canadianbacon13 Blog - All Comments

re: The Most Godless Game

LittleBigDaddy — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:23:16 GMT

Where is everyone getting the idea that I'm somehow worried about the lack of attention modern religion gets in video games? I just pointed out my own thoughts on an abstract concept it could represent.

re: The Most Godless Game

Brad Tramel — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:30:33 GMT

So why the hell do you play video games in the first place, hm? Just stop playing them and let "God" rule your life. Then, you won't have to worry about the lack of attention God gets in video games.

re: The Most Godless Game

AustinB — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:37:30 GMT

@LittleBigDaddy:
I apologize if I came off as standoffish and I do actually appreciate how bold you were in blogging about your opinions. Chalk it up to my upbringing however but I am still not convinced that video games and religion need to have connections between them. In my opinion however you slice it, a game is just that, a game. The viewpoints of the character are like that because it's convenient not because the developers want you to emulate God.
As to why there is no contemporary styled religion in video games, again the backlash would be massive against any developer who even tried it. To gamers video games are a form of media and expression, to the media, however, they're toys. Finally, I don't think there is a market for a religious video game. Publishers would not see the money and in business, money talks.
Essentially I think we've reached an impasse, neither one of us will convince the other, although your blog is food for thought.

re: The Most Godless Game

LittleBigDaddy — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:37:04 GMT

A crisis? Hardly. I applied this potential connection for my own curiosity and attempted to show my own thoughts on the subject. I suppose the absence of modern religions in many games when you'd think there would be some is just a little puzzling to me. As to the two being completely unrelated...I guess that depends on your point of view more than anything. All good works feature the mark of their designer, and I don't see why games should be any different if driven by a singular vision.

re: The Most Godless Game

AustinB — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:23:57 GMT

I'm going to make this short but basically I believe you are connecting two completely unrelated things and trying to make a crisis out of them. Just because you warped some basic tenets of religion and applied them to fictional video game characters does not mean that video games are an affront to God. As for games not addressing God, well it wouldn't make sense in the context of most games. Everybody remembers the bitchfest that happened when Medal of Honor tried to correctly address your enemies as Taliban, right? make that ten times worse and insert religious nutjobs and you get a reason for games as a medium to avoid the topic of a Christian, Catholic, or Muslim god entirely.

re: The Most Godless Game

ShadowDragyn — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:44:39 GMT

Don't forget to bring your towel when you visit Earth, which is mostly harmless.

re: The Most Godless Game

TOGNick — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:24:39 GMT

I had a response...my computer hated me...suffice it to say. We are God.

We create life every day, through movies, books, and games. We also do this through the act of child birth, and even create that life in OUR image. Which is similar to a bible passage on how God created man in his image, yet despite people say God creates the form he wishes.

To me it's not easy to say these things, but I truly believe that the path to happiness is through self fulfillment. When people pray they sometimes say that there problems end up resolved. Which is odd, because millions upon millions of people are praying everyday, and probably at once. Yet God is somehow listening.

He listens because prayer is itself a form of self meditation. You are reflecting on a certain situation, or your day, and you are analyzing those actions and situations. The situation sometimes gets better because the person has reflected on that and has a fresh perspective.

I'm definitely not a religious person, I never have been, but I certainly respect faith. Every person has a theory on what is or isn't the case. Some feel more justified then others but that's besides the point.

Are games godless, I don't think so. I rather think that video games are Godly because they allow us to experience the creation of life that we are granted through being God ourselves.

re: The Most Godless Game

Minister of Propaganda Fever Ray — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:37:37 GMT

Kinda off topic-ish, but I second the call for people to give From Dust a try; the LIMITED powers you are presented are used in concert with great level design/setup to make for some really interesting gameplay, with curveballs thrown at your throughout (in the form of quakes, tsunamis, floods and mass eruptions). I was really impressed with some of the on-the-fly strategizing the game forces in the later levels.

re: The Most Godless Game

Minister of Propaganda Fever Ray — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:31:36 GMT

@LittleBigDaddy:

Yeah, I certainly appreciate that within the context of the game, it's being used kind of counter to the original intent- and is suggesting that people are free of 'the fates' or gods/God.

re: The Most Godless Game

Doctor Apozem — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:47:31 GMT

And I finally posted a reply. Hey, it's finals week. That two-day lag is actually from studying.

http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/apozem_blog/archive/2011/12/06/god-isn-39-t-dead-he-39-s-just-waiting-to-respawn.aspx

re: The Most Godless Game

Lancehead255 — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:17:24 GMT

@LittleBigDaddy:

They're trying to reduce the disconnect in terms of story and presentation, not gameplay though. And gameplay is where players take actions. Consider GTA IV. They try to tell a serious story but the gameplay is anything but serious. How about Red Dead? Sure, they're telling a mature story but once you start shooting guys and engage in various activities there's a big disconnect. You also have to assess whether trying to interpret the consequences of these actions in real life yields anything meaningful or worthwhile to our lives.

