Idiot of the Day 2012: How do these people breathe?

[metroid composite]

http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=8365

So...kickstarter decides it doesn't want to host funding for a game about tentacle rape.  So far, this seems fairly reasonable.


...Except for the part where Gabe from Penny Arcade is outraged, outraged that people continue to find rape anything but hillarious.

[AndrewRogue]

Mmm. Not sure how I feel about this one.

While rape is a very, very, very terrible thing... there is something to be said for the fact that we do live also live in a culture that immensely trivializes other forms of assault and violence as Gabe said. I do realize there is a difference (since this all ties into sexism which is a different can of worms), but... hrm. What is the actual retort for that argument, anyway? The blogger shrugs it off, so I assume it is a generally counterpointed argument.

[superaielman]

That entire website set my teeth on edge. Goddamn do I hate leftist jargon, even if agree with them on this one.

I hope that in light of this, they develop more guidelines for screening misogynist and other hateful content in the future.

This is as literal a definition for censorship as you can get. "I want them to follow the guidelines *I* consider to be reasonable."  Gabe is right on that score; it is censorship.

The point is, we live in a rape culture, a world where rape is constantly treated as trivial or a joke, where victims are blamed for their own assaults, and where the conviction rate for rapists is distressingly low.

I'm never sure how I feel on this point. Society on the whole has gotten much better about rape in our lifetimes, due to DNA testing, rape shield laws and and culture treating rape as a serious violent felony rather than as a crime. The conviction rate is around 40%. That isn't out of line with other serious violent felonies. Granted it doesn't tell the full story, as the trauma of rape (everything from the rape kit to the trial) is hell on the victim. The bigger problem is the number of unreported rapes. Some of that is really hard to treat on a cultural level. In 70% of rapes, victims know the attacker. That obviously makes it harder than reporting a stranger rape to the police.

Tentacle Bento may just be a drop in the ocean of rape culture, but every drop counts, and no individual or private company is obligated to support such a game. The fact that many in the game community spoke out against this game, and that Kickstarter listened, is a good thing.

You know what though? I agree here. That game is trash, and kickstarter had every right to yank the funding.  It may be censorship, but a company has every right to draw this line in the sand drop the project for whatever reason.

Andy: The criminal justice system and our culture treats sex and sex crimes differently (for better or worse) than they do even things like murder.  The blogger shrugs it off because it's a giant can of worms, and one that isn't really relevant to the matter at hand.

[SnowFire]

I basically agree that the game sounds like slime, and good on Kickstarter for booting it.  However, there was one comment from the linked article worthy of an eyeroll:

"murder in general is not treated as trivial or a joke in the same way that rape is."

Ah.  No.  American gaming culture often treats murder as trivial but is much more tiptoey about rape.  I submit as evidence the Grand Theft Auto games and their many ripoffs.  You murder tons of people because they pissed you off, because it's fun, because you want their money, etc. and it's no big deal.  But as far as I know the main character never rapes anyone (although prostitution is its own brand of ick.).  A major game where the main character rapes somebody, and it's treated as trivial, would make waves in the States.  And frankly not do so well; I don't think that's smart.  The 15-year old GTA-playing masculine culture admires a thug, yes, but there's still an understanding that because you are so manly and awesome, all the ladies at the strip club will be falling over themselves to get with you, if we're doing teen wish fulfillment.  Rape is for losers and villains who can't get any themselves.  Or, to increase the suaveness of the target audience a bit, James Bond is quite the conqueror of hearts - it'd be totally anti-sexy to imagine Bond raping someone rather than seducing them.  (Yes, yes, the idea of easy seduction has its OWN screwed-upness and problems, but nothing new there.)

If the writer was referring to Japanese culture, uh, yeah.  Will avoid rants but they definitely seem to be a lot laxer on that taboo, along with the whole "sexual harassment is part of life deal w/ it" attitude.  But it sounded like this game was American, so.

I don't know what the Penny Arcade guys were thinking on this.

[Cmdr_King]

Ah, Gonzo.

