the tenuous rape context that she has chosen to add.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

That is the fucking point though, is it not? To be Dracula, attacking someone? Why should the scene sympathize with the victim in this game?

Castlevania can't show Dracula feeding on humans now? Or to do so, we have to place the camera in such a way so as not to diminish the horror the human fodder is going through, or glamourize the actions of the attacker?

Videogames are serious fucking business. I thought I just wanted to play as Dracula for a few hours.

By their own admissions, the studio are trying to emphasis that Dracula is a Really Bad Dude™ so if the player isn't feeling empathy for the victim in this scene then they're failing at what they're setting out to do. That seems to be the main issue here, sensationalism about RapeLay notwithstanding.

That being said, the other people who played the game seem to find the scene pretty unsettling and think it did a good job according to those preview links posted earlier.

 

[DeaviL]

Jesus Christ, not even remotely the issue at hand here.

Sucking blood from a poor women = rape.
It kinda is the issue we're talking about, now it just extends to fictional beings which is already bizarre enough.

EDIT: If you can't show vampires sucking blood, then showing real issues in videogames such as actual rape will become entirely impossible.

 

[ezekial45]

Soap box time

Articles like this are why no one takes sexual assault and rape allegations and educators seriously. I'm a sexual assault survivor. I spent three years in college as an educator and I'm looking for a career dealing with the issue. I deal with the ramifications of what happened to me on a daily basis. Articles like this undermine the reality and prevalence of the issue by turning those of us that care into an oversensitive joke.

Thank you for posting this. Well said.

 

[Spehornoob]

Even if there are allusions and imagery related to sexual assault in the game, and even if the developers intended for there to be, why is that so wrong to portray in a video game? If it's not glorifying it, and is in fact meant to make you uncomfortable with what's happening, why is that problematic? Are games simply not meant to explore these themes and topics?

 

[Principate]

So, Parish is saying that is OK a vampire to use your powers to seduce a woman???

The part where the victim screams before being bitten is clearly seduction... clearly.

 

[Darth_Caedus]

Its pretty heavy-handed, one of those DRAMATIC EVENTS you see in video games like No Russian that don't really work. I think she kinda hits the nail on the head here with how ephemeral this is. In a traditional narrative, a scene like this can color the entire story, it can be built on, it can be the catalyst for a lot of things. In an action game, you're gonna see this scene, think "Geez, Dracula is an asshole", and then forget it about 15 minutes later when you're doing cool shit, fighting gothic mechs and sucking blood out of templars and think, "Gee whiz, Dracula is awesome!"

Just another big example of the narrative and the gameplay coming to blows with each other

I actually think it's a perfect scene for the narrative. The whole point of LoS was to witness this sad fall from grace and this shows how far he has fallen. It will make the redemption(hopefully) at the end even sweeter .

 

[WickedLaharl]

Unless dracula yells "boomshakalaka it's dang-a-lang time" while approaching the mother I don't see the issue here.

Man I wish I could hibernate till this games release

 

[Pristine_Condition]

@The_Katbot What’s really amazing is there’s an easy way for them to fix the biggest problem with this. PUT THE CAMERA SOMEWHERE ELSE.

So, she wants it to pan towards a window like in a romance movie?

LOL.

But seriously, it sounds like the creators had a very powerful and compelling reason to put this scene in the game. SHAME on Kat Bailey for calling for censorship of this work. And more shame on Jeremy Parrish for parroting her calls for censorship and treating readers who are uncomfortable with censorship like shit. Lost a ton of respect for both of them today.

 

[lowhighkang_LHK]

you know, I can see what she's coming from comparing what she's describing with this boxart.

kinda weird that the first thing that popped in her head was 'oh this reminds me of rapelay box art!' though.

Right. And the intention of that character in the box art is to obtain sexual pleasure.

Dracula on the other hand, needs blood for nourishment. His intentions are from the get-go, obviously and clearly different than force sex to get off on it. The family is nothing more than a bunch of cows and it's dinner time for good ol' Dracula. Cue, the blood, gore and screaming - cus that's what happens when you bite into the neck.

But hey, apparently now everything questionable journos now cry rape. The very act of doing this is a disservice to the seriousness of rape to begin with as a crime. It should be taken seriously and people need to stop crying wolf so that when something does truly cross the line, people will take notice to it and have a constructive discussion about it. It's gotten to the point now where most gaffers just roll their eyes when they read a topic title about a game journalist crying rape.

