CNN Dusts Off Ancient Moral Panic Over Out Of Print Game That Was Banned A While Back

from the oh-come-on dept

Fri, Apr 9th 2010 2:49am — Mike Masnick

Recently, we started receiving a whole bunch of submissions about a CNN story on the Japanese videogame Rapelay (in which part of the gameplay involves raping women). We ignored it because it's an old, old, old story, and we couldn't figure out why CNN suddenly took an interest in it. The game itself was released back in 2006 and has long been out of print. It got some headlines back in February of 2009 (over a year ago), when a UK publication noticed that some people were selling the game via Amazon. It was never Amazon itself selling the game, but some of the people who set up their own stores on the site. Either way, once the press reports came out, Amazon quickly pulled the game.

Still, as usually happens, there was a big moral panic, politicians made comments and threats and eventually Japanese officials banned the game, even though it was already out of print.

Story over, right? For no clear reason, CNN suddenly decided to bring it up as if it were a big deal again -- leading to all those submissions. However, as reader Chris Mikaitis, points out, the story keeps escalating to new levels of cluelessness. Days after the "original" late story, even after lots of people wondered why the hell CNN was bringing up such a dead story, CNN decided to do a second story on the game by the same reporter. At least, in that case, one of the people quoted scolds CNN for making a big story out of nothing:

"One of my concerns," begins Dr. Olson, "is that kids generally never hear about this stuff unless it gets this kind of publicity."

In other words, this was a dead game and a dead story, until CNN started fearmongering about it, making ridiculous statements like:

"Parents, we've got to warn you about this video game because your kids could get their hands on it."

CNN, we know that your ratings are in freefall, but manufacturing a totally ridiculous moral panic over an old game that is not in print any more, has been banned in the only country where it was released, and which was discussed way too much well over a year ago, isn't exactly the way to build either credibility or interest in your reporting.

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Filed Under: moral panic, video game
Companies: cnn

34 Comments

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Scoffs, 9 Apr 2010 @ 3:25am

lol
Being in the UK I've got little need to trawl CNN but thanks to Techdirt I'm going to check that game out now :)

It's a vicious circle indeed.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 3:28am

That's another thing that copy privilege laws can easily destroy if new laws are passed and new enforcement put in place, old games like those old NES games and other really old games like Atari games, etc... They can become a thing lost in history as well. Really sad.
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DS, 9 Apr 2010 @ 3:32am

But... but... I thought only Faux News did bad semi-fake manufactured moral outrage news stories?!??!!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 3:39am

Re:
and of course this is why some makers of new media want copywrong laws to last as long as they do. They don't want old media to compete with new media (ie: books, video games, movies, etc...), they want old media to go out of print and die so that they can more easily monopolize new media. It's really sad that a bunch of selfish thugs have managed to get such absurd laws passed.
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Blatant Coward (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 3:40am

I hear CNN has a deeply researched story about the dampness of water that PROVES only professional journalists can make REAL news that will be released any time.
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Anonymous, 9 Apr 2010 @ 3:52am

Been following this on 4chan. Even better than this story is the fact that they had a poll, "Should Japan ban sexually violent video games", and they resetting the poll twice because "no" was winning over yes, (no still won the third poll, which they took down last night). They also began stopping Japanese IPs from voting in the poll after their first reset.
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Anonymous, 9 Apr 2010 @ 3:57am

Re:
Hahaha.... This reminds me of a cartoon in the local paper after the Zimbabwe elections, of Mugabe standing over someone in the counting station yelling "Count it again. And keep counting until I win"...
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Anonymous, 9 Apr 2010 @ 3:58am

Re:
Hahaha.... This reminds me of a cartoon in the local paper after the Zimbabwe elections, of Mugabe standing over someone in the counting station yelling "Count it again. And keep counting until I win"...
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Rob, 9 Apr 2010 @ 4:34am

A correction
"in which part of the gameplay involves raping women".

I wouldn't call a 10 year old girl and a 16 year old girl "women". And yes, you rape both, along with their mother.

Never played the game, never would, but I'd suggest a better moral panic would be about the pre-teen content, not because children might get their hands on it. Thanks anyway though, CNN, Saviours of the World.
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ethorad (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 4:44am

Re:
Sounds like the way voting in the EU works. If you vote No to something, then they come back next year to make you vote again. And again. Until you get it right.

See Ireland voting on the Lisbon Treaty, and the way Denmark is going to hold a second poll on joining the Euro - just as soon as they can get enough support for a yes. (And of course after the French and Dutch voters got the result "wrong", they weren't even trusted with a second attempt)

Still waiting to hear of a country offering a new poll where the previous answer was yes.

But maybe I'm just bitter at not getting to vote on the Lisbon treaty here in the UK ...
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 5:07am

Re: Re:
"they want old media to go out of print and die so that they can more easily monopolize new media."

