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PlayStations of the Cross 267

Posted by Zonk from the forgive-me-father-for-i-have-HADOKEN! dept.
theodp writes "Is there a place amid the witches, warlocks and diabolical monsters for Christian video games? The NY Times reports companies like Brethren Entertainment ('Entertaining for Eternity'), Digital Praise ('Glorifying God Through Interactive Media'), and N'Lightning believe that there is a market in faith-based video games. If the idea of Christian first-person shooters seems unlikely, so too did the idea of Christian pop music, which accounted for 7% of the total pop-music market and sold 43+ million albums last year."
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PlayStations of the Cross More

PlayStations of the Cross

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  • FWIW (Score:4, Funny)

    by Otter ( 3800 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @11:27AM (#12407785) Journal
    N'Lightning is a terrific name. Or maybe I just spend so much time reading about Mandriva, Linspire and Hairy Warthog that anything half-sane sounds good.

    "PlayStations of the Cross" is also pretty clever -- a bit too clever for a Slashdot submitter. Let's see, did he just copy the NYT title...yup.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @11:30AM (#12407820)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Crusades (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by hey! ( 33014 )
      You could run around and try to convert people, and when they won't give up all of their beliefs and conform to something they've never heard of, you can kill them.

      This would have been a great improvement upon the actual crusades, where people were simply slaughtered out of hand without the chance to convert. One account of the sacing of Jeruselem in the first crusade states that at one place in the city the blood ran to the depth a mounted knight's stirrups.

    • Re:Crusades (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by macdaddy357 ( 582412 )
      To make it a challenge, some of the heathens would have to fight back, like those moozlim ayrabs who don't pray to jesus. When they do fight back, you get to call them terrorists and really bring out the heavy artillery.

      Your game would have to have some witch burnings, and some bonus stages where no one fights back, and wiping them out is pretty easy. Pogrums for example: those jews in their synagogues are probably just doing witchcraft in there. Go in and kill them and the rabbi, and burn the place down,

  • Non religious (Score:5, Interesting)

    by superpulpsicle ( 533373 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @11:31AM (#12407833)
    I am totally non-religious, I could care less about worshiping anything. After signing up with a subscription based music service (Rhapsody), I found it shocking that christian pop/rock/hiphop sounded this good.

    In fact, I have turned my view 180 degrees. I used to think religious folks never stop whinning about gangsta/satanic industrial music and video games etc. Now I seriously think they deserve a chance to be marketed.

    • Re:Non religious (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mbourgon ( 186257 )
      Ya know, I didn't care either.... and then had to listen to it while eating lunch yesterday. Crappy rhymes? Check. Bad 80's guitar solos? Check. Derivative tripe? Check, check.

      It was almost like watching the South Park episode - Cartman was right, they will buy anything marketed at them. I hate to say it, but I think the market's too big, it allows mediocre music to be successful. (Insert RIAA joke here)

  • (Organized) Religion is always a cash-cow (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kosi ( 589267 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @11:32AM (#12407874)
    I wonder that it took so long until someone saw the enormous potential to make money in sticking $RELIGION stickers on computer games.

    • Re:(Organized) Religion is always a cash-cow (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cyber0ne ( 640846 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @11:45AM (#12408042) Homepage
      It's not really a question of just saying "this game is religious" that will make it sell. Generally, marketing based on that is best suited for parents buying games for their kids, usually young kids. Thus, such religious games tend to be geared towards a very young audience and, while they do sell, they're not really all that popular.

      I would be particularly interested in religion-based games that target a more mainstream audience, as most other popular games do. Let's face it, if you take Western religion as an example, the Bible is full of violent conflict that would be great for a game.

      The problem as I see it, however, is in the approach taken in designing such a game. It is often a project taken on by a religious group, not a gaming group. In their eyes, the story needs to be exact, otherwise it goes against their religion. After all, you can't risk letting a child see David actually get KILLED by his enemies on the screen, that would be heresy in their minds.

      Thus, the games tend to play out more like a movie than a game, which goes back to being geared more towards small children than mainstream gamers. They have to be able to risk that bit of what they call heresy if they want the game to be interesting. If you're going to play David and fight all your enemies, there needs to be an actual risk of losing if the game is to be at all enjoyable.

