Slate Magazine - Should the United States ban a Japanese "rape simulator" game?
"Considering the impossibility of policing the Internet, as well as the availability of English RapeLay translations and forums for years before any politician caught wind of the game, it's unrealistic to think that the game could be banished from America. Very few Japanese developers make an effort to sell eroge to the West, and those that do, like Peach Princess and G-Collections, make content modifications to suit foreign norms and laws. (For example, all underage characters' ages get rounded up to 18, no matter how young the character looks.) These Westernized versions are sold in the United States via import sites like J-List and Play-Asia. Neither company sells RapeLay, but they do offer the popular eroge Yume Miru Kusuri. That game, while more edgy than it is violent, does focus on sex-crazed, underage-looking high schoolers with drug problems and suicide fetishes. RapeLay is appalling, but titles like Yume Miru Kusuri—sold in America after being unconvincingly modified so the protagonists are "18," making it tough to peg the games as outright illegal—would make far more constructive targets for political outrage."Edge Online - Why the -Age of Steam- May Not Last? By Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, operator of Impulse.
"It's far too soon to assume that Steam will continue to dominate five years out. Thus far, it has largely operated without serious competition. With other services such as Impulse, Games for Windows Live, Amazon.com, GamersGate and others upping their own services with unique and compelling features, expanding their catalogs, and focusing on providing good customer experiences, I would be very surprised if Steam continues to have such a large market share (as a percentage) even 18 months from now."CNET - Is the video game industry losing the PR battle?
"Based on what I've seen so far from the industry, it's willing to take a beating from government, lawyers, authors, and concerned groups and it does little to fight back. Meantime, I receive e-mails from parents on an almost daily basis asking me why video games are so bad for their kids. Whenever that happens, I write them a short but informative e-mail saying, 'They're not as bad as some groups say and here's research to prove it.'"
Personally, I don't have any problems with games about violence, rape, or any other dark fantasy. Humans need some way to honestly explore, understand, and contain our dark sides, and I believe games are an excellent, valuable technology for that.