ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the case study that deals with virtual representations of rape. In 2009 news story for the Telegraph Online, Matthew Moore details the events banning a game involving simulated rape from Amazon Marketplace. There are two aspects of the gaming documentation that are of particular interest. First, online presence on gaming forums like GameFAQs and Neoseeker, which challenge our disciplinary expectations about where technical writing takes place today. Second, RapeLay provides a more contemporary and complex example for investigation by technical communicators. The chapter examines how ethics play out in the RapeLay guide and how noninstitutional examples constitute an excess of agency and authority, ethos, and ethics alike. It argues that many rhetors, both academic and public, can easily argue against the merits of technical communication toward the ends of simulated rape. Ethos and ethics have always been connected through technical writing. Textual production models are just one piece of the shift from institutional to community-based technical communication.
