Film critic Mark Kermode wrote a very interesting article recently comparing the recent scares and controversies surrounding videogames to the similar scares and controversies that surrounded horror movies back in the 1980s. The Guardian, by way of reactionary columnist Jaqueline Hunt, has responded to the article, missing the point entirely and bringing up the long-dead RapeLay controversy.
In her article, “These videogames aren’t art, they’re extreme pornography,” Hunt focuses entirely on one game, RapeLay, to make her point, totally ignoring the existence of truly artistic games and choosing instead to vilify an entire medium based on this single anomalous title.
“If games such as RapeLay can now be classified as art, maybe the popular media promotion of sexual violence against women is so normalized that we don’t even pay attention any more,” supposes Hunt. “Does ‘killing’ a prostituted woman in Grand Theft Auto just reconfirm to a gamer the “lesser value” of women in prostitution generally?”
As Negative Gamer points out, what Hunt has done is akin to her attacking the entire medium of film because child pornography exists. Singling out a videogame and using it to say that somebody defending games as art is wrong comes across as really quite pathetic, and exposes Hunt’s complete ignorance and inability to form a real argument. Videogames are bad because one videogame I saw is bad — that’s her argument.
The Guardian is usually quite intelligent and fair with its videogame coverage — it’s sad and disappointing that the publication gave this woman a soapbox upon which to miss the point entirely.
