Anti-Religious Sentiment in Video Games (have you noticed?)

[Anarchemitis]

I've noticed that large contingents of the internet also maintain anti-religious sentiment.

 

[Silva]

Are some games more in-your-face about it? Yes. That's by design; the audience can more properly relate to the story if it mimics some aspects of their own daily lives. But that's not an outright indictment unless you choose for it to be so. That's your interpretation - not the objective face of it. Until the on-screen action quite literally features real-world religions in an overtly negative light, there's no reason to get your rosaries in a bundle.

TLDR version: the OP is a fantastic example of how religion attempts to forcibly insert itself into EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME. That's why some people have such an enormous hatred of the very concept. It's rarely, if ever, a peacefully, privately practiced spiritual endeavor.

I'm not convinced that there's no direct, intended criticism of religion or of religious people in the games that he mentioned. Let me look at the OP's specific examples to show you that this argument isn't really based on religion's narcissism (which is by the way an odd critique of an OP which states that he is agnostic/atheist).

The Chantry does work, quite obviously, as a foil for religious extremism in Dragon Age: Origins. It plays out in the decisions that Alistair, the player party's Chantry representative or symbol if you will, likes you to make - like, for example, killing a possessed child rather than sacrificing someone else with blood magic to save the child. The moral choice here is too obvious to say that it comes down to interpretation - and this rings true for a lot of the very anvilicious moral points made by even the best of games today. The failings of the Chantry itself as a system are very visible if you look at the game series' lore as well, though there is a hint that they influence the way history is written in Ferelden and therefore make it sound more positive regarding their organisation in many little ways.

The Chantry are absolutely the straw man Catholic Church of Ferelden: complete with an Inquisition (trying to kill the remaining mages in the Circle), social influence (creating a hatred and fear of blood mages, even those who use said magic against the darkspawn), control of literacy and education (this one's obvious; almost everything related to books in the game is controlled by the Chantry or at least the Circle, which is in turn controlled by the Chantry again), saint figures in their history, and donations which influence priests to help you.

I won't comment on Silent Hill and Dead Space - I only have cursory experience of the former, and none of the latter.

Halo's Covenant, though, is definitely a "failure species" type example of what happens when an intelligent, powerful, advanced society becomes devoted to a faith rather than to reason. They are evil, they kill the alleged good guys (humanity) to work towards a final goal that is really the annihilation of the universe at the hand of the Halo itself. And the fact that they are considered the baddies (and stupid ones at that) is seen in how they move and fight, with some enemies created with the sole purpose of being cowardly. In plot terms, they are easily manipulated. In all of these respects, they work as much as a critique of fascism as of religion, but that doesn't mean they can't be both of those things.

It is not about saying that these can't be an objectively certain critique on the specific straw man of extremism; what's pertinent is that they work, for many readers, as critiques of this as WELL as other things. It might be up to interpretation for it to be picked up, but I think it's fair to say that it's usually a conscious decision to criticise religion in these works. Why? Well, that's easy to answer. In a workforce that's mostly based in the United States, you're going to have religious people working for you. Maybe less in a game design job than in something more related to Church work, but the point is that they'll be there.

If a religious person is on your team (which they almost certainly will be, especially in larger companies), you have to make the conscious decision to make this critique early on and be clear and conscious about what you're criticising specifically. It's part of the design process. Look at Assassin's Creed - there's a REASON why the game says that "this team is made up of people from a variety of faiths" when you first turn it on - it is cynical about all faiths in a setting like the Holy Land during the Crusades, when their power is most visible and obvious. Despite this, people of many faiths helped make it, and the only reason why they would is that they were told about it beforehand - or they just didn't care/mind, which is hardly a universal characteristic among religious people.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Religion - and by that I mean Christianity - is an easy fall guy in games, because it's seen as old fashioned, non-scientific and therefore, evil. Plus, Christians don't really care that much anymore when their religion is being mocked so it's a nice, cozy controversy to use it in games or movies.

