7 Times The Gaming Industry Fell To Lust

As grim as this sentence is to read aloud, yes it's true that video games have used sexual assault as a means to shift units. Not all of the examples on offer are as direct as to show the act happening, but implied sexual assault is fairly common in even the most high profile of titles. Even in recent masterpiece Red Dead Redemption 2, Arthur Morgan can run afoul of a stranger in the bayou who proceeds to knock the protagonist unconscious and have his way with him. The scene is played for shock value and dark humour, with Arthur waking up and moaning "oh lord" before the player gets control, and it's strange to see such a horrible act used so callously.

Then in Tomb Raider 2013 we got an example of a developer using an incredibly poor choice of words to describe a nasty situation. As we know well, Lara Croft is one of gaming's leading ladies, and has proved on countless adventures that she is perfectly capable of overcoming any situation on her own, yet in the reboot Ron Rosenerg, the games executive producer commented "Lara gets taken prisoner by the scavengers on the island. They try to rape her, she's literally turned into a cornered animal" when describing a scene in the game.

This moment looked to turn one of the most badass women in gaming into a potential victim, and went on to provoke huge outrage within the community. As did a scene in Hotline Miami 2 in which the player actively takes part in a rape scenario. It's worth noting that before anything happens a director yells "cut" revealing it to be a simulation, but still this game up until this point, was willing to showcase sexual assault as a means to shock the player. So why do this? Well because moments like this carry something that developers and publishers crave, notoriety. If people are talking about your game, good or bad, sales are going to go up as people become more convinced to see what the fuss is about, and thus Lust is another powerful and sometimes irresponsibly used tool of the gaming industry.