 

[andymcc]

I actually think it's a perfect scene for the narrative. The whole point of LoS was to witness this sad fall from grace and this shows how far he has fallen. It will make the redemption(hopefully) at the end even sweeter .

the narrative in LoS was so ham-fisted and shitty that I can't help but think this is going to be even worse.

 

[ironcreed]

Well, maybe not straight up rape, but it is sexual to an extent, yes. Works with men, too.

Dracula or vampire fiction in general has seductive, sexual overtones. It just goes with the territory, but has nothing to do with rape. Nor does such a scene imply it.

 

[Tohsaka]

Hardly. Lack of healthy criticism is what separates journalists from enthusiasts. This is healthy criticism. Whether you agree with it or not is another issue.

No, this isn't "healthy criticism." She's straight up saying she wants the scene cut because it made her uncomfortable. It's fine for her to be offended by it, but that doesn't mean everyone will be and she doesn't have the right to decide what goes into the game that people other than her will be playing.

 

[EvaUnit02]

Hardly. Lack of healthy criticism is what separates journalists from enthusiasts. This is healthy criticism. Whether you agree with it or not is another issue.

It is neither healthy criticism nor responsible journalism.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

So, Dracula sucking blood from a woman = rape now?

Right. Pussified drivel that makes something out of nothing.

It totally is, though. That's the driving force behind what makes vampires scary. They are violators, and that image supports that argument more than it does yours.

The question at hand here is whether or not Castlevania is handling it well or not. If you don't think vampires are meant to have underlying dark erotic tones, you have nearly a century of literature and literary criticism to argue against.

 

[faceless007]

Soap box time

Articles like this are why no one takes sexual assault and rape allegations and educators seriously. I'm a sexual assault survivor. I spent three years in college as an educator and I'm looking for a career dealing with the issue. I deal with the ramifications of what happened to me on a daily basis. Articles like this undermine the reality and prevalence of the issue by turning those of us that care into an oversensitive joke.

I understand the sentiment here and agree it's a dumb argument to make, but no, articles like this are not why society does not take actual rape allegations seriously. Those problems are far more wide-reaching and institutionalized than a handful of poorly written articles on enthusiast video game sites could cause.

 

[NotMyRealName]

Great post with a great point on the matter. Thank you for sharing that with us when you didn't have to.



It isn't criticism in any constructive fashion, it is nothing but baseless accusation.

Is this a fuckin joke? Its right there in the article, the developer says she's exactly right - that rape is what they were going for.

No, this isn't "healthy criticism." She's straight up saying she wants the scene cut because it made her uncomfortable. It's fine for her to be offended by it, but that doesn't mean everyone will be and she doesn't have the right to decide what goes into the game that people other than her will be playing.

She's not changing shit. She wants it changed - big difference. She doesn't want people to empathize with a allegorical rapist. Crazy, I'm sure.

 

[IndustryX]

People are far to sensitive these days. If that makes her uncomfortable then follow the rating on the box and don't play the damn game.

 

[Kinyou]

Has it been mentioned yet how much the screenshot captions conflict with the actual article?

Doctor who references while talking about rape in the article; What?!

 

[Gestault]

I've been having an exchange with her over the last half-hour or so. She's obviously getting a lot of crap from people, but she's been nothing but cordial, and totally willing to respond to particular questions. I have a screen-grab of the back-and-forth.

 

[Glass Shark]

Good thing for you, no one is doing that. No one is telling her to shut up and like it. She compared it to RapeLay and she didn't write a very good article that her editor let be published. No one is telling her how to feel or what her opinion should be. We can tell her that she didn't do a very good job with her article.

Except there are plenty of people very much telling her how she should think and feel by way of saying it's stupid to infer anything sexual from the scene or treating the piece like it is a series of facts that need to be "debunked".

I can't imagine what it must feel like to view a piece of media, have a genuine emotional reaction to it, share your feelings, and then have a bunch of people come along and tell you that you're an idiot for feeling that way.

Oh, wait... yes I can. This is the Internet.

 

[Griss]

So, Parish is saying that is OK a vampire to use your powers to seduce a woman???

