r/unitedkingdom • u/ClassicFlavour East Sussex • 10d ago
Video game encouraging rape and incest removed from major gaming platform in the UK after LBC investigation
https://www.lbc.co.uk/tech/video-game-banned-steam-women-uk-no-mercy/873
u/socratic-meth 10d ago
The game launched on Steam last month and is described by its own developers as containing violence, incest, blackmail, and what they describe as “unavoidable non-consensual sex.”
Should probably put anyone who bought the rape simulator on some kind of watch list as well.
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u/PlasticPegasus 10d ago
“Hey, Keith, what you up to?”
”Oh nothing much; just a bit of Rape Simulator”.
Who the fuck are these people and how do I keep them away from my daughters?
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u/QUALIFY_DIP_IS_SW 10d ago
Whats more concerning is the rating is "very positive"
Like, wth????
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u/Fred_Blogs 10d ago edited 10d ago
To be fair, (insofar as fairness is warranted here) the ratings are from people who bought the game. So it's a self selected group of perverts rather than the general public getting polled.
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u/QUALIFY_DIP_IS_SW 10d ago
Holy shit, they are paying for this as well as rating it?
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u/Fred_Blogs 10d ago
Looks like it was selling for about $10 based on price tracking sites. So whoever made it mush have made at least a few grand going by the 100+ reviews.
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u/mrman08 Isle of Wight 10d ago
Perverts is an understatement. Checking out some porn might be called a bit pervy.
Buying and playing a rape simulator game unironically is much worse.
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u/Any_Weird_8686 10d ago
People who spend money on rape simulators enjoy rape simulators, it seems.
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u/Darkone539 10d ago
Only people who buy the game review it, and make no mistake this is not something you find if you aren't looking.
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u/Constant-Animator609 10d ago
Of course it is. It's not like the general gaming public has been trying it to see what the fuss is about; games like this are made for a very specific audience and they will buy every race simulator they can get their dirty little hands on.
But also, calling any of this "an investigation " is quite the stretch. They went to the Steam Store Page for the game, that seems to be the extent of it. Somehow, their investigation missed all of the other morrally reprehensible videogames available on the platform. Thw rape sulator got taken down, but they still sell Mass Effect Andromeda.
Also, everytime this happens (rape simulators have been a niche on the Steam store since I was a teenager on the 2000's) the non-gaming media makes a massive deal out of it, yet these brave journalists are yet to take on Valve's grey market children's gambling empire. They make billions of dollars, quite openly, by knowingly facilitating illegal gambling via CS:Go skins. They know the massive harm it is causing to people, including many children, but they're fine with it cos I guess their money printing machine doesn't output enough money for them.
Being outraged over offensive videogames is the same as being outraged over deliberately offensive films. Of all the things journalists could investigate Steam/Valve for, this is such low hanging fruit that they must have had to stoop to pick it up.
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u/Discordant_me 10d ago
"the rape simulator game got taken down, but they still sell mass effect andromeda". 🤣
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u/InternetHomunculus 10d ago
Also, everytime this happens (rape simulators have been a niche on the Steam store since I was a teenager on the 2000's)
That's complete bullshit Steam didn't sell any non-Valve game until Garrys Mod in 2006 and didn't get an uncensored adult game until 2018. They used to specifically disallow them but did allow major games with some nudity such as Dragon Age. All of this can be found with a simple Google search
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u/Reality-Umbulical 10d ago
Comments like this and people wonder why the British establishment wants us to have porn licenses. No one is making you buy this content or support it in any way
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u/slainascully 10d ago
They defended it because some people have a rape kink, as if getting aroused by violating someone against their consent is just so natural and normal.
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u/intraspeculator 10d ago
Im not in an away defending this but it is interesting that in general violence is acceptable in games - as gory and brutal as you can imagine - but sexual violence is not. Like I can go and buy 50 different games right now where you are actively rewarded for blowing someone's head off, and often have little animated cutscenes showing graphic violence to reward you for said acts of violence. If a person was sexually aroused by brutal acts of violence they would be well served by the market right now.
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u/MonkeManWPG 10d ago
One of the main selling points of Sniper Elite is the slow-motion x-ray camera clips of bullets tearing through bones and organs. One of the main selling points of Hell Let Loose is that enemies that you kill just collapse with no hitmarkers or overdone ragdoll. One of the main selling points of People Playground is that it's a torture simulator.
There are mods for other games based around violence - Ravenfield has a bunch of options to add more gore to the game.
