I'm just wondering...

[teh Schala]

This is a question about Christian videogames (or the potential for them) but the question is for non-Christians here too.

If there were decent (meaning, entertaining) videogames that contain strong, overt, plainly Christian content, who here would play them?  Further...if you're a Christian, would you play them because of the content?  If you're not a Christian, would you play them in SPITE of the content?  Would you say that it's just like every other religious overtone in games and you wouldn't care that it's in there?

This is a good opportunity to discuss the stance your parents might take on games too.  Personally my parents have always been against stuff like RPGs that Square makes and so on...but they've known I'm mature enough to handle stuff like that.  As for Christian games...the ones I've seen (mostly on PC) are just inexcusably lame beyond compare.  However, I've always suspected that the market for them is there...just no quality product on that market.

Your thoughts?

[Lordchander]

Everyone is probably gonna laugh here, but there was once this pretty cool game called Saints of Virtue right? It was a first-person shooter made by some amateur group using a special program or something. Anywho, it was really quite fun, the game was quite large and was quite challenging at points, and  the landscpaes were beautiful, no matter how crappy the graphics looked. The only downside is that glitches rocked the game EVERYWHERE! But nonetheless it is a pretty good game (while it lasted).

[teh Schala]

Heh, makes you wonder how games make it to market with glitches like that...

I guess I'm asking in this thread because like I said, I suspect that the market for it exists, but it's just ignored by people who are actually capable of making such a product.  I've always wanted to make a Christian game that's actually...well...good!  Heh.

I always imagine a game being made of the book I'm working on.  It's called Jullinar: An Angel's Story and is about spiritual warfare, angels against demons and all that...would make a really exciting movie and a great game too...  I keep picturing the game as being a little like the recent Spider-Man games...action, camera-follows-behind-hero, free exploring (and since you're an angel, free flying!), with RPG elements like experience, equipment and Techs.  And then there's the storyline, hehe...personally I think it would RULE...but who would actually make it?  Meh.

[DeweyisOverrated]

I always imagine a game being made of the book I'm working on.  It's called Jullinar: An Angel's Story

OHHH... so THAT'S where...

Anyway, I'm not so sure I would play a Chistian "game".  It seems like it would basically be about learning the ways of God, stuff that's too boring for me to do.  Plus, they would have to many restrictions on stuff you can't do.  I don't think the Hot Coffee mod would be in there.  Now, a game based on Christian mythology I would play, but not about Christian values.

[teh Schala]

Ah... see, that's why it's called An Angel's Story...  The premise is, can you imagine the life story an angel would tell?  So yeah, the book stretches from Creation to Armageddon...no telling what the game would cover...but yeah, tons of the events that pretty much "define" Christianity would be a part of it.

Oh and yeah, no coffee with that angel... >_>

[Legend of the Past]

If it's a great story with great gameplay and awesome music I woulden't mind the Christian stuff. I just woulden't look at it.

My parents point of view... Unstatisfied with me gaming, like, at all. But hey, it's my life.

[teh Schala]

Heh, no kidding...  If only I could get Yasunori Mitsuda to compose the game's score!  I'm listening to his song "Flight" from Xenogears right now...  But who would be next-best?

*stares at Claado Shou and his cohorts* >_>

[AuraTwilight]

It's not Christian games I have a problem with (I mean, god! killing and demons! score!) It's the Christians who act like games are stealing people's souls. I once saw a review for Chrono Cross from a christian, and he said something about how "Chrono Cross is teaching children to let their lives be run by computers etc." . . . I wrote back "Have you FINISHED the game? you KILL that computer. God damn, I'm glad you didn't get to Schala's meaning of life speech. I hope you don't read 1984, you'll probably wet yourself"

[Legend of the Past]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!
WHO WOULDNT WANT TO PLAY A CHRISTIAN GAME!!!

the bible is full of killing, sex, plagues, trials and tribulation, deception, demons

Along with "believe in Jesus, believe in God" ideals. I don't mind the "believe in God" one, though, hmm, the Jesus part dosen't really appeal to me.