      • I always thought the problem was just that Christians are supposed to be kind, loving, and have amazing cheek-turning abilities.
        You would just end up with games like "Christ Christ Revolution" and "Desert Walker Alpha 3: Tournament Edition".
        Might convey the true Christian spirit, but having lame as hell games is NOT the best way to convert people.
        • Well, there really is no "best way to convert people," but that's another discusstion entirely.

          You do have a good point, though. When one thinks "Christian game" one thinks of the life of Christ himself, who was entirely non-violent (I mostly see him as a teacher more than anything else) and inevitably had to meet a bloody demise here on Earth. (Yes, I believe in Christ and I believe in his victory and that it has simply yet to come to fruition here on Earth, but that again is another discussion entire

        • Re:(Organized) Religion is always a cash-cow (Score:3, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          > You would just end up with games like "Christ Christ Revolution"

          Totally, I can never get that "wine wine water wine water loaves wine wine fishes loaves loaves" combo in level 7.

        • Not about conversion (Score:4, Insightful)

          by bluGill ( 862 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @02:28PM (#12410261)

          These games are not about converting you to my religion, they are about giving me a passtime that doesn't violate all the principals of my religion.

          My religion tells everyone not to watch (or own) a TV. There is nothing evil about a electron gun in a vacuum tube exciting a few phosphors (substitute your technology of choice). What is evil is what it is used for. Nothing is wrong with using a TV so you can take college classes from someone on a different continent. There is something wrong when you use TV to show sex, violence, and so on. (I picked two extremes, you have to decide where the dividing line is between them - if you even agree sex and violence is evil).

          Video games are not evil of themselves. They can teach puzzle solving skills. A game of pac-man once a week has no value, but it isn't evil. (addiction to pac-man is evil, but that isn't the fault of the game itself) However most of the popular games go far beyond the line.

          I'm not sure I agree that christian games are the solution to the problem. However the problem being solved isn't a reach out to non-Christians, it is a lack of things Christians can do.

        • Just a notE: Cheek turnign isn't rolling over and playind dead. It's defiance. If someone beats you, make them kill you. Show you don't care what they do here because your reward is else where.
  • I, for one, can't wait for "Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter"

  • Syncretism (Score:4, Interesting)

    by hey! ( 33014 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @11:51AM (#12408132) Homepage Journal
    Fusion of differing systems of belief, especially when success is partial or the result is heterogeneous.

    As much as one might long to go ad fontes -- to the wellspring, Christianity as we know it in the West is irretrievably commingled with the violent, demon haunted world view of the northern tribes it filtered through. Certain elements of the ancient first and second century viewpoint can be recaptured, such as proximate parousia (the belief in the imminent Secnd Coming), but somehow they come out with more than a soupçon of Ragnarok in them.

    So, we have the violent fantasy of divinely sanctioned holy war, in which, drawing the sword in the name of the Prince of Peace, indulging one's blood lust is not only sinless, but a positive good.

    For most, Holy War is of course a metaphor. But where there is a metaphor, be certain that some will take it literally. Games are only games of course, except when they are indoctrination. That's difference between a Christian FPS and, say, GTA, which although it is disgusting in my opinion, is also harmless because it is meant to be, and is understood to be an absurd view of the world.

    • Re:Syncretism (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mausmalone ( 594185 )
      ::looks up some of those words in the dictionary::

      I don't know that the latin was totally necessary, but you do have a solid point. This is a big reason why most Christian games don't do well. Most either take the place of an action/fps type title where you're on the good side of a holy war (or literally a war between heaven and hell sometimes), or it's like a choose your own adventure stories, but with the world's most obvious "correct" choices. That's probably why the only really successful christian

  • First Person Shooters? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I know this'll get modded to troll quickly, because I'm daring to say something most Christians don't want to hear, but if a Christian is supposed to be like Christ, and Christ was the "Prince of Peace", then I can't help but ask, if Jesus were in the situations created in such a game, what would he do?

    And wouldn't the goal, in a Christian game, be to do what Jesus would do?

    So, yes, I would think any kind of shooter would be the antithesis of what Christ taught.

    But I know few Christians that ever conside

    • Re:First Person Shooters? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cyber0ne ( 640846 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @12:05PM (#12408347) Homepage
      But I know few Christians that ever consider that, since it would be inconvenient.

