The Problem with Christian Gaming
From "Left Behind: Eternal Forces"
Good news for the tiny, yet growing market of Christian video games. The pilot program started by Left Behind Games with Walmart has been a great success in Texas, as Christian games are being snatched up by misguided parents all across the Lone Star state.
At the current rate, Walmart is actually going to sell out of the Left Behind games, and will have to reorder. Left Behind is currently offering to send whoever buys one of their games an additional game for free, in order to broaden the brand.
Now, I’m not terribly OK with this whole Christian gaming trend for a few reasons. The so-called “Christian games” that I’ve played suffer from two problems. The first is that they’re hypocritical. Christians bemoan video game violence perhaps more than any group out there, but they’re perfectly OK with it so long as you’re fighting A) Evil Roman soldiers or B) Evil agents of the Anti-christ (pictured above) and C) There’s no blood. Because killing without blood is OK. In some of these games, if you actually played out the scenarios they suggest in real life, they would be completely blood soaked and depraved.
Many people will know that if you’ve actually read through the Bible, it’s without a doubt rated M for mature, and sometimes even AO. There are bloody wars and sex scandals all over the place, and a TRUE video game based on the Bible, would actually be pretty fun. Yet somehow, because Christians think blood is evil, they tone down their own violent history into “family friendly” games based on very un-family friendly material.
The second reason I object to these Christian games is because they suck. Overlooking whatever the hell the plot of any of the games are, they simply are just not well made, and I think it’s exploitative for the company to spit out crappy games at unknowing parents who think that they’re doing their kids a favor by having them play a Left Behind RTS rather than Command and Conquer, despite the fact that both are similar in style, except one is way, way worse.
And I don’t want to hear about how Christian game developers have to make crappy games because they have no funding. That’s simply not the case. Some indie developers have way smaller budgets than Left Behind Games, yet they’ve created some truly awesome and innovative games over the years. The only thing I’ve seen come out of Left Behind are cheap knockoffs of currently existing games, packaged with a Christian label.
Maybe there are some people really trying to win hearts and minds in the Christian gaming industry, but to me it just comes off like some second hand developers trying to make a quick buck off of a consumer group that doesn’t know any better. And that, I don’t think, is very Christian at all.
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Bloodless, eh? Sounds sort of like the gunfights in the old GI Joe cartoon. Missile hits airplane, but just as it does, Cobra pilot parachutes out. It gave children a rather interesting perspective on war.
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Great post, I think it is really sad that people use Religion as a way to make money….I think Cartman’s idea of starting a Christian rock band is more in line with the truth than one would like to think. At the same time, you have to place blame on the stupid people who blindly assume if it says Christian, that it is ok, yet they are just as violent as many other games.
The fact that they are also bad games is just ridiculous. Anyone remember the truckloads of ET games “lost” in he desert because someone though they would just sell!
The Left Behind series is laughable IMO, poorly written with no real value to the reader about religious beliefs. Tim LaHaye is just creepy looking too!
The definition of mediocrity is anything marketed to Christians. I am a Christian myself, but find that when a rock band can’t make it in the big leagues, they start turning out “Christian Rock”. When Country singers no longer have a following, they insert the name “Jesus” into a few lyrics, and suddenly they are selling millions of records to people who don’t mind mediocrity, as long as somehow props are given to Jesus.
That’s what you are seeing with this video game: third-rate gaming software intended for the non-critical user, although I do find the game’s concepts and themes disturbing.
Real advertisers and marketers understand this about the Christian consumer and exploit this weakness ad nauseum. That’s why for many Christians, heaven is a place called, Branson, MO.