| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-Economics |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
13 Mar 2005 03:55:58 PM |
| Object: |
Religious computer games blast unbelievers and destroy Satan. |
Today you can solve sacred puzzles, blast unbelievers and destroy
Satan.
Religion has gone digital, and it's packing heat.
From The Arizona Republic, 3/13/05:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ae/articles/0313religiousgames13.html
'We've been blessed': Video games with religious themes gain audience
By Jeremy Lemer
Columbia News Service
NEW YORK -
This month, Bill Bean and his partners will bring their first two
Christian-themed video games to market.
It has not been an easy path, but along the way something has guided
them.
When they were looking for an animator to produce the graphics, Bean,
the artist behind The Lion King and other Disney classics, happened to
have an opening in his schedule.
When money ran short last year, a rise in housing prices allowed him
and his partners to borrow enough money to continue.
Coincidence?
Perhaps.
But in the world of faith-based video games, it had to be something
else.
"We've been blessed," Bean said simply.
Computer games with religious themes make up a small slice of the $1.1
billion computer-game industry, but they're filling a growing niche
for faith-oriented entertainment.
Since 1995, the two bestselling titles have sold more than 250,000
copies, and about 40 software companies are developing new and
increasingly sophisticated games.
Today you can solve sacred puzzles, blast unbelievers and destroy
Satan. Religion has gone digital, and it's packing heat.
"We want to prove that you can have a whole lot of fun without the
butts, boobs, bombs and gore," Bean said.
Faith-based games are by no means new.
In the early 1990s, companies such as Wisdom Tree in Tucson began
producing Christian-themed games for Nintendo and Super Nintendo.
In recent years, the industry has grown as developers and parents have
reacted to the increasingly racy and violent content of such
mainstream games as Grand Theft Auto, a popular title produced by
Rockstar Games in which gamers play a small-time drug dealer making
his rounds in the big city.
"It is basically a primer on how to make a career in carjacking and
crime," said Bean, marketing director at Digital Praise Software.
"You learn how to throw people out of cars, you get points for
shooting cops and slapping women around. It's outrageous."
Providing an alternative to that kind of product is what motivated
Bean to set up his own software company with his brother and a partner
in 2003.
Such arguments resonate among parents.
Jill Rudansky, an Orthodox Jew and a 45-year-old mother of four in
Huntington, N.Y., recently bought her son a copy of Ehud's Courage and
the Cunning Blade, a new adventure game produced by Davka, a Jewish
software company in New York.
"My kids are going to play computer games anyway," she said, "so I
would rather have one where they learn something wholesome at the same
time."
To progress in the game, players have to learn and use passages from
the Book of Prophets.
The games vary enormously in content and sophistication, in part
because what constitutes a faith-based game is a matter of debate
within the industry.
Some games are overtly religious, focusing on biblical stories and
literature.
Charlie Church Mouse, by Lifeline Studios, is one such game, a simple
puzzle in which Bible stories provide the context for kids to learn
about numbers and the Old Testament; Mitzvah Man, by Torah Educational
Software in Monsey, N.Y., is a knowledge quiz based on Pac Man.
In other games, the religious message is more subtle and the style
closely mimics mainstream secular video games.
Catechumen is a classic first-person shooter, complete with crossbows,
blasters and exploding scenery.
But the devil, or rather the saint, is in the details.
Instead of annihilating aliens or the undead, you play a Christian
attempting to save his brethren from the Roman catacombs where they
have been imprisoned.
This is what Christianity might have looked like if it hadn't turned
the other cheek.
Blast a centurion with your sword and he kneels down and converts.
_______________________________________________________________
Yup. This is where our country is today. Hard to believe, eh?
Harry
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| User: "chris" |
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| Title: Re: Religious computer games blast unbelievers and destroy Satan. |
13 Mar 2005 04:05:35 PM |
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"Blast a centurion with your sword and he kneels down and converts."
Telling.
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| User: "z" |
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| Title: Re: Religious computer games blast unbelievers and destroy Satan. |
13 Mar 2005 05:20:07 PM |
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Grand Theft Camel: Bethlehem City
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| User: "Starshine Moonbeam" |
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| Title: Re: Religious computer games blast unbelievers and destroy Satan. |
13 Mar 2005 08:27:48 PM |
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In article <Xns96189C09A55EDzyadayadayada@216.196.97.131>, z
(z@yada.yada.com) dropped a +5 bundle of words...
Grand Theft Camel: Bethlehem City
Crucifixion: The Roman Decision
--
Starshine Moonbeam
mhm31x9 Smeeter#29 WSD#30
sTaRShInE_mOOnBeAm aT HoTmAil dOt CoM
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