Jesus Saves:

[AFPheonix]

....before he fights the boss.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/714/714457p1.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6178055.stm

This thing is like The Sims meet church, meet Quake. While I'm cool with christian entertainment (heck, I had that Bible Quest game for NES when I was a kid) this game sounds like something else altogether. If you can't get someone to convert, you shoot them?
Devils pouring out of UN vehicles? Spyware? Dayum, There's all kinds of stuff wrong with this game.

Thoughts?

[Rapscallion]

Does it have a sniper rifle? That's my favourite!

How many frames per second do you get?

On a more serious note, I'm trying to see the problem. Games have been based on fictional situations ever since games began. How is this any different from playing Doom?

Rapscallion

[rahmota]

Well the imagery and plot of the game are bit different then DOOM. In Doom you play a marine who is trying to save the earth from the demons. In LEFT BEHIND you apparently play a "christian soldier" trying to convert/save people and if that doesnt work then kill them as they cannot be saved. The UN is filled with Demons (Wonder where they got that idea? ) and a bunch of other stuff that makes you wonder who thought this game would be a good PR device for the church.

Which while I think its not going to go over very well with people and probably not goign to be a major hit like doom or quake the plot and story of the game isnt the most disturbing part of the game I've read about. Its not terriffic but then again if you think about it if you based a game on the real history of the catholic church say during the crusades or inquisition it wouldnt be very complimentary.

Installing this game also installs a bunch of spyware, adware, and tracking software onto your system that remotely reports to the company your IP, how often you play the game, how long the various embedded ads are viewed in the game among other things. THAT is what bothers me about this game.

[Rapscallion]

We've already got idiots on all religious fronts crying out that they should be able to kill people who don't believe exactly what they do - not many, but they're vocal and on the front pages of newspapers. I really cannot see that this will make any difference.

The spyware? The sort of information reported is going to be the sort of stuff companies want to know in order to fine-tune their programs, but that's just down to their computer ethics, for want of a better term.Now news of that is out, sales of their game will be hit. Other companies have done similar and learned the hard way.

I'm not sure why the crusades or inquisition came into it. As far as I'm aware, nobody has tried to sell a game based on the religious aspects of either (though there are some secular RTS games based around the crusades, or that era). When they do, it will be pertinent.

Rapscallion

[rahmota]

Sorry I was limited on time so didnt get all my thoughts in order before posting.

I am agreeing with you that this game is not that big a deal in relation to the fact that there are people of all *isms wanting to do those actions in real life. Games like Doom and all IMO don't make people want to go out and kill wanitng to go out and kill makes people want to go out and kill. That a company thought it would be a good idea to base a game on the particular beliefs, plotline, and scenario they did just shows a certain lack of good judgement. Not uncommon unfortunately for companies.

Also theres the whole timing issue. Someone came up with what seems on paper a good idea, tapping into whats hot or in the pulse of things. Unfortunaetly with the development time and processing and everything by the time the game hits the market the wave of popular opinion may have already moved. Maybe a few years ago when the religious ferver was peaking and the Left Behind Series was really big this game would have been received a bit better. Maybe not. I'm not sure.

As for the crusades and the inquisition they came up because like now they where time periods of intensive combat between isms and a game set during those times would not be very complimentary (like this one) if it didnt gloss over the less savory aspects of the times. I had thought there was an RPG or two based in the Crusades and White Wolf had a supplement that had the characters in the Inquisition but those where all pen and paper RPGs not computer so I guess it was not a good comparison. I'm not as familiar with the computer game scene as I used to be.

And speaking of not good judgement why they would incorporate spyware into their software after all the fervor that its been causing, especially after what Sony did, just makes me laugh. To think that it would do them any good when people are becoming more aware of spyware and not wanting it on their computers does not show that there was much good judgement involved in this product from the begin.

[Rapscallion]

Well, it's certainly not good judgement to put spyware in games because of the number of computer-savvy people out there. The knowledge that they had done so would have been out there pretty quickly - quite a number of people run packet sniffers and firewalls that ask about anything they don't recognise, so being caught was pretty much going to happen whatever else went on. That's a programming decision, though, and not really something I could link up with the decision about the genre of gameplay - unless that decision was made by the same people/person.

I'd forgotten about table-top gaming, though I have to point out that I've never seen anything like this in computer games. RPGs can be adapted to whatever time period you like, so that wouldn't even need a supplement.

Rapscallion

[AFPheonix]

I guess my problem with the game is that Christianity bills itself as a religion of peace and free choice. So just the thought that a video game in which you play a Christian pretty much delivers the idea that people convert or die (if they don't convert to you, they become "evil" and must be gunned down) just doesn't seem like the kind of message any kind of religion needs to be putting out right now.
If this was a game in which you played a Sudanese Islamic Court guy, can you imagine the absolute furor over it? Why should it be any different for a Christian game?

[Rapscallion]

I've had a read of one of the links, and it's not all about killing people.

As for christianity being a religion of peace, it depends on which branch. The christians of the middle ages had no problem rationalising invading a country halfway (nearly) around the world in the crusades. Bush is a devout christian, or so I'm told, and his track record suggests he's not overly unhappy about violence. The word 'islam', I'm told, is supposed to translate directly as 'peace', yet we're all quite aware of atrocities in the name of that religion by those who follow their variant of the texts.

Actually, after the Salman Rushdie fatwah, there was an islamic video released called 'International Guerillas', wherein the intrepid 'heroes' hunted Salman Rushdie until allah killed him. I don't think there would be a problem with playing the part of an islamic warrior, given that. Well, not from the more angry sections, anyway.

Rapscallion

[rahmota]

While the killing people aspect may not be the prime one in the game it is still one of the major ways in the game so I can see why some people would get bent. Or otherwise feel like AFP does.

As for what if you replaced the christian aspects with another say muslim then youd probably still have about the same mix of apathy to condemnation with maybe a smidge more leaning towards condemnation.

And no offense to anyone but I'll agree that for a religion that bills itself as one of peace there have been quite a few of its adherents not only wiling but enthusiastic about doing violence in the name of their deity.

[AFPheonix]

Oh, I know. It still goes on, too, so people can't just say that Christian violence stopped off at the Crusades. Hello, Balkan ethnic cleansing, anyone? Lebanon? Ireland?

[Boozy]

Jesus saves!
Passes to Moses!
Moses shoots!
SCORES!

Sorry, couldn't resist.
I promise my second post on these forums will have some actual content worth reading.

[AFPheonix]

Heh It's not like there's a post count on here, anyways

[Primer]

Jesus saves!

But God(dess) Invests!!

[rahmota]

But only if they can get good prophets on their investment!

[AFPheonix]

So no robbing Peter to pay Paul?