They promote rape!
Or so says Carole Lieberman.

Going by this article, everyone should know about this already:

http://www.gamefront.com/bulletstorm-rape-and-the-power-of-childishness/

but I'm afraid I must've been isolated in deep space for crimes against the Earth, because this is the first I've heard of it.

I think this article covers the whole of the events nicely, though I do plan to have a bit of a google tomorrow and look at the alleged rant and the interview with the games director.
If things happened anything like they are reported in the article I've linked, I weep for humanity.

Ill remember that concept. Romantic Rape...

Does it really matter?

The thing about the Jack Thompson missile crisis is that he was really easy to target, too easy. He was a clear face for everything wrong with "those people," and everyone in the game journaLAWLism business to game industry bloggers probably loved him more than they actually hated him; he was a perfect outlet to "get political" and as a chance to discuss a topic that has social significance (first amendment, yadda yadda) besides video games, video games and video games. Suddenly these folks became EXPERTS on SOMETHING important, climbing on each other to fight a cause for "gamers everywhere", and shared Jack Thompson around the block like a used condom. It became too terrible to watch for months and months, on both sides. Jack was a awful person with a law degree, true, but he should have disappeared off the radar years sooner if not for being whored out (and he probably liked it very much) .

Now he has left the stage, but I wouldn't be surprised if a new face (or faces) appear.

I'll admit, after a night of getting frustrated playing Call of Duty I'll go out and get my rape on.

^**** That^
I get my rape on WHILE im playing a game. Girls all around know to run once I start playing Lego Indy Jones, as they should...

Whatever happened to Jack Thompson?

Are we really refuting that article by joking about rape? I don't care how offensive her views may be, the response here is more so.

Hide your wives, hide your husbands, 'cause we rapin' er'body.

Probably had an ironic downfall and shot up everyone out of frustration

Iirc, he was disbarred by the Florida bat association. (

I'm just holding on for Duke Nukem. I'm betting it will make Bulletstorm's verbal taunts look weak. Lawmakers will cry.

It's a lot of fun

Am I the only one who initially thought Carol was related to Joe?

Hey, if rape victims can't take a joke **** 'em.

Rupert Murdoch actively engages in libel to discredit a major competitor.

What else is new?

I'm speechless and feel like complete **** for even logging in here today. What the ****, people?

Not speechless enough, apparently?

This. I expect it from Xasthur because he's awful, but guys, really.

Speechless as in I couldn't begin to come up with a rational cogent reply since I'd spent the previous five minutes so upset I was crying. This thread completely blindsided me; maybe it's just selective amnesia, but I don't remember this sort of **** on Massassi a couple years ago.

Know what should upset you a whole ****ing lot more than a bunch of lame rape jokes? A major news corporation saying it's not the rapist's fault because he was influenced by video games.

"We're not asses if someone else is being a bigger ass."

I would like to point out that I didn't read the article, I just wanted to post a dodgy joke.

I can't say I approve of your attitude, Vornskr, but I admire your willingness to admit it.

Maybe there are some dodgy jokes that aren't worth telling.

I just handed out two bans for this stupid ****. If you guys can't discuss the topic maturely I'll close the thread and we don't discuss it at all.

I would in no way be opposed to the locking of my thread.
And Baconfish, seriously what the hell man

wow i thought this place was all about the 'harden the f*** up' attitude. You guys seriously can't handle a few rape jokes? it's not even like the OP was even about someone getting raped, it was an uptight politician suggesting video games promote rape. You really get offended by a few jokes mocking an article with a stupid concept?

Have you been raped? Do you love someone who has been (and has told you so)? If not, think about educating yourself before telling people just to harden up.

Baconfish didn't post a joke mocking the subject of the OP. He didn't even post a joke mocking rapists (or, more dubiously, rape). He told a joke mocking rape victims.

