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Christian game ruffles feathers
Author: Ryan GarsidePublished: 13th December 2006
The game actually looks like it's quite fun. I'd like to give it a try, save some damned souls.
Cnet is reporting that the game titled Left Behind: Eternal Forces , a Christian strategy game, is causing a bit of a stir. The game is based on a series of Christian books that are popular over the pond and is set in New York after millions of Christians get sent to heaven. Your role in the game is to recruit and convert and save those that God has left behind.
Cnet reports that one group, called ‘Campaign to Defend the Constitution’ is fundamentally against the game and what it stands for, Clark Stevens the co-director of the group said:
"After you kill somebody you need to recharge your soul points and to do that you need to bend down in prayer...I think the message is extremely clear."
The moral question here is: if it is justifiable to make a game in which somebody kills in the name of criminal activities (like GTA) and therefore not justifiable making a game that tasks players to kill those who will not convert. The developers of the game, who are themselves Christians, made this comment:
"The antichrist is the main bad guy and so you are dealing with his henchmen. Both sides are trying to win the hearts and the minds of people who are not on either side."
The problem here isn’t the killing as such, it’s the killing in the name of religion, which of course is firmly in the public’s conscience with all the suicide bombings and religious conflict going on in the world. Would WalMart be stocking a game if you played a young Muslim instead of a Christian? Probably not.
Either way reports suggest that the game is selling well and that WalMart has no intention of removing it from their shelves. The question rages, should games be allowed to display a religious message? Let us know your thoughts in the forum.
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Comments (47)Stats: 0.104 seconds
Or kill them, then convert them?
Which is a bit strange, surely everyone would believe in God if half the world had gone to heaven.
I'm going to look for this next time I go to Wally world, if for no other reason than to send Ryan a copy for review :p
EDIT: What he said /\ /\
Also, too bad you can't play as the spawn of Satan, would be a much more fun game. To quote Dark Helmet...
I know that the US is a Christian fundamentalist haven but wow.. I thought the whole point of this "religious" sh1te was to "bring people together in peace and harmony".
Instead, this game says, if you don't believe what we believe, then we kill you.
Hmm. Swap all the "Christian" iconography and references with Islamic ones and, well, what's the difference between the "Muslim" extremists and the "Christian" values being portrayed here?
Sad.. utterly sad that in this modern age people are still so tied to outdated, draconian belief systems. Why can't they follow something more believable like us Jedi??
...come on I'm christian and this game makes me sick. i love playing CoD and HL2 like any other gamer however the principals in this game are so conflicting and mocking to what it stands for i hope it does get banned. it portrays such a confusing and inaccurate image of what Christianity really is. should someone join up to your religion on fear of being killed by the believers, absolutely not. i would fane to say it however the Christ that these people believe in must be a different person than who i am following because last time i checked he was renown for being MERCIFUL. :?
Not even all dispensationalists agree with them. This is the same kinda thing that happens with 'extremist' Muslims, the 'regular' Muslims say 'that's only a small percentage of us, we don't condone violence'.
The two important factors as far as I can tell are.
A. Are the 'regular' believers saying that because it's absolutely true. Or are they pleased when violence happen and maybe secretly support them.
B. They may be a 'minority' but just how big is the minority. Hundreds, Thousands, Millions?
As a christian I am ashamed to see this game in production. I can only hope it flops tremendously and gets a lot of bad press.
The media doesn't help by whipping up **** and making it worse just to get a better sounding story. I say we gather up the media and these blind religious zealots, ship them to France and turn them into glass with a 60 megaton solution.
Link
So if you believe him then a lot of this is hype.
Regardless of that relegious games themselves are dangerous territory that can do nothing more than further spread hatred and misunderstanding as this title will do because unless you are a fanboy of that particular religion the only things you are likely to know about it are what you hear second hand.
As an atheist i find it all rather funny really!
I would give it a game, who cares about plot, if it is a good game it is a good game, chances are it will be poor anyway.
As for the game, I have to wonder. Any time a video game is blamed for causing a kid to shoot up a school, we all jump up and defend video games. Why is this case be any different? Will this game be the exception, causing kids everywhere to go out and kill non-Christians?
-monkey
You Tube Video
Yeah, there asking why are they playing this stupid game.
But you would let your son play this???
Thats what you think.
Ok. Im not sure what to say. Does that mean spiritual warfare is ok???? Role on more religious wars please.
What??? lol how stupid a comment is that.
Ok, so its ok to kill non believers of your religion eh??
Did you read this lol
lol are they worried about something.
I guess we're safe from the Christians then...
simply idiot.
its ok to sell in walmart games that kill people who doesnt believe in Jesus, but its EVIL to kill people who doesnt believe in Allah.
im a christian and an indonesian as well. and in indonesian language; Jesus = God = Allah = Tuhan = SAME F**KIN THING! oh, and 70+% indonesians are muslim.
note: not to be taken fully literally for all of u shallow people out there, but u get the idea...
its amazing how low christianity has fallen down... specially in America...... u guys just never experienced living in a country where most of the people around u are capable of killing and raping and torturing u in the name of Allah....