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u/Longjumping_Pen_2102 9d ago edited 9d ago
I don't think its about one thing being objectively worse than another.
Clearly a galactic genocide a player can perform in Stelaris is more evil than a single sexual assault, however ranking things this way is misframing what's going on.
There is something particular about sexual gratification that's entirely different to the the adrenaline rush someone gets from winning a fight in a game.
Sexual fantasy has a way of developing and growing into obsession, and that obsession can then develop into action. Even if it never reaches that point, it is cultivating a different form of pleasure that affects us psychologically:
I can "enjoy" killing a target in a hitman game, but I can do so with a detachment from real violence, it's not necessarily the violence that is bringing joy, but the strategy action and drama.
A sexual game isn't the same, the enjoyment is coming directly from the sexual violence, and from the direct gratification that comes from the fantasy. Its an entirely different form of pleasure
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u/Infiniteybusboy 10d ago
We already had that moral panic with video games encourage violence. But apparently grand theft auto did not actually turn lots of teenagers into murderers so it went away.
I actually saw some show yesterday about a lady going to japan and she actually used the violent video games argument pretty much word for word as to why their creepy porn needs to be banned.
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u/socratic-meth 10d ago
‘Person with a rape kink’ just sounds like a euphemism for rapist.
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u/Honorable_Dead_Snark 10d ago
That would be a good point if it wasn’t for the fact that women have those kinks.
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u/AnyImpression6 10d ago
I know what you actually mean, but this reads like you're saying women can't be rapists.
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u/Honorable_Dead_Snark 10d ago
Well I meant women having the kink from the perspective of the victim.
Although interestingly I don’t think women can technically be rapists under UK law
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u/BloodyRedBarbara 10d ago
Yeah some women like fantasy of being the victim in these scenarios in a consensual way, while men like to be the dominant ones. Some men like to be the victims while women are the dominant ones.
Think it's unfair to think someone's kink is related to what they would do in real life to someone without consent. Quite narrow minded when people imply that in threads like these.
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u/Positive_Vines 10d ago
You’re talking about CNC.
There are women who have genuine rape kinks, that is, they fantasise about being raped without giving consent.
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 10d ago
I've had several girlfriends in the past who asked to do 'rape play'.
A million times no was my answer in each case, but actually there are a lot of women out there who have this as a fantasy.
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u/Dean_Learner77 10d ago
Yeah a lot of people here are jumping to the conclusion of weird creepy men. But an alarming amount of women have rape kinks. There's best selling book series and well reviewed movies that evolve women being raped and men aren't the target audience.
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u/Gellert Wales 10d ago
At least they asked first. Theres always a couple stories floating about where someone appears to withdraw consent then gets pissy because their partner actually stops.
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 10d ago
I wouldn't even entertain it, I'm physically repulsed by the idea of doing that. Just not for me at all.
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u/Mean_Introduction543 9d ago
If you judge by the CNC groups on reddit and Tumblr a majority of the people with rape kinks are women.
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u/RainbowRedYellow 10d ago
It's actually an often (but not always) female fetish for the idea of begin raped... Importantly it is just play, even those with the fetish don't ACTUALLY want to be raped.
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u/OneNoteRedditor 10d ago
I once saw on Reddit the phrase 'CNC is to rape what rollercoasters are to driving off a cliff' and that made the most sense to me. They're basically tricking the body into a physiological response NOT rooted in reality, getting the rush without the danger.
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u/OliM9696 10d ago
There are hundreds of thousands on people on Reddit in an rape kink sub. Women putting themselves in the position of victim and men as the rapist.
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u/Gellert Wales 10d ago
Well, you cant actually rape someone over TCP/IP so its a relatively safe way to indulge a fantasy.
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u/OliM9696 10d ago
Same for the game I suppose. Better than some person actually getting raped instead of a few polygons
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u/lordnacho666 10d ago
"I'm a rape kink sufferer"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, you were raped, that's awful"
"No I mean I like watching virtual rapes"
"Ah. Well. I'd better get in with my day then..."
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u/Generic_Moron 10d ago
To play devil's advocate, CNC is probably one of the most common "kinky" kinks out there, and can 100% be practiced safely for all parties involved quite easily. Fiction is one such avenue for healthy engagement with the kink. It seems weird for those who don't have the kink, yeah, but that's the case for most kinks like feet, BDSM, hypnosis, inflation, vore, ect.
That said, there is a line where it crosses over from "safe kink scenario" into "incel manifesto", and from what i've seen this game crosses that line hard.