Setting aside that the article is trash, the affair raises an interesting question.  So interesting I read Kickstarter's ToS.  While they pretty much have a "we'll cut any project we want when we want" clause, they make no real mention of pornographic projects.  While it's explicitly stated that no project page may contain obscene or profane content, there's no mention of restriction on the actual project so long as it's not harassing or illegal.

This is incredibly strange.  While they can (and, indeed, should) kick such projects off their site, there's nothing overtly suggesting it is policy to do so, nor that this type of project is not welcome on their site.  So it raises teh question: do they routinely cut pornographic content?  Or was this game singled out?  If it's the latter, then in all I'd be outraged too.  Censorship is, on its face, an evil, and even in compelling cases should not pass without scrutiny.  But having been scrutinized, this is still precisely the sort of thing that should not be readily allowed access to something like Kickstarter.

In summary, Kickstarter should really just say "Don't use us to get funding for porn" (whether it's specifically rape porn or not is fairly incidental; rape is a common fetish, and as such a common element to all brands of porn, even if it's not the dominant element as in this case), and Gabe is a dick who responds to dickishness by being an even bigger dick in an endless loop.

[superaielman]

Also. *lol* to one of the defenses the author linked to.

Directly related IotD, taken from MC's link.  http://www.formspring.me/interrogate/q/327138748997337024

really not get the difference between a game about my personal non-consent fantasies and a mass-produced satire-free card game about consequence-free rape?

Rape is never excusable BUT MY OWN PERSONAL RAPE FANTASIES ARE COOL TO MAKE GAMES ABOUT, JUST NOT SOMEONE ELSE'S GAME/IDEAS



Way to cover yourself in glory there.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Ah, Gonzo.

Setting aside that the article is trash, the affair raises an interesting question.  So interesting I read Kickstarter's ToS.  While they pretty much have a "we'll cut any project we want when we want" clause, they make no real mention of pornographic projects.  While it's explicitly stated that no project page may contain obscene or profane content, there's no mention of restriction on the actual project so long as it's not harassing or illegal.

This is incredibly strange.  While they can (and, indeed, should) kick such projects off their site, there's nothing overtly suggesting it is policy to do so, nor that this type of project is not welcome on their site.  So it raises teh question: do they routinely cut pornographic content?  Or was this game singled out?  If it's the latter, then in all I'd be outraged too.  Censorship is, on its face, an evil, and even in compelling cases should not pass without scrutiny.  But having been scrutinized, this is still precisely the sort of thing that should not be readily allowed access to something like Kickstarter.

In summary, Kickstarter should really just say "Don't use us to get funding for porn" (whether it's specifically rape porn or not is fairly incidental; rape is a common fetish, and as such a common element to all brands of porn, even if it's not the dominant element as in this case), and Gabe is a dick who responds to dickishness by being an even bigger dick in an endless loop.

They're a private organization and have the right to not associate with anything they think would damage their image.  That's their right as a business as much as it is the right of people to make tentacle rape porn.  That street goes both ways.  Kickstarter is not a government agency; they aren't required to spell out your rights for you and they're well within their rights to retain the power to terminate any project they think would make them look bad, for any reason or for no reason.

[NotMiki]

Second CK.  Censorship by private organizations is nowhere near as troublesome as censorship by the government, but they really ought to give some warning about what they intend to censor, even if they reserve the right to refuse any project.  Even if they're well within their rights NOT to give that warning (they probably are, but it's not a slam dunk if they pull a project after it starts taking potential donations), it's in everyone's interest that they do.

[Cmdr_King]

That's pretty much what I was saying, yeah.  It's well within their right to censor whatever they want, but there should be clear reasoning and guidelines for what they do or do not censor.  Arbitrary exercise of power is less dangerous when done by individuals or businesses, but it must not be more acceptable, at least to such point that there's no demand for reasoning.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Second CK.  Censorship by private organizations is nowhere near as troublesome as censorship by the government, but they really ought to give some warning about what they intend to censor, even if they reserve the right to refuse any project.  Even if they're well within their rights NOT to give that warning (they probably are, but it's not a slam dunk if they pull a project after it starts taking potential donations), it's in everyone's interest that they do.