What on earth does he think happens after the seduction? Does he think all vampire victims are just okay with it once they're bitten? There is almost ALWAYS an element of assault / rape to a vampire attack, whether or not it's preceded by seduction. Ludicrous point by Parish.

 

[CambriaRising]

Is this a fuckin joke? Its right there in the article, the developer says she's exactly right - that rape is what they were going for.

Read it again, that's not what is said at all. That's what she wants the reader to take from it, but that is not what is said and it is not to be taken that way.

 

[Valnen]

It totally is, though. That's the driving force behind what makes vampires scary. They are violators, and that image supports that argument more than it does yours.

I don't really get how. He's getting ready to drink her blood because that's what vampire's do. The whole "vampires have always been rapists" argument is just really fucking weird.

 

[Ivieto]

Sucking blood from a poor women = rape.
It kinda is the issue we're talking about, now it just extends to fictional beings which is already bizarre enough.

No it is not. The sucking of blood is based on the actual sexual part of the rape, but the effectiveness of vampire fiction is that everything else is also highly suggestive of rape.

Being forced to being invited into your house, being charmed or hypnotized by the vampire, being overpowered and unable to escape from a supernatural being, the actual act of blood sucking. And after that the vampire has total control over you.

He can decide to turn you, kill you or let you go forever traumatized. This was not an accident, and was done very well in many vampire books.

 

[Ahasverus]

WTF? I'm not seeing the controverse, it's A FUCKING GAME, you torture in GTA, kill millions in Tomb Raider, kill old innocent men in Skyrim.. Dracula is a vampire and should act as such, so, yeah, sorry.
I've never thought of Vampire as an analogy of rape, they've never been that, WTF? These times are terrible jeez.

 

[Infinite Justice]

I seem to remember journalists wrongly accusing MGS4 of implying that Sonny was sexually abused before the game came out.

Here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mgs-4-features-implied-child-rape

With no update with the clarification, I might add. (And no separate article for it either: http://www.eurogamer.net/games/metal-gear-solid-4-guns-of-the-patriots-ps3)

I don't remember seeing that (Sunny being abused) going around and honestly I would have thought of one of those "beauty and the beast" girls as the victims first since they scream tragic backgrounds.

 

[Glass Shark]

People are far to sensitive these days. If that makes her uncomfortable then follow the rating on the box and don't play the damn game.

Video games don't come with trigger warnings, they come with lifeless content descriptors.

 

[andymcc]

I've never thought of Vampire as an analogy of rape, they've never been that, WTF? These times are terrible jeez.

You didn't read Bram Stoker's Dracula in your intro to lit college course?

 

[Hex]

So tired of having to duck and cover because someone is going to get offended.
Believe in your art, put your art out there and fuck the soap boxers.
Someone will always get offended at something.
Fiction should never fear delving into the darker corners of reality, people can choose whether to buy it or read it or watch it and fuck them for trying to tell other responsible adults what they can and can't or shouldn't be able to do delve into for themselves.
What kind of asinine reality is this where this is even acceptable?
It is worse that most of the time it is reaching for something to be offended by and creating the drama where nothing is even there.

 

[Gannd]

Except there are plenty of people very much telling her how she should think and feel by way of saying it's stupid to infer anything sexual from the scene or treating the piece like it is a series of facts that need to be "debunked".

I can't imagine what it must feel like to view a piece of media, have a genuine emotional reaction to it, share your feelings, and then have a bunch of people come along and tell you that you're an idiot for feeling that way.

Oh, wait... yes I can. This is the Internet.

If she didn't connect it to RapeLay and wrote a better piece a lot less of that would have happened. Even in this thread, the large majority is unhappy about her writing and not her opinion. If 7/10 responses are good we shouldn't focus on the 3/10 that aren't. That's intellectual cowardness.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

Hopefully she never played Silent Hill 2.

 

[Agent Gibbs]

i can't wait until they discover Twilight.....

seriously this sort of stuff is just mind bogglingly stupid

 

[faceless007]

It is kind of funny seeing posts defending the scene because sexualized overtones have always been inherent to vampire fiction right next to posts defending the scene because there's absolutely nothing sexual about vampires.

