The greatest story never played

[CheapyD]

The greatest story never played

Why don't religion and video games mix? The industry's top developers ponder the question.
July 6, 2005: 11:26 AM EDT
Game Over is a weekly column by Chris Morris (chris.morris@turner.com)

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - There aren't a lot of taboos in the video game industry. The Vietnam War, drug running and brutal homicides have all featured prominently in past and upcoming releases.

But mention religion to most publishers and they'll break land speed records as they dash in the opposite direction.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/06/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm

[Dr Mario Kart]

plenty of RPGs have religion in them. Just not in the way that they are thinking. Think Xenogears.

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/4931/soylent7ia.gif

[Scrubking]

Why don't religion and video games mix?

Cause if a Muslim game was made the people would cry about how the game is offensive and demeaning to the religion and the muslim community

And

If more Christian games were made people would cry about how the bible thumpers keep trying to push God into every part of American society

[The Successful Dropout]

wait, you mean Mister Mosquito wasn't about blood-sucking religious bastards?

[evilmax17]

http://www.tomheroes.com/images/NES%20Bible%20Adventures.jpg

[crickett003]

http://www.tomheroes.com/images/NES%20Bible%20Adventures.jpg

On all these religious NES games, you obviously never see the NINTENDO SEAL OF QUALITY. By looking at the bad-ass gold shield in the bottom corner of the game, it must have GOD'S SEAL OF QUALITY. :lol:

[Brak]

Wisdom Tree. For Him The Ride.

[greydemise]

http://www.guidinglightvideo.com/shop/games6.html


hmm....sunday funday has a review on somethingawful.com , under rom pit..and it was pretty funny, check that out when u guys have a chance

[Sailorneorune]

There was a local movie store that had all the Color Dreams & Wisdom Tree games; it went out of business shortly after I graduated from high school... man I should have raided the place when they sold their games.

The dirty rat who pilfered my cheap ass Phantasy Star 4 got Chrono Trigger there for TWELVE BUCKS.

Back on topic: those games were weird. And there's supposedly a game based on the Left Behind series coming out... heard it on 1up; no idea if it's true.

[jaykrue]

There was a local movie store that had all the Color Dreams & Wisdom Tree games; it went out of business shortly after I graduated from high school... man I should have raided the place when they sold their games.

The dirty rat who pilfered my cheap ass Phantasy Star 4 got Chrono Trigger there for TWELVE BUCKS.

Back on topic: those games were weird. And there's supposedly a game based on the Left Behind series coming out... heard it on 1up; no idea if it's true.

Yeah, there's a game based on Left Behind. It's in the article Cheapy posted.;)

I think that the last suggestion made in the article probably would make the most sense. A faith-based MMO game (be it RPG or otherwise) would be the best route to take. Considering how big the Catholic population is in the US, I'm surprised someone hasn't done this already.

[Quackzilla]

Because it just wouldn't be very exciting to play a Jesus game where you heal people.

There needs to be a story with a conflict and conclusion.

Cause if a Muslim game was made the people would cry about how the game is offensive and demeaning to the religion and the muslim community

And

If more Christian games were made people would cry about how the bible thumpers keep trying to push God into every part of American society
Keep that shit in the politics forum.
Don't cry persecution in a bloody game forum.

[Derwood43]

Because it just wouldn't be very exciting to play a Jesus game where you heal people.

There needs to be a story with a conflict and conclusion.


Keep that shit in the politics forum.
Don't cry persecution in a bloody game forum.

Don't worry about Quackzilla, he's just being a cock.


EDIT: Oh yeah...:D

[TurkeyOnRye]

Cause if a Muslim game was made the people would cry about how the game is offensive and demeaning to the religion and the muslim community

And

If more Christian games were made people would cry about how the bible thumpers keep trying to push God into every part of American society

It's pretty much a no-win situation there.

There are some pretty big wars in the Bible... you figure there would be a real-time strategy game based on a couple of those, with Warcraft-like upgradable heroes.

[wubb]

Hitman (2 I think) has religious undertones in that the main character is Catholic IIRC, even living at some sort of Catholic temple/church. There are a few scenes dealing with him struggling with the fact that he is at least semi-religious, yet kills a lot of people.

As the stories and character development in games continues to improve I imagine the religion of characters will become a part of more games. Most mainstream culture doesn't deal very directly with religion, so it's not surprising that games follow suit. For example The Simpsons have had a few episodes dealing with religion and Flander's is very religious, but religious debate/thinking is by no means a really large part of the show. And The Simpsons probably deals with this more than most other prime time shows.

On The Shield there is a character who struggles with his religion coupled with his lifestyle (if you've watched the show you'll know what I'm talking about.) Similar to the Hitman 2 example.

[jer7583]

Cause if a Muslim game was made the people would cry about how the game is offensive and demeaning to the religion and the muslim community

And

If more Christian games were made people would cry about how the bible thumpers keep trying to push God into every part of American society

lol, so true. Religious games aren't made, because there's just too many people who'd whine about it if it was made. Developers would rather put out the next thug gangster simulator.. that's the popular trend of this generation..

