Video Games & Religion:

[Tanis]

I'm currently playing 'God of War 3' and besides enjoying all the wonderful amount of digital blood, gore, and weird looking creatures with boobies...
I started thinking about how religion is used in video games.
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While I'm NOT a huge fan of religion or belief in the 'supernatural', I've always found it interesting how our society is show through our entertainment medium.
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In the game God of War 3 your main goal is to KILL ALL THE GODS, which seems to be fine for everyone because...
You know, they're "Classical Gods" (the Greek ones).
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So, I was thinking...
Do ya'll think that if a similar game was made, but you killed gods/people/creatures from various Abrahamic religions - would their REALLY be a major backlash.
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I mean, besides from crap in the Middle East who'd go nutty because Mohammad is shown, and well, dismembered...and used as a pinata, and you know how well THAT goes.
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[Convoy]

I always thought this. But, I'd like to see a game about the Crusades.

 

[Zenron]

I always thought this. But, I'd like to see a game about the Crusades.

The closest we've got to that was Dante's inferno and well... we all know how that turned out.

OT: Killing Gods which nobody actually worships anymore is never really going to offend anyone. However, middle east aside, I'm sure it would create a major backlash if any AAA game had you murder a deity from any of the six major religions around at the moment.

This reminds me of an article that was posted here on the Escapist awhile ago actually: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.352347-Study-Says-Videogames-Problematize-Religion-as-Violent

 

[Merrick_HLC]

This topic reminds me of a cancelled game I remember hearing of ages ago.
It was supposed to be an action game about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Think I remember something about a fallen priest.

Sorry it's been ages.


Anyway, as to the topic question, there'd be a lot of backlash, I think the majority of Christians either wouldn't care or would just roll their eyes, but there's always gonna be the vocal minority of nutjobs.

(Think of it this way, the vast majority of Christians don't give a crap about "Happy Holidays". But the minority who refer to a "WAR ON CHRISTMAS" just won't ever shut up)

 

[Merrick_HLC]

This topic reminds me of a cancelled game I remember hearing of ages ago.
It was supposed to be an action game about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

That came out and it was called Darksiders.

Thank you, but it was a different game.

I managed to find some info on it.
It was actually called Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

http://ps2.ign.com/objects/487/487603.html

 

[Rowan93]

Yes, there would be a major backlash, because people believe in the Christian god.

That said, the game still should totally exist. There should be a version of God Of War for EVERY pantheon, with monotheistic religions getting the angels involved too.

Obviously, for fairness' sake, there should also be one for atheism where you fight 20-metre-tall versions of various people religious people might say we worship, like for instance Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins. That way not only is it not one-sided, but we get a depiction of Richard Dawkins with an implausible amount of muscles for a 70-year-old.

 

[krazykidd]

Seeing as you get to kill the christian god in the Shin Megami Tensei series already.... There was probably some backlash to it around the time it came out, but I wouldn't know to be honest. I don't recall reading about it anywhere though.

Are you talking about lucifer? Because lucifer is the devil . And we all know we can name a character , lucifer or satan and kill him without anyone caring. Also don't we kill indian gods all the time?

The problem with this , and i am no expert on religion , but isn't mohammed human who has historically existed? Thats like calling a in-game character jesus instead of jahova . Even so , does anyone even worship the greek gods anymore?

Either way , i think it's a bad idea , live and let live , don't make fun , or try to anger , someone that worships specific deities . Leave religion alone .

 

[Encentrik]

The thing is God of War is talking about Gods that people have openly dismissed as fake and ludicrous when their own belief in a Deity isn't that different. People have no problem "killing old gods" because they believe those to be stories made up to explain natural events, which they were but if one were to kill the Christian God or the Islam God, then all Hell would break loose. (Pun intended)

Which is quite funny to me, as an Atheist, seeing as one has no issue dismissing the beliefs of one other culture that is long gone but as soon as it deals with their own Religion, backlash ensues. There have been multiple games where a belief in a God is mentioned or the disbelief of a Deity is also mentioned. It all depends on who's developing the game. As long as the moral issues & debates are not crammed down the throats of gamers, then there is no problem, in my mind.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Ehhh, the main reason you don't see it isn't really because of backlash. Or at least how I see it. It's just... well... not much to go off of.

There's not much of an enemy to base off of the Abrahamic gods. It's not like Zues where he's some muscular guy with authority of the skies, or like Thor who's some Norse guy with a bitching hammer, or like Artemis where she's a deadly huntress. The only thing you can really base off of the Abrahamic gods is that they're all powerful (boring!), apparently unimaginable, and don't have faces. Yeah. It's not like Hephaestus's blacksmith look, or Hermes's messenger look, or Athen's dignified look; the only bit of information you can base off them is that they can't be imagined.

But okay, say you do want to base a game off of killing the Abrahamic god/s. It's not like Greece where there's Olympus that dozens of heroes have gone to, there's only heaven and hell, which is apparently impossible to enter without dying (but then again, so was the Underworld).

