This is the sort of thing that happens in the Film industry every day. Yes they swear, if there's bad guys and they take a hollywood actress prisoner, no they aren't going to lock her in a castle and wait for Mario to come rescue her. The world they portray is a bad world, and in this bad world, horrible goons will more than likely want to rape stuff. Is it pleasant? No. But let's face it, these "characters" in movies and games aren't supposed to be pleasant. Rape is a deplorable and reviled act, but it happens, and to try and negate it just because a few people don't like it isn't the way forward.

@HybridExtreme  nailed it on the head really, video gaming has expanded to be as vast and appealing as the film industry, and if that means that a child of 8 can no longer pick up a copy of Tomb Raider then sorry, but parents will actually have to take an interest in what their children are playing. 

Whether or not it's there for shock factor, well again that's not for me to decide. Look at Grand Theft Auto, look at movies like Clockwork Orange, the Evil Dead. These all went for shock factor and it did them well, I may not agree with it, but then I don't agree that releasing a slightly improved call of duty game every 6 months should prompt a billion dollars worth of sales in 15 days... but it does, so guess I'll just have to deal with it.

Remember those old games like Mortal Kombat where you could go into options and turn blood off? Extra work for developers but it's an idea.

That's a pretty hypocritical way of looking at this. I'm not really for or against including things like this in games, but last time I checked brutally murdering other human beings was even worse than rape. Can't believe anyone would be against showing the latter, when they do the former on a daily basis in their digital form of entertainment.

The problem is the gaming industry is becoming like the comic book industry in that it is overcompensating to try to prove its "maturity."

Like comic books have done for decades now, video games are trying to brush aside the idea that they are immature by including so-called "adult" themes. And so they go with the cheapest and tackiest means possible: Gratuitous sex, relentless violence, countless F-bombs and cheap shock at every turn.

This is a really easy target to point out, but the trailer of Dead Island comes to mind. If you remember (which may be hard because the game was so forgettable), the trailer showed a little girl getting murdered by zombies. That's just sick. There's really no justification for it. They weren't making any kind of artistic statement storywise, just trying to advertise the game through the imagery of a child being murdered! It's downright abominable.

The same goes for things like rape. Now, I haven't played Duke Nuken Forever, so my apologies if I've been misinformed on this. But I read somewhere that one of the game's stages has an overarching "joke" about women getting raped by aliens... What exactly is supposed to be humorous about that? Unless one shares the same juvenile, vindictive mind of the atrocious Seth MacFarlane,  I fail to see how anyone could find humor in it.

Just like comic-books now have a zombified Spider-Man biting Mary Jane's head off, video games try to needlessly throw in whatever violent and sexual shock value they can, believing that that, and that alone, makes it mature. When in reality there's nothing more juvenile than that.

As an adult male, father of 2 and life long gamer let me add this to the proverbial pot. The content included within a game should be solely and completely at the discretion of the game makers, not the law makers or activist groups. Games have ratings on them for a reason. No one bitches about the nasty content CSI puts on their television shows or the ultra-violence in movies like Hostile, but for video games aimed at a mature adult audience it seems to be a crime? 

Now while I certainly do not advocate rape or murder I do feel that stories that include rape and murder can be told in a mature responsible way to a mature audience. Lara Croft got sexually abused - not raped - but abused in that short cut scene we all watched some time ago. The intent to rape her may have been evident by the actions of the character abusing her but it served a purpose. It humanized the enemies into more than just gun toting bad guys. These people are all kinds of bad! It also served as a vessel in which to propel Lara from potential victim to bad-ass survivor. Again, it is important to keep in mind that this game in particular is created for a mature audience. Well, I'm mature. I can handle that kind of content in a game when it is done right. So I find it an insult that some people,groups and/or government agencies feel like it's their duty to police the world because they think people aren't capable of making an informed decision for themselves. Now, including the act of rape or the murder of children in games that -glorify- those actions is wrong and immoral but if done correctly can be morally justified. If a rape is implied, hinted to, heard but not shown, it can help tell the story or invoke emotions. The same goes for the murder of children. Remember Max Payne's wife Michelle and their daughter were both executed and the daughter was still just an infant. You could hear the screams of Michelle and you could hear the cries of the infant before the gunfire but it didn't actually show them killing either one of them. It was done responsibly. In L.A. Noire you find all kinds of naked dead female murder/rape victims but the story is told in a mature responsible manner. 

I agree. The endless killing, and constant swearing (GTA 4 for instance) use to not bother me, when i was a teenager. I'm growing up now though, nearing my mid twenties, and I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of what i would want my family to see as right (even though i don't have one.) Maybe it's just a maturity thing. I remember when i was younger i smoked, and drank and yelled out Hank. Now I'm pretty calm. If this is in reference to Tomb Raider, it's meant to be used as a tool to express the distress? of the situation. There's plenty of games where people are trying to kill you. But developeres are moving towards a life and death narrative with survival elements. I was pumped for Far Cry 3 for the amazing potential it had for this. And in the end I am let down bc i over-hyped the narrative. I think Far Cry 3 had AMAZING potential of someone having to kill and struggle not only with themselves, but their actions and the consequences of choices they make in desperate times. It just turned out to be another shooter though so bleh. I just hope developers don't make it to where you play as a character who can go around raping people. That's pretty scary. Not to mention sick.