At the same time, people should have some common sense. The Internet has done a real fucking number on our generation to the point where some people no longer realize- I cannot stress this enough- that maybe a business is going to avoid helping you raise money to fund tentacle rape porn.

[Shale]

Yeah, I'm with Rob on this one. Kickstarter should probably spell out its standards more clearly, but it's the "Why wouldn't a high-profile company want to be associated with tentacle rape pornography?" that rises to IOTD levels.

[metroid composite]

That's pretty much what I was saying, yeah.  It's well within their right to censor whatever they want, but there should be clear reasoning and guidelines for what they do or do not censor.  Arbitrary exercise of power is less dangerous when done by individuals or businesses, but it must not be more acceptable, at least to such point that there's no demand for reasoning.

Well...I'm actually inclined to disagree mildly.

For instance, the forum rules of the RPGDL are extremely fuzzy.  Pretty much all we say is "don't get us kicked off our hosting" (clearcut) and "don't be an idiot" where we're the ones who draw the line of what "idiot" means (extremely non clearcut).

The forum rules of GameFAQs are horrendously mechanically rigid, down to what swear words you need to censor out, and which exact letters need to be censored out.



I like the DL's moderation better than GameFAQs moderation.

I will leave you with something that could not be linked on GameFAQs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)

[Cmdr_King]

By the same token, you may recall certain incidents that arose from people within the DL attempting to apply new, previously unknown at rules on the DL.  The DL works because it's a sufficiently small community that rule by community consensus is viable.  It should also be noted that the DL is neither meaningfully public nor a business, and if it suddenly grew to, oh, 10,000 members we probably would have to put mechanical, fixed rules in place.

GameFAQs is best thought of as having a target audience of about 10.  Yes, you have to be 13 to form an account, but they moderate themselves such that a younger audience can look at anything on the site without an overly-wary parent raising alarms.  In that context, they're considerably less moderated than might be expected, owing to the outdated nature of the site in terms of mechanics.

[NotMiki]

At the same time, people should have some common sense. The Internet has done a real fucking number on our generation to the point where some people no longer realize- I cannot stress this enough- that maybe a business is going to avoid helping you raise money to fund tentacle rape porn.

American culture, when it defines what's obscene, really focuses on the visual.  That's why trashy romance novels, which are filled with all manner of bodice-ripping rape and sexual slavery, can be sold in major bookstores without anyone so much as raising an eyebrow.  So it's not that surprising to me they thought this would work: they didn't show anyone's naughty bits, and that's usually all you need to do to get past the censors, no matter how awful your actual ideas are. (unless god forbid you swear.)

On a completely unrelated note:

Arizona AG sends Hawaii request to prove Obama was born there, to ensure he's qualified to be on the ballot. Hawaii responds with request for AG to prove he is who he says he is, and for copies of the Arizona laws saying the AG is responsible for ensuring candidates on ballots are qualified.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/arizona_ken_bennett_obama_birth_certificate_birther.php

[NotMiki]

Long-form Trolling courtesy of the Hawaii Board of Health.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/ken_bennett_birther_hawaii_arizona_emails.php?ref=fpa

[Kilgamayan]

That is an amazing picture of Bennett.

[Nephrite]

Christian gays think they deserve the same rights as others, told by college "...we don't need to modernize or bend our biblically based position on sexual ethics."

[superaielman]

Alexis Hughes, a biblical studies major, said the gay group’s anonymity is telling. "Obviously, if it's underground, they know it’s wrong and on some level they know they shouldn't be doing it."

[NotMiki]

[Kilgamayan]

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/05/30/nc-makes-sea-level-rise-illegal/

[Cotigo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihLBCbNIDbI&feature=player_embedded

[Kilgamayan]

So does this go in this thread or the football thread?

[superaielman]

IotD. Holy shit, disband the entire Saints organization. They kept a *LEDGER?*

[Grefter]

I like that they outlined what Cart Offs and Whacks are but don't even explain whatever the fuck a "Mental error" is.

[Shale]

Keeping a ledger?