i certainly hope this is the case
it must have been in there for a reason-- be it tone or momentum, or some third thing
My main issue with the scene as described (not witnessed, just as described in both Tom and Cara's pieces) is the deceptive way in which the player is lured into participating in the scene. Killing people in a game is something any player will have signed on for, having understood the premise and made a decision to participate. You understand the boundaries of what you're being asked to do: be a dispassionate mean-machine 1980's parodic action figure. Funtimes!! To suddenly have control yanked away from you and it be revealed that your character is about to participate in something that is such a profound and highly charged sexual violation, only to be laughed at by the director when a further pull-back reveals the staging of the scene, is very distasteful. It violates the implicit agreement between the player and the game in a way that is very problematic.
The scene isn't a very helpful comment on rape-culture...the final distancing 'reveal' that this all took place in a staged scenario doesn't alter the fact of the protagonist's willing participation in a rape-fantasy (I'm aware that the link between rape-fantasies and actual sexual violence is contested, but most studies on this relate to the field of pornography, rather than to a game which in no-way implies that there will be this kind of sexual content). I think the unsolicited nature of the reveal (which comes out of no-where) could reasonably be called a trauma trigger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... that is likely to be painful to victims of sexual violence. But you don't need to be a victim to be very offended by it.
I thought the best comment on this thread came from Soren Hoglund. He is right to identify that the woman in the scenario is the object, rather than the subject, and that this is the one of the many problems with the scene. God forbid we ever get a game in which the player-controlled character is forced to undergo a rape, but at the very least that hypothetically disgusting, manipulative scenario would encourage empathy with the victim of violence, rather than trying to manipulate you into complicity with the perpetrator.
Kudos to the game developer for rethinking this scene. Perhaps one day there will be a game that successfully addresses sexual violence. Making you believe you have unwittingly instigated a rape at the hands of your own character (your goddamn avatar, your cipher within the gameworld, your on-screen proxy!) is not the way to achieve this.
I don't know why people think that rape is worse than death
Too bad most of those examples (even lara croft) it is harder to identify with the females they portray because let's face it...they're mostly eye candy even if they're the main character. There IS still a huge problem with this sort of thing, and sexism in this subculture in general. The fact people are even defending rape is....astounding. 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted. That number is....huge. If I saw that happen in a video game, I'd be pissed because you can't return video games and I got stuck paying for a game I can't play because of the triggers. It's not a joke. It's not even like these types of games are going girl with the dragon tattoo where it actually changes things. Half the time violence and assaults towards women are just background...unnecessary. Disgusting. Is it okay to put your sister through this? Your girlfriend? Your mother? It perpetuates the idea that it's not a big deal. Rape isn't a big deal. Police obviously don't consider it a big deal...campuses....etc. Perpetuating this stereotype is harmful, and more people should stop promoting this idea. Rape IS horrific. I'm sure there would be a different tune being sung if the main character were raping a guy or were being raped by another guy. But no, to keep it okay for the little clique of white male gamers it has to be a woman who is raped. If you lived every day in fear...maybe this wouldn't be okay to you either. Try living with -that- your whole life.
uhm, most games the main character -does- have more development than ANY npc. Look at Deus Ex HR, Adam Jenson is the most recognizable character. Look at Ass Creed. Ezio, blah blah other assassins are the most recognizable. You get MORE time with them and learn more about them. I mean look how Ezio was. We all knew him intimately. But you know #womenaretoohardtoanimate stopped us from getting a female assassin who is just as recognizable. Cherry picking a couple examples of NPC females who aren't complete cardboard cutouts doesn't really prove a point. Even look at 'Fem Shep'. It's been agreed her actress was a MUCH better performer but look how they marketed the damn game. All male shepard. That's why most people didn't bother playing the female version. Don't say this isn't a problem because a few NPC's aren't boring as hell. It's ingrained in this toxic subculture. (which is hard for me to say because I'm a gamer too)