That's exactly it in a nutshell. As a Christian, my attitude about people who mock my faith has become, "oh, another one of you? What an original way to stand out." I don't care what people say anymore. They've said it all already. Many of the arguments are fallacious (Christianity and scientific facts are not mutually exclusive) or based on stuff that happened ages ago and which has no relevance to Christians today. When folks hate on my religion I just go enjoy my life and the peace my faith has brought me somewhere else away from them. Let atheists enjoy their lives and I'll enjoy mine.

Games use anti-Christian symbolism because you can't use the other religions or beliefs without somebody getting offended and suing you. With Christianity nobody cares, least of all the courts.

 

[Krion_Vark]

Just by the simple definitions throws your argument about Halo being a religious parody out the window into a flaming car as it flies off a bridge to explode in vernacular that is Michael Bay.

"Explode in vernacular that is Michael Bay"? Michael Bay is a vernacular?

I wouldn't call Halo a strict parody of religion, but the Covenant themselves are supposed to be fighting humanity on the grounds of their own religious beliefs. The Prophets are the ones that see it the most religiously, and they mostly manipulate all the other races in the Covenant. Remind you of any arguments?

To be fair, the vast majority of people, in my experience, who actively participate in any sort of position of power within a religious institution fit one or both of those descriptions. They're either "true believers" who will do nigh anything for the church, or they're abusing the aforementioned believers to further themselves. Most everyone else has sense enough to stay out.

Yes explosions are just a language to Michael Bay. Also being called the Covenant calling themselves the Prophets DO NOT make them religious at all. Being in a Cult DOES NOT make you religious. And again I state my opinion that the Halo Franchise IS NOT Anti-Religious like the OP stated. He used the fact that they were called the Covenant and used the term Arbiter as reasons why they were a religious Parody or anti-religious. Just using single words does not make it Anti-Religious. I also threw in Assassin's Creed 2 to show an ACTUAL anti-religious game or is quoting just one part of my post what fit your argument?

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I'm not convinced that there's no direct, intended criticism of religion or of religious people in the games that he mentioned. Let me look at the OP's specific examples to show you that this argument isn't really based on religion's narcissism (which is by the way an odd critique of an OP which states that he is agnostic/atheist).

That is precisely the power of religion's narcissism. Organized religion has managed to take ownership of so much basic human interaction that it is now impossible to depict any type of "belief structure going awry" story arc without some Christian asshole claiming satire.

The Chantry are absolutely the straw man Catholic Church of Ferelden: complete with an Inquisition (trying to kill the remaining mages in the Circle), social influence (creating a hatred and fear of blood mages, even those who use said magic against the darkspawn), control of literacy and education (this one's obvious; almost everything related to books in the game is controlled by the Chantry or at least the Circle, which is in turn controlled by the Chantry again), saint figures in their history, and donations which influence priests to help you.

Anyone who sacrifices his life to save a group of people is Christ. Any woman who gives birth without a mortal husband is Mary. Any persecution of a group of believers makes them Christian. Any institution that radically pushes its beliefs, to the detriment of the innocent, is the Inquisition. There are only so many combinations and permutations of human interaction. Attributing all of them to a book written thousands of years ago, with countless bits stolen from earlier texts and faiths, just pisses me off.

Personal pet-peeve. Just ignore me.

 

[PureIrony]

I think its just lazy storytelling. Creating a large group for the protagonist to fight while giving both the higher and lower-ups good reason for operating is hard.

Its also easier to stick cookie cutter morals to then a faceless evil corporation, the other big criminal organization in gaming.

 

[thenoblitt]

every single shin megami tensei game is basically an exploration of religion and letting you decide what is right and what is wrong instead of taking a side and fighting god and satan

 

[Baron von Awesome]

While some games like Assassin's Creed target the Templars and the Catholic church, it's honestly just an absurd anti-historical rip-off of The da Vinci Code. The games series that I thought had something reasonably well thought out to say about ideology was the Bioshock series which showed us through extreme capitalism and then socialism how dangerous and destructive ideologies were when taken to an extreme. Most other game series I've seen that have anything to say about religion have so little to say that is intelligent it's fairly obvious to see that it's just trying to milk religion for another bad guy.

