http://www.slate.com/id/2213073/
Well, the negative tone of the article is because of its focus on the “rape simulator” Rapelay. It’s certainly disappointing, but also expected. However, the shot that the article takes at YMK at the end is most bothersome.
Yeah, it’s late here, so maybe I’ll have more to say on this later. Just throwing it out there for now.
(emphasis mine)
well, I admit to skipping right to the end, but if it ends on an outright obvious lie like that, I can’t imagine the rest of the article to have any merit.
Of course, I admit to having not played the translation, where the game was supposedly modified. If the US version WAS modified to make the characters 18 (they were 20 in the Japanese version, for reference, stated explicitly in the game text), I’m rather ashamed that PP would ruin such a good bit of humour =p
No it stil has the lines about everyone bieng over 20, the Diet proclaiming it and all, and the reaction of Aya is intact.
Fantastic. So what is that article writer complaining about? None of the characters are 18!
I’m not sure if that’s a particularly objective, or accurate one-line summary of Yume Miru Kusuri. In fact, having skimmed through the article, the veracity of the remainder of the article is rather questionable as well, particularly the final three paragraphs of it.
The article doesn’t feel intentionally slanted to me… but more like misinformed at points and brings up some good points at other times. However, I’m amused that he went through with pirating such a distasteful game. 
Lastly, one thing I’ve always wondered about is spurred by the author’s line: “The idea of a ‘rape simulator’ is repellent-what’s worse is that the game trivializes the reality of rape.” I wonder if the author has thought about how many games (heck, kids cartoons) trivialize violence/murder/death… I guess humans are diseased in the mind, and different humans have different afflictions…
Fact about media is that almost all reporters are uninformed to some degree, love to generate hype and fear to get more readers/viewers and control them based on that excitement/fear, and they target anything that will automatically trigger ‘haters’ with the slightest bit of misinformation. (Such as a misleading title for an article, as a great many people will only read the negative title and not bother to read anything else.)
There are also those that just hate a given subject and set out from the start to make it look as bad as they possibly can with lies and wording tricks that make it ‘look’ uninformed to the informed, but still accomplish their goal of misleading readers/viewers. They know most wont bother to get the real information for themselves, and simply don’t care about those that do, because they can’t easily control someone that thinks for themselves.
Fear leads people to create answers rather than finding the facts, so this is an easy topic to attack. When a real rapist is out there in the world, people would rather find excuses as to what made them do it, or gave them the idea to do it, rather then finding the facts. Same with murders. A good example is how in almost every case of kids killing others, someone somewhere tries to find a way to blame it on video games.
(This is all in general of course and not directly related to this article.)
It was more of an offhand observation. The focus of her concern is Rapelay.
At any rate, the author (well known in the game industry) of the article reviewed YMK before:
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/07/yum … o.php#more
Her blog posts on the subject for anyone who’s interested:
1
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2 … or-it.html
2
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2 … ponse.html
3
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2 … pelay.html
What the hell is this guy talking about? Censorship is fairly uncommon in this market, and most of the “edits” that occur in localized eroge involve removing the censorship mosaics. I don’t even recall YMK having any actual age edits. Also, isn’t he aware of the fact that most of the Japanese eroge developers hardly ever label their characters under 18? I mean, most of the time, PP and J-list don’t even need to edit any ages because they’re either unmentioned or are already said to be older than 18 in the originals. Did he even do his research?
I shouldn’t be suprised though. Considering all the Obama-bashing articles on the politics section, this “news” site seems like a breeding ground for hardcore right-wing reporters.
… okay, so it seems this author has actually played a few eroge (Kana and YMK, at least) and doesn’t mind the genre itself at all. So what was with the YMK bashing at the end of the first article linked in this thread?
I think I need to write someone an email.
Bashing Rapelay is one thing, but to insult Yume Miru Kusuri, one of the best drama eroge to be released in English :evil: !!!