But okay again, say you think of a way where the hero is able to face the god (magic orb? ancient cult?). But what leads up to that? Are there any Valkyries or harpies or heaven denizens of myth that you can use, besides angels? Or are you going to base the game off of killing a bunch of followers, which while being weak (considering you're going to face a god at the end who is supposedly all powerful) also doesn't have that glorious variety that other games like God of War have.

At this point, you're either really dedicated to seeing a new idea, or you're really dedicated to seeing how everyone reacts. Bottom line, people haven't really done it for the controversy, but because there isn't a whole lot to base it off of, it's just a bad formula to start with.

 

[Merrick_HLC]

Seeing as you get to kill the christian god in the Shin Megami Tensei series already.... There was probably some backlash to it around the time it came out, but I wouldn't know to be honest. I don't recall reading about it anywhere though.

Are you talking about lucifer? Because lucifer is the devil . And we all know we can name a character , lucifer or satan and kill him without anyone caring. Also don't we kill indian gods all the time?

The problem with this , and i am no expert on religion , but isn't mohammed human who has historically existed? Thats like calling a in-game character jesus instead of jahova . Even so , does anyone even worship the greek gods anymore?

Either way , i think it's a bad idea , live and let live , don't make fun , or try to anger , someone that worships specific deities . Leave religion alone .

Well there are some neo-pagans who still worship like Greek, Roman, Egyptian or Norse pantheons and other cultures gods/goddesses as well.

But they are both
1-Lower in number than the mainstream religions
and
2-Generally WAY less likely to be pissed about 'bad media portrayals' of their gods.
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On a barely remotely related note.
I'd LOVE to see a WRPG based on White Wolf roleplayings "Scion" tabletop game.

Basically you play a scion (child) of the various gods of old mythologies, trying to fight the Titans influence on earth.

It'd also probably the closest we'd ever get to a "fight Christian God" game, since the game's version of the Titan of Light has very obvious parallels to the Christian God.

 

[TitanAtlas]

Considering the Greek Gods are not really "prayed" to (forgive my lack of better terms), nowdays, and seen more has mythological creatures, i doubt there would be any contreversy (many jokes... yes).

But for example if it was Kratos killing Jesus, and... heck.. i don't know... Ala, and Buda and so on...

I could see serious backlash, hate, and rage coming from the religion of wich the god was killed, towards the company that makes the game. I could imagine the Pope declaring it has a sin to play "God of War 4: The fall of Modern religion" xD

 

[krazykidd]

Seeing as you get to kill the christian god in the Shin Megami Tensei series already.... There was probably some backlash to it around the time it came out, but I wouldn't know to be honest. I don't recall reading about it anywhere though.

Are you talking about lucifer? Because lucifer is the devil . And we all know we can name a character , lucifer or satan and kill him without anyone caring. Also don't we kill indian gods all the time?

The problem with this , and i am no expert on religion , but isn't mohammed human who has historically existed? Thats like calling a in-game character jesus instead of jahova . Even so , does anyone even worship the greek gods anymore?

Either way , i think it's a bad idea , live and let live , don't make fun , or try to anger , someone that worships specific deities . Leave religion alone .

Since when was Lucifer the Christian God? Yes Lucifer shows up in the series as one of the good guys(from what I understand), that much is true, but I wasn't talking about him as I already pointed out. The christian god literally shows up and is quite the evil prick from what I've been told.

As for the greek gods thing, there's probably people who do. There are still people who worship the ancient norse deities as well, but I never hear them rage about how their belief is violated by . 'course they could be doing that in a part of the internet I've not been to I guess.

Huh , well that's news to me , but the again i don't play these games looking for religious references , sorry for the confusion , i am an idiot sometimes lol .

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

I liked how in the Fallout series, New Vegas in particular, Religion is seen as a through back to an old time. That old "Your sad devotion to your ancient religion..." kind of attitude towards faith of ANY kind. Sure, you'll find a small Catholic parish in Fallout 3 in Rivet City worshiping, or a few crazy cults like Children of the Atom or the Treeminders in Oasis. But you'll find that the only real widespread religion is in the Mojave, which is Mormonism in the shape of The Followers of the Apocalypse. Kind of makes sense when you think of how Mormonism is a VERY American religion. It was created here. So having it endure the nuclear fire is kind of like people holding on to the last few pieces of the safety the United States provided.

 

[nyaman]

There was always a different culture around the Greek/Roman gods anyway, it was completely okay to make up stories about those gods because they never really had a central text governing the religion. It essentially amounted to pray to whatever god for good favour and they may help you out, and there was no problem in characterising them as fickle or just flat out terrible in fiction. If people did still worship that stuff, they'd probably just call it inaccurate instead of offensive. The Abrahamic religions treat their god a lot more seriously.