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Christian Game Developers Conference Plans Gathering
Thanks to GamerFeed for its story noting the Christian Game Developers Conference has announced its third annual gathering, to be held in Portland, Oregon on July 30th-31st. The official CGDC site has more information on the expo, which "officially expands to include card, board and paper game developers alongside interactive electronic entertainment." There's also word from conference organizer Tim Emmerich of GraceWorks Interactive: "We... plan to examine the variety of games currently on the market and successes in other media such as 'The Passion of The Christ' and the 'Left Behind' series, which proved that Bible-based products can do well in the market if they are well made."
That was absolutely the best ever game to license the Wolfenstein engine. Fire apples at sheep to make them so hungry they sleep. Peace on the ark, but I'm not sure what this taught me about Jesus.
They should base them on the AD&D system. Or maybe Magic: The Gathering.
..."The Simpsons."
What was the game the Flanders' kids had? "Billy Graham's Bible Blasters" or something?
We... plan to examine the variety of games currently on the market and successes in other media such as 'The Passion of The Christ' and the 'Left Behind' series, which proved that Bible-based products can do well in the market if they are well made.
Well-made? Do Christians use different standards of judging craft than non-Christians? Asked another way, have you ever tried to read any of the Tim Lahaye books? If you seriously consider any of the books in the 'Left Behind' series to be well-made, that I can't wait to see some of the games that come out of this conference.
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
I haven't seen "The Passion of the Christ" nor do I intend to ... but to see the "Left Behind" series mentioned in a sentence stating that Bible-based products do well in the market "if they are well-made" ... GIVE ME A BREAK!
The "Left Behind" series of alleged Christian sci-fi books" is, not to put too fine a point on it, hackneyed crap. The fact that they do well in the market is more a result of tightly targeting them on the large evangelical Christian demographic group than the quality of the writing.
utter rubbish
Commodotising ideas into consumer products for the mass market does just that: initiates them into the mass. The mass purely consumes. This won't help the actual influence of any ideas they're trying to put forth, it will have a negative effect if any. It's as quicksand.
Of course, they probably do know this, and it's just an attempt to get money for something or someone(s), somwhere. One must admit, that wouldn't be out of line with the actions of "religious" groups in the past.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
Why Christians games?
Quite simply the more games mature the more "adult" they become.
They same has happened with books, movies, and music.
Christian music is not what it is today because it has Christian lyrics, it was started as a clean alternative to the music of the day.
If mainstream music stayed "clean", Christian music would never have become so popular it may never have even been a seperate category.
The same will happen will books, movies, and computer games over time.
Computer games have slowly "matured" where it is not uncommon to have swearing, adult topics, etc, etc.
Christians don't desire to have "Christians" games(or any other type of media) so much as games that don't go against their moral beliefs.
Sorry for the disjointed post.
WRONG. It proves that good story based products , good music, and good film will do well regardless of whether they're Bible based or not. Good art / good media is NOT PREACHY.
"Christian Rock"
"Christian Books"
"Christian Film"
and now "Christian Games". These usually turn out awful because
A:They're more concerned with evangelizing the audience than with telling a good story or being entertaining. And
B:The people making them are Christians first and producers of art/media/content second. It usually comes out like it was produced in a church basement by people with left over bake-sale cookies and a very inflated sense of relevance.
Sure they'll tell you that "OF COURSE we're Christians first above all else." But we all have rolls to play in life. You don't see any Christian Football Players. No, you see Football players who happen to be Christian.
If you want to build "Christian Games" then first concentrate on the game, the message comes second (or forget it). If you build Christian morality into something like for instance the Sims (community, teamwork, tolerance, sharing, caring generosity, etc.) then you'll have a great Christian game that's for everyone and teaches Christian values to the masses. So much better than a preachy Christian game for Christians that re-cements their already well indoctrinated beliefs.
Feel free to replace "games" with "music", "books", etc. above.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Suggestions for Titles:
The Adventures of Young God
Moses vs Hoover Dam
The Great Whale Escape
Sodom and Gommorah Sims
Santa vs The Israelites
Jesus Chainsaw Massacre (aka WWJD Smackdown)
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
"Hey, Jee, what's wrong?" asks Moses, concerned.
"Well you see, it's just been so long since I 'did my thang' that I'm starting to wonder if I've still got what it takes to maintain my reputation as the Son of God."
Moses looks sympathetic. "Well, you know, Jee, there's only one way to solve this. Let's go find out!"
So Jesus and Moses cruise down to Earth, landing in the vicinity of the Red Sea.
Moses says, "Okay man, I'm older than you, I'll go first." So he bows his head for a moment, looks up, then suddenly spreads his arms. The Red Sea parts, and Moses holds it for a moment before letting it settle.
