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I, for one, welcome our Left Behind - The Video Game Bible-thumping, pagan-murdering, headshot-to-the-unbeliever, g0dpwning 0verloads... er 0ver Lords!

Praise the Laird and pass the fragmentation grenades, yeehaw!

You're whining that a game called "Area 51" is using a standard X-Files plot device because it is too "polemic"?

Have you ever read a book? Do ideas threaten you? Even cartoonish strawmen repudiations of your beliefs?

Maybe you should stick to Left Behind: Eternal Forces. There is a rebellious subtext to most video games that will make you uncomfortable.

In Left Behind: Eternal Forces, the players' objective is to find 'tribulation clues', which include Bible mysteries, codes and fascinating and eternally relevant information. In the initial missions, there is little emphasis on physical warfare and gamers are introduced to powers of influence which result in a battle for the hearts and minds of people. As missions progress, there are no 'objectives' to cause war physically. However, physical warfare results when the player is required to defend against the physical forces of evil; led by the Global Community Peacekeepers.

Left Behind is not the Bible, it is a fictional story and accordingly, situations resulting from the stories' post-apocalyptic time-frame are used to encourage gamers to think about matters of eternal significance, a topic largely ignored by modern games.

The attributes you ascribe to progressive Christians characterize all true Christians obedient to the Bible.

The actual progressive groups cited in this article list their values here: http://www.christianalliance.org/site/c.bnKIIQNtEo G/b.593939/k.A10D/Values_Statement.htm#least_of_th ese and here: http://www.christianalliance.org/site/c.bnKIIQNtEo G/b.593939/k.A10D/Values_Statement.htm#least_of_th ese

In fact, stated from a conservative Christian perspective, they support the establishment of atheism as a nationally-supported religion, the slaughter of innocent children, the establishment of judges that ignore the constitution, soul-less medical research, and the complete acceptance of harmful family relationships.

I personally don't like this game. However, others might want to make up their own minds after reading the company's response to the controversy: http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/controversy.h tm

They are quite serious. I went to their web site and grabbed a list of the games features.

Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!

• Lead the Tribulation Force from the book series , including Rayford, Chloe, Buck and Bruce against Nicolae Carpathia - the AntiChrist.
• Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.
• Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices.
• Command your forces through intense battles across a breathtaking, authentic depiction of New York City .
• Control more than 30 units types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks!
• Enjoy a robust single player experience across dozens of New York City maps in Story Mode - fighting in China Town , SoHo , Uptown and more!
• Play multiplayer games as Tribulation Force or the AntiChrist's Global Community Peacekeepers with up to eight players via LAN or over the internet!

Damn, I heard they had a pretty good two-for-one offer, Left Behind: Eternal Forces and Nigger Hunt for $29.95.

I was really hoping that the game would be like GTA, where you have to say grace before stealing a car or something, but here's the screen shots for it:

http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/the_games.htm

It kinda looks like a updated version of Syndicate Wars, I wonder if converting people works like the persuasion gun in SW.

That's not entirely true. The industry has lobbied the crap out of a number of Republicans. Jeb Bush is in a video game. George Allen and Rick Santorum have partnered with the ESRB to promote education instead of legislation. The conservative Progress and Freedom Foundation is against the censorship of games and have testified before Congress in support of the industry. Even Dubya, in all his theocratic zealotry, has said that government shouldn't be involved in what parents let their kids play (can't find the source there). And then of course there's the fact the fundamentalists are making their own violent games now. There's plenty more examples where these came from.

Now, this isn't to say they're all on "our side" (or that anyone should myopically vote for them on this one issue), but statistically speaking, this issue belongs to the Democrats. Nearly every piece of anti-game legislation in the last two years at the state level has been penned by Democrats; and Clinton, Lieberman, and (to a lesser degree) Bayh are leading the charge at the Federal level. For what it's worth, this is actually one area where most Republicans are still true to their claimed desire for less government. 'Tis probably too little, too late, but, err, yea.

link to their site

The new one you get 2 points for saving someone's soul but lose 1 point for killing someone.

so after you build up points you can go on a murder spree and then go back to saving people as you can easily be forgiven for your murder sprees :-)

It's pretty sick and teaches worse things to kids than any video game rock star came out with.

Dammit, I got punk'd. But still, the real picture isn't much different from a violence standpoint. I was trying to avoid giving the game any links, but if anyone wants to see official screenshots and a trailer the url is http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/the_games.htm

This is such classic "Think of the Children" fever hysteria. And there is a simple solution. Some enterprising game hacker needs to release a mod for the Left Behind Trivia Game that causes it to display explicit hardcore porn photos.

Either the crazy censors will go much too far and try to ban all video games, or maybe just maybe they will realize that THERE IS NO WAY FOR A COMPANY TO CONTROL WHAT OTHER PEOPLE DO TO/WITH THEIR PRODUCTS.