Actually, the Assassins are only against the Templars, not the Catholic church. They fight the Templars because they believe that it is wrong to take away ones right to chose for themselves. The Templars, on the other hand, are willing to go to any length to establish peace, even if it means violating what we today would consider human rights.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted". The first means that you should always think critically about what people or books say, and to make your decisions not on what you are told, but on what you see. The second part means that while there is no ultimate authority to tell you what you can or cannot do, it means that you should be all the more thoughtful about your actions and not to abuse this freedom and to allow others this same freedom.

Oh, and it's just a game, chill.

Firstly, I was referring mostly to the second game inasmuch as the criticism of the Catholic church. I am not a Catholic, but having studied history I find the plot to be both absurd and misleading. While few would claim to justify all of the actions of the Catholic church or the various Popes that were contemporaries of the Assassin Creed games. Building an absurd conspiracy around them and distorting history so... ridiculously whether ignorant of reality or not is disturbing.

Secondly, while you ignored the root of my argument about anti-religious sentiment in games, I will try to understand and address yours. While our post-modern backgrounds would force upon us that while truth can never be obtained from someone else, that doesn't mean we should simply tolerate the existence of garbage without labeling it as such. Does that mean I will go down and demand the game be wiped from existence? Of course not. A lot of people enjoyed it and that alone gives it value. But that doesn't mean that on that basis alone I will express my own views on its stupid plot especially on a forum discussing its plot. I am neither denying anyone their freedom to talk about this game, nor am I even agreeing with that statement about nothing being true and everything being permitted, or in the end even your interpretation of the statement. I find post-modernist philosophy to be lazy and if not destructive at least unproductive.

Thirdly, why do I need to chill out? Am I raging about how terrible the game was demanding that everyone everywhere listen to me? No, I just remarked as a part of my argument that I found the plot to be stupid and anti-historical. Uh-oh, hold on there. I wouldn't want to find out that someone doesn't hold the same opinion I do. That might not be true in fact it's not, because nothing is. Also since everything is permitted, I guess I'd better accept and tolerate it, because... well... it's something and as something it fits into the everything category and is permitted. Also if every person has to arrive to their own conclusions on their own, I better keep my mouth shut, because I can only speak when I have something true to say, but wait! Nothing's true so I should never speak. It's not like my opinion could possibly help someone develop their own opinion without accepting it as complete truth. (Sarcasm there through most of that paragraph, I know it's hard to translate through text.)

Lastly, maybe you should chill out instead. If I offended you by telling you that in my opinion the plot of a video game you might have or didn't like was stupid on a website full of bitter critics commenting on what they did or didn't like about games, maybe you might be overreacting. Sure, it is just a game, and as such I'll treat it as such. I don't lose sleep over it, nor did I even devout much time to playing it because I thought it was stupid. I just comment that it was stupid as a part of my argument about trends in media. Why is this an overreaction?

 

[Tanis]

Has ANYONE played 'Final Fantasy Tactics'?

You want anti-religion...holy crap!

Evil, female, Jesus and more Catholic bashing that an average stand-up routine by George Carlin.

 

[Grand_Arcana]

While some games like Assassin's Creed target the Templars and the Catholic church, it's honestly just an absurd anti-historical rip-off of The da Vinci Code. The games series that I thought had something reasonably well thought out to say about ideology was the Bioshock series which showed us through extreme capitalism and then socialism how dangerous and destructive ideologies were when taken to an extreme. Most other game series I've seen that have anything to say about religion have so little to say that is intelligent it's fairly obvious to see that it's just trying to milk religion for another bad guy.

Actually, the Assassins are only against the Templars, not the Catholic church. They fight the Templars because they believe that it is wrong to take away ones right to chose for themselves. The Templars, on the other hand, are willing to go to any length to establish peace, even if it means violating what we today would consider human rights.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted". The first means that you should always think critically about what people or books say, and to make your decisions not on what you are told, but on what you see. The second part means that while there is no ultimate authority to tell you what you can or cannot do, it means that you should be all the more thoughtful about your actions and not to abuse this freedom and to allow others this same freedom.