"Yeah, baby! Thousands of years, and I still got it! w00t!"
Jesus, looking encouraged, stands up and begins to walk on the surface of the water. He gets about ten yards out and sinks like a rock.
Well, Jesus doggy-paddles his way back to shore (not ever having a reason to learn to swim, y'understand), and he's spitting out saltwater, puilling seaweed out of his hair, and he says, "Wait, I'm only two thousand years old! What's going on here? What happened?"
And Moses answers, "My friend, I was afraid of this. The last time you tried that, you didn't have those two holes in the bottom of your feet!"
Does it require a leap of faith to believe that there is no flying purple people eater? Or the Tooth Fairy?
No, common sense and the sum real-life experiences of the entire world will tell you that neither exist. Same with "god", sorry to tell you.
This 'atheism is a faith too!' argument has cropped up lately as a pathetic meanns for christians to counter atheism. Doesn't work.
Although extreme Bible-thumping explicitly Christian games thus far have been rare and poorly-executed, there's no shortage of mainstream games with religious over/undertones, symbolism, or commentary. Deus Ex, Xenogears, and Alpha Centauri come to mind. Can someone name more?
Um... Doom?
There's an old article I remember reading by a gentleman named John Fischer which talked about his efforts as a child to begin a Christian painting company. Things went very well until they knocked on the door of a lady who asked a very pertinent question: "Can you paint?"
Quite frankly, the problem with most Christian software is that it's not fun or well made. The problem with most Christian novels is that they're poorly written, and (dare I say...) the problem with most Christian music is that it's just not good music. (I say this having encountered and continuing to encounter a great deal of the material in question...)
Art and entertainment with an idealogical basis behind them (or theological) sets itself up for one of two fates. Either it accomplishes its attempts to communicate the transcendant and becomes truly great, or, more often, it fails miserably. Very rarely does it seem to be "just art" or "just entertainment." The art gains the hearing for the message, but only provided the art is of sufficient quality.
If Christians wish to use games/music/books/software/whatever as a means to share their faith, the first step in doing so *must* be to be one of the very best designer/artist/author/programmers out there. Simply being a "Christian programmer" is not enough. One must be a very good programmer who is also a Christian.
I don't think most Christian stuff can hold a candle to the non-Christian stuff. It might be because all Christian games applarently must be a sermon in disguise. It could also be that they usually have exponentially lower budgets (I remember a Christian film bragging about its budget of "nearly one million dollars"). Other people have also discussed there reasoning, and I agree with it, to the most part.
Ever noticed how everybody talks about how great, say, "Left Behind" is? It's really not that great of a book - compare it to other popular (not-Christian) books out there, and, well, it's pretty...meh. But it's supposedly the best Christian book ever (well, besides the Bible ^_^). I think that it's not because all Christians are awful writers, but there just in a smaller pond - rarely is Christian stuff compared to non-Christian stuff, and Christian stuff is usually lower quality. I guess what I'm getting at is, well, being the best author ever on your block isn't saying as much as the best in the country.
And I think this "Christian games" thing is blown out of proportion - in all my life, I've seen around 10 Christian games, never at "big" stores, just at Christian bookstores and the like. But its supposed to be the next "Christian music" - which has hundreds of singers and stuff, and can be found at my local Wal-mart. It could very well be because lots of Christians (NOT ALL - don't take me the wrong way) usually take a bit longer to "warm up" to new stuff, in my opinion (and in a LOT of personal experience).
I'm not expecting Christian games to be anything big anytime soon. I mean, I've still seen Wisdom Tree's NES games for sale. And if and when Christian games are anything more than ripoffs of other game and Disney-style "activity centers", I doubt they will be as good, simply because there's fewer people interested in making them and buying them.
Just my two cents.
What? There is no Flying Purple People Eater? My existence is meaningless.
I think a big problem is that methodists and catholics and lutherans all have different variations on the belief, and the you get a bunch of christian programmers, but they all have differeng beliefs, and we end up with the dreck that the market puts forth under the Lord's name! we should pick one denomination to make the games.. the one that has the most faith, I'd say. so I propose that all the other christian denominations leave the christian video game scene to one specific denomination who will do it the most justice and make the best christian electronic entertainment of all: the Amish.
How can you prove that there is no God? The Tooth Fairy can be proved to not exist, ask any parent and they will tell you that it is them, not the tooth fairy who places money under a pillow. I disproved Santa Clause as a child when I caught my parents in the act of placing preasants under the tree. However, I have not yet seen one good proof that there is no God. In fact, observation of the world and universe around me lead me to believe that there must be some higher being who brought all this into existence. If not, it's an awefully big coincidence, and leads to the conclusion that all of life is a big accident, and my existance is purely meaningless. This is a very depressing thought. Thus, I chose to believe that there is a God, not for a rational reason that can be proved, but because I chose to. BTW, faith is by definition believing something which cannot be proved. Since God operates outside of our existance, and therefore cannot be proved or disproved, belief in his existance or non-existance must be an act of faith. Pure logic cannot dictate the existance or non-existance of a supernatural being. Only personal belief and experiences.
