ATLANTA — Grand Theft Auto" has been impounded in the Gardner household. So have 1,000 other video games filled with debauchery, decadence and carnage.
Today this family’s interactive entertainment is far more divine.
Electronic Bible games loaded with tests and trivia. Digital duels between David and Goliath. Adventures and challenges with pious themes where any violence appears virtuous.
Hallelujah! At last!
"It wasn’t easy, but [my children] realize the violence and the things they saw wouldn’t help them in life," said Janice Gardner, mother of three boys and two girls ranging in age from 25 to 11. "We’re down to Christian games. They’re a lot of fun to play."
Video games, long berated for explicit content and nihilistic themes, are gaining popularity in an unexpected arena: the Christian marketplace. A whole new genre of Christian-themed video games are converting many who once viewed such entertainment as corrupting.
Now? It’s a cash cow.
While claiming only 1 percent of the video game marketplace, that equates to a $200 million-a-year industry, according to Ralph Bagley , spokesman for the Oregon-based Christian Game Developers Foundation. Slowly, Christian game titles are appearing at retailers such as Circuit City, Best Buy and CompUSA, in addition to the aisles of Christian bookstores, such as the Family Christian Store chain.
"They’re selling pretty well," said Larry Finch, manager of Family Christian Stores in Kennesaw, Ga.
And the conversion has only begun.
Video games are just the latest form of media in which Christian themes are stirring interest — and income.
…"Word of mouth was instrumental in spreading Christianity and is driving Christians to the cash register in mass quantities," said Pete Snyder , CEO of Arlington, Va.-based New Media Strategies, an online intelligence company that tracks message board and forum response online.
Snyder cited the "Left Behind" books, "The Passion of the Christ" movie and the Christian music scene as successful examples.
I can almost imagine a Left Behind video game. Whey your player disappears, unlike other video games, it means you won. You increase in righteousness by reading crappy Christian fiction.
Let those who believe that Christian games are as dull as a staid Sunday sermon grab a copy of N’Lightning’s "Catechumen."
The game works like a traditional first-person shooter, but instead of firing lead and lasers into soldiers or aliens, players use a variety of spiritual weapons, such as balls of holy energy, to slay Satan’s minions and free possessed members of a Christian flock in ancient Rome. Instead of "fragging" — video game lexicon for a kill — a player basically smites. [Source]
The game’s Web site offers the challenge: "Show them nothing can overcome the power of the Holy Spirit."
I guess a game where you visit the sick, those in prison, and praying for the conversion of others won’t get much traction. Not much chance of a First Person prayer coming out any time soon. Or one where we we treat other players badly an image of Jesus weeps. Whatever you do to the least you do to him.
14 comments
I’ve thought a lot about making a Christian (even specifically Catholic video game), and it is very difficult to do because the weapons and battles that we fight are almost all spiritual and therefore invisible.
I would want to incorporate these elements, like for instance, faith, but how do I avoid the cheesiness of having a “faith-o-meter” at the bottom of the screen that when it reaches a certain threshold allows you to do the uber-wack-a-mole move with your sword on boss demon?
http://www.devinrose.heroicvirtuecreations.com/ComputerProgramming/ElusiveCatholicGame.html
Actually an old Lucas Arts game (that did have objectionable themes) called, I believe, “Heaven and Hell” did allow you to both punish and reward. It was SimCity but with heaven and hell as the playgrounds.
Another few decades of media gimmicks, electronic geegaws, and permanently attached cell phones, and there will be no adults left in the United States. Already the Democratic Party is down to one or two left. And those who wait for the Rapture must think it will come digitally enhanced.
Actually, in the mid-80s there was a game called “Ultima IV” where you played a character called “the Avatar”. You had to excel in 8 virtues in order to beat the game. The virtues were:
Valor
Honor
Sacrifice
Humility
Justice
Spirituality
Compassion
Honesty
And you had actions in the game that would affect your level of virtue. Here is a list of such actions:
http://martin.brenner.de/ultima/virtuechanges.html
No other game has ever emulated this kind of system and I hope that someone does this in the future.
Hey, I saw a Bible trivia game for PS2 in Toys’r’us recently. Weird how you have a post on it only two weeks after.
I always thought it’d be cool if you could play some kind of evangelizing game, where you run around as St. Paul or something and convert sinners.
“Goodness gracious, great balls of holy energy!”
“He was simple Francis of Asissi, until a top secret military experiement in the Canadian Northwoods replaced his skeleton with an adamantium frame and matching razor sharp claws.”
Really, if you’re going to make a Christian game, I would think that an adventure-game format would be the most logical choice. None of the constant violence of first-person-shooters or the stunted plots that plague most game genres.
…A papacy simulator might also be interesting.
I am sorry, I am in brain lock after reading the 1000 video games figure.
I know that this is not the main point but…I had to laugh out loud at your idea for a Left Behind Game:
“You increase in righteousness as you read crappy Christian fiction.”
I have to agree, the Left Behind series was probably the worst books I have ever read. I got to book 10 before they became so painful to read I couldn’t continue!
I agree with 10Kan. Adventure format makes most sense. Instead of hurting your enemies, you could heal them with either words or actions. You could travel around the Holy Land as one of the Apostles and convert people, and if you run from persecution, then Game Over, you lose. If you get martyred, bonus points! Cash in points for glory in heaven. Not enough, you lose the game and get sent to Hell. Almost enough, you get sent to Purgatory and play a few extra levels. That’d be pretty cool.
Oh, and the only people you could hurt would be demons.
Don’t the LOTR games count as Catholicism’s first entry into video games? It seems that Tolkein and Lewis encountered many of the same problems with the necessity of violence to make a story exciting and synthesizing that with Christians ethics.
Personally, I do not like the way Christian forms of music and writing are marginalized by the “Christian” genre. There was a time when any product of art or culture was oriented to aid in the worship or understanding of God — ESPECIALLY if it was masterful. If you ask me, “Secular” should be the genre and everything else should be Christian.
The enlightenment did a really good job pushing faith off the center stage of life. Time we started pushing back. Catholic art IS art, not a subset of art.
And hey, if Hello Kitty can have a totally non-violent game that is challenging and fun, then there is nothing stopping us from making, for example, a Hello Therese of the Little Flower game.
For an RPG, how about Jerome? Players could wander the Holy Land seeking Linguistic skills to translate the Vulgate. Look out for the mean pope!
For action, how about Mercedarian? Travel as a knight to Saracen lands to ransom captive Christians. Use your sword or bow to defend the ransom money from pirates and the freed Christians from from re-capture.
Puzzle Action: Tobit. You are the angel Raphael tasked with guiding Tobit to his cursed bride. Along the way, pick up ingredients for the potion that will deliver her.
Adventure Stategy: Macabees!
etc…
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