Blog Beat 10 – Curmudgeon Gamer and The Escapist
April 5th, 2007 by Sea0neSony the Copy Cat – Curmudgeon Gamer
The newest article on Curmudgeon Gamer is regarding the recent PS3 announcements by Sony VP, Phil Harrison, at the Game Developers Conference. At GDC Harrison released news about the PS3’s answer to both Microsoft’s XBOX Live and Nintendo’s Wii Connect (and Miis). Basically Sony will be combining the two ideas and then revamping them, all the while putting their own twist on it. The Playstation Home (as it’s called) will have an achievement system like XBOX and will have avatars (Second Life-esque from what I hear) and a customizable apartment similar to the Miis. There are some specifics that make it distinctly PlayStation, but of these I am unaware. My response is similar to that of the author’s: slightly skeptical realism. I’m willing to accept and support it, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Sony has dropped the ball like this before (as pointed out in the article).
A Lack of Faith – The Escapist
I was a little caught off guard by this article. Let’s be honest for a second, video games and Christianity don’t typically mix well — picture a density column where one is oil and the other is water. When they do mix, it’s only briefly (any polar solution will “mix” with a non-polar, but they quickly separate back out), and the results are insubstantial. I’m not only talking about Christian video games, but (and this may be a gross generalization) Christians and video games. Don’t get me wrong, obviously Christians play video games; I’m a Christian and I play video games. But Christianity doesn’t seem to have the same representation in video game circles that atheism, agnosticism or laziness has. So for an article to talk about what’s wrong with the Left Behind games other than, “It’s stupid because it’s based on stupid Christian fanaticism. It’s extreme and it’s stupid,” is something of note. Further still, when it’s eloquently and practically written, with a startling amount of both video game and — get this — Biblical insight, it’s nothing shy of absolutely shocking. Lara Crigger does a spectacular job of incorporating the two topics, identifying something severely wrong with the Christian video game genre, and offering insightful solutions.
Her main claim is that the reality is too far removed from Christian games. That isn’t to say that they aren’t good games because Revelations and The Rapture are unrealistic, but we don’t do them justice. We cheapen them by making them so polar (black and white, good and evil) and take out any of the doubt, pain, fear, etc that one has to deal with, given the gravity of the subject. Basically, we take the humanity out of the game. I don’t want to spoil the entirety of the article, but I will leave you with a few poignant quotes.
“For all the angels and messiahs and Raptures, Christian videogames, as a rule, just aren’t all that Christian. Oh, they have plenty of Scripture quotes, Bible stories and nonthreatening rock anthems by Jars of Clay. They deal with themes like salvation and the Post-Apocalypse, and players get to smite demons, lead Israelite armies and convert non-believers. God games cram together all the juicy features you’ve come to expect from pop-culture treatments of Christianity. But don’t be fooled. Even Jesus would be embarrassed to play Left Behind: Eternal Forces.”
“So many contemporary Christian games are unintentional self-parodies. By embracing Evangelical culture so indulgently and completely, these games are nothing but interactive stereotypes.”
“But Satan had a point, egging God on like that. If by being good, you can entirely avoid misfortune, what distinguishes righteousness from commerce, a mere business transaction between you and God? If Job only reveres God because he receives blessings in return, does his worship mean anything at all? As nice as he is, Job never questioned or challenged this exchange, and he never had reason to. So he was trapped, stuck in his own ignorance. His faith was blind, empty, like a salve without a wound. It had no doubt to give it contrast and weight: Having never been tested, Job’s faith had never passed the test.”
Even those three quotes demonstrate the sheer depth of the article. You should go read it.