Sat, Jun 30, 2012 | 14:28 BST

Crystal D – “Rape” is not in our vocabulary, communication

Crystal Dynamics global brand director Karl Stewart has said the Tomb Raider comments made by executive producer Ron Rosenberg during E3 contain a word which is not in the firm’s “vocabulary,” or “communication.”

The word and communication Stewart were referring to are rape, and sexual assault, respectively.

Speaking with Kotaku regarding the controversy that just won’t die, Stewart said the comment made by Rosenberg was just an opinion his colleague gleaned from the situation.

“He did say it… It’s his personal opinion and certainly… like I said, it’s not something that we communicate,” said Stewart, who described the scene in question as more of a “pathological situation” containing close physical intimidation.”

The scene in question contains a grubby island bandit touching Lara Croft’s thigh in a rather ominous manner. In this situation, Stewart admitted it wouldn’t be an issue if the game’s protagonist was male – because the bandit wouldn’t have rubbed his thigh apparently – but even with the star of the game being a female, it’s still not a sexual assault.

“By giving her motivation to become the stronger action-adventure hero and the girl that’s willing to fight to stay alive and move forward throughout the game, we use that device and that intimidation to make her stronger,” Stewart explained. “To make her feel empowered and to take her beyond that breaking point where she realises the severity of the situation and she’s willing to fight to stay alive.”

When Kotaku kept pushing Stewart on the matter, the PR representative broke in and put a stop to it.

“I’m pretty sure Karl answered as well as he can the question- I understand where you’re going with this, I think it’s like, you can see the outcome if this continues, but nothing sexual occurred,” said the rep. “Violence occurred as a result of that. I just don’t think you’re going to get any further than what you’re getting out of Karl.”

The interview goes on to discuss Rosenberg’s comments about the player wanting to protect Lara, and Stewart said his comment was reasonable as the opinion was derived through focus group testing.

“We are not building a game where we’re basically saying ‘Hey… our goal is to have the player protect Lara,’” Stewart said. “That’s your choice in playing the game. How you interpret it is your choice. What Ron is saying… that’s the results from fairly significant amounts of play-testers.”

Tomb Raider is out February 2013.

73 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Action, Adventure, Eidos, PC, PS3, Square Enix, Xbox 360
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73 comments

Older Comments

#51

stretch215
01/07/12, 5:28 pm

Imagine lord of the flies with grown men. Then add ONE woman. What do you think would happen?

#52

G1GAHURTZ
01/07/12, 5:39 pm

“It’s slightly worrying though, that you seem to have a superiority complex, especially as you seem to feel quite at home in handing out advice.”

ZING!

monkeygourmet is breaking down O’Connor’s self righteous arrogance beautifully…

Good stuff.

#53

shogoz
01/07/12, 6:05 pm

and while two men are DP’ing the girl all the other grown men will be lubricating eachothers asses up to fuck eachother. pretty much how this forum functions when someone makes a comment and someone else acts all “liek omg but i totally don’t agree with what you said” while trying to make themselves look smarter in the process. ahhh the world of nerds.

#54

OrbitMonkey
01/07/12, 6:10 pm

@50, lol!! What a completely fucking moronic logic :-P

Hello young girl, insecure? NmWant to feel empowered? Well Dr Fister has the rape cure for you!!

Oh hi little boy? Scared of dogs? Let me just throw you in this cage full of pit bulls, if you live I guarantee you’ll feel no more fear!!

Ha ha ha what a wonderful window into idiocy the internet provides :-)

#55

stretch215
01/07/12, 6:16 pm

@54 what are you talking about? So escaping a dangerous situation intact isn’t empowering? You are the fucking idiot. :D . Dick.

#56

Ireland Michael
01/07/12, 6:25 pm

@48 None honestly spring to mind. That’s a poor testament to the quality of video game storytelling as much as anything else. And the devs have made it pretty clear that they’re trying to stay awake from any sort of tactful message one way or the other.

@50 I *am* a raging feminist. Heh.

#57

monkeygourmet
01/07/12, 6:36 pm

@56

No, that’s a good argument for a media form in its infancy…

Remember, gaming narratives haven’t got into their stride yet. Otherwise we’d be talking about the implications of the potential rape of princess peach by Donkey Kong (that’s bestiality too you know!).

Just because the dev budgets have increased doesn’t mean that they are aiming for the 30 plus gamer… We are in the minority when it comes to game development (I assume your 30 plus, if not the your generation has helped accelerate this bollocks anyway, and I have no sympathy for you).

We are at a cross roads my friend:

Games that support adult ideas and motifs, and games that pretend they do just like the SAW movies…

Now, that’s not a great scenario, but seeing as you write for a gaming blog, surely you should be shouting this from the roof tops more than me…?!

If not, live with it and all the rape, death, kill that comes with it.