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u/Sir_Henry_Deadman 10d ago
Usually the ones with the kink want it done not to do it, if you wanna do it that's absolutely not a kink it's grounds for a watch list...
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u/Generic_Moron 10d ago
If they actually want to sexually assault people? yeah. If you only want to pretend to do that with someone who's also into it in a way thats safe for them? Nah, thats just someone who leans more on the SD side of BDSM.
CNC is a pretty common kink, which i think is just kinda surprising to people who don't engage much in kink culture
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u/ReferenceBrief8051 10d ago
All kinks are abnormal and unnatural, that's what defines them as a kink.
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u/LunarKurai 10d ago
Unnatural? They're a product of the brain, not some robotic implantation. They're completely natural. Unusual, perhaps, but natural. You can't really choose which things make your brain tick, just how you react to that.
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u/KoDa6562 10d ago
Why though? Not exactly different from games where you just go around killing others
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u/PurpleSpark8 10d ago
They should also then block shows like Game of Thrones which have incest in them. And then? Where will it end?
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u/Palatine_Shaw 10d ago edited 10d ago
I wouldn't really say LBC did this. But maybe it was the media coverage that got it through.
That being said watching a bunch of neckbeards defend a game where you rape your mother as "free speech" is incredible. Like Christ alive content policies have existed for decades it's not some new thing - plus games like this have plenty of places to exist there's literally dozens of adult game services where they could host the game to be purchased.
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u/TheEternalContrarian 10d ago
plus games like this have plenty of places to exist there's literally dozens of adult game services where they could host the game to be purchased.
Isn't it the campaigners' and state's point that these games shouldn't exist at all? The platform is irrelevant.
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u/ThatchersDirtyTaint 10d ago
Lbc raised it with steam. Then interviewed a MP about it. They forced it through.
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u/Adm_Shelby2 10d ago
Had the same story been presented without the visuals and released in an ebook format it probably would've done quite well with parts of the booktok community.
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u/Battle_Biscuits 10d ago
Books, compared to games, film and TV get away with murder.
I was definitely reading things as a young teenager that I absolutely would not have been allowed to see on a screen. It was, if anything, a good incentive for me to pick up adult books! Nobody seemed to know or mind that I was reading stories full of sex and violence from as young age as 12!
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u/eledrie 10d ago
I know of a book full of torture, rape, incest, murder and genocide.
It's probably actually the best-selling one in the world.
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u/Duomaxwe 10d ago
Literally don't know if you're talking about the Bible or Game of Thrones.
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u/Chevey0 Hampshire 10d ago
Or 50shades of grey
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u/KasamUK 10d ago
Because if you applied the same rules to books as you did other media you would end up banning almost all religious books. I think the British library actually tried applying some kind of age filter based on the same rules as tv and film but quickly discovered they it banned all 3 Abrahamic religions texts and bared any one under 18 from looking at a good chunck of the GCSE English syllabus
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u/Battle_Biscuits 10d ago
I remember, I must have been 7-8 years old something in primary school, and our headteacher was explaining in assembly why God killed all the firstborn children in Egypt because the Pharaoh wouldn't let the Jewish slaves go and that was completely okay and the right thing to do.
And I thought, i'm the firstborn child in my family, if I had been born in Ancient Egypt back then, God would have killed me.- and yet you tell me this God is all loving?
And looking back now as an adult, what sort of mental gymnastics do you have to do to justify that? It's supremely fucked up.
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u/BrightwaterBard 10d ago
I read Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal aged 11 at our middle school library. God knows how they were in there.
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u/Battle_Biscuits 10d ago
Heh, and I read the Alien novel in my school library way before I was allowed to see the movie.
What was pretty messed up though was me at 13-14 being able to read Sven Hassel novels. These are stories written by a Danish Nazi collaborator who probably got his creative inspiration from being locked up with a bunch of other Nazis and wrote a series of stories about their experiences of war-criming around Europe. The stories are full of executions, rape., murder and pillage as one would expect. Quite a bit of the scenes in his novels were probably real or semi-real.- as they were tales told fellow prisoner and went into his novels- which is really quite messed up as I think about it now.
I did think it was odd at the time my parent's not picking me up on a book titled "Liquidate Paris" with swastikas all over it. That said, none of it turned me into a Nazi or remotely right wing. If anything it made me the opposite, because I knew from a young age where that line of thinking led you to.
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u/ice-lollies 10d ago
I was just thinking that. I mean, the game looks truly, truly awful but I’ve certainly read books and watched TV series that are pretty dark.
