The Greatest Story Never Played

[Evil Avatar]

While the film, music and book industries have all made successful outreaches to religious groups, video game publishers have done their best to avoid the topic of God. This week's Game Over column (http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/06/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm) on CNN/Money talks with a handful of the industry's top game makers (including Bill Roper, Richard Garriott and Todd Hollenshead) about why they believe there haven't been any games based on the Bible, Torah, Koran or other sacred texts - and asks them what sort of religious game they'd make if they had the opportunity.

"I don't think anyone is going to get too pissed off if you misconvey what Hell looks like, which is what we've done. But boy, if you give players the chance to have Moses make choices with some ambiguous moral consequences, you've stepped in a deep hole of trouble," said id Software's Todd Hollenshead.

[bapenguin]

I want a fighting game....all the gods...represent as many religions as you can.

The Ultimate God Fighter

like:
Jesus vs. Buddah,..each with their own special moves. Jesus has the chinese throwing cross and Buddah has the Buddah Belly Slam.

[Redline]

Hmm. We could probably use streetfighter for that. A few changes to E-Honda and Dan and viola. ;)

[Ernst_Jager]

How about a game where you can control the population into killing others in your name?
The crusades, inquisition.....wait a minute we already have these games, they just take the real reason behind them out. I for one hope they NEVER introduce most religions into gaming. With it being force feed to us by our elected officials (lol yeah right) it's nice to have at least one area where I can be morally questionable.

[MosBen]

I liked a lot of the points they made. Though movies have such a large audience that you can get away with something like "The Last Temptation of Christ", even if it's still not very well received, I'm not sure gaming has a large enough user base to support something as quite as controversial. Then there's also the cost of making a AAA title, which is prohibitive to taking non-controversial risks, let alone something of this nature. I do think, however, that once gaming becomes a more established part of the mainstream entertainment industry and when graphics plataeu a bit so that you can do something close to cutting edge without enormous investment of time and energy, we'll start to see indy dev. houses pushing the envelope on the content front.

[dr_qwandry]

Black & White you play god.
hmmm
WAIT!
what about that Noah's Ark game for nintendo?

[mister_slim]

Publishers don't want to carve up the market too much. On the other hand, the first game with a big budget and explicit Christian references will blow up like Passion. A GTA-style media frenzy would really help get the word out, especially to restrictive Christian households.

[sTubbs]

This could be a brilliant marketing strategy for Microsoft in the coming console wars. All they would have to do is make some shitty Bible thumping game and get the word out. Then, all of the fundamentalist Christian families that would normally go nowhere near the video game industry would all have 360s sitting under their TVs come Christmas time. If they get some evangelical preacher to be the spokesperson, the new market penetration could be in the millions. Genius!

http://images.google.ca/images?q=tbn:F8FCsAAgAtcJ:www.angelfire.com/il2/illiterature/simpsons/stickers/BibleBlaster_FIN.jpg

http://images.google.ca/images?q=tbn:VLtkUYm9_BMJ:photos1.blogger.com/img/142/3820/640/Bible%2520Blaster.1.jpg

CONVERT THE HEATHENS!

[shame one those who do not get the reference]

Why are my images appearing as links? I used tags.

[gravey]

CONVERT THE HEATHENS!

[shame one those who do not get the reference]
We get the reference. Every time the subject of religion in video games is brought up, a dozen trolls mention Bible Blaster. The game is supposedly indicative of the best thing a religious-themed video game can offer, and it is very poor. We get it.

Moving on, thank you MosBen and mister_slim for actually providing insightful comments. I think the main apprehension about overtly religious games is that they would bind the player to that religion's morality, restricting the kinds of choices the player could make. But since when was this a problem? What player looks at SWAT 4, then cries in indignation, "Wait, I'm forced to uphold the law? That sucks!" That's the nature of a police game. If you don't like the premise, don't play it, and don't bother those who do like it. The games aren't going to jump off the shelves and force you to play them.

EDIT: Damn tags.

[fix]

That MMORPG idea which Roper presents at the end of the article sounds pretty sweet. As long you are allowed to join the minions of hell, of course. I'd just love to grind to a lvl 60. demon and then teach those fundementalist fucks a little about Darwin's Survival of the Fittest. Maybe they'll even learn something that way..