Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Evangelical Etertainment

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces" is a Christian video game based on the evangelical Christian Left Behind series of novels. The player controls the Tribulation Force, a Christian military group in a post-apocalyptic New York ("post-Rapture" is the Christian term). He has to fight against the world government led by the Antichrist.

To defeat the enemy the player has to convert neutral and enemy-allied civilians or to annihilate them. He is encouraged to use conversion over violence when possible.

Nevertheless the game caused a lot of criticism upon its release. Even many Christian groups criticized the use of religious intolerance and violence as essential parts of the game. One critic said: "The game is about killing people for their lack of faith in Jesus."
But just because of that it may be a good example for the Christian Supremacist movement in the United States of today.

1 comment:

  1. http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/left-behind-eternal-forces/749748p1.html

    "[A]nyone looking for explicit "Kill the unbelievers!"-style content to justify their fear of the game won't find it here."

    http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2006/12/leftbehind.ars

    "Many groups have made inaccurate statements about this game that need to be corrected. For one thing, it is not particularly violent. While there are violent aspects of the game, the game makes it clear that shooting is the last resort."

    http://pc.ign.com/articles/745/745956p1.html

    "To keep the balance of power in your favor, you'll have to find non-violent ways to avoid getting killed. Your units will definitely fight back in a life or death situation but, for the most part, you want to either avoid your enemies or have a ready plan to convert to your side using musicians and disciples."

    http://www.adl.org/Interfaith/leftbehind.asp

    "Conversion to Christianity in the game is not depicted as forcible in nature, and violence is not rewarded in the game."

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