Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Game over

Many developers compare the state of Christian video games to the Christian music scene a decade ago: evolving into a flavor that's palatable to more than the faithful.

As happened with purveyors of Christian music, long accused of lacking daring and originality, Bogost wonders if game designers will be inspired to create innovative products or just fill this new niche with derivative entertainment.

If one feels the need to slay a hellspawn, well, they can play "Doom" for that. (IndyStar)

Except, if you did that you'd be sending money to those bad boys at id software and not restricting your milk-drinking to a Christian cow. I imagine for some Christians the morality of the actual purchase -- and how it will affect them spirtually -- ranks paramount, but for others it's more a matter of keeping the money "in the kingdom" and enriching other Chrisitians. Very insular and more than a bit unbiblical.

"What I'd love to see are games that try to explain the rhetoric of religion. What are these beliefs? What is the history? How does your life change in behaving in accordance?" he said. "My great fear is that people get in this business and not do something unique for faith through games."

If the Christian game industry ends up anything like the Christian music industry, I think this great fear will be more than realized.

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