Greg Howson at Guardian Games Blog reported on The Bible Game earlier this week – and my initial thought was “Well ofcourse! The Bible must have plenty of great gaming scenarios in it! Why the hell not?!” – but ofcourse this was a quiz game which seems blah and boring.

So I couldn’t help having a good chuckle this morning when I read Ian Hardy’s “Spiritual challenge for gamers”. There’s so many weird utterenses in this article I just couldn’t let it pass by without commenting! The most reasonable comment:

“Troy Lyndon of Left Behind Games said: “There is warfare, the Bible is full of warfare, so are all the other great games that are on the market.””

Too right! He’s commenting on a new game they’re releasing called Eternal Forces which is “an action packed story set in a New York landscape where soldiers take on demons”. But then I start to chuckle:

“There’s no blood and a no cursing rule – curse and your energy level drops.”

Umh…oh there’s just so much to say about this sentence. Firstly, I’ve never really understood the moral dilemma of having the visualisation of blood, surely the issue is ‘the killing’. But I’m no expert on what corrupts children and I honestly don’t care if there’s blood or not, I’ve just never understood what the big deal is. And then there’s the cursing. He he! Seriously? Is there some form of monitor keeping track of the words coming out of the kids’ mouth while play? And if it’s an online game with communication channels – I’m so sorry to break it to you – but kids are way too smart to let censorship stop them from using unfavourable words. But you know, thinking about it – it’s a great marketing line! I’m sure parents will feel so much more comfortable buying a computer game that has “NO CURSING ALLOWED” in big red letters on the cover!
The rest of the article is kinda bizarre if you ask me. There’s something about how the Christian game developers can learn from the Christian music and movie industry and the examples mentioned are Gospel Music, Passion of the Christ and The Da Vinci Code (really?). But I also had a little – huh? moment with the last sentences:

“A Christian video game typically costs about $1m (£530,000) to produce, about five times less than a video game aimed at the mass market”

Huh?!!! Why is it cheaper to produce a Christian computer game? I don’t understand. Someone please explain this to me!! Is it because the developers are volunteers hoping to spread the word of God? Or is there some special funding involved when you call yourself a Christian organisation?