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Christian Videogame Alternatives Explored
Thanks to the TNL forum regulars for pointing to a CBN article discussing the most suitable videogames for Christians (Google cache). The article discusses the "extreme violence, gratuitous sex, and satanic imagery found in many children's video games", and focuses instead on Christian-orientated games such as Ominous Horizons, where "the player takes on the role of a 15th-century Christian who fights demons, but without any blood or gore. The forces of evil - instead of dying - fall to their knees and pray." This N-Lightning-developed game has the player working as a medieval Paladin to return the Gutenberg Bible, which has been stolen by forces of evil, and the developer explains: "..you have a sword of the Spirit.. [that] shoots a burst of light which vaporizes any demonic opponents and the end result is that you know Christ is victorious."
...have a "god mode" cheat.
Isn't that enough advocacy for them?
"This time, the entire forces of the netherworld have overrun Earth. To save her, you must descend into the stygian depths of Hell itself! Battle mightier, nastier, deadlier demons and monsters. Use more powerful weapons."
"Choose from eight powerful spiritual weapons. Each weapon has its own unique use. Maximize your firepower by learning each weaponâ(TM)s abilities...Encounter Satanâ(TM)s minions and banish them back to their evil realm. Evil lurks everywhere you turn....Descend deeper and deeper into the depths of the underworld. Your journey will take you into the very heart of evil, through 18 hand-crafted, highly detailed levels."
One of these is a blurb for Catechumen (one of N'Lightnings games). The other is part of the blurb for Doom II. Frankly there doesn't seem all that much different here, except for the marketing.
Well, at least its better to see people doing something creative, rather than campaigning to get games banned.
-Baz
Man, if I were a Christian, I'd feel really bad if I lost one of these games. Would God, among others, look down upon me if I lost?
Child: "Shoot, I lost..."
Mother: "That's too bad sweetheart, were you lacking in faith again?"
Child: "No mom! I didn't mean to lose..."
Mother: "Don't play the game unless you can win."
Child: "But..."
Mother: "When you fail in the game, you fail Jesus."
Not to mention, wouldn't some of these games be contradictory to the "Jesus, God, and faith can't loose" attitude that Christianity has?
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
What the newsposter describes as 'christian', is actually 'radically conservative christian', but that seems another US-ism... (how should you describe it otherwise?) In Europe - I live in the Netherlands - blood and gore in videogames is much less an issue. Of course bishops don't really like it and Rome will always be conservative, but at least the churches I know don't push their own 'christian-only' separated media.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
Games can entertain or they can attempt to teach you life lessons, but I can't see them being used for both without one or the other hurting. Let the kids play video games that are actually fun, and let parents teach values on their own time.
...for `Christian' videogames. Or `Christian' movies.
I am speaking a Christian-- specifically, an evangelical, relatively conservative Christian.
A faith that cannot deal with death, violence, evil and malice is impratical-- our world is fallen. A faith that does not endeavour to accept sinners is arrogant. And a faith that is impractical and arrogant is not faith-- it is a crutch, a psychological dependence on superiority; it is not transforming, not understanding, not gentle, not strong, not uplifting-- it is not meaningful.
Is there evil in a videogame? Well, then, it is a reflection of our world. Surely there will be truth in the game as well! It is of paramount import that one knows how to recognise and dwell on good, and reject evil. Adults should know how to do this; children should be taught.
It's not about teaching people what to do, or how to act. It's about the meaning of their acts, and of the acts that they witness; though the topic of the day is religion, this is true of most things. In short: adults, behave responsibly; children, learn how to.
(You know, we could do away with a lot of legislation if people just behaved decently (or made the effort to).)
Last time I checked, Christians didn't have any problem reading a book full of violence and gore, so why should videogames be any different?
Who modded this insightful? This is such an old and tired argument by the same ignorant people, over and over again. Violence is not the real issue here.. it's gratuitous and extreme violence that is rewarded and has no consequences.
Violence is part of our world. People are violent every day. From the guys thinking ugly thoughts about a co-worker, to the guy yelling at a driver in traffic, to drive-bys in our inner-cities.
The difference between the violence in the Bible and the extreme violence you see in *some* of today's video games, is that in the former, it's painfully (no pun intended) obvious that the violence is wrong and there are concequences, often very serious.
The Bible doesn't give you all these examples of perfect people who live the life of the Simpson neighbor every day. These people were human. They did wrong things,they did violent things, but in the end they always came back to God and he forgave them for their hatred against other humans. Saul (who wrote much of the New Testiment) tortured and murdered many early Christians before he came to know Christ and became one of the greatest evangelists of all time. David was called a friend of God in the Bible. He murdered a man only for his wife.
What's my point here? Violence for the sake of violence (Duke Nukem Whenever) with no concequences is the real problem here, not Gordon Freeman saving the world from an alien invasion (or hopefully City 17 soon).
What happens is that a relative few start complaining about trash games like Duke Nukem Whenever and somehow that translates into every video game is bad.
And you, Mr Anonymous coward, are part of the problem of ignorance here. Go read the Bible, not only might it do you some good, but might be able to argue about it's contents in a intelligent fashion.
Phase 2 happens a few centuries later. You go into villages hunting for witches, and you get to burn all the women at the stake. Don't leave any alive, as they could easily be witches. You also get to go into the Jewish ghettos with false stories like the blood libel, destroy synagogues, kill Rabbis, and burninate! All so a nobleman who has squandered his fortune doesn't have to pay back a money lender. You have to be sure to burn his records, or the debt reverts to the king.
There are bonus stages along the way where you get to burn books!
In stage 3, You are in America, you go door to door telling people how they are going to burn in hell if they don't join your church. You even get to deny medical care to children, because God will heal them. In the final stage, You get to help put George W. Bush in the White House, so he can start the Battle of Armageddon. If you do everything right, you are included in the rapture, and you get to fly up into the sky and meet Jesus!
How ya like dat?
Don't forget the bonus round where you hunt "abortion doctors" with a sniper rifle.