The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Bleh, I didn’t want to get into this again. Sorry. But I have to vent and get it out, and it’s a bad idea to put it in its actual venue on Talking Time. So.

First, some background. Some people made this horrible game called Tentacle Bento, which is this game is really poor taste where you are a tentacle monster trying to rape the most schoolgirls. They made a kickstarter to fund it. People complained like crazy that this product shouldn’t exist because rape is clearly bad. Kickstarter took it down from their page.

Kickstarter probably made the right move. No reason to get lots of shitty press for this, and they had every right to pull it down. I think it’s lame of them not to stick to the guns they supposedly had when they allowed the whole thing to be posted on their site, but sure, why not. People have the right to complain as well. It is a game in very bad taste.

But people don’t just stop there. People go on and on about how this product SHOULD NOT EXIST. And that’s where I draw the line. Of course they should be able to make this product. It’s a dumb product nobody should buy, but the idea that they should not be able to express themselves with a game in very bad taste is just ridiculous to me. And a large number of people arguing against it seem to call me a fan of child rape because I feel this way? This is so stupid.

Anyway, here’s a quote from Kylie. The whole post is here if you want more context. I like Kylie a lot. But goodness, this frustrates me.

You’re not preserving art or communication if you’re defending this; you’re preserving the ability of a medium to make a game out of virtual child rape. If that’s important to you, then by all means stand up and defend it. But you have to know that that’s what you’re defending. “Freedom of Speech” is a convenient smokescreen.

This is a red herring fallacy. “This isn’t covered under freedom of speech because I can prove child rape is bad.” How is a game about virtual child rape NOT communication? That game is communicating a very clear message. In fact, it is that message Kylie is reacting to so strongly.

I sure as fuck don’t think this game is art, but I sure as hell think there could be a game based on these themes that could be. I’m pretty sure making the poor have babies so that the upper classes can eat them and turn their skin into stylish gloves is a pretty horrible thing that nobody wants to advocate, but history has proven that can be art. I’m pretty sure all manner of horrible things and terrible memes can be used in the pursuit of art, and they should be. When “trivializing” rape is the point of a work of art, when that’s being done towards a purpose, is there still a problem? I certainly don’t think so. And just because someone tries to make a satire and utterly, utterly fails at it in a fairly offensive way doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have tried. And just because someone thinks something is okay when it clearly isn’t, and creates something from that assumption doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have created a thing. Stopping people from creating is 100% an attack against art and freedom of communication, and I in no way understand how a game with an offensive and shitty premise is somehow an exception to this.

Kickstarter the company has every right to shut this down, and I would not even begin to argue they shouldn’t be able to. Hell, it’s probably a good move for them to have done so. Sure. But that’s where this ends. People should be able to express themselves, and hell, making a game is a form of expression. Just because those people are horrible people doesn’t mean we get to say “that should not exist.”