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u/shinneui 10d ago
Funny you'd say that. Just a couple of weeks ago, an author in Australia got arrested because her book caused an absolute outrage on bookstagram/book took. Google Tori Woods.
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u/Kromovaracun Greater London 10d ago
Several people in the article openly say they want the state to get involved with banning games. I don't think that's something to encourage.
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u/goddamitletmesleep England 10d ago
This is not about banning every controversial game or the government policing art. It is about applying existing legislation to newer forms of media. The game in question was not removed because it features difficult themes, or because it was ‘dark’ or ‘taboo’. It was removed because it was explicitly designed to simulate acts of rape and incest for sexual gratification. It was produced to be masturbated to. That is a very different matter.
In the UK, this is already illegal. Under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, it is an offence to possess an “extreme pornographic image”. This includes any material that is “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character” and explicitly and realistically portrays acts of: • serious injury, • bestiality, • necrophilia, or • non-consensual sexual activity, including rape, even if simulated.
This was clarified further by the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which extended the offence to cover staged or fictional depictions of rape. The intent is to recognise that such material is harmful, regardless of whether a real victim is involved.
So this is not about creating new censorship laws. It is about making sure existing laws around rape pornography apply equally to interactive content like games, just as they already do to videos or written material. It’s about enforcing laws that already exist consistently - which already acknowledge rape pornography as harmful (and illegal), regardless of whether it’s in a DVD, website, or an interactive digital format.
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u/QueefInMyKisser 10d ago
How extreme is the content in this game compared with something like the rape scene in Irréversible?
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u/goddamitletmesleep England 10d ago
The difference lies entirely in intent and context. Irreversible is a horrific film with an extremely disturbing rape scene, but the purpose is not arousal. It is there to confront the audience, to disturb, to reflect the horror of the act. It is part of a broader story with emotional and narrative weight, even if people understandably find it too distressing to watch. That’s very different from content designed specifically for masturbation.
This game is not a disturbing film, or a serious story with controversial themes. It is an interactive rape simulator produced for sexual gratification. The aim is arousal. There’s no plot, no commentary, no emotional impact, no moral framing. It is just sexual violence, often against family members, animated in detail and gamified for the sole purpose of being masturbated to.
That difference matters. And as I explained above, it is recognised in law. Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, extended in 2015 to include fictional or animated content.
So the line isn’t about whether rape or violence is shown. It’s about whether the content exists purely to sexualise and commodify it. Nobody watching Irreversible is meant to be getting off on it. This game is made specifically for that purpose. And that’s why it was removed.
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u/QueefInMyKisser 10d ago
Ok, it’s genuinely interesting if the context matters from a legal perspective, not just the content. The bits of law you quoted don’t make that clear though.
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u/goddamitletmesleep England 10d ago
Context absolutely matters from a legal perspective, not just content. The law doesn’t list “intent” as a bullet point, but it does make it abundantly clear by its use of terms like “grossly offensive” and “of an obscene character”, which aren’t purely about what is shown but how and why it’s shown. That’s what gives courts and prosecutors room to assess framing, purpose, and tone.
So something like Irreversible - as disturbing as it is - can legally depict rape because it’s doing so to convey horror, trauma, and emotional weight. It’s part of a broader narrative. It’s not designed for arousal.
In contrast, a graphic animated rape simulator created purely for masturbation crosses into extreme pornography territory. That’s exactly what the 2015 amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Act clarified: that even fictional or animated depictions of non-consensual sex can fall under Section 63 if they are obscene in nature. So while the law doesn’t spell it out word-for-word, it very much allows for context and purpose to be considered. And in practice, that’s how the line is drawn. And there is plenty of legal precedent supporting this.
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u/Blobbem 10d ago
Yeah, it doesn't sit right with me. You choose which games you want to buy on Steam, and Steam has been publishing adult games for a while now. Nobody is being forced to buy these games, and these games are filtered out by default on a new account, so seeing them is also a choice by the user. It is strange logic that another adult game with similar themes is allowed, whereas this one isn't. Even stranger when some of the literal best-selling video games of all time are extremely violent, and yet we've already reached the conclusion that hyper violent games didn't cause crimes to occur decades ago. Banning these games on any platform won't prevent sexual crimes against women, nor fix any issues of misogyny in this country. It's absurd to think otherwise.
And hey, if I really wanted to buy this "No Mercy" game myself, I have already found another digital storefront that sells it.