      You know mostly lazy Christians.

      Read the Old Testament for the more violent epics. Consider this for a video game:

      You are recruited into the king's army. You fight battle after battle, each one more challenging than the last. Eventually, you have more political clout than the king himself because you're such a great war hero. The king then tries to kill you, but his own son betrays him and helps you flee. Actually, I forget what happened between the fleeing and the king's death (feel free to look it up, it should be in the books of Samuel), but eventually you return and are crowned king yourself. You fight more battles, further establish your kingdom. You raise your son to be a great leader after you. Etc. Etc.

      If done well, such things could make for pretty good video games. And that's just one character in one religion (or one combined source of a couple religions).
    • Christ-like at the end times would be more violent than any first person shooter. Take the stories given in Revelations. Christ isn't going to pull any punches and will slaughter millions and millions of non-believers.

      Remember one item, the term Christ-like is usually most attributed to people attempting to box in Christians. It is a term used to put Christians on the defensive.

      Christ tells us to treat each other fairly. Christ taught us to love each other. However he is the final Judge and fair isn'

  • Lots of money to be made (Score:4, Insightful)

    by moof1138 ( 215921 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @11:53AM (#12408163)
    There is a fairly large subset of Christians in the U.S. who really want to hide from modern society. They are threatened by secular society, threatened by contemporary culture, threatened by modern science, etc. Marketing escapist stuff that helps to reinforce their little worldview would certainly be a cash cow.

    • Re:Lots of money to be made (Score:4, Funny)

      by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @01:20PM (#12409344) Journal
      When society is selling sex, drugs, and immoral behavior, of course Christians would not want to indulge in it. I used to like GTA:Vice City, but since God spoke to me, I threw it away and didn't buy GTA:San Andreas. There are definately video games out there that God doesn't want you to be playing. The trouble is that they're not always easy to spot. You could be playing an RPG, and then towards the end it could force you to worship some false god to continue. Video games are notorious for suprises popping up. Thats why it would be nice for some Christian games. Games a morally straight person won't have to worry about sinning in the heart to play.
      • "You could be playing an RPG, and then towards the end it could force you to worship some false god to continue. Video games are notorious for suprises popping up."

        But what's to stop a subversive "christian" game doing the same thing? Wouldn't that be an attractive method for the evil corrupters of good god-fearing Christians. Selling wholesome Christian games with a special surprise element.

        Obviously, the only real solution is to write all the games that your children play yourself, and hope that you you
    • Aren't almost all video games escapist? How many people come home from a hard day of battling hell demons on Mars to play Doom3? Are WWII veterans the ones playing Band of Brothers?
  • Collect 100 Philistine Foreskins & win the princess. 200 for bonus points!

  • Get outside the box (Score:4, Interesting)

    by FreshMeat-BWG ( 541411 ) <bengoodwyn AT me DOT com> on Monday May 02, 2005 @12:04PM (#12408313) Homepage
    Scott Wong, of Brethren, acknowledges that ''the actual act of pulling a trigger and hunting down something -- somebody might have a problem with that. I always tell people that if you want good drama, you have to have conflict -- without that, you can't make your point.''
    I didn't realize that the only solution to conflict and the only way to create drama is "pulling a trigger and hunting down something".

    I am a Christian and I look forward to seeing high-quality Christian-themed games (even those including forms of violence), but to really create a new market that doesn't simply compete for shelf-space with other FPS titles, wouldn't a new gaming paradigm be a better opportunity?

    For that matter, there are other game types that could be well suited to spreading the Word of God that don't require killing someone or something such as puzzle, adventure, strategy, simulation, etc.

    I am not arguing that a Christian game should be void of violence, but these Christian game developers should not lock themselves into the mode of thinking that the only way to develop a hugely popular title is to compete directly with other hugely popular titles such as other FPS titles with gratuitous violence.

    Christian developers say they will not embrace: the moral relativism embodied in the R.P.G.
    So violence is OK, but looking at things from other perspectives is not? Again I don't think these guys should make this assumption across the board. Let someone play the role of Satan; however, if this is a faith-based/Christian game that is to teach a certain message, then I would assume playing that role would provide the opportunity to teach the lesson of why playing that role is not as desirable as it initially seems.
    • I think these companies want to sell games to christians, not convert the masses to christianity. They probably want to actually make money, after all, and I really think that's where the market is.

