Rape and Pillage in Online Games

There t’was I, minding my own business in World of Warcraft, when suddenly, out of the blue, up jumps Labour MP Keith Vaz (from ITWire)

British MP: In modern games you “can rape women”

A member of the British parliament has decried modern gaming as a way to live out humanities darkest endeavours. Another example of blatant, ignorant, public stereotyping of the video games industry?

According to this report from MCV via Spong , Leciester East Labour MP Keith Vaz has launched a somewhat wobbly attack upon the state of modern gaming during a Private Member’s Bill debate session.

In support of Conservative MP Julian Brazier’s Bill seeking to introduce an official governmental body to challenge BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) ratings, Vaz said;

“People who are watching a film at the cinema cannot participate in what is happening on the screen, or if they do they are removed from the cinema.

“However, someone sitting at a computer playing a video game, or someone with one of those small devices that young people have these days, the name of which I forget… PlayStations or PSPs, something of that kind.

“Well, whatever they are called, when people play these things, they can interact. They can shoot people; they can kill people. As the honourable Gentleman said, they can rape women.“

In the full transcript of the Parliamentary sitting, not covered in the MCV report, Vaz does indeed go on to show some research on the subject, citing RockStar Games Manhunt as being partly responsible for a copycat murder of a 14 year old Leicester schoolboy ( And so on ITWire)

And I thought I was just levelling my Mage and Tailoring skills? o.O Anyway, any minute now, someone is going to say “think of the children” which will be my cue to shudder and vanish.

“People who are watching a film at the cinema cannot participate in what is happening on the screen, or if they do they are removed from the cinema.

I was removed from the cinema during The Shining for screaming too much. These days I just whimper quietly…