I for one, know exactly where gaming is heading and have made the necessary changes in my psyche to still enjoy it! ;)

#58

monkeygourmet
01/07/12, 6:39 pm

@54

Yes, you are a dick regarding this…

We all know Lara Croft is Badass, how did she get to this point?

By beating up rapists… Case closed… :)

#59

Ireland Michael
01/07/12, 6:41 pm

@57 You seem to be under the delusion that I don’t want this sort of thing in games whatsoever. I fully agree tha gamss needs to mature and grow up. Desperately so.

DSB and I had a rather nice discussion about this very subject recently, actually: http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/21/double-fine-thinks-games-are-art-but-its-okay-if-you-dont/

#60

monkeygourmet
01/07/12, 6:49 pm

@59

No delusion, based on our previous interactions ;)

But I didnt realise you’d already talked about this subject..!

Will Have a Look, although I feel I’m spent here! :)

#61

OrbitMonkey
01/07/12, 7:22 pm

Lawl, Rape makes you stronger!! Stretch, Monkey stfu ;-)

Though if you’ve got any evidence other than your fetid fantasy’s please do share?

#62

monkeygourmet
01/07/12, 7:42 pm

@61

It doesn’t make you stronger, we don’t know know how this game will end…!

The presumption is it will get you revenge, that isn’t a nice turn of events but clearly something the developer intended from the outset…

It’s a revenge piece…

With the set up to establishing Lara as a bit of a reserved badass… I.e. someone who killed a load of potential rapists…

How would have you started the reboot, oh master?

#63

OrbitMonkey
01/07/12, 8:02 pm

^ Well let’s see… I doubt I’d have ripped off the Green Arrows origin story… And I fail to see how wanting revenge on a load of psycho mercs on a island, sets Lara up to be a collector of artefacts… Masked vigilante maybe, but then we’re back to ripping off the Green Arrow :-)

#64

stretch215
01/07/12, 9:50 pm

@ idiot monkey. You’re ridiculous in your attempts at satire. You come across as a child whose parents need to restrict his internet access. Evidence?? You can’t even understand the basic concept. Giving you your “evidence” (lol) would totally overwork your feeble, juvenile mind.

#65

stretch215
01/07/12, 9:51 pm

Only an idiot would ask for “evidence” in a conversation like this. Get a fucking life, kid.

#66

Beta
01/07/12, 9:57 pm

Seriously, did the car park rape scene in Thelma and Louise get this kind of reaction? I mean, it’s “Not Real” is it?

If people could get this riled up over some actual issues instead of debating the moral “dilemma” of fictional rape in a fictional setting by fictional characters comprised of coding and polygons, then the World might not be such a crap-basket.

*I thought dilemma fit better :)

#67

IL DUCE
01/07/12, 10:04 pm

Can someone tell me again why the hell this is even an issue

#68

Beta
01/07/12, 10:29 pm

@67 Absolutely no idea, really it’s laughable in comparison to the violence and sexual violence scenes in some horror films.

Yet suddenly there’s some kind of holy internet crusade against Beelzebub and Co. at Crystal Dynamics.

#69

OrbitMonkey
02/07/12, 4:27 am

@Stretch, Evidence to support your your thesis that trauma makes one stronger, more specifically that sexual trauma is beneficial to said victim.

Oh a reply of insults? How mature .

#70

Ireland Michael
02/07/12, 4:37 am

@69 Honestly thought stretch was better than that. Was surprised to see a string of insults.

Trauma is a multi-faceted thing, and there is most certainly no one single response. Everyone reacts different to their experiences, and “attempted rape makes you stronger” is a pretty frivolous assumption.

People also rarely change overnight, even after severe trauma, which makes Lara’s sudden dramatic growth a little hard to swallow.

#71

OrbitMonkey
02/07/12, 4:40 am

@Topic in hand. The issue is that videogames are for kids and no place for scary adult themes such as rape (suggested or otherwise).

Plus the videogames market is still considered to be mainly dominated by adolescent males , so such scenes would only be seen as titilation.

P.S. Claiming a attempted rape of the main character , especially in a interactive game is *no big deal* is not a sign of maturity.

#72

roadkill
02/07/12, 8:04 am

Well said stretch! o7

Orbit you’re such a douche-bag.

Some good points there monkeygourmet.

#73

Beta
02/07/12, 10:02 am

SPOILERS IN PARAGRAPH 2 @71 But this game is blatantly not for kids so that nullifies your argument straight away Orbit. It’s not the devs fault if stupid parents buy whatever their kids want.

So what is the issue, Madison in Heavy Rain was tied to a table by a perverted doctor who intended to mutilate her with power tools and rape her corpse, the game had a child murderer as a main character.

Lara had her leg touched… Where’s the heavy rain backlash when that is so much more graphic than this crap?

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