If there is one thing that Don & I like as much as movies, it is obviously video games. Despite my lack of any sort of musical skills, I even like Guitar Hero & Rock Band, mainly because they are the best way to experience video games with a group of people who don't necessairly play a lot of video games.
We were both interested in Guitar Praise: Solid Rock when it was announced, and we both hoped that it would buck the trend of Christian video games being either awful or bizarre. I felt that a good precedent had been established by Left Behind: Eternal Forces , because no matter what you think about its content a good amount of production value was put into that game.
The few reviews that have come out have been pretty positive , but I think that it would be pretty simple to make a knock-off of a popular game. Especially when there is already an open source knock-off who's code you can peruse at your leisure.
GameSetWatch has a fantastic opinion piece about Guitar Praise: Solid Roc k, which puts it in perspective with other Christian video games (although they leave out Left Behind: Eternal Forces ), and comes down with some strong thoughts about what it means to have "Christian" video games. Much of what is said can also be applied to "Christian" movies, so it is a great read.
(GameSetWatch Opinion Article)
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So, you can imagine my excitement when I saw that TitleTrakk Book's had an article about a new book entitled Shadow of Colossus. I immediately clicked through the link to see why a Christian book site would be talking about a cool book like that. As soon as I got there, I realized it wasn't what I was hoping for. This is not an epic poem that re-tells the great quest of The Wanderer and Argo. This is a Christian romance novel, the first in a series based around the Seven Wonders of the World I gather.
Not the worst idea for historical romance, although I do wonder how they will weave a Christian romance around the
Just don't tell Sony.
(TitleTrakk Books)
We received a rather negative comment the other day in response to our post about the threats of legal action emanating from Left Behind Games against various video game websites that have made unspecified "false and misleading" statements. Let me clarify why it bothers me that they(the game company) are doing this:
2. They weren't specific. In none of the complaints that were posted online was a single specific instance cited. This leads to number 3.
3. This isn't that bad, since I can understand and even respect it from a commercial standpoint; they have a new, "gold" edition of the game coming out in a short while and this is easy, free, publicity. Nothing wrong with that, at least commercially. The morals of it are more debatable.I'll admit that I haven't played Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Not even the demo? Why? There is no Mac version yet. Maybe when I can afford a new Intel MacBook I'll install XP and play it on there. My co-host actually has a copy of the game, but he lent it to our sometime guest host to play, and I spoke with him yesterday and he said his computer can't run it. So, for the moment, we don't have any informed thought on the matter.
I will weigh in on the most troubling aspect of the game, in my opinion. For a long time I've had a love/hate relationship with Christian post-apocalyptic movies. I love post-apocalyptic movies in general. Mad Max, The Road Warrior, the Terminator series, The Quiet Earth, Damnation Alley, The Omega Man, Warrior of the Lost World, Waterworld, Nausicca: Of the Valley of the Winds, (Spoiler)The Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, The Stand, the list goes on. I love them all. The idea is just cool, running around a lawless world, scavenging gasoline, shooting evil biker gangs to defend beautiful damsels and their mutant children. It's the ultimate escapist fantasy.But it has its problems. Max Brooks, author of the excellent World War Z, said it best when discussing the popularity of his books: "I don't know what's scarier, the fact that zombies could rise or the fact there are actually people out there that can't wait for it to happen. So they can just start loading up with guns and get on their motorcycles..." Recently, I read the letters column of The Walking Dead, a zombie comic book, and they had a totally insane letter from some guy who had built his own zombie proof fortress in a cabin high in the mountains. I'm waiting for the follow up when he gets into a shoot out with ATF agents. If you take this type of fiction too seriously, then it can have highly negative effects on your worldview. Suddenly, a nuclear exchange with another country not only seems survivable, it might seem likable.
This problem is more extensive in Christian post-apocalyptic(or you might call it apocalyptic) fiction. It has many of the same appeals(lawless land, fighting for survival, good vs evil in a final struggle, beautiful damsels, biker gangs) and many of the same drawbacks. However, since it is explicitly Christian it, in my opinion, is much more dangerous. It isn't based upon conjecture or redacted Civil Defense plans from the 1950s; it is based upon an interpretation of the revealed Word of God. If it is possible to