Oh, and it's just a game, chill.

Firstly, I was referring mostly to the second game inasmuch as the criticism of the Catholic church. I am not a Catholic, but having studied history I find the plot to be both absurd and misleading. While few would claim to justify all of the actions of the Catholic church or the various Popes that were contemporaries of the Assassin Creed games. Building an absurd conspiracy around them and distorting history so... ridiculously whether ignorant of reality or not is disturbing.

Secondly, while you ignored the root of my argument about anti-religious sentiment in games, I will try to understand and address yours. While our post-modern backgrounds would force upon us that while truth can never be obtained from someone else, that doesn't mean we should simply tolerate the existence of garbage without labeling it as such. Does that mean I will go down and demand the game be wiped from existence? Of course not. A lot of people enjoyed it and that alone gives it value. But that doesn't mean that on that basis alone I will express my own views on its stupid plot especially on a forum discussing its plot. I am neither denying anyone their freedom to talk about this game, nor am I even agreeing with that statement about nothing being true and everything being permitted, or in the end even your interpretation of the statement. I find post-modernist philosophy to be lazy and if not destructive at least unproductive.

Thirdly, why do I need to chill out? Am I raging about how terrible the game was demanding that everyone everywhere listen to me? No, I just remarked as a part of my argument that I found the plot to be stupid and anti-historical. Uh-oh, hold on there. I wouldn't want to find out that someone doesn't hold the same opinion I do. That might not be true in fact it's not, because nothing is. Also since everything is permitted, I guess I'd better accept and tolerate it, because... well... it's something and as something it fits into the everything category and is permitted. Also if every person has to arrive to their own conclusions on their own, I better keep my mouth shut, because I can only speak when I have something true to say, but wait! Nothing's true so I should never speak. It's not like my opinion could possibly help someone develop their own opinion without accepting it as complete truth. (Sarcasm there through most of that paragraph, I know it's hard to translate through text.)

Lastly, maybe you should chill out instead. If I offended you by telling you that in my opinion the plot of a video game you might have or didn't like was stupid on a website full of bitter critics commenting on what they did or didn't like about games, maybe you might be overreacting. Sure, it is just a game, and as such I'll treat it as such. I don't lose sleep over it, nor did I even devout much time to playing it because I thought it was stupid. I just comment that it was stupid as a part of my argument about trends in media. Why is this an overreaction?

I was by no means offended by your post. I just think that AC, even the second one, is a pretty poor example of blatant anti-religious, anti-catholic propaganda. I think we can all agree that the conspiracies in AC2 are over-the-top. The whole creed thing was just my interpretation of what the in universe Assassins believe, though I probably put my foot in my mouth on that one.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Yes explosions are just a language to Michael Bay. Also being called the Covenant calling themselves the Prophets DO NOT make them religious at all. Being in a Cult DOES NOT make you religious. And again I state my opinion that the Halo Franchise IS NOT Anti-Religious like the OP stated. He used the fact that they were called the Covenant and used the term Arbiter as reasons why they were a religious Parody or anti-religious. Just using single words does not make it Anti-Religious. I also threw in Assassin's Creed 2 to show an ACTUAL anti-religious game or is quoting just one part of my post what fit your argument?

I'm not talking about the definitions. Yes, the OP's defence of it being anti-religious made little sense. That wasn't what I was getting at. And I said I wouldn't call it anti-religious, but you can still see religious parody in that the Covenant, no matter what name has been given to them, still fight humanity on religious grounds, on the religious grounds of the Prophets, who manipulate the various other races to do their work for them, scaring them with threats that they won't go on The Great Journey if they are a heretic (which is a religious word) etcetera etcetera.

The Assassin's Creed devs take great pains to let us all know that their team consists of people of all religions and colours, which is jolly good and all. I didn't need to quote that part since it was already quite clear that the game and anti-religion weren't particularly in question. I was trying to clear things up on something else that was a matter of contention.

As I said, the OP's reasons for it being anti-religious are farcical at best, but you can't ignore the other sentiments of stick-poking the OP managed to either overlook or didn't mention.