OH, ok. So in real life, an analogy would be firing a cruise missile at a location. Since someone is only pushing the botton to activate the device that kills someone, it's ok. Strategy game or not, the gameplay is the same. Whether you control one player killing other characters or a whole slew of ones who automatically kill characters at your command, the basis of it is the same.
So in essence, it puts you in God's shoes too, a little blasphemous.
You guys are so ill-informed and brainwashed by the media. I'm resisting the urge to debate religion online, which is always pointless. So, I'll stick to the game. You haven't played it. Secondly, even if you had, you would have to understand a fair bit of eschatology and Christian doctrine in order to properly understand the context of what you are doing in the game and why. Your best course instead of making fun of something you don't understand would be to inform yourself on the subject. Read the bible, read left behind, maybe try leftbehind.com and its forums (if they're still there, havent visited in a while).
As for killing in the game: The premise is, after the rapture, the disappearance of all the Christians, the antichrist takes control of the world. He begins to persecute and kill anyone who refuses to worship him, even athiests who refuse to worship him as god. As a new Christian, you are trying to warn and convert all those who have not chosen a side yet. There are only two sides: Christians following God, and those worshiping antichrist. Antichrist will not allow indecision, so there is no such thing as agnostic or athiest, worship him as god or die. So as for the killing in the game, it is kill or be killed. You kill only to defend your own life or fellow believers lives, or even undecided agnostics lives that you hope to convert. Killing is a last resort as self defense against the murderous antichrist and his enforcers.
However is it a fun game? Dont know yet but I plan to pick it up soon. And I will play it in between sessions of fear and gta. Blood and killing and criminal activity doesn't scare me: I'm an adult and can play games that I don't "believe in", without having any moral or sociopolitical freakout. Its just a game people. I you dont want it, then dont buy it, dont play it. As for me, I'm open minded and will try just about anything once, even at the risk of it being a crappy game, though I hope it will be an interesting change of pace at the least.
Remember, if its done in the name of your particular diety its ok.
Nuff said, this spreads the wrong idea.
<A88>
Still quite how they come up with the destinction of good and evil isn't clear. Both sides' goal is to convert people to their belief. Who's to say which belief is correct? I'm pretty sure that if you were to pick up the game as a completely naive or ignorant kid, it wouldn't actually explain anything about the moral questions that the game supposedly makes you ask.
But, but but... following the way of sensationalist media intentions is so much more fun than rational thought!!
Ahhh! A88's gonna kill us! RUUUUNNNN! Roflol. :P
Personally, I fail to see how to see how this game will be a success, quite pointless making it.
Do you have any ide how successful the books have been? Almost as popular as Harry Potter. There will (unfortunatly) be a huge market for this game, no matter how bad it is. The only silver lining I see is that perhaps some of the people who buy this game will decide they like gaming and stay on as gamers.
Simply Buy it or download it thru *cough* legitamet sources if its a good game the subject matter shouldnt really matter unless your using it for educional reasons (in schools. parents are free to feck with their kids minds as much as they want sadly) or to dictate some kind of politacal structure.
When all is said and done its just a game play it or dont just dont get all upset cause it pro christian
BTW im 100% atheist just dont care if people beleive in a flying spaghetti monster or a retarded fish frog had sex with a monkey
By definition, somthing you have faith in cannot be proven. If you could prove it, you wouldn't need to have faith in it. To go back to a conversation we were recently having over in SD, there are things the can be tested and proven, these are the realm of science. Everything else which cannot be tested or proven is the realm of faith. Note the use of the term faith here, as opposed to religion. We may not all have religion, but we all have faith.
The issue here is not so much the content of the game, which as several people have pointed out is appearently tamer than most FPS titles, but rather the appearent hypocrisy of some of the groups on the religious right who want to ban violent video games, unless of course they glorify their own ideals.
Shhhhh... nobody mention the Crusades
Christianity (i.e., religion) and video games are purely ficticious and not real -- only created by people for commerical gain.
And if it makes people rich (i.e., the church(es), game developers) then hey - good on em! Just wish I could make up something that believable to market and cash in on! :D
you know they should just make one big CnC mod wit this
instead of the muslim extremists and christian extremists going hammer and tongs, we should just give them all computers and let them duke it out in one large online RTS.
they can get the satisfaction of blowing up the enemy and at the same time get the satisfaction of being able to go home at the end of the day.
of course it probably wouldnt work....there'd be crys of foul play and they, being pretty much detached from reality, will seek to blow each other up in real life anyway
As for the game or a bunch of hypocritic yaywhos, I couldn't care less. Just some more christian propaganda packaged differently. Pfft, fire and brimstone, door to door church advertisement, intelligent design, disgustingly bloody movies, now PC games... what'll those zany christians come up with next?
What, like Scientology? Now that's how to make some serious cash out of thin air.
"ALL HAIL XENU" etc... Oh no wait, wasn't Xenu the ruler of the Galactic Confederacy... and that makes him the "bad guy" right? Tom if you're on Bit-Tech today could you drop us a mail and confirm this please?
Personally, I think the game looks entertaining.
As a Christian I think this game sounds like a rather misguided attempt by some marketing "genius" (who neither understands nor respects Christianity) to cash in on a popular series of books.
(I saw the first movie of the series but have no further interest in the books etc.)