Hindus Ask PAX To Drop Smite

[inidu]

I love how people think that, because they dont believe in someone's religion, they have a right to mock the people who do.

I have a right to mock anyone for anything. You do too.

They arent making any sort of statement, which is fine, however because of that theres no real reason to press ahead with it aside from insensitivity.

Maybe the characters are awesome and balanced and took a lot of work. And maybe they only went with polytheistic gods from well-known pantheons.

Also asking that a private corporation not do business with another private corporation because you find it offensive is not attacking free speech.

You are correct.

 

[Stripes]

I love how people think that, because they dont believe in someone's religion, they have a right to mock the people who do.

I have a right to mock anyone for anything. You do too.

They arent making any sort of statement, which is fine, however because of that theres no real reason to press ahead with it aside from insensitivity.

Maybe the characters are awesome and balanced and took a lot of work. And maybe they only went with polytheistic gods from well-known pantheons.

Also asking that a private corporation not do business with another private corporation because you find it offensive is not attacking free speech.

You are correct.

I understand people have a right to mock things if they so desire, what I meant (though I put my point across poorly) was that these people thought it was ok to mock people, as if they had some divine right to make fun of people and act like dicks.

 

[Icehearted]

What they really need to do is balance the books.

Make Jesus a playable character.

Not quite sure how that would work given his philosophy, but they should make it work.

As a Christian myself, I would love to see that and imagine The Man would get a kick out of it.

Didn't Jesus whip people at a church once?

Also, It's kind of been done already in a Comedy Central Flash game. I'm a Christian myself, but take no offense at the idea that people would depict a very sacred figure of my beliefs as they wanted in a video game. Speaking strictly from a more objective stance however, I can at least get why some would be offended. The image I keep seeing looks a bit sexualized, and if that's not the nature of their deity then obviously it's going to piss people off.

At least it's not what Parker and Stone went through over Muhammad.

 

[twohundredpercent]

Well now I have an idea of where they're coming from.

 

[Sexy Devil]

*deleted*

 

[Something Amyss]

Inb4 someone blows this out of proportion or conflates a request for respect with a violation of free speech....

I trust the Penny Arcade guys to stand up to these enemies of free speech.

Crap. First post? Really?

 

[waj9876]

You know, I actually kind of supported these guys when they were just asking nicely, and the Internet was freaking the fuck out at them for it.

...Now they've gone too far for that. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile. Feed them a little, they'll take your whole arm with it. Etc. Etc. Now the Internet is justified in their hatred for what these people are doing. They are actively trying to keep people from playing the game not by asking them, but by forcing them.

This is why I hate organized religion. I have no problem with religion and the God/s/Goddesses themselves that make up the many religions. (Hell, I believe in Christianity) But yeah. People who pull this kind of shit can go fuck themselves.

 

[alandavidson]

I want to see Jesus in a fighting game. Why not??? Huh?

May I present these entries?

Spoiler

http://www.java-gaming.com/game/7346/Jesus_the_arcade_game/

http://games.adultswim.com/bible-fight-action-online-game.html

Or if you're looking for something for all faiths to have a punch-up

Spoiler

http://www.gamesheep.com/game/faith-fighter/

 

[TrevHead]

The devs are just been asshats, they could atleast change the names of the characters but keep the models as a compromise.

Atleast the Hindus seem to be civil about it which is more than many devout Christians or Muslims.

While not a god, no-one would dare put Mohamed in a game, to a Muslim its almost as bad as setting the Koran on fire and pissing on it. The whole Muslim population in Europe seriously kicked off because a newspaper unwittingly featured a drawing / cartoon of him a few years back.

 

[Lawyer105]

I want to see Jesus in a fighting game. Why not??? Huh?

Personally, I'd way rather the game focused on the various representatives of the gods.

I'd totally pay money to watch muppets from the WBC squaring off against Catholic priests or whatever.

Natch, they'd all get beaten by the shaolin dudes and their sweet, sweet kung fu.

Oh yeah... and don't forget them parasitical televangelists either. I'd totally play them and just stand there so they get pasted!

 

[Tropicaz]

I'm not going to lie, reading through these replies all this has done is make me think this game will be kind of awesome. When does it get released?

 

[SlamDunc]

I object to there objections not only because of free speech which allows the developers to do this and they should not be forced to censor it (I don't think that means that the Hindu groups can't complain either, they have rights as well but I don't think they should try to force censorship and instead try to convince the developer this is offensive and they should change it out of respect for the religion, not financial reasons.) but also because of the way they have chosen to object to this. They claim offence from using there gods with no concern for people who still follow the Norse or Greek faiths (However few there may be.). If a came about gods is offensive why only tell them to remove your gods? What makes Kali any more of a degrading character than Thor or Zeus?

I see it more as using somebodies intellectual property in a way the didn't intend, for example, let's say Star Wars didn't have it's copyright, so some guy remakes it where Luke is an alcoholic who beats children, and when people attack him for making this he claims free speech.

