summerof2010 said:
Oh please, I see through your rationalization. You started out by insinuating the flaw in the majority's reasoning is that games are too insignificant to deal with such controversial and philosophical themes, and therefore cannot be anti-religious.
No, i didn't actually. At all. I never said that they were insignificant. I said they were stories.
Just because you THINK that's what i said doesn't mean it IS what i said.
In fact, you made the bolder assumption that all fiction is created independently of political/social message mongering; I'm of course referring to the repeated "it's just a game/story,"
Yes, it is just a game/story. Meaning its not a deep hidden agenda to try and convince people that religion is evil and wrong. Its a sequence of events imagined by the creator to reflect and interesting idea or list of ideas.
It's primary goal is to be entertaining using inspiration from the world around it. Not tell people religion is evil and they should avoid it at all costs.
Everything else is shit you made up.
and the parallelism in the second line with "fictitious." This is incorrect, for the reasons I gave in my response to your first argument.
Most games are fictitious. That's why they are considered works of fiction.
Your reply is phrased as if it is elaborating on your original point, but it is in fact a different argument altogether (so yes, I do see what you did there).
No, my first reply was a brief remark of "Its a story not a political agenda, relax"
It's the same reasoning, only since you decided to nitpick me i opened up into greater detail.
Now you claim that, while you agree the image of religion in games is negative, the point of the games in question is far from "Religion is bad kids! Stay the fuck away!"
The point of the game isn't the tell people religion is bad. Its to entertain the viewer with an interesting story. Just because they take inspiration from the real world, or choose to show things as dark reflections or in negative lights, does not mean the intent of said game is to tell people to not have any faith because its horrible and wrong.
In order for it ot be truly anti-religious is for the sole intent and purpose of said story or work of fiction is if the writers intended it to get people to abandon any faith.
I do not believe that was the intent of any of the games brought up.
There for it is not anti-religious, just a dark interpretation.
Otherwise the game wouldn't be classified as a work of fiction. Which they are.
It may in fact be held among some posters that specific games have major anti-religious themes, but outside of those few, you're arguing against the straw man. It was never my conclusion that Silent Hill was written to promote atheism, or that any game was guilty of that -- in fact I agreed with you here:
Then.. why are you arguing with me? I simply do not believe there is some hidden agenda in game designs. I don't see dark reflections as anti-religious statements.
Those make for INTERESTING STORIES. Hell i include religious imagery set to a dark tone in many of my stories. Its not meant to be an anti-religious statement. Its just interesting.
I was only countering the assertion that people are "reading too much into" the games that they're playing, and the assertion that fiction cannot support sophisticated themes.
Anti-religion sentiment isn't exactly sophisticated.
If it is a story its primary goal is to entertain. While a lesson can be learned when it comes to VIDEO GAMES first and foremost the goal is to entertain.
Religion makes an interesting plot. It allows to quickly create emotional attachments. It allows strange or almost magically like actions. Creepy dark undertones can prevail i an secret society. The worship of gods, especially gods of death.
it can create an atmosphere of desperation "Our enemies have the powers of dark gods on there sides"
It can be in a story for so much more then.
"Fuck religion!"
As for my counter to your new argument,
Same opinion actually, just further explained.
that games rarely directly intend to flame religion, I will agree. I will go further, however, and assert that there is an anti-religious sentiment in the industry as a whole,a conclusion I think the OP and several posters on this thread would agree with. The reason being that, by and large, whenever religion is encountered, and much more when explored, in video games, it is associated with, to quote myself in the same post:
Woah woah woah....
Twenty space shooter games come out and people scream its because the game industry is lazy and un-inventive yet twenty games with "Religious force with a dark undertone" and its because the video game industry has an anti-religious sentiment.
Really? Your going to use THAT logic?
Though few games outright bash religion, because of trends in popular titles, at the advent of any encounter with a game universe's resident interpretation of religion, one or more of these virtues can immediately be assumed without much worry. Clearly, many posters here are suggesting that it's a short step to applying those generalizations to the real world, though they have different enough opinions on that assumption. And personally, I only have a problem with the trend because it doesn't always make sense in context, which I talked about elsewhere. I don't think it's so bad that the mainstream population is being conditioned to be suspicious of religious groups either, but that's just me.
And i am stating that it was not the intent of the writers, so it is not anti-religious, and that people might simply be reading way to much into something and are choosing to apply there own beliefs into a preset idea.
To sum up, I feel like you got all butthurt just cuz I was being patronizing and tried to save face by making an obvious assertion in a smarmy tone of voice --
Uh huh.... random insults.. You are a king among men.
regardless of the fact that it had nothing to do with what you were apparently talking about in the first place.
Actually it did. You just choose ot have it be another meaning.
Sorry i don;t write a full report for every single one of my opinions on the off chance someone might get pissy about it.
Same to you.