Plus, what if you believe in Buddah? Or Islam? Or if you're a Jew, like yours truly?

[teh Schala]

Right, it can get offensive to some.  Here's where I want to know whether people would play it even if it steps on what they personally believe.  Chrono Trigger tries to walk all over what I believe, but I play it anyway...

[Legend of the Past]

I'd play it. If a sequence of code is enough to crush my beliefes and break my entire world view, it means I really need to start praying more.

[Daniel Krispin]

My thoughts... well, I probably wouldn't play a Christian based game, or battle game, just because they usually don't work out. It's an odd thing, but as CS Lewis said, there's not Christian way to boil an egg. Not all things can or need be done distinctly Christian. I wouldn't mind a game that references those things, or has a theme that is Christian, but a fully Christian game? I don't know.

Ah, here, I think I have the reason. No game could do the grandeur of such a thing justice, and to attribute points and health, and all such other neccessary game things to it, really isn't fitting or respectful, I should think. Stories and writing... words can accomplish things that games cannot, and be far grander.

Right, it can get offensive to some. Here's where I want to know whether people would play it even if it steps on what they personally believe. Chrono Trigger tries to walk all over what I believe, but I play it anyway...

Likewise. Although I found it impossible to let lie in writing, for which my fanfiction explicitly makes mention of God.

Ah... see, that's why it's called An Angel's Story... The premise is, can you imagine the life story an angel would tell? So yeah, the book stretches from Creation to Armageddon...no telling what the game would cover...but yeah, tons of the events that pretty much "define" Christianity would be a part of it.

Well, personally, I think an angel lives in eternity apart from times, so would have no life per say, unless they enter into the physical world.

But from Creation to Armageddon? How can that be? Creation is a temporal point, and Armageddon - mount Megiddo - is a place, a famous battlefield in north Israel. Wouldn't it be from Creation to the End?

[Legend of the Past]

Actually, you should call it Har Megiddo (Or at least put it in brackets) so people could see the resemblence. And being as I'm not keen about the NT, what does it say about Har Meggido, any why do people read doomsday into it?

[teh Schala]

Daniel, although you're technically right, Armageddon is usually thought of as an event, not a place.  Although the "Battle of Armageddon" in the book of Revelation takes place in the Valley of Megiddo, currently known as the Megiddo Junction.

Legend: People read doomsday into the terms Megiddo and Armageddon because of the prophecy in Revelation that says the last battle will take place there.

So yes, to correct my very slight miswording that seems to have thrown Daniel completely off, the book stretches from the time of Creation to the time of the final battle AT Armageddon...  Happy?

[Daniel Krispin]

Daniel, although you're technically right, Armageddon is usually thought of as an event, not a place.  Although the "Battle of Armageddon" in the book of Revelation takes place in the Valley of Megiddo, currently known as the Megiddo Junction.

Legend: People read doomsday into the terms Megiddo and Armageddon because of the prophecy in Revelation that says the last battle will take place there.

So yes, to correct my very slight miswording that seems to have thrown Daniel completely off, the book stretches from the time of Creation to the time of the final battle AT Armageddon...  Happy?

Yes.

The way in which the NT speaks of it, Legend, is as the place where the armies gather - I'll look it up (I should know this better, being a theologian's son...) ...

12The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13Then I saw three evil[a] spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

    15"Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."

    16Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.


Very figurative, of course - I've always been taught that this never actually refers to a physical battle, nor even the end of days. Since the plains of Megiddo have always been a battlefield - for they occupy a strategic position - even a WWI battle being fought there (or maybe it was nearby in the valley of Jezreel) by the British under Allenby, it is apt to use it as the place of a more final battle, in figurative language. Personally, I use the same location in my stories albeit with a different name. My fields of Annoth-Tin where the last great battle of the Nephilim occurs seem to have, during the writing process, become Megiddo - though I never name it as such.

By the way, teh Schala (you know, it was easier to call you Jake), you asked me something about grand description or something of that nature in a PM - I replied, but you never answered after. Did you get it?