This argument is completely invalid based on the fact that nobody owns the IP rights to Hindu gods. Or any faith for that matter. If something is in a public space as much as this nobody gets to claim that it is not the way they intended for it to be used, they did not make it.

The gods were also not all made up by one person/known group who had express details about them. Faiths evolve over hundreds of years with hundreds of people contributing and sticking in their own 'intent.'

 

[JediMB]

Okay, screw having Jesus in Smite. He's just a bearded man, and no one can ever seem to agree on what his skin color was.

What we need is an archangel (Michael or Gabriel?) and Satan/Lucifer/The Devil.

 

[UberNoodle]

If Kali is offended let HER do something about it!

Exactly! Don't the religious see the ridiculous image they are creating: there's their god, pouting indignantly, yet completely impotent to do anything itself:

God: "But guys, they said I was a myth! They're using my picture in a video game! Aw, I'm so upset about this. I wish I could do something about it."

Grumpy old d**ks: "Don't worry, oh omnipotent, holy one. We have this covered."

God: "Oh, I hope it will be OK. Do you think they'll be upset?"

Grumpy old d**ks: "It's fine. We'll tell them everything which you can't. They won't know the difference. Do you need anything while we're at the shop?"

God: "Nah, I'm god. Aha! I mean, good."

Grumpy old d**ks: "Ah, yes. Very funny."

 

[sunsetspawn]

I trust the Penny Arcade guys to stand up to these enemies of free speech.

still no characters from the Abrahamic religions i see.

why is that exactly ?..

oh yes...they are shitebags.

still /golfcalp in the name of "freedom of speech" eh ?..

especially when its quite clear they won't actually dare offend anyone who might actually be able to mess with them in return.

cowards.

Exactly. If you're too afraid to put Jesus, Moses, and Mohammad in the game you really shouldn't pretend to be about free speech.

Jesus being violent would offend the rednecks, and they're a target audience for violent games. Gee, that's ironical

If you put Moses in a game then the diamond district (and H&M, and Hollywood, and maybe even the global banking system) would be put on hold so they could all whine and kvetch about getting royalties due to copyright infringement, and with the lawyers on their side that could get ugly.

And Mohammad? Well, he's arguable the best candidate for a fighting game considering he was a violent warlord, and I'm also pretty sure that Stone and Parker have proven that he can throw fireballs. But fuck that shit, because it would be kind of hard to enjoy your videogame's success without a head, amirite?

 

[Innegativeion]

I trust the Penny Arcade guys to stand up to these enemies of free speech.

still no characters from the Abrahamic religions i see.

why is that exactly ?..

oh yes...they are shitebags.

still /golfcalp in the name of "freedom of speech" eh ?..

especially when its quite clear they won't actually dare offend anyone who might actually be able to mess with them in return.

cowards.

Their job is not to include all the religions you've taken up a personal beef with. You might have noticed that Hindu deities are rather interesting looking, whilst anyone important in Christianity, Judaism and Islam is a bloke with a beard. So yeah, no shit they're not included.

Well, the SMT series managed to make judeo-christian entities look pretty interesting.

Demons and angels technically fall under the blanket of "abrahamic", after all. That includes folks like Lucifer, Gabriel, the guardians of edin with flaming swords, those really weird looking ones with like 6 legs and 3 arms (or whatever), and a dude named METATRON(no joke).

Plenty of wiggle room to make interesting characters, I guess the Smite folks don't think it'd be exotic enough?

 

[Woodsey]

I trust the Penny Arcade guys to stand up to these enemies of free speech.

still no characters from the Abrahamic religions i see.

why is that exactly ?..

oh yes...they are shitebags.

still /golfcalp in the name of "freedom of speech" eh ?..

especially when its quite clear they won't actually dare offend anyone who might actually be able to mess with them in return.

cowards.

Their job is not to include all the religions you've taken up a personal beef with. You might have noticed that Hindu deities are rather interesting looking, whilst anyone important in Christianity, Judaism and Islam is a bloke with a beard. So yeah, no shit they're not included.

Well, the SMT series managed to make judeo-christian entities look pretty interesting.

Demons and angels technically fall under the blanket of "abrahamic", after all. That includes folks like Lucifer, Gabriel, the guardians of edin with flaming swords, those really weird looking ones with like 6 legs and 3 arms (or whatever), and a dude named METATRON(no joke).

Plenty of wiggle room to make interesting characters, I guess the Smite folks don't think it'd be exotic enough?

No, I guess not. The game includes 5 religions, they have no duty whatsoever to include one religion to balance the books for including another.

If the designers aren't interested in digging through Christian fiction to come up with blokes like Metatron then that's abso-fucking-lutely fine because it's their game and they can include whatever the hell interests them.

 

[toapat]

Honestly? Im all for bashing of all religions as equally possible (Im looking at you Taoism, you coward).

On the other hand, If Christians are fine having Jesus being a playable character, why the hell should Capitolism: The Religion be complaining?