Our society treats victims of rape like scum, which is among the most appallingly inhumane things we do. Now, I'm not sure I think that banning someone for having that attitude is the best way to go. But I do think that if a person can make callous rape jokes, he can't complain about being criticized for it.

Yeah, but at the same time, this is the goddamn internet, where feelings don't apply. Getting offended by someone who makes a rape joke on the internet is just stupid. You don't know them, they don't know you, and they can't possibly know if what they say is going to offend you, or make you laugh. Just learn to accept that it's of no consequence to you because someone you don't know and will never meet made a generalized jab at a controversial subject. Pretty much all humor is about controversial subjects, anyways. It's called shock humor.

So because it exists that makes it okay to post it here? This isn't the internet, this is a small portion of the internet that used to pride itself on its level headed, nice community. If you want to make jokes, there are plenty of other places you can make them. Now either discuss the stupidity of the article or I'm closing this entirely.

Note that my question was rhetorical, I am not going to even discuss this one. The rule stands, whether you like it or not. Move on, or don't post.

Yeah, Matty's right. This isn't the internet, it's the internet. Two different things.

Grow up.

Don't read this post twice

It's interesting how accusing someone of "getting offended" is about as powerful a tactic on the internet as "being a socialist" is in American politics. But like CM says, this isn't just any part of the Internet: this is a relatively small community, and we know each other to some limited extent. And now we know that making careless rape jokes is really going to hit certain members of the community pretty hard. (Hopefully one would recognize that this is true in real life, too, and think twice before telling them in uncertain company.) I wouldn't want to drive Dor away, and hopefully most people feel that way, too.

For what it's worth, Baconfish's joke is a pretty well-constructed one. Sadly it also happens to be one of the more distasteful rape jokes I've heard.

As for the original post, obviously it's pretty dumb. Is it any surprise that FOX was involved? But it's dumb on many levels. Suppose that it was reliably established that playing certain games was correlated with a higher likelihood of being a rapist. Heck, suppose we even somehow established that it played a causal (but not deterministic) role. Should that lead us to ban the video games even then?

Honk if you posted in this thread and have Asperger's...

Hey, if aspergers sufferers can't make a joke, **** 'em.

-I feel bad about that, but perhaps I shouldn't. I'm not sure. Also, the article misses a point: being a childish ******* doesn't just raise awareness, it also feels good.

While Baconfish's post seemed kind of uncalled for, the first couple of posts were clearly not in bad taste and were mocking the premise.

In other news, is it just our coloration of modern politics or have politics worked at some point in US history?

lol this forum really went down the ****ter. it used to be fun to have arguments here, not 'this is the way things are, if you don't like it shut up and move on or i'll ban you'.

byyyyyyyye

There's a huge difference between interesting arguments and tasteless jokes. We actually do have the former around here sometimes, and in fact the last addition to the proscription list before this one was for people getting in the way of discussion.

There was no "argument" going on here that CM stifled. (In fact, he was trying to put the thread back on track.)

Massassi: Where a ridiculous article turns into a full blown argument.



Wait now, because I am denouncing the thread, let Emon come chime in again about how I contribute nothing to threads blahblahblah.

That's such a lame excuse
"Judge a man by how he acts when he thinks he isn't being watched or that there are no consequences."

I don't say anything on the internet that I wouldn't say in real life. People that say horrible things because "it's the internet and therefore they can" are quite likely to be horrible people in real life, whether people they know realise it or not.

And, furthermore, as it has been pointed out this isn't just "the internet" this is a small community where most of us know each other to some minor degree.
Different parts of the internet are of course treated differently. You can't act here like you might in 4chan, for obvious reasons.

And for the record, no, I'm not calling anybody here a horrible person, I'm just saying (perhaps in a convoluted way) that "this is the internet" is a weak excuse.

I've been meaning to say, Deadman, and I'm sure you hear this alot, but you must have to punch baby jesus alot because I hear people say alot awholelot.

-That hurt, I'll admit, but I had to get it off my chest.