Does this remind anybody of something from last year? Can’t quite put your finger on it? Maybe this will help:
Well, I sent the email, and the response I got basically confirmed my suspicion of the change of character between the two sites. The author was simply adopting a different tone for Slate’s different audience >_>
Eroge articles by Leigh Alexander:
Nocturnal Illusions
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2 … a-nos.html
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/12/col … r_play.php
Kana
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2 … natos.html
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article … ing-Hentai
Princess Maker 2
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/05/pri … little.php
X-Change
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/05/xch … itting.php
The Maid’s Story
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/07/the … issues.php
Yume Miru Kusuri (originally posted by Skua)
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/07/yum … _in_lo.php
Let’s Meow Meow!
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/10/col … er_pet.php
The Sagara Family
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/11/col … er_all.php
“Archetypes”
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/08/abe … spects.php
I’d also like to point out that JList provided some of the games for review including YMK: “Special thanks to JList for providing us the game for review in this column”
Man this is an oxymoron if I ever saw one before ever in my entire life. :lol: :lol:
I read the review of Nocturnal Illusion and have to wonder if I was playing the same game. He never rapes any of them – in fact, I’m pretty sure if he tried, the mansion or one of its occupants would deal with him. The one time he comes close to it is with … the amnesiac – Yukina? (It’s been awhile) but even then he realizes it’s not appropriate and he backs off.
Arisa isn’t the ghost of a doll either.
another one of my random rants, feel free to ignore it.
I believe that rape and loli eroge and anime have attracted criticism even in Japan. If my memory serves me correctly some organisations in Japan are unhappy with most eroge and wants the government to do something about it (no reference, but something I remember reading :oops: ).
Few weeks ago some British MP was also not happy about 2nd hand RapeLay item being available on Amazon. Result of his out cry? RapeLay made it to the 2nd place in ErogeShop for 2 weeks after that (although it have been pushed of the top 10 list now).
as for the attacks by game reviewers, keep in mind that most of them are not anime fans which result in a review from “that” prospective. Also, there is a chance that the reviewers “morals and ethics” might have come in the way. S/he couldn’t possibly endorse such titles from the public point of view, so s/he ended up attacking them without stating that the review is biased. (although reviews of a title where you get to kill tons of people are always honest!). Looking at the Nocturnal Illusions review posted above, the reviewer did seem to me like he is trying to distance himself from the VN and belittle it (IMHO). If you don’t like anime or hentai anime why review it?
Finial, let us admit something, Visual Novels require people to “read,” aren’t we asking a lot from a Game Reviewer by asking them to read?
reviews, blogs and comments raised by non-anime fans about anime are meaningless. Although, sadly, laws are being passed by those people :evil:
P.S. I don’t eat fish and for that matter I do sometimes feel like I am going to through-up just by the smell of it (really, I do). Now tell me, will you take my advice on which is the best fish restaurant in town?
as long as there are people that want rape or loli game people will make them and find ways to get them
i feel as long as you do things in game and don’t do it in real life it is okay
it is okay to rape your loli sister in a game as long as you don’t do it in real life
We’d have to if you were the one deciding on which fish restaurants are allowed to remain opened and which ones should close.
I saw a comment in this month PlayStation Official Magazine (UK) under the image of a b-game for PS2 in the “Japan Watch” section.
the image was the cover of “Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! G.P. -Gakuen Princess-” (found here http://www.himeyashop.com/product_info. … s_id/12181 ) and the one paragraph comment was “As an adult male, this boxart is too pink for my eyes to register, but I have it on good authority from out Rachel that it’s a nice non-controversial picture of puppies at a picnic. Phew”
yes, I am as confused as all of you as to why would an “adult male” feel the need to write a comment about something he can’t “see”, in an official magazine! 
and if the b-game ever come out in the west… this guy will most likely review it and share is opinion about it with the readers (if they can read) :evil: