A reader forwarded us the email she received from Jacob Hawkins, Senior Vice President at Overstock.com after contacting the company about the video game. He wrote:

I appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We try, but not always succeed, in catching and removing items like this from our website. This was an unintentional error and we hope you will accept our sincere apologies. We promptly removed this product from our website and added it to our prohibited items list, and in future will more carefully police for similar auction products.

The game was not being sold directly from Overstock.com, but through the auctions section of the website. All auctions of the game have been removed from the site, as well as from eBay.

Amazon.com was never selling the game directly either. It was listed on Amazon Marketplace, the section of the website open to third-party sellers. Following complaints, Rapelay was removed from Amazon.com and a company spokeswoman said today, "we determined that we did not want to be selling this particular item," according to the .

Though that specific game was removed, Melissa McEwan writes on Shakesville that after clicking on one of the games suggested by Amazon.com when "Rapelay" yielded no results, she was asked "looking for rape products?" The link directed her to pages upon pages of books and movies of interest to rape enthusiasts, mixed in with books like The Rape Recovery Handbook.

McEwan searched for similar suggestions on other websites, but says:

Nowhere else [but on Amazon.com] was I offered up an opportunity to browse "rape products" clearly tailored to people who get off on rape. Nowhere else was I asked if I meant to search for "age," but nonetheless offered a link to browse "rape products." Nowhere else did I see "revenge" or "women" associated with rape.

Ed Note: If the comments here spiral out of control the same way they did on yesterday's post, we'll have to disable them. Please, people: Be respectful, and alert us to any trolls.

Rapelay Virtual Rape Game Banned By Amazon [The Telegraph]
Related: Looking For Rape Products? Try Amazon [Shakesville]

The rape simulation game involves players chasing a mother on the subway and violently raping her, and then tracking down and raping her two daughters described as virgin schoolgirls. The game includes even more horrific details according to online game reviews, such as the option get other men to join in the attacks, having to force the women to get abortions if they get pregnant, and what a review (NSFW) from Something Awful says are "tears that glisten and move in the little girl's eyes."

Following a report from the Belfast Telegraph that Amazon was selling the English version of the game, the company has removed it from the site. Amazon has not commented on the item or said why it was being sold through their website. The screen shot below from Google's cache shows the Amazon page for the game before it was taken down.

The game is produced by the Japanese company Illusion, which makes other 3D adult video games. According to the Illusion Wikipedia page, company policy says that, "games are not intended to be sold or used outside of Japan, and official support is only given in Japanese and for use in Japan." As if somehow the game being sold only in Japan makes it any less disgusting.

British MP Keith Vaz says he is planning to raise the issue in Parliament. "It is intolerable that anyone would purchase a game that simulates the criminal offence of rape," said Vaz. "To know that this widely available through a major online retailer is utterly shocking, I do not see how this can be allowed." Last year, when Vaz brought up rape simulation video games during a discussion on a bill about film ratings, he was criticized by other MPs who said such games didn't exist and gamers who commented online that he didn't know what he was talking about.

Though the game is no longer available on Amazon, the English version of the game is still being sold on here on eBay, here on Overstock.com, and on many other websites.

[Image via Game SMS]

Amazon Drops Rape Simulation Game [The Belfast Telegraph]
Rapelay Review [Something Awful] (NSFW)

The article suggests that the reason there aren't more female gamers is twofold: Men are uncommunicative jerks while playing video games, and women are intimidated by complex, violent games like Halo and operating a machine with so many confusing buttons. Specifically, the women on the panel explained that when guys are so immersed in a game that they throw the controllers, curse at the screen, and ignore company, women can feel put off, and, according to Xbox Live community manager and panel member Christa Phillips,"the game becomes the enemy, like sports." The panel's recommendation? Let women participate in the game by playing in two player mode. And if that's too "intimidating," women can always sit with their boyfriends and watch them play. "Ask her to help you spot snipers," said Phillips. "Chicks like flattery. If she feels like she’s helping, then you’re making it a positive experience." Ugh.

Another recommendation: men shouldn't impose their favorite video games on their girlfriends, since women may be turned off by all the violence and explosions. (One man in attendance at the panel mentioned that his girlfriend played Halo for five minutes and got dizzy.) The best way to make games appealing to women, they claim, is to play those recognizable characters like Harry Potter and Spiderman. Pink, apparently, doesn't hurt either: the article's author, Kristin Kalning, points out that "Heck, Carrie Underwood has a pink [Nintendo] DS, right? And the Wii made being a gamer as easy as operating a TV remote."

Still: Thirty-eight percent of American video game players are women. That number probably could be higher if the industry weren't so sexist. Maybe developers (and frustrated boyfriends) should check out WomenGamers.com to get a clue: The site reviews games of all genres, features articles from women who work in the gaming industry, and scholarships and resources for women pursuing careers in video game design. A note to ladies: The site doesn't have a girly, pink color scheme, so it may be a little, well, confusing at first, but if you can handle an intelligent female perspective on the gaming industry, it may make you want to pick up a controller and start blowing shit up.

How To Get Your Girlfriend Into Gaming [MSNBC]
Related: WomenGamers.com

Beyond fetishizing nuptials, the incorrect assumption that all women love weddings and the subservient role of wedding panning, this game is more annoying than fun. First of all, it plays Pachelbel's "Canon in D" incessantly, like you're in some endless bridal nightmare. Second of all, some of the shit you have to do makes no sense. The first challenge: "Find hidden items at Jenny's engagement party: Help Jenny get ready for the party by picking up items around the room." It's kind of like Where's Waldo or any other search game: There's a checklist and a bunch of illustrated crap lying around, and you have to check things off the list: Pepper! Jar of pennies! Doughnut! Fireworks! Wait, what? After that was a Concentration- type game requiring you to turn over cards and match presents to each other based on wrapping paper. Fun? No, not really. And certainly not a wedding planning skill. And apparently, it gets worse: Writes Saltzman:

Every few levels you will solve adventure game-like puzzles: in the bride's bathroom, for example, you'll click to open the shower curtain and see a magazine you need to read, but it's too wet. So you'll pick up the hair dryer and use it on the magazine. Now you can open the magazine and you turn to a page with a photo of a light fixture that matches one in the bathroom. When you click on the light, it's too hot to touch, so you must turn off the light (the switch is behind a hanging pink robe) and after removing the light fixture you see something hidden behind it, but your hands are too big — tweezers are needed to retrieve the note.

Gah! That's not a dream wedding, that's like a shitty Monday. It's insulting, frustrating and pointless — qualities I don't look for in a video game.

'Dream Day Wedding' Sequel Sticks To Winning Formula [USA Today]

Dream Day Wedding [Shockwave]