  • Christian game reviews (Score:3, Funny)

    by Reignking ( 832642 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @12:04PM (#12408326) Journal
    There are plenty of Christian-centered game review web sites [google.com] out there...

    I can see it now..."You turn the corner" "You hear something" "You ask yourself, WWJD?"

  • Simpsons... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Reignking ( 832642 )
    Don't forget Billy Graham's Bible Blasters, the only video game owned by the Flandersesess -- Convert the Heathen!
    • Which scene also contains my favorite response to people who want to play when I'm playing a one-player game:

      Rodd and Todd - "Can we play now, Bart?"

      Bart - "You are playing. We're a team!"

      Rodd and Todd - "Yay!!!"

  • So... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sylver Dragon ( 445237 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @12:29PM (#12408654) Journal
    So, when do we get the hentai game based on Lot and his daughters?

    • So, when do we get the hentai game based on Lot and his daughters?

      I hope you don't also want to include the two men (angels, reportedly) who were in Lot's house while the townspeople outside demanded that they be let in to have sex with the men.

      It could have a lot to do with the translation, but that's the general interpretation I've seen. Some tone it down by replacing "so we may have sex with them" with "so we may know them" but the carnal implications are definitely there.
      • That might be a good starting point, but I was kind of thinking about later in the story, where Lot's daughters got him drunk, so they could have sex with him.

  • For a good Christian video game, check out Graceworks Interactive [graceworks...active.com] -- I'm really impressed with their game "Interactive Parables".
  • Most of the games seem to just be a typical FPS with a bible or christian related scenario tagged on. Smart way to generate extra sales for a mediocre FPS! Check out the Scenario for "Ominous Horizons": 'Mainz Germany, 1455. Johannes Gutenberg, creator of the printing press, completed his great masterpiece; a printed Bible. Thus, a new era in human development would ensue where scribes were no longer needed to painstakingly hand copy manuscripts. Gutenberg could now create thousands of copies of the Bible

  • How about... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Adelbert ( 873575 )
    How about a Muslim themed game? Or a game based on Judaism? Sikhism? Buddhism? No?

    • Re:How about... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cyber0ne ( 640846 )
      How about a Muslim themed game? Or a game based on Judaism? Sikhism? Buddhism? No?

      I guess I personally don't know enough about those religions to even imagine such a game, with the exception of ancient Judaism of course. But if it's diversity you're after, go for it. I know several Sikh teens whose parents would probably love to replace their GTA titles with a game that promotes their traditions.
    • Have at it. You want em, you code em.

    • Re:How about... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by HanClinto ( 621615 )
      Probably a troll, but I'll bite.

      I thought that many of the FF games had a buddhist/new age theology behind them? I didn't think that there was any shortage of Buddhist games. There are several puzzle games that are made specifically for main-line Buddhism as a relaxation aide -- 3 minutes of Googling should bring up 2 or 3 of these.

      There certainly are a fair number of mixed-bag "pagan" games, combining ideals from wicca, witchcraft, buddhism, and other new age "roll your own" religion. Ultima and other m

      • The Keanu movie was called Constantine, and made me want to start smoking and reading the bible the minute I left the theatre.
      • For Judaism, there are several games that love to play off of the classic "heaven vs. hell" war (without dealing with the person of Jesus as Christ). While I doubt Jews would want to play the games, many things are spun off of warped Judaic theology. Things that come to mind for this are Spawn (comic book and movie, not really a game), the Diablo series, and many other books/movies such as the "His Dark Materials" series and that one recent movie with Keanu Reeves in it -- the name eludes me atm.

        While Dua

        • Then what religion is that? I recognized that "While I doubt Jews would want to play the games, many things are spun off of warped Judaic theology."

          I'm not talking about just dualism -- that's present in many religions. I'm talking about the war between Heaven and Hell using Judeo/Christian vocabulary. I believe I also answered your question here [slashdot.org].

          In Spawn, there is certainly a Hell. In Diablo and also in Doom. Though I see your point in games like Quake -- that seems to have the Satan-type character w

          • OK - I can see you're really confused here - the problem isn't just with Satan/Lucifer - its with the idea of Hell itself. It just isn't in Judaism... Demons and Angels themselves are just messengers for God

            So while the idea of supernatural forces with independent spirits are cool for RPG's - these are really Christian or pagan worldviews. Don't feel bad - a lot of writers like to throw Judeo-Christian around in popular writings, when they really mean Christian or Early Christian - it ends up confusing most

    • How about a Muslim themed game?