Of course one might raise the point of interactive narratives where players can change the course of the story (e.g. Mass Effect). Plenty of people play as the bad guy in those stories. In these situations most times the stories are far removed from reality and the consequences of players' actions have very little weight from real life perspective (like Mass Effect). On the other hand, Heavy Rain is one game where the disconnect is small and the story is interactive. But the players are aware of point to point decisions they make and the consequences quite well. Meaning they take their actions seriously within the game and may even reflect on them once they've finished the game. Players only take those actions less seriously if they don't find the story interesting at all (in which case they'd rather not play it because there's nothing else to do besides the story) or if they're beyond the first playthrough.

Yes, games try to make players feel like they're doing spectacular things, but that's exactly what creates the disconnect because those events have no impactful bearing on the virtues of our lives. I'm not distancing myself from the reality of the game, instead I'm accepting that the game's reality is much different from life's reality. That's my perspective on violence in videogames.

The guy who did the shootings listed Modern Warfare 2 as one of his favourite games on facebook. He said he used the game as a training simulation. Now, he may very well be indulging in violent fantasies playing MW2. But I'm sure you'd agree that there were much bigger issues in his life that led him to the tipping point.

re: The Most Godless Game

LittleBigDaddy — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:54:12 GMT

@Lancehead255:

The whole point of games is to try and eliminate the disconnect though. At least, that is what they are trying to do. The whole point is to make the gamer feel like they really are doing whatever spectacular feat happens on the screen. The disconnect is there, yes, but the intensity may vary. Some, like yourself, may completely distance themselves from the 'reality' of the game while others may become completely immersed in a game world, a la seemingly everyone who plays Skyrim.

Also, I do not understand what you mean by the Norway shootings as a mitigating factor. Would you please elaborate on that for me?

re: The Most Godless Game

DrJoeystein — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:27:18 GMT

I remember the religious people in Resistance 3. I facepalmed myself when the leader you teamed up with against "Satan" started cussing. According to Scripture, it says to "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth." Guess the guy skipped that part. :P

As long as the game I'm playing doesn't blatantly blaspheme religion, I'd be interested to see how a developer would address it. But I do agree that it would be great to see more games not address religion in an opposing matter; I'd like to see a more even balance of both sides.

re: The Most Godless Game

DrJoeystein — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:16:19 GMT

As a Christian, I really enjoy the Assassin's Creed games. I remember how the second game really delved into religion and ended up implying that religion is fraudulent and really fleshing out that "nothing is true." One point in the game that I personally disagree with was that Christ was an ordinary man, but this has not prevented me from buying the games. I am open and interested to listen to opposing perspectives on religion that differ from mine. Great blog, by the way. ;) You made a lot of interesting points that made me think.

re: The Most Godless Game

Lancehead255 — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:19:26 GMT

@LittleBigDaddy:

The problem I see with your argument is that you're focusing only on the sense of identity and not on the disconnect. There is a sense of identity in people being killed in GTA but simultaneously there is a large disconnect between how that happens and what it means in the game and what our real life experiences are. That sense of identity is required because we human beings only have our experiences to associate with. Similarly, morality in a game has a sense of identity with real life morality, but at the same time there is a disconnect.

The disconnect makes the actions of players in a videogame far removed from actions in real life. The realisation of the disconnect makes the cognitive processes different. Take South Park for example. Because we realise the disconnect, we process the events of the show much differently than how we would if those events were directly translated to real life.

Hence the actions we take in videogames are not indulging in any violent fantasies. If they are, then there are other serious mitigating factors (e.g. Norway shootings). By ignoring the disconnect, you're arguing for reflection based solely on the sense of identity. I consider that a wrong approach. When examining works of fiction, how the information is being processed in our minds is very important.