The Mike
In the Pixels
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2006
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Everything about this is bizarre....worth a couple of chuckles though.
Japanese Government Reveals New Rape Game Regulations
06.05.2009
Article by Anne M. You may remember the Amazon RapeLay fiasco back in February, when UK politicians and media demanded the recall of a Japanese sexual simulation game that included the ability to enslave and repeatedly rape female NPCs, along with forcing them to have abortions should they fall pregnant. “RapeLay” was released in 2006 from Illusion Software, and originally only available in Japan. However, a third party importer stocked the product on Amazon.com to sell the game outside of the country of origin, and that’s when the media caught whiff of the product’s existence. A moral outrage erupted, and the product was booted from Amazon without comment from the online seller.
Illusion Software refused to follow Amazon’s lead, instead reacting to the uproar with a brief, blunt statement. “This product is intended for domestic distribution and was approved by Japanese regulators. We won’t accept this sort of criticism from overseas groups.”
The women’s rights group Equality Now didn’t let it drop there. They began demanding that the Japanese government ban any adult game, manga or anime that might “promote violence against women”, as well as a ban on any material that might appear to promote rape or “loli-con” sex. Last month Equality Now posted a review of the game on their site, preceding a push to have readers send stern form letters to Illusion Software, the president of Amazon Japan, Prime Minister Taro Aso and others on the matter.
Well, Japan’s Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS) appears to have been listening to the outcry, because yesterday EOCS faxed domestic game publishers a list of new rules and regulations for what they can and cannot do with future games. The fax comes after an emergency meeting held on June 2, with nearly 100 representatives from various companies present.
Below are the rules and regs as listed in the leaked fax:
- Words such as “training” (調教) or “slave”, among others, are not allowed in the title or packaging
- HCG involving sexual violation cannot exceed 20% of a game’s total HCG count (ie: can’t try to build this up by having lots of everyday life CG events)
- Even if it’s below 20%, anything that is promoting a criminal offense is not allowed
- Anything that promotes rape, confinement, stalking, domestic violence, and portrays it in a way that the offender gains something out of it is not allowed
- New games that have already passed the review process by the EOCS are considered “safe” from this
It’s being said that the meeting was not a proper discussion, nor was there a vote to decide on details. In hindsight they probably should have insisted on that vote because people are now saying that the fax contains entirely different rules and regulations from those discussed. (By way of example, hypnosis was reviewed during the meeting and ultimately deemed fine, but is clearly absent from the fax.)
The new regulations are in effect starting today, and general reactions so far have been of shock and disbelief. To make matters worse, when publishers who received the fax attempted to contact the EOCS yesterday, they were met with answering machines or secretaries blocking the way to officials. Several game developers are claiming that they are still unable to get in touch with EOCS, having hoped to grandfather in or salvage games in development.
EOCS has said that they will be aiming for a gradual change in the regulations, so that games slated for release in the near future will not be as strongly affected. In the meantime, fans of the genre are crying Big Brother, free speech, and any other number of things to try and defend the games they love so much.
Japanese Government Reveals New Rape Game Regulations
06.05.2009
Article by Anne M. You may remember the Amazon RapeLay fiasco back in February, when UK politicians and media demanded the recall of a Japanese sexual simulation game that included the ability to enslave and repeatedly rape female NPCs, along with forcing them to have abortions should they fall pregnant. “RapeLay” was released in 2006 from Illusion Software, and originally only available in Japan. However, a third party importer stocked the product on Amazon.com to sell the game outside of the country of origin, and that’s when the media caught whiff of the product’s existence. A moral outrage erupted, and the product was booted from Amazon without comment from the online seller.
Illusion Software refused to follow Amazon’s lead, instead reacting to the uproar with a brief, blunt statement. “This product is intended for domestic distribution and was approved by Japanese regulators. We won’t accept this sort of criticism from overseas groups.”
The women’s rights group Equality Now didn’t let it drop there. They began demanding that the Japanese government ban any adult game, manga or anime that might “promote violence against women”, as well as a ban on any material that might appear to promote rape or “loli-con” sex. Last month Equality Now posted a review of the game on their site, preceding a push to have readers send stern form letters to Illusion Software, the president of Amazon Japan, Prime Minister Taro Aso and others on the matter.
Well, Japan’s Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS) appears to have been listening to the outcry, because yesterday EOCS faxed domestic game publishers a list of new rules and regulations for what they can and cannot do with future games. The fax comes after an emergency meeting held on June 2, with nearly 100 representatives from various companies present.
Below are the rules and regs as listed in the leaked fax:
- Words such as “training” (調教) or “slave”, among others, are not allowed in the title or packaging
- HCG involving sexual violation cannot exceed 20% of a game’s total HCG count (ie: can’t try to build this up by having lots of everyday life CG events)
- Even if it’s below 20%, anything that is promoting a criminal offense is not allowed
- Anything that promotes rape, confinement, stalking, domestic violence, and portrays it in a way that the offender gains something out of it is not allowed
- New games that have already passed the review process by the EOCS are considered “safe” from this
It’s being said that the meeting was not a proper discussion, nor was there a vote to decide on details. In hindsight they probably should have insisted on that vote because people are now saying that the fax contains entirely different rules and regulations from those discussed. (By way of example, hypnosis was reviewed during the meeting and ultimately deemed fine, but is clearly absent from the fax.)
The new regulations are in effect starting today, and general reactions so far have been of shock and disbelief. To make matters worse, when publishers who received the fax attempted to contact the EOCS yesterday, they were met with answering machines or secretaries blocking the way to officials. Several game developers are claiming that they are still unable to get in touch with EOCS, having hoped to grandfather in or salvage games in development.
EOCS has said that they will be aiming for a gradual change in the regulations, so that games slated for release in the near future will not be as strongly affected. In the meantime, fans of the genre are crying Big Brother, free speech, and any other number of things to try and defend the games they love so much.