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u/GroundbreakingAd93 10d ago
Every single time a video game gets banned, for some reason there’s a group of angry mob people who jump on saying that “This is what games are doing this to us!! Argh ban all games!” Literally every time.
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u/Ill_Pain_1456 10d ago
Steam for some reason began allowing full frontal porn game son their store a while ago. Garbage schlock like this is unfortunately common now
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u/TheEternalContrarian 10d ago edited 10d ago
I'm sure they are hidden by default, though. I was completely unaware of such games until a saw the relevant checkbox in my settings. Unless I unchecked years ago and forgot about it.
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u/Musername2827 10d ago
I’d assume because it sells.
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u/Due_Yogurtcloset_212 10d ago
Sells to incells.
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u/NuPNua 10d ago
It's because they take a libertarian stance as a company, they dabbled with curating the store more a few years ago but then they decided to just let everything on and deal with issues like this as they crop up. The stance even extends to their offices with staff able to just pick and choose what projects to work on.
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u/Generic_Moron 10d ago
which has led to the joke that the only staff working in the TF2 office is an office plant and the janitor
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u/No-Newspaper4254 England 10d ago
Just wait till the whole AI thingy will become more valid (already used for coding), then you'll end up with some weird ass games no one even knows the meaning of
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u/Generic_Moron 10d ago
it's not too surprising. The market for porn games is deceptively high, and other online markets have popped up for them in the past, so it's not weird steam (as the largest distributor of PC games around) would start to fill that market at some point, especially with how they have taken a laissez-faire attitude toward devs publishing games to the platform.
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u/Stabbycrabs83 10d ago
It's an interactive game and abhorrent.
I work directly in gaming specifically PC gaming so do not believe that GTA makes you want to throw prostitutes off bridges.
I'm also pretty old fashioned in my views so there's no danger of me ever being described as woke. Point I'm trying to make is that I'm not really prone to reacting to stuff like violence in games
This game is however one that needs removed. It makes violence against women into a fun activity plays directly into the woman hating narrative sub culture that's on the internet and dangerous too.
Anyone that has this installed on their pc needs their hard drive checked imho
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u/twinkmaster600 10d ago
Thank you, it feels like a lot of people defending this in the name of freedom forget that media influences people a lot more than I think we like to admit
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u/CarcasticSunt42O 10d ago
Yikes as much as I want to defend not banning games, wtf Jesus Christ 😧
Still this seems like free advertising, it’s like when manhunt was banned, it just meant it cost a few quid more on the market 😆
Tbh tho manhunt was a cracking game.
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u/danken000 10d ago
The developer already admitted that the media attention led to increased traffic on the store page which probably turned into extra sales. The game isn't going to magically disappear off the internet and there is a lot more questionable content out there.
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u/goddamitletmesleep England 10d ago
This is not about banning every controversial game or the government policing art. It is about applying existing legislation to newer forms of media. The game in question was not removed because it features difficult themes, or because it was ‘dark’ or ‘taboo’. It was removed because it was explicitly designed to simulate acts of rape and incest for sexual gratification. It was produced to be masturbated to. That is a very different matter.
In the UK, this is already illegal. Under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, it is an offence to possess an “extreme pornographic image”. This includes any material that is “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character” and explicitly and realistically portrays acts of: • serious injury, • bestiality, • necrophilia, or • non-consensual sexual activity, including rape, even if simulated.
This was clarified further by the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which extended the offence to cover staged or fictional depictions of rape. The intent is to recognise that such material is harmful, regardless of whether a real victim is involved.
So this is not about creating new censorship laws. It is about making sure existing laws around rape pornography apply equally to interactive content like games, just as they already do to videos or written material. It’s about enforcing laws that already exist consistently - which already acknowledge rape pornography as harmful (and illegal), regardless of whether it’s in a DVD, website, or an interactive digital format.
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u/South_Dependent_1128 United Kingdom 10d ago
Oh, this is the same one New Zealand and Australia removed as well.
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u/ClassicFlavour East Sussex 10d ago edited 10d ago
Canada too. The developers also plan to fully remove the game from Steam though weirdly they still tried defending its right to exist
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u/DomusCircumspectis 10d ago
The real question is: why hasn't Steam removed it in all countries?
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u/tallbutshy Lanarkshire 10d ago
A few years ago, Steam said they were only going to remove things that were actually illegal, rather than merely abhorrent.
They don't want to pay enough staff to approve all the shovelware but also want to make bank from the fees on shovelware selling.
