CORRECTION: The product WAS properly tagged as ‘adult’ and so already ghettoed and shouldn’t have been visible to anyone not wanting to see adult material, which makes the explosive fuss even less understandable.
I can’t let this pass without comment, even though my commentary is going to be decided predictable and is also going to be misinterpreted.
So a new product game out on RPGNOW/DrivethruRPG called ‘Tournament of Rapists‘. I have no idea if it’s any good and frankly, so long as the content is legal, I don’t care.
There are two actual mistakes that have been made. It wasn’t properly tagged as an ‘adult product’ and it went through the press-release process under automation. This was likely a mistake on the publisher’s part, not anyone else’s.
It’s part of a line of products dealing with similar dark anime/manga tropes and is meant for people who like that sort of thing (and no, that doesn’t mean they’re creeps or dangerous or anything else, any more than someone liking horror films makes them a serial killer).
Predictably, the response of the usual suspects – and others caught in their comet tail – has been outrage, refusing to sell via the company any more (we’ll see if that happens) or refusing to buy there. The same tactics that were used against the Gamergate Card Game (which should have been nowhere near as controversial as this is).
Mr Wieck, bigwig at the site, as responded that banning this would be a slippery slope, but that slope has already been slipped. These censorious muppets have been emboldened by the company yielding over the GGCC and feel they can do the same here again. Where WILL it stop? What about the back catalogue? How long and how well will the termites feed?
It doesn’t harm anyone to have this product on sale.
Anyone who chooses to read it has to make a conscious decision to purchase it.
If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. It’s really that simple.
You don’t have to make a big song and dance about it, you don’t have to try and force the company to censor creative output. Just don’t buy it. Go ahead and criticise if you want, but attacking the maker’s character without basis, threatening people and whipping up a mob is, frankly, bullshit.
A free creative market has enormous value.
Grow up.
The test of your beliefs is how you apply them to people you disagree with. If you truly believe in free expression – as most of you claim – then let it be. If you don’t want to censor – and it IS censorship – then don’t.
Really, just don’t buy the bloody thing.
And yes, your fussing and fainting IS ‘SJW bullshit’, it always is.
Postmortem Studios 
Well, I have no idea what that game is about or even what kind of game it is. Not in the mood to go digging around the internet since, quite frankly, mostly these games are somewhat … ahm … sub-par. 🙂
Your point however is valid in general and doesn’t hinge on the genre or quality of the game.
I myself am an advocate of ravishment fantasy, basically because a) I enjoy it myself and b) because even if I don’t like any particular theme, it doesn’t mean all those who do are perverted and dangerous deviants and the product should be banned immediately.
So a mistake has been made during the labelling and thus wasn’t tagged properly. Okay, that’s a mistake irksome and should be avoided but still … it happens. Could have happen to anyone with anything.
Now, if certain chains or retailers decided, based on the subject matter of something, no to sell the product, that’s fine with me of course. We have several of those which, for example, don’t see movies and video games with an 18+ rating.
That’s alright, nobody should be “forced” to sell products they’re opposed to for some reason.
I agree with you however, the “outrage” is just something that has become laughable and very hard to take serious anymore. It is a tricky subject, no doubt. After all, would I see my products through a company that also sells something I’m honestly opposed to? Probably not.
The problem, in my opinion, is that probably not a single person being “outraged” has any idea what kind of game they’re actually dealing with, what it’s about. Maybe it’s about a bunch or rapists thrown into a dungeon where they have to fight each other to the death? I’d certainly watch that show on live TV. 🙂
(I wouldn’t but I was trying to make a point)
So the publisher failed for not tagging the product correctly and the retailer failed for having an automated release process. Scold them both and be done with it.
Because as soon as arguments as “values” and “morals” come into play any further debate has left the levels of reasonable and objective discourse.
I’m a woman, raised in a Christian household (although not “active” myself), my rape counter has exceeded two digits and yes, I’m sometimes somewhat sensitive to these sorts of entertainment products. I also do have morals and values as well and I am also an adult.
The final decision on how to deal with a product such as this is entirely mine, as is the decision on how to approach any discussion. So I try to choose the “fair” way that sets aside any self-righteousness I may feel, any outrage. I try to choose the way without personal insults and irrational fear- and/or holier-than-thou- or morals-/values-mongering.
Because we’re all able to do that and anyone who’s not … should recuse themselves from any discussion.
I’m glad you wrote this one, especially about something that’s certain to make people feel somewhat prickly about. Because those subjects in particular are the ones that really put to the test the way we deal with things we believe in.
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Grim, I do want to correct you on one subject. I did tag Tournament of Rapists as an adult product when I initially put it for sale. I’ve done the same for every Black Tokyo release except one: Free20: Black Houses, which was a free supplement about the housing market in Japan.
Then there shouldn’t have been any problem and it probably shouldn’t have gotten a tweet etc. Even more mystifying.
The weird thing about the game in question is that according to the blurb the fighters (mostly male) are raping each other. We have potential rapists being raped by successful rapists here. No innocents involved.
Weird but hardly worth the fuss.