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Looking For God In Videogames

Posted by simoniker on from the god-preoccupied-with-junior-kickstart dept.

Thanks to MSNBC.com for their article discussing the use of religion in videogames, both overtly Christian titles and those just addressing the subject indirectly. As the article comments, "Before 'god mode' or 'god games' there were 'God games' -- low budget, PC floppy disks that married evangelical Christian thought and scripture with simple game play. The boundaries between the holy and the secular were simpler then... Today, the lines have grown fuzzier." The piece also points to religious overtones in MMORPGs: "In EverQuest, the massive online multiplayer game, new players are asked to pick from among the religions native to the land of Norrath. One of Norrath's deities, 'The Nameless' has triggered talk on discussion boards over whether 'Nameless' could be understood as the Jewish Yahweh. Some [Christian] evangelists have even used EverQuest to proselytize to fellow players."

3 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Catechumen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Ive played Catechumen, and would like to report that it was the most horrible game of all time. Who wants to get a giant sword, only to zap people with it? I got stuck in one of the levels because i was surrounded by people newly 'converted'. Where's the fun in that.

  2. Buddhist concepts by The+Munger · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's a discussion going on flipCode about Buddhist Concepts in games.

    --
    Refuse to make a statement in your sig!
  3. Re:Why the word"YAHWAH" is not what you mean by superyooser · · Score: 4, Informative
    "G-d" is a perfectly good word. That is not a good translitteration of the four letter name of G-d into english

    [Zachary, I'm talking mainly to my fellow Gentiles. I know you know all of this. I hope you're not too offended at all my uses of the Almighty's name. My only intention here is to promote interest in and knowledge of the Father among the goyim.]

    The name of God, which is not the same thing as "God," appears in the original Scripture as the Hebrew letters: yud heh vav heh. These are all consonants, as the Hebrew alphabet does not have vowels. The vowels are implied. As Zachary alluded to, nobody remembers what the vowels are supposed to be.

    Therefore, transliteration is really not the best way to derive a pronounceable word for God's name. If you insist, Yahveh, not Yahweh, would be the best guess. Word substitution has been much more popular throughout the ages. Christians use "the LORD," while Jews use Adonai ("to be" in Hebrew, I think) or HaShem ("the Name"). I'm surprised Zachary didn't suggest Adonai since it's used in both Jewish and Christian circles.

    As I touched on before... The word "God" does not linguistically derive from YHVH (Yahweh/Jehovah/Lord/Adonai/HaShem), but from Elohim (pronounced Elo-HEEM). But yes, semantically, we can say that Yahweh = God, since Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad -- the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.