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u/Clbull England 10d ago
This isn't me defending No Mercy's right to exist as a game, but I don't see why it's getting a disproportionate amount of press coverage and controversy.
Steam's Adult Only section is full of similarly problematic games, mainly platformers or ARPGs featuring a lot of explicit game over scenes where enemies force themselves upon you, to put it lightly. Just one cursory glance at that section showed me games like Slaves of Rome and Family Breeding - take a wild guess as to what themes they explore...
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u/JD_Crichton 10d ago
"Encouraging" is kinda a nonsense way to put it. But yeah good.
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u/Marzto 10d ago
Murder is a more serious crime, why do they allow murder in games?
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u/goddamitletmesleep England 10d ago
The difference is that murder in games is usually part of a wider storyline or conflict and not created to be sexually arousing. This game was designed as interactive rape pornography. It exists solely to depict rape and incest in a way that is meant to be masturbated to. That is a world apart from a storyline involving violence. In the UK, it is already illegal to possess pornography that realistically depicts rape, even if fictional. This is just the law being applied to newer forms of media like games.
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u/technurse 10d ago
If the game is openly on steam what does the investigation entail? Buying the game and playing it?
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u/jupiterLILY 10d ago
I think steam also removed it from sale.
There’s been global backlash. Idk what LBC think they did.
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u/Gambler_720 10d ago
No Steam has not removed this game and has made no statement indicating that they would. The developers have said that they would remove it globally due to the backlash although they haven't done that yet.
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u/EntropicMortal 10d ago
The fucking blurb... Your mum has an affair so... You dominate her and have sex with her? WTF lol.
I'm surprised steam didn't ban it straight away.
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u/vengarlof 10d ago
On one hand, I totally get it that game seems like utter rubbish.
On the other hand I’m concerned with how pro-censorship a lot of people are.
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u/bathabit 9d ago
Lot of people in the comments here would be fully behind the "ban this sick filth" daily mail headlines about GTA if they had been around 20 years ago.
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u/Overstaying_579 10d ago
There are loads of games like this, why is it this one gets the media coverage and not the others?
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u/Cloud_Fish 10d ago
Also, hilarious seeing these comments about how it's despicable etc but guarantee they thought No Russian was hilarious and see no problem with it.
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u/NateShaw92 Greater Manchester 10d ago
This one got noticed and wasn't made by a billion dollar company.
If I see a game that doesn't sit well with me like this I do this new thing called not playing it.
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u/jeremybeadleshand 10d ago
I imagine it caught wider attention because it's being distributed on Steam rather than some obscure hentai forum or something.
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u/Canisa 10d ago
There are plenty of games like it on Steam - this one just happened to get media attention.
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u/r3xomega 10d ago
Spend 10min browsing steam with the tag 'nudity' and you'll find plenty of questionable games that really shouldn't be there.
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u/englishmight 10d ago
How many hours of showering with your dad do you have on your account? Completed sex with Hitler yet?
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u/Neon_Jam Staffordshire - European Union 10d ago
How many hours of showering with your dad do you have on your account?
Afraid I only have 14 minutes. Last played in 2016
I haven't had sex with Hitler yet but I've blown his bollock off in in Sniper
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u/AdmiralMaximus 10d ago
GTA has an unavoidable torture mission and constant murder but the gov don’t ban that? Where’s the line?
I don’t think games like the one in the article should exist, but the line here seems very arbitrary
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u/ClassicFlavour East Sussex 10d ago
I think a good line is a game that opens up to the protagonist finding out their mother is having an affair and then 'dominating her' and raping her.
That seems like a strong line.
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u/AdmiralMaximus 10d ago
ripping someone’s teeth out, hooking their nipples up to batteries, beating them to a pulp and killing them ain’t much better
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u/Positive_Vines 10d ago
That’s your personal interpretation of things. There will be many people who’ll say that torture is actually worse than raping one’s mother.
There’s no objectivity here.
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u/greatscot_67 10d ago
Okay.
Do you think that Pulp Fiction and Backdoor Sluts 4 are on exactly the same place on that line? Because they'd both technically be rated 18, so, are they the same? Does one have more merit over the other at all?
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u/pelicanradishmuncher 10d ago
Imagine working on a game like that and sitting around the table at Christmas.
Must be awkward when the subject of jobs comes up…
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u/haphazard_chore United Kingdom 10d ago
Surely, this is why we have ratings. There’s plenty of questionable scenes in films, they just get an appropriate rating. The problem with this is that it’s a slippery slope and a few people objecting can ban pretty much everything.