 

[meltingparappa]

Soap box time

Articles like this are why no one takes sexual assault and rape allegations and educators seriously. I'm a sexual assault survivor. I spent three years in college as an educator and I'm looking for a career dealing with the issue. I deal with the ramifications of what happened to me on a daily basis. Articles like this undermine the reality and prevalence of the issue by turning those of us that care into an oversensitive joke.

This thread has been continually pulled into tangential directions bordering on caricature, so I feel this is a post worth quoting again as it's fundamentally relevant to the core of the USgamer statement.

 

[Valnen]

No it is not. The sucking of blood is based on the actual sexual part of the rape, but the effectiveness of vampire fiction is that everything else is also highly suggestive of rape.

Being forced to being invited into your house, being charmed or hypnotized by the vampire, being overpowered and unable to escape from a supernatural being, the actual act of blood sucking. And after that the vampire has total control over you.

He can decide to turn you, kill you or let you go forever traumatized. This was not an accident, and was done very well in many vampire books.

This sounds more like the reader interpreting it that way. Not everything is an allegory for something else.

 

[Tenrius]

Making it third person would not be straight up fine, but I think it would be better thatn have a third-person game change to fp for these scenes.

The way the scene was played, it seem the dad and daughter were just killed and not fed upon, which is the violating part. Removing all her "life" to feed his needs. Having a scene were dracula feeds upon both of them would be powerful and not as problematic for me.

The problem with these scenes is that they do not happen in a vacuum, sexual assault on women is something very common, and while it does exist against men, it is not something I or any of my friends think about. I don't have to think what shoes I will wear to the club because I would need to run from a potential rapist. I don't worry if I am the last person in my lab because someone could assault me. Yet my female lab-mates do, and have to live every day with these fears in the back of their mind.

My point is, this is taking imagery from assaults that happen on a daily basis and using them to establish that Dracula is a vampire, and that vampires are bad.

As confirmed in the articles I quoted above, Dracula indeed feeds on all three. So there you have it.

Regarding the latter part of your post — are you saying that under no circumstances rape should be represented in a video game? Just to clear things up, I don't think the particular scene is about rape, or that a similar scene with literal rape would be unquestionably acceptable; this is a broader question.

 

[andymcc]

Hopefully she never played Silent Hill 2.

Yeah that scene where it is implied that James raped a terrified woman is an equivalence you can make.

 

[CalebW]

Sucking blood from a poor women = rape.
It kinda is the issue we're talking about, now it just extends to fictional beings which is already bizarre enough.

EDIT: If you can't show vampires sucking blood, then showing real issues in videogames such as actual rape will become entirely impossible.

I guess that would make inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood a rape simulator since all Cole pretty much does is rape people all game. I mean drink their blood so you can fly.

 

[Glass Shark]

WTF? I'm not seeing the controverse, it's A FUCKING GAME, you torture in GTA, kill millions in Tomb Raider, kill old innocent men in Skyrim.

And countless writers have criticized those games as well. Rightfully so.

 

[lowhighkang_LHK]

It totally is, though. That's the driving force behind what makes vampires scary. They are violators, and that image supports that argument more than it does yours.

Vampires aren't violating a women's right to her sexuality though. They are violating her right to live, by draining her blood. And that's the difference. A right to live, is something universal and shared by everyone, whatever the gender may be. Again, calling this sexual/assault rape just has no base. You can call it suggestive and a lot of other things, but to skip go, not collect 200 dollars and go straight to jail with the rape card is unfounded, and does make the article seem like click bait.

 

[Gannd]

You didn't read Bram Stoker's Dracula in your intro to lit college course?

No. I met my english requirements for college while in high school and we didn't read Dracula. We did read Frankenstein when I was a sophmore or jr in high school but never Dracula.

 

[Mandoric]

Even though the claim is probably wrong, why does it actually matter if Dracula rapes? I thought he was suppose to be a monster, not the Red Cross?

It would be like if a game showed Nazis executing civilians. Disturbing yes but that's what the Nazis did no?

Press (RT) to cleanse the filthy bloodsucker
Press (RT) to cleanse the pussified (oh, hey, I learned a word from this thread!) sodomite
Press (RT) to cleanse the cowardly race traitor

At some point, if you go straight on from those plot segments to the joyful slaughter of half a Soviet regiment, you're making Ilsa the She-Wolf: the Game, and people are going to have the right to call you out for being in bad taste and suggest that they think the game would be better without.

