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1UP COVER STORY
1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 18 | GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND VIDEO GAMES
OP-ED: Heroes and Heroines, Apples and Oranges
Cover Story: The recent Tomb Raider controversy highlights the inequality of the medium.
T
omb Raider executive producer Ron Rosenberg unleashed a tide of Internet debate in the wake of E3 when he referred to the game’s public demo as an attempted rape scene in a Kotaku interview about Crystal Dynamics’ efforts to build sympatico with heroine Lara Croft.
“And then what happens is her best friend gets kidnapped, she gets taken prisoner by scavengers on the island,” he told the blog. “They try to rape her, and — She’s literally turned into a cornered animal. And that’s a huge step in her evolution — she’s either forced to fight back or die, and that’s what we’re showing today.”
