Red Dead Redemption 2: calls to ban violence against women in games are too simplistic | Van Badham

How violence is punished or rewarded is part of the challenge of playing, and always has been

Ten minutes into the game's snow-whipped, western world of weary cowboys, disintegrating crime gangs and staggering audiovisual design, Red Dead Redemption 2 had me in its thrall.

Rockstar's latest blockbuster game is so captivating, and its powers of visual, narrative and interactive stimulation so habit-forming, that criticism of the potential the game allows for violence against women - an allowance being taken advantage of with glee by some users - has registered with sharpness proportional to its own extraordinary detail.