Well, the first time I saw Kratos having offscreen sex with more than one woman in God of War, I tried to contextualize it in the way the character sells himself: as a rage driven man who needs to, sometimes, channel his rage sexually. But then, after 5 games of offscreen sex featuring Kratos and women, you realize that the devs turn this in a trademark, like the ultraviolence in the game.

Of course, we have lots of games which have crossed lines in sexual and violence terms worse than GoW (recently, I discovered that probably the most violent game of all time is an arcade light gun title (with a port for NES) called "Chiller", where you control an unseen torturer that, for no reason, gratuitously kills half naked people either with torture devices or guns, although I personally think that Phantasmagoria has rather brutal killings with gruesome graphic details) but the increasing violence and sex in games is just a reflex of violence and sex as much discussed matters in our society.

Games became more realistic because society has more courage now to face things that, in the past, were veiled by repression and fear. That's what I believe.

When it comes to games, I believe anything goes. Now this is not to say that rape makes good games, but I feel that you shouldn't exclude certain things just because people might feel it's morally wrong. Morals has nothing to do with games unless they're being portrayed as part of the game. 

Chances are, a rape game wouldn't sell very well because the game play would just suck. But at least it's because it's a bad game and not because individuals feel the content is in poor taste.

You, my dear sir, deserve a medal.

You're supposed to have an apostrophe when using a contraction.

Why wouldn't it matter if you're trying to escape from being raped?

I think Japanese games are a millions times worse than American games, but they are getting closer the more they go on. In some Japanese games you Rape women as the only goal, even given a Internal Ejaculation counter. Hell look at the game Battle Raper 2!

Great article! Another aspect of this is how game world interactions are so violence centric - shoot, kill, rob someone, become chummy with criminals to get what you want, use deceit at every step, that's not real world interactions and there is such a huge amount of meaningful content and experiences that are lost as a result! We have technology now where real world simulations are possible, where persistent, evolving NPCs can exist, where you can actually go become a trader, a gun for hire, a detective and actually talk to people via a limited natural language system, observe events unfold organically, create worlds where NPCs have genuine lives and the impactful events don't need bombast to drive the narrative forward because their reactions are completely naturally simulated. Sure, this is crazy stuff to implement, but with the hardware we have it can be done, it's high time that we move away from the established and do something really new as far as in-game interaction and mechanics are concerned. I appreciate Mass Effect, Crysis and all the other games sure, but there's just such a huge lack of genuine meaningful evolution in the medium now. It's like Hollywood: stuff became expensive, take less risk with new content, go for sex and violence, make generations progressively more numb to actual quality and create demand for crap until an indie upstart kicks the ass of multi million dollar productions. When will people learn?

I don't understand how people can get upset over a rape scene when there's thousands of characters being slaughtered in hundreds of other games. 1 rape is worse than all those murders? yeah right

These games have ratings that reflect their content. Extreme violence can work in games if its backed with good writing (which I have to assume the upcoming tomb raider rape will) I'm 30 myself and while I don't support violence in the real world I can't ignore that its woven into our society and indeed human nature. So if a game chooses to use exteme violence and it works for the game and it gets the appropriate rating I don't see any problem with it, such is life and the emotive world we live in, games can tell stories in a way that other media can't and a realistic world is a violent world as any news enthusiast knows all too well. An arugument could be made the only line you can cross in censoring your work for the easily offended.

Any children playing these games shouldn't be and thats an issue for their parents and should never be an argument for censorship.

You have big budget popcorn movies in the summer and deep indie movies in the winter...can't they coexist? I don't think the developers thought it would make their game deep or anything like that. The line in batman you referring to is not that big a deal. I'm almost thirty as well, and I don't quite understand in general what you are complaining about. For every game you don't like that is gratuitous with violence there are E for everyone games that are just as deep and compelling. Also, the M for mature label is a good indication that it may be a game that offends you. There have been rape themes since back in the early nineties.

I know it doesn't make sense to you. I feel the same, but it goes to another extent. I have war games and shooter, that are against human beings. I get no satisfaction in killing innocent people. Sure, it is fun at times to play devil in inFamous for 10 minutes, but then there is a voice in the back of my head that just makes me stop.

I don't know whether or not it is true, but I believe the gaming tastes people have reflect their personality. I love Resident Evil and God of War games, but they have something in common. It is rare for me to kill any human, and when that happens, it's pretty clear that human is a "bad" human. I am not a violent person, or rather, I am, just like every other person, but some choose to lock their violent side, while other like to display it. I never had to be in a fight, and only once slapped a person, which was enough to make it stop.

