Crystal Dynamics Says “Rape” Isn’t in Their Vocabulary

Have you forgotten the Tomb Raider controversy about the sexual assault scene? No? Well just in case, Kotaku has continued to press the issue in interviews with Crystal Dynamics, leading CD to dig their hole of denial even deeper. In an initial interview, executive producer Ron Rosenberg said, “those scavengers [who imprisoned Lara Croft] will try to rape her.” There was then a landslide of denouncement, saying that was just an interpretation and not the reality. Now, CD global brand director Karl Stewart has said:

“[Rosenberg] said something which is certainly a word that is not in our vocabulary and not in our communication. He did say it… It’s his personal opinion and certainly… like I said, it’s not something that we communicate.”

He clarified that what happened in the questionable scene wasn’t sexual assault; it was a “pathological situation” of “close physical intimidation,” even if it’s a situation a male character wouldn’t find himself in (as Stewart also admitted). Asked if he thought sexual assault and rape were subjects too taboo to cover in a video game, Stewart gave a vague and indirect response:

“That is a hard subject because I believe and the studio believes that it is a subject that we see played out in many ways through movies and TV shows and I think in our medium we are trying to bring an immersive narrative to which- in all the research and all the work that we do in building the story and building this game, we take it to many different places. And this isn’t something that’s uncommon in story narrative. And what we’re trying to do is in a way, as you know, raise the bar of story-telling— how Lara Croft how that plays out how you interpret it… as you play the game out for yourself, as you review the game and try to answer how you felt from that input, we’re trying to raise the bar in immersive storytelling through the video game. So I’m being careful in that we’re not choosing to say ‘this is a word we want to be associated with that,’ that is not the case.”

There was also a moment in the interview when the PR representative had to step in, saying that, with regard to the fact that the scavengers would not approach and treat a man in the way Lara was treated:

“I’m pretty sure Karl answered as well as he can the question- I understand where you’re going with this, I think it’s like, you can see the outcome if this continues and you actually- nothing sexual occurred. Violence occurred as a result of that. I just don’t think you’re going to get any further than what you’re getting out of Karl.”

I wrote a feature about sexual assault in gaming, where I said that:

“[This incident] is like saying that rape is something we should deny, something we should hide under the rug and pretend it doesn’t happen. Women’s and sexual issues in general are ignored in gaming. That’s an outright truth. The true horror of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment… are all rarely if ever portrayed in a true and honest way… Very, very, very few video games will interact with the issue at all, much less in a serious way. I’m advocating for developers to take issues with their deserved seriousness. Not to appeal to radical feminists, or civil rights groups… but because we are human beings with a sense of decency. Because video games shouldn’t appeal to lowest common denominator in the way that they do. Because I believe that video games can be art and they can make an impact and they can have a deep, meaningful message.”

I stand by those statements, and find it unfortunate that we must continue to watch as CD digs themselves into a hole of dismissal and narrow-sightedness just to protect themselves from an audience that refuses to take sex and sexual assault as a serious issue, and as something that needs to be ignored in stories.