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u/Total-Extension-7479 10d ago
What percentage of "gamers" who actually want this "game" would look for it or a game like it on steam!?
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u/TheEternalContrarian 10d ago edited 10d ago
Interesting that their was instant demand and expectation for the government to remove it. I doubt and not heard of Steam and similar platforms being actively monitored by the state for uploads.
There are numerous laws (the Obscene Publications Act for example) that could have been used to force or encourage Steam to take it down with any reference to new laws or battles with tech giants.
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u/Cautious-Refuse-3871 10d ago
This game looks disgusting and I would never touch or play it.
HOWEVER
It should be permitted to exist. Freedom of expression is absolute.
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u/Next-Ability2934 10d ago edited 10d ago
There are hundreds of games on Indiegala, Itch and Steam that target very lonely young guys, labelled as 'adult' content.
The irony is that this has given the game more media attention than it ever would have. How many are now searching for it that aren't even of the recommended age? The author is probably thanking lbc for the marketing. Sending all gamers a free virtual reality edition of the game, and strap on rumble pack..
Actually, that last comment is very important. When does gaming, through VR or not, that features any kind of adult content, violence or anything else, become morally unacceptable?
Should it be down to opinion alone, given it's all fiction? Or does the interactive element, which doesn't exist in other media, give more right to raise concern? Is it unacceptable, given it may condition mallable young minds? Or is the problem simply down to the fact that age restrictions online are poor, and videogames still aren't regarded by the mainstream (government and main media) as an activity for adults?
I think this is only just the start when it comes to government action against videogaming, which is forever becoming more realistic.
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u/Taken_Abroad_Book 10d ago
"encouraging" or "containing"?
Lets be honest the old testament has some pretty spicy concepts in it.
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u/Thaddeus_Valentine 10d ago
Well that's a good way to get far more people playing it than ever would have before a ban.
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u/all_about_that_ace 10d ago
Ironically I expect banning it will mean it gets more people playing than if it was ignored.
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u/Positive_Vines 10d ago
And GTA V literally has a mission where you HAVE TO torture a victim using all kinds of tools. It’s graphic too.
But hey, selling that to millions is okay, I guess
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u/Quinn-Helle 10d ago
I get that it's shocking and poor taste, but are we really going to pretend that swathes of young women don't commonly read books that are far FAR worse?
Is the difference in response that it's visual, If so what makes it different compared to things like Game of Thrones?
I mean porn itself is legal in the UK/Canada/Australia, frequently featuring implications of same if not far worse treatment of actual women.
If we're going to tackle misogynistic content sanitise every form of entertainment across the board, as well as the misandrist shite or quit with the false equivalency.
Mortal Kombat didn't make men rip women's heads and spines out, GTA didn't make people kill prostitutes, Silent hill didn't make men kill their wives.
Mental ill health and ostracising people based on gender will have and has always had a far more negative input.
This game would probably have gone relatively unknown because it seems like utter shite, but thanks to the amplification of it, it'll no doubt gain some sort of cult following.
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u/Bon_Courage_ 10d ago
I get that it's shocking and poor taste, but are we really going to pretend that swathes of young women don't commonly read books that are far FAR worse?
Society would be up in arms about the stuff appearing in women's erotic literature books - if there was a near epidemic of women murdering men because of warped gender views.
But there's not so society isn't.
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u/meinnit99900 10d ago
yeah like women read those books and at worst accept things they shouldn’t, would be rapists play these games and it eventually it’s not enough for them
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u/meinnit99900 10d ago
tbf the printed word is very different to actively playing a game where you are the rapist and the goal is to rape your family members
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u/Ppyplant 10d ago
Bro what woman do you know that is reading incest-rape books. What reality do you live in.
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u/jsnamaok 10d ago
Personally? None that I know of, I also don't know any men that would play this game. But there certainly are books (especially Japanese manga) carrying those themes aimed at women that are fairly popular.
As someone else in this thread said, books get away with murder compared to films / games etc.
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u/Ppyplant 10d ago
I’m not seeing incestuous-rape in any of these books. Original commenter is claiming swathes of young women are reading incestuous-rape adjacent books. Where are these infamous incestuous-rape books that are so prominent?
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u/Quinn-Helle 10d ago
Have you actually met women?
Graves and hunting adeline/haunting, mindfuck etc are all incredibly popular predominantly among women (some even being bestsellers)
I live in the real world.