      Like this? [telegraph.co.uk]
    • Or how about satanic games, for that matter? I'd love to see some
      *really* "evil" games >:)

      Down with the Devil!
  • Considering some of the imagery in the bible about hunting demons, games such as Doom, Quake, Redneck Rampage, Half Life, etc. don't really miss the mark all that much - though with the possible exception of Redneck Rampage, it's not clear as to whether your character is Christian.

    That said, both Doom and Quake are flexible, so in lieu of reinventing the wheel, one can just put a new wheel in, as it were, and start playing around with imagery - that is to say, put in your own characters and equipment. Se

  • The original DOOM series. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Stoutlimb ( 143245 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @01:25PM (#12409402)
    The more you kill, the further you descend into the pits of hell. That sounds like a pretty good faith-based lesson for people. Go play Doom.

    Bork!

  • Good News (Score:2, Insightful)

    by tealtalon ( 714179 )
    When they have their own games to play they can stop trying to tame the rest of them down to feed to their sheltered children. Matter of fact, they should start their own satelite company. Instead of direct tv or dish, GOD TV. YES! Then they don't have to sensor everyone elses television. Don't forget movie rentals. It will be just like blockbuster, but without that pesky SATANIC Harry Potter to poison little Jimmy's mind with witchcraft. The posibilities are endless. The days of evangelicals craming shit d
  • Well, as a pretty devout and even hard line Christain I think this idea SUCKS. I don't like the popularized Bush type of Chistianity and I think this easily falls into that catagory.

    From a Bible standpoint everything that is really awesome glorifies God. As a future game developer (it probably takes a religious nut job to have enough hope to think that I can get into the games industry) I will focus on making the most kick ass, intelligent and fun games possible. Sticking a Christian sticker on something d
  • Is there a place amid the witches, warlocks and diabolical monsters for Christian video games?

    No. Why? Because unlike Christian music, Christian video games actually have to compete against stuff that's good.

    Rob
    • Not really. Remember, you're not selling to the kids, you're selling it to the parents: it doesn't matter if it sucks. They don't have to play it.

      Remember: christian pop/rock is driven by parents who won't let their kids listen to anything else. Seriously.

      Bribe a couple of televangelists to pitch it, and you're set. Hell, grandmas will buy it for christmas gifts.

      Poor kids.
  • Chex cereal had an FPS for kids, ChexQuest, based on Doom. CDs were in the boxes of cereal. When you "shot" a creature it was not killed, it was teleported back to it's homeworld, or something like that.
  • So that's why this is in the works.

    http://jesus.evilx.com/ [evilx.com]

    Its a shame it never actually got made.
  • Yeah, maybe it's about time we made a game about the crusades! You could be this christian knight and go around slaughtering innocent people because they don't believe in your God! Or maybe you could have a game about how christians with faith on their side start some war or another!

  • You could try to leverage some of that Christian music into a video game. Grab StepMania [stepmania.com] and make some simfiles with music by ZOEgirl and other popular Christian artists.

    I'm not the first to think of Dance Dance Resurrection [i12.com].

  • (bold denotes Jesus speaking)

    32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

    34 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

    36 "A man's enemies will be the members of his own househ

  • The Ultimate Market (Score:3, Funny)

    by popo ( 107611 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @01:48PM (#12422236) Homepage

    Face it: The Religious Right is *the* ultimate market. I mean this both politically and comercially -- there is no easier market to sell to.

    First off, the communications channels in organized religion are second to none. No other community of this size has such smoothly functioning internal communications regarding brand, product favorites and traction.

    Secondly, they are *by definition* non-critical of all things "faith related". (The entire definition of "Faith" is belief without criticism). The Church discourages criticism and independent thought -- as it always has. Products which appeal to core beliefs benefit from swift, non-critical product acceptance.

    Thirdly, religious institutions are increasingly commercial -- which means both distribution and marketing channels are increasingly bundled with traditional teaching, messaging and outreach programs.

    Religious video games are a sure thing. Religious anything is a sure thing.

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