For that matter, hasn't GAF been perfectly copacetic with "I hope that gets cut" quite a bit recently? Why is it perfectly acceptable for a journalist to hope that a game system gets cut because it's "archaic", hope that a teenaged character's swimsuit gets cut because it's uncomfortably pedo, but one hoping that a rapey scene gets cut is crossing the line?

Vampires aren't violating a women's right to her sexuality though. They are violating her right to live, by draining her blood. And that's the difference. A right to live, is something universal and shared by everyone, whatever the gender may be. Again, calling this sexual/assault rape just has no base. You can call it suggestive and a lot of other things, but to skip go, not collect 200 dollars and go straight to jail with the rape card is unfounded, and does make the article seem like click bait.

Since we're talking Dracula here, let me remind you: it's the novel where a dark and alluring handsome foreign man sneaks into the heroine's bedroom at night several times to exchange bodily fluids with her, using it as a way to twist her away from her husband.

 

[DeaviL]

No it is not. The sucking of blood is based on the actual sexual part of the rape, but the effectiveness of vampire fiction is that everything else is also highly suggestive of rape.

Being forced to being invited into your house, being charmed or hypnotized by the vampire, being overpowered and unable to escape from a supernatural being, the actual act of blood sucking. And after that the vampire has total control over you.

He can decide to turn you, kill you or let you go forever traumatized. This was not an accident, and was done very well in many vampire books.

And i'm saying that now apparently even established fiction is going to far for these people, fiction that has been made in a time which should have far more prudes than the year 2014. If you can't tell that, any heavy storytelling about real stuff goes right through the window.

 

[MetatronM]

I don't know what exactly she was expecting? The classic vision of Dracula is a frighteningly charming aristocrat who swoops into women's bedchambers at night and feeds on them in their sleep. It's about as explicit a rape allegory as you can possibly have while still having it be allegory. A vampire is practically the personification of sexual violence. She's only just noticing this now? And somehow considers this a problem with this vampire game?

Alright then.

 

[RoboPlato]

I understand the sentiment here and agree it's a dumb argument to make, but no, articles like this are not why society does not take actual rape allegations seriously. Those problems are far more wide-reaching and institutionalized than a handful of poorly written articles on enthusiast video game sites could cause.

I was more referring to articles making something out of nothing, not this particular article. There's a lot of them in relation to sexual assault, feminist, and gender issues and many relate those of us who really know about the issues with those pieces. These sorts of articles aren't taking on the wide reaching issues, which is the problem, they're focusing on the wrong things and watering down the level of discourse.

 

[Dandy Lyin]

Even more offensive is lumping True Blood's vampires in with Twilight's. True Blood may not be great, but it hardly portrays vampires as friendly. I'm sure the scene in question is a lot less disturbing than what the vampires in TB have done..

 

[Glass Shark]

If 7/10 responses are good we shouldn't focus on the 3/10 that aren't. That's intellectual cowardness.

In my personal opinion, it is extremely generous to say that 70% of the criticism of her piece is good.

 

[Griss]

By their own admissions, the studio are trying to emphasis that Dracula is a Really Bad Dude™ so if the player isn't feeling empathy for the victim in this scene then they're failing at what they're setting out to do. That seems to be the main issue here, sensationalism about RapeLay notwithstanding.

That being said, the other people who played the game seem to find the scene pretty unsettling and think it did a good job according to those preview links posted earlier.

It's like the author doesn't understand that the unsettling, disturbed feeling you get from 'being' Dracula and doing this is their way of showing empathy for a vampire victim. 'Look at how fucking revolting this is. Vampirism is not cool, these innocents are slaughtered. Actual people, happy families... murdered.' You don't have to show something from a victim's point of view to make a viewer feel empathy for someone.

I feel bad for the victims and I haven't even seen the scene yet. Sounds effective to me.

 

[Valnen]

Vampires aren't violating a women's right to her sexuality though. They are violating her right to live, by draining her blood. And that's the difference. A right to live, is something universal and shared by everyone, whatever the gender may be. Again, calling this sexual/assault rape just has no base. You can call it suggestive and a lot of other things, but to skip go, not collect 200 dollars and go straight to jail with the rape card is unfounded, and does make the article seem like click bait.

People seem to think everything has hidden meaning behind it. It's really bizarre.