I choose to be minimally violent in games. However, it just feels wrong for me to kill humans in games, because it invades my moral judgement area

Do I kill the guards in Assassin's Creed games? Sure, if I get discovered, I have no choice but to kill them. If not, they I just go straight at my target and do it quickly and silently.

Other people, they like killing humans in games. I don't understand the joy in that. But I do feel that this is not the kind of entertainment that kids should be having. If children get to play these games, they may grow up not really understand they are doing something wrong, and then apply it in real life situations. They are still developing their minds, their moral judgement, and that is dangerous because at those ages, they might still don't know what's right and wrong...

   I appreciate the constructive criticism and acknowledge that I have overlooked some aspects.  I also have some answers.    In terms of the rape, I am referencing the upcoming Tomb Raider game.  It's not something to take lightly and there's a feeling that they added the element solely to bring more realism to a game that was originally announced to be realistic, then later have mechanics like regenerating health.  Frankly, there's no reason for enemies to try and do this when it's probably already obvious they want Lara Croft dead.  True, the game may not be out, but I have already lost interest because it's not something I find entertaining.  When I'm on a budget and I have to pick and choose my games, I am going to go for something I find more interesting.    Yes, for the child getting killed, I was referencing Modern Warfare 3.  Modern Warfare 2 also had a scene I found equally unnecessary.    The reason for the vagueness is that I am talking about video games as a whole.  For me, the priority when buying a game is whether or not I'll find it entertaining.  There's something primal about the gratuitous violence in games that can be addicting, enjoyable and relieve stress.  There are also games that are purposely over the top to prove a point.  I don't see a point that can be made by having enemies try to rape my character in a game like Tomb Raider, other than to invokeke fear, which falls under "shock-value".     As stated in a previous comment, unless the developers are making some kind of profound statement, such as the ones in Braid or Hotline Miami, there's no need to add rape, torture or kiling children as elements of gameplay.  Granted, there may not be recent games where you actually kill children, but that's not saying that there won't be one out soon.    My opinions are my own.  That's all I'm expressing here.  If I find developers to be lazy, that doesn't mean I'm going to go against gaming.  I love gaming, but as someone who has to manage his time and money, I'm going to be more picky about what I invest in.

In the end, my stance is that we need to get over the idea of there being invisible lines and boundaries in video games.  Just like in movies, I want developers, writers, and all the other people involved in the creation of video games to tell the stories they WANT to tell.  Whether they incorporate things like having your character evade a rapist (and possibly fail that evasion) or violence against children (or anyone else for that matter) should be their choice.  If it is well thought out SOME people will see the art in that and the product will be successful.  If it is tacked on, or just tasteless with no reason behind it, then it will turn out like Postal.  If someone wants to enjoy that, more power to them.  I feel it is high time we get over the idea that only certain topics can be covered in video games.  As I see it, games have as much right to access any thought, idea, or concept possible, just like other forms of art.  After all, art is very subjective.  I don't enjoy looking at pastel images, nor do I like listening to jazz music.  Someone else's enjoyment of those does not lessen my interest in art or music overall.  We simply have different choices.  I'll not spend time or money listening to jazz and you might not spend yours listening to country music.  That's the beauty of free choice.  I personally hope that people would understand the concept that we can enjoy different things (I can enjoy my over-the-top violence in video games, strong gratuitous sex, etc. while maybe you enjoy racing, music, puzzle games), and just because someone else's interests might cross a comfort zone of mine, that should not change my enjoyment of the things that interest me.

What game has children being murdered?

Hear hear!!!

no one likes the idea of rape or killing children. No one likes the idea of murder either but we've been seeing that in games for many years. If it's important to the story then I think it's acceptable to include it in the game, but in the end, is it really so much worse than the extreme violence that we see in some games? We as players has been taking part in torture and the killing of hundreds.

"...I don't know if it's my age, but it feels wrong and not just because such content is often very poorly executed."

I'm there too. 37 years old, and feel that certain stuff is simply in very poor taste.

I enjoy violence and profanity...given the gameplay is good and the story is interesting. Hotline Miami, Left 4 Dead and Borderlands did this marvelously. But there ARE certain lines that intrude my comfort zone. Rape and wacking kids is one of them.

Back when I was in the army (don't join, it sucks), I really disliked the guys who'd strut around boasting about "killing hajee kids". Both the ethnic slurs and BRAGGING about killing children really put me off. It was one of a multitude of reasons why I dislike that company culture: fascism and bullyish "leadership" being the top two.

I think the consumer should decide whether a particular game ''çrosses the line'' . Every body has his/her personal rules.

In the field of çreativity' drawing a line means restricting one's creative freedom!

That's worse for a game than anything else......... 

I say the same thing when I watch movies and think, who thought including this was a good idea??