Virtual rape in Grand Theft Auto 5: learning the limits of the game - Phys.org
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Virtual rape in Grand Theft Auto 5: learning
the limits of the game
19 August 2014, by Michael Kasumovic And Rob Brooks
desired feature. Hackers find ways to modify the
game's protected computer code, usually to grant
players more control.
Mods can bestow aiming assistance, unlimited
ammunition, or the ability to see through walls.
Developers respond by levelling the playing field,
often by placing all players using the same mod
onto a single server so they only play against one
another.
Modding, however, can also have several benefits,
and one of these is the power to expand the
developer's vision or make a political statement.
Last year a father swapped Mario and Pauline in
Donkey Kong so that his daughter could play as a
Are these assaults ‘simply part of the game’ or a
disturbing and unwelcome development? Credit: Arnet,
female protagonist. Such mods are not uncommon
CC BY-SA and they can be a powerful tool in which to explore
issues surrounding gender.
The fact that mods can, by shifting the possibilities
Are video games societal microcosms wherein for interaction, lead to powerful inferences about
deviant behaviour flourishes and spills into "real social living, makes the recent GTA5 mod
life"? Or are they just harmless fun in which interesting.
nobody really gets hurt? This endless debate
usually concerns violent games; so much so that When is a world open enough?
many are now inured to the discussion. But a
disturbing hack involving sexual assault in Grand In the Grand Theft Auto games, protagonists
Theft Auto 5 (GTA5) threatens to achieve the navigate a criminal underworld. The virtual world is
impossible: swaying the opinion of gamers open, with players able to perform an almost
themselves. endless variety of behaviours. Many of these are
violent or sexual in nature, for which players earn
What is a mod? rewards.
Videogames let players simulate being almost It seems, however, that too many options are
anyone: a battle-hardened soldier (Call of Duty), a barely enough for GTA5 gamers. After the release
boy navigating his father's alcohol addiction (Papo of GTA5 last September, there were discussions
& Yo), and even a god (Populous). This is part of about whether players should be able to rape within
gaming's appeal. the game. Wisely, Rockstar Games, the game's
developers, did not take this suggestion on board.
Often, when games lack some aspect players wish
existed, hackers in the community create a But hackers did. They created a mod that allows a
modification (or mod) that allows them to add the user to enter another player's game, often as a
naked or near-naked man, lock onto another player
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and then thrust persistently back and forth. All Discussions about rapists' motivations often
players can equally fall victim, regardless of polarise between sex and power. American
character or player gender. And there is no way to journalist Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will:
prevent or stop an attack. Men, Women and Rape (1975) remains a
foundation of the view that rape is all about power
As Lauren DiDonato put it at Viral Global News last and not in any meaningful way about sex.
week:
And yet the importance of power does not logically
exclude a sexual dimension. From time to time,
arguments surface, usually to great controversy,
that rapists motivations are also, or even mostly,
about sex.
The new mod in GTA5 and similar developments in
other games certainly underline the importance of
power, and especially the powerlessness of those
victimised.
Grand Theft Auto, as a game, was already all about
both power and a violent, coercive view of sex.
Players get all the power and control they might
desire. The mod removes that power in a most
humiliating way. The largely male gaming
population playing GTA5 virtually experience a
small taste of the helplessness of being sexually
assaulted.
The humiliation is amplified when videos of the
assault get posted online. Many commenters on
YouTube videos and Reddit threads appear to find
the whole thing humorous. They appear to view
these assaults as "simply part of the game", a
Cover art. Credit: Rockstar Games
chance to explore a new dimension of the gaming
experience.
For others, the assaults, and the fact that they
Players are recording the virtual rape on their
cannot be stopped, have destroyed their enjoyment
computers, and uploading it to YouTube, as well as
of the game and caused much distress. It will be
other popular social media networks. Through
interesting to see how the responses of both male
these videos it is abundantly clear to see that virtual
and female gamers unfold over the coming weeks.
rape is indeed occurring in the game.
For now, Rockstar is not commenting on what
cannot be anything other than a disturbing and
What can we learn? unwelcome development.
It's worth being clear that comparisons between this
This isn't the first time something like this has
sort of virtual assault and rape are inherently
happened. Kim Correa wrote of an even more
limited, particularly with respect to their
harrowing experience she had playing DayZ. In this
consequences. But can the fact that this mod exists
post-apocalyptic third person shooter game, it is not
teach us anything new? More to the point, can it
unheard of to be held down, have a bag put over
teach gamers anything at all?
one's head and be forced to perform unwanted
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behaviours. One's character also cannot respawn leading to a virtual world that mimics real-life
until the current incarnation dies. As a result, experiences.
victims are forced to watch and endure what is
being done to their characters. This story is published courtesy of The
Conversation (under Creative Commons-
The dark side of gaming Attribution/No derivatives).
Here there are parallels to the harassment that Source: The Conversation
women and girls receive in the gaming community
both while gaming and in the game industry. Its
hard to see how the mod in GTA5 could make the
game anything but a more dangerous and
undesirable space for female gamers, as well as for
less aggressive and dominant male gamers to
inhabit. Is this the point?
Perhaps the most controversial, and arguably the
most famous part of Susan Brownmiller's thesis in
Against Our Will, is her assertion that rape is about
the power that men as a class exert over women as
a class:
rape is nothing more or less than a conscious
process of intimidation by which all men keep all
women in a state of fear.
It's the most succinct encapsulation of the idea that
all men - whether they contribute directly or not -
benefit from sexism, inequality and gendered
violence. Controversial, because many men and
women disagree. It's the kind of debate that defies
resolution, visible recently in the hashtag war
between #notallmen and #yesallwomen after Elliot
Rodger's killing spree.
Is it possible that developments like the GTA5 mod
provide an opportunity to observe, at one remove
from "real life", not only how humanity's most
repellent behaviours spread through (virtual)
societies, but also the effects they have on social
dynamics?
It's important to explore such questions, especially
since we are on the verge of virtual reality where
experiences feel more real and encompassing.
Should society and developers set limits to what
players experience to ensure positive experiences
for all? Or will this be a continuous war of attrition
where limits are there only to be challenged thus
3/4APA citation: Virtual rape in Grand Theft Auto 5: learning the limits of the game (2014, August 19)
retrieved 20 November 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2014-08-virtual-rape-grand-theft-auto.html
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