And when it's dead and forgotten, they can release it again and pretend it's new.
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Designerfx (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 5:24am

japanese author reply
a Manga artist replied, offended by CNN last time this came up. Why would they bother doing this twice?

http://www.tsurupeta.info/content/open-letter-to-cnn-by-nogami-takeshi

that was his reply...it was actually on CNN originally before he put it back on his own site. He basically explained the rapelay thing in quite reasonable terms.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 5:53am

out of print

How the hell to you make a digital good out of print? I thought the advocated of infinite goods would know better.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 5:54am

Sweet Jesus
Is there a reason I feel so dejected when one of my submissions turns into a "Why are you retards submitting this to me?" story?
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Free Capitalist (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:02am

Yellow Journalism
I think these types of stories (as Mike points out indirectly, the story itself being the only real threat to public health/safety) are just testbeds used and directed by politicos to determine what the next "talking point" will be in the televised political "conversation".

Makes me wonder what the real (invisible in the mass media) political conversation is about to be..,

Every untold story of consequence has its O.J. Simpson counterpart.
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Paul-G, 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:13am

A slow day maybe?
Maybe the reporter saw thas and decided he could do better? Paul.
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Paul-G, 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:14am

Re:A slow day maybe?
???? where did the link go?

OK, try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyoLON4sevo
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Ima Fish (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:17am

"we couldn't figure out why CNN suddenly took an interest in it"

A news agency has five possibilities to get stories.

1. Find stories through research. (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein)

2. Find stories already published. (Huffington Post)

3. Create situations which will give rise to stories. (Dateline's pedophile pieces.)

4. Make up stories. (Jayson Blair)

5. And last, but not least... dig up old stories and present them as new.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:42am

Re:
No no no no... Faux News while proficient in that did not invent semi-fake manufactured moral outrage news stories... they mastered it after studying news outlets like CNN!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 7:18am

Re:
Don't forget CNN's new method: Read random tweets.
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R. Miles (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 8:13am

Re: A correction
"I wouldn't call a 10 year old girl and a 16 year old girl 'women'".
I wouldn't call them people. They're characters in a game. How does one rape a damn cartoon character, anyway? Wouldn't the monitor glass alone stop the ability to touch the characters?

Don't be stupid.
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Adam (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 8:16am

Hey!
Maybe they can dust off Custer's Revenge too! Or Mass Effect! This just in, someone somewhere, may do something outrageous!! Protect the children!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 9:29am

Re: Re: A correction
But if people do it in games they will do it in real life. Haven't you seen the roaming hoards of children killing mecha-demons with shotguns?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 10:03am

Re: Re: Re: A correction
Just yesterday I encountered a large barrier. It was too tall to jump over, so I grabbed my handy rocket launcher and fired it at my feet while jumping towards the barrier.

Why didn't it work!?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 10:10am

Re: Re:
So they took something CNN invented and improved upon it. Hey, that sounds like infringement.
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Xander C (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 11:02am

Unsettleing coninquesnces...
Unfortunately, because of the Rapelay scandal, lots of really good JP artist that tend to dip into possible nude images have blocked their ports to Westerners, or have closed off their sites to avoid being the next one on the cross.

This sword does go both ways.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2010 @ 11:24am

Re: Hey!
Mass Effect? You mean that video game, which only children play, that consisted entirely of alien orgies? Lesbian alien orgies?

At least that's what I heard on Fox News. I ended up buying it and while I wasn't completely disappointed with the game there was a tiny part of me that was.
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Adam (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 12:18pm

Re: Re: Hey!
Yep, that's the one.

Only people who don't play videogames make no distinction between gaming and reality.
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BearGriz72 (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 2:20pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: A correction
Where is my large well armored Demon with an axe as tall as he is that I can send in to fight my enemies whilst it burn them down throwing fire and shadow energy.
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Michael (profile), 9 Apr 2010 @ 5:35pm

CNN Buisness issues?
Maybe instead of causing sensational moral panics CNN could actually do some /real/ investigative research and reporting.

I want *accountability*, both from news outlets to the public, AND for the news outlets to do their *job* and actually hold politicians, lobbyists, corporations, and even people accountable for their actions or lack there of.

I want *depth*, don't just report that something happened, tell us why it happened, what impact it has on others, and what sorts of reactions others can and are taking.

I want *discussion*, not 140 character twit-headed sound-bytes, but real comments and summaries of comments compiled in to bin-counts that reflect actual public opinion.
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vyvyan, 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:48pm

Re: Re:
yeah and keep posting the same comment until everyone declares you a victor. :P
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vyvyan, 9 Apr 2010 @ 6:53pm

Re:
check tpb account of mike, he uploaded it there and this story is publicity stunt.
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haha ur mother
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