quote:
Originally posted by AG3:
But there are people (I've been in heated discussion with a few of them) who would like nothing more than to see games with lolicon (in their opinion: any character seemingly under the age of 18) characters banned simply because it doesn't suit their tastes, or their sense of morales, and they try to draw a connection between those games and pedophile people.
Of course, when you make the similar connection between action games/movies and murderers, they tend to try and sidestep the issue.
A lot of people have a problem with accepting that their tastes and sense of morals aren't universal truths.
[This message has been edited by AG3 (edited 05-09-2004).]
Yes, this is exactly the case at hand. What people say is right or wrong changes over time within a society and religions, never mind outside. One thing that a lot of westerners seem to think is that because adult anime and games come from Japan, that means that the Japanese are more accepting for discusting things and that we wouldn't tolerate these things in America. Well, that's a bunch of crap. While there are hundreds of thousands of bishoujo gamers in Japan, you have to consider that there are about 120 million people in Japan so it's not like "everyone's doing it." Surely there are people who would find some of the games offensive, but they are clearly adult games to begin with and adults can choose what they want to expose themselves to. We never seem to hear about groups of people trying to ban the games in Japan. So what's all the hype about here? Well, I know that people tend to think that their morals and beliefs are universial truths, but when you just talking about games why push it on everyone else? No matter how much of a deal you make out of "horrible content" it's still just fiction.
People against bishoujo games in general will surely draw a connection between lolicon games and pedophiles. You're right, most of them do tend to give up when they contradict their own ideas when the subject changes to violence. Sex with kids is bad. Stabbing someone to death is bad. A fictional game involving the first is bad, of course. But wait, what about the game involving the second? "No, not my GTA Vice City!! There can't be anything wrong with that. I'm not a murderer, reallly!" So, I can see why some of the arguments would stop at that point. I have heard the following argument before. "People know that killing is wrong and people just play killing games for fun. Sex can be a good or a bad thing and it's tricky. People might try things from the games that involve child sex because they think it's a good thing." Of course, the same exact argument was made when the attempt to ban "digital child pornography" was made, and it failed. Of course, because you can't just guess that one thing will cause another. There may be pedophiles who get off playing lolicon games, but that doesn't mean they'll try it in real life. There are probably plenty of murderers who have played violent games, but I doubt that playing the games had any effect on their actions. Another possibility is that people might enjoy lolicon games at times but feel no attraction to younger people in real life. Then there are pedophiles who wouldn't like lolicon games because they only want real children. So although there is obviously a connection between being a pedophile and enjoying lolicon games, they are not cause and effect. I don't see how the games themselves could pose a threat to anyone. The only possible response is "I don't like it so nobody should have it." which is not logical at all.