[RelentlessRolento]

I myself come from a large background of christian life (my dad use to be a pastor, and I myself am christian). I really think "christian" products have become too "christiany" or "churchy". I consider alot of that stuff a bunch of burning turd. It's turned into this "safe" (man... im using too many quotations!) industry for christians who buy into the "churchy" industry. It's more sad than it is bad. If you really think about it, Bible games do need to be more violent. I can't remember exactly where it's stated in the Bible, but in one story a guy falls down an empty well and when he hits the bottom it describes his body splitting and his intestines gushing out... also, (don't know where this is also, but I can ask around if anyone needs proof) some fat guy get's stabbed... the knife he was stabbed with got stuck in the guys belly, but all his guts and crap gushed out... as described in the Bible...

don't take this all the wrong way, I love christians... I just hate what the "christian" industry has made some of these people into.

[sisco1986]

Hmm what analogy could I give to describe why developers/publishers don't touch anything that has to do with religon.

1. Getting thrown into a pit full of starved lions
2. Getting shot gut in the middle of a desert in the noon sun laying there until death
3. Listening to pauly shore sing
4. being spiderman then all of sudden running out of web 200 ft in the air.
5. being superman as the bullets don't bounce off anymore.
6. waking up to find the same sex in your bed (and your not gay).
7. Arch enemy sending a fake letter to your home saying you've won 1,000,000 dollars, going to the news media and them leading you on as if you won, buying a crap load of stuff for a few days and throwing away your old crap, paying off all your bills along with that pony you've always wanted, then 3 months later on april 1st, 3 months to day,finding out it was just all a big joke and you have to give everything back, and no you can't get your old stuff back.
8. Getting kicked in the balls by a soccer player
9. getting kicked in the face by a kicker
10. Being teleported into a foot ball game when your just watching the game, catching the ball, in awe and confusion of whats going on start running towards the end zone, just to get tackled by tarry tate.
11. Getting attacked by jesus freakes after leaving subway
12. subway not accepting your horded stamps (in combo with 11)
13. Watching Fox News for more than 15 minutes
14. loosing your hands on the forth of july, just before the day you start your job as a video game tester.
15. Finding your house in flames.

The end result feeling of all of theses is probably why they don't make games based on directly religon. I wish someone had the balls/tits though..

[dpac]

I can't remember exactly where it's stated in the Bible, but in one story a guy falls down an empty well and when he hits the bottom it describes his body splitting and his intestines gushing out... also, (don't know where this is also, but I can ask around if anyone needs proof) some fat guy get's stabbed... the knife he was stabbed with got stuck in the guys belly, but all his guts and crap gushed out... as described in the Bible...

don't take this all the wrong way, I love christians... I just hate what the "christian" industry has made some of these people into.A guy specializing in localization for Atlus had some related things to say on his 1up blog recently. Check it out here:
http://konami_whore.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=5182912&publicUserId=5477956

As for the events you described, I felt a strong urge to look them up. Here are the references you may have been thinking of:

"(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)" --Acts 1:18-19, reviewing Judas's (rotting) body breaking open after hanging from somewhere for a little too long. Events surrounding the suicide can be found in Matthew 27.

"Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it." --Judges 3:21-22, describing the left-handed Ehud offing Eglon king of Moab with a sort of "stealth kill."

Sorry for possibly giving a little too much information. I like being thorough.

[radjago]

I myself come from a large background of christian life (my dad use to be a pastor, and I myself am christian). I really think "christian" products have become too "christiany" or "churchy". I consider alot of that stuff a bunch of burning turd. It's turned into this "safe" (man... im using too many quotations!) industry for christians who buy into the "churchy" industry. It's more sad than it is bad. If you really think about it, Bible games do need to be more violent. I can't remember exactly where it's stated in the Bible, but in one story a guy falls down an empty well and when he hits the bottom it describes his body splitting and his intestines gushing out... also, (don't know where this is also, but I can ask around if anyone needs proof) some fat guy get's stabbed... the knife he was stabbed with got stuck in the guys belly, but all his guts and crap gushed out... as described in the Bible...

don't take this all the wrong way, I love christians... I just hate what the "christian" industry has made some of these people into.
I agree with most of your sentiments. The whole Christian retail industry ($4.3 Billion and growing), the Christian music industry, the TBN crowd, and the rise of "corporate" mega-churches have really turned me off.

The problem with "Christian Games" is most of them suck. If they had any redeeming gameplay value, the theme of the game could be overlooked by some and enjoyed, but I have yet to see any where this is the case.

Many heavenly-inspired works of art and music are great. I'd like to think the same could apply to games as well.

Here (http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/15242.htm) is a good article that discusses the issue from a Christian point of view.

A guy specializing in localization for Atlus had some related things to say on his 1up blog recently. Check it out here:
http://konami_whore.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=5182912&publicUserId=5477956
I enjoyed reading that. Thanks for the link.

[rabbitt]

Hmmm, very interesting. Don't Doom 3 and Shin Megami Tensei have some religious parts to them?