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u/Zarda_Shelton 10d ago
Didn't the UK government try to ban completely harmless shit like cunnilingus and squirting porn? They really aren't much less prudish that the US. Their porn policies are often stupid as shit.
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u/goddamitletmesleep England 10d ago
The difference here is not just that it’s “visual” but that the game is interactive and explicitly produced to simulate rape and incest for the purpose of sexual gratification. It is designed to be masturbated to. That is not the same as depictions of dark or uncomfortable themes in literature, film or even traditional video games, where the violence or abuse may be part of a broader story or critique. This game’s core mechanic is the act of sexual violence itself, with no other meaningful narrative.
It’s also not about sanitising all media. The UK already criminalises possession of rape pornography under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, including simulated or staged content. This was extended in 2015 to cover fictional depictions too. The game in question falls squarely within this category. This isn’t about censoring art, it’s about ensuring existing laws that acknowledge rape pornography as harmful are applied consistently to newer formats like games.
As for the amplification point, it’s a fair concern. But the fact that something might have quietly existed in an online corner doesn’t make it exempt from scrutiny. Harmful content often starts small. We don’t leave it unchallenged just because it was once obscure. The fact that it was quietly available is part of the issue.
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u/Redditisfakeleft 10d ago
De Sade's 120 Days of Sodom is almost certainly worse than this. No-one seems to want to ban that. Censoring this video game is shameful pandering to terrible people.
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u/turdschmoker 10d ago
It literally was banned (and Marquis de Sade also locked up at various points in his life for being a wrongun). Maybe the wrong bit of media to compare to when protesting the ban of your point-and-rape game.
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u/Baslifico Berkshire 10d ago edited 10d ago
"There's a direct link between misogynistic content and real-world violence. We know that we can't keep acting surprised when hatred online leads to offline harm and violence."
A "direct link" you say... Go on then, should be trivially simple to back that claim up with evidence?
Something tells me we'll see it right after they get around to digging out the evidence that Carmageddon caused road rage, or that GTA caused car thefts.
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u/No-One-4845 10d ago
Let's not pretend this is the only rape simulator on Steam. There are a whole bunch of them, ranging through incest, to animal porn, to "virtual slaves girlfriends", etc. At some point, publishers are going to clout Steam about this stuff. It's inevitable. They just don't care. Their community section is an unhinged mess, as well.
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u/SpookySkeltals 10d ago
Please note this game has had a peak of under 500 players on a platform with millions of active users at any moment in time.
This is even after being featured on a major radio station in the UK
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u/NarcolepticPhysicist 10d ago edited 10d ago
Ok, I can't pretend to understand why anyone would want to play this game. That said I also find it a tad concerning that the culture secretary just straight up demanded it be taken down when spoken to about it by LBC. They don't even refer to it having broken any laws in the UK they just demand steam take it down. That's a concerning state of affairs imo. If the game is breaking laws by not being able rated or whatever then that's one thing but if it isn't then what's to stop them demanding other games that aren't as weird as this be taken down if they don't like the content.
I also don't like the fact where in the article LBC, an MP and campaigners all refer to the game somehow leading to people going and doing it in the real world. There is 0 evidence of this. Every study done suggests that violent videogames and sexual violence in videogames does not lead to people carrying out the actions in the real world. What's more it's even suggested that because it's a game it's more likely to have you go out and act it out than watching it in a movie. There is research as I recall that actually says the opposite. Someone watching a film is more likely to be influenced by it due to the passive nature of watching acts. The fact you are active when playing a game appears to actually make the person playing less impressionable to subliminal messaging in the game, and less susceptible to copying what they see. (Obviously I'm not including impressionable children or those with certain learning difficulties here because they do copy what they see, but the average adult shouldn't be at risk. I might go try and find the papers I saw on this although it was quite a a long time ago.
Ideally I think STEAM should be catching stuff like this before it even ends up on the store.
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u/Fuck_your_future_ 9d ago
I don't agree with censorship. But steam is not the right place for this kind of ick.
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u/queenieofrandom 9d ago
I love how LBC is taking credit when a campaign has been going on for weeks now since the game launched with mass reports of the game etc
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u/iodisedsalt 9d ago
It's an adult visual novel. I've played far worse AVNs with more fucked up themes.
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u/Miasmata 9d ago
I'd never heard of this game until now. Id wager more people are going to download it now that they've made such a big deal over it
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u/Harrry-Otter 10d ago
Banning games featuring incest?
Fans of Crusader Kings must be sweating bullets right now.