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Boy, I sure hope this year's is better. I had a big booth for my game, "Win the Wicked," (selling for $49.99) and last year some weird Jewish guy with a whip came through the hall yelling and overturning tables everywhere. Something about his father's temple. WTF? Guy was on speed or something. Probably cost the developers at the conference a thousands of dollars each. The damage he caused to my equipment was why I had to push back the game a few months. Who did he think he was anyway, stopping me from selling my Christian games? This is America, a Christian country!
I hear they got an injunction against him this year though. For all the trouble he caused me, he could be rotting in a grave for all I care.
This just reminds me of a NES game a friend of mine picked up at a garage sale for a nickle a couple of years ago called "Exodus: Journey to the promised land"
Essentially, the player played as moses leading the jews out of egypt as in Exodus, but what was really funny is that you walked around as this moses character and shot and killed the egyptians with the "word of god" wich was just this W that you shot out.
The game itself was actually quite terrible, but it was so bad that we all have a good laugh popping it in every once in a while.
Of course i'm suprised that they are going to think about having anything to do with pen and paper games, which is so closely related to D&D, because as everyone knows "Dungeons and Dragons, Satans game..." (if you don't know what i'm talking about check out Dungeons and Dragons, an 8 bit re-enactment)
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
In the name of Jesus and with the blessing of the Pope, invade countries that are your technical, scientific, and cultural superiors, slaughter the inhabitants, and on the way there, get rid a few of the Church's main Christian rivals.
The other one that looks good is Witch Hunt:
In the name of Jesus and with the blessing of the Pope, go whole hog on S/M: Randomly pick women to torture, rape, and murder (not necessarily in that order). Women who have helped liberate France from foreign invaders get extra points!
I've heard there is a newer version of that called Stone the Homosexual, but then I'm probably going to get modded down enough as it is.
Seriously, people, where does this idea come from that Christian games will be any more tolerant, life-loving, or enlightening than the past 2,000 years of Christian history have been?
The text on the page was, needless to say, completely illegible.
Was it? Or maybe, the problem was that your faith was not strong enough...
Is there an invisible, bloodthirsty unicorn hiding behind you right now, waiting to pounce?
Why, yes. Yes, there is. But he likes me. He really likes me. He didn't like my roommate. No, he didn't. He didn't like the police officer, either. Oh, no. He didn't like them at all.
Strangely enough, the other police officers didn't believe in invisible unicorns either. But they never could prove he didn't exist. They never could prove...anything.
would be kinda cool.
Anything based on The Matrix.
The thing I see about making videogames based on Christianity is that interactivity is a problem. How are you going to make - for example - an RPG based on the story of Moses? If there's only one way to complete the game, then anybody who's read Exodus will get it instantly... if there are multiple solutions, you're questioning Scripture. Suppose you took control of an army during a well-known battle like Gideon's... what happens if you lose? CAN you lose? SHOULD you be able to lose if God is on your side? And you can't let the player do anything sinful. That's a VAST restriction on what you can do in the game.
qntm.org
Kinda bothers me how many people are on here being total Trolls. Me? I'm no fan of the right, of fanatical believes, etc. But I am a fan of being open minded, and being open to let others enjoy their beliefs without ridicule, as long as those beliefs allow for others.
I guaruntee you that for every pompous putdown and ridicule based rant here you'll find another in some "religeous right" forum that you'd gleefully quote as to say, "See what jerks these guys are?". So who's the "deluded fool" then I gotta wonder? Who's more closed minded?
I've never understood why people think that no creator means life is meaningless, so maybe you can explain it further. It seems to me that atheists, who (generally) believe that this is the only life we get, would see this life as more significant than would christians, who think that it's just the blink of an eye compared to the eternal life that follows.
However, for an athiest, it would seem that there is no purpose in life. A person could do whatever they wanted to do to make themself feel good. It means that morals are pointless except as a means of maintaining order within society. However, order within society may not be something which everyone wants. What's wrong with someone like the Unabomber trying to tear down society? I think that the natural conclusion of athieism leads to an anarchist mindset, wherin individuals strive to break apart existing social and economic structures to rise up themselves and take a position of power while everyone else flounders in the wake of the disaster. Similar to the mentality of Anarchy99 from the movie XXX. There is no one to say that this sort of mentality is "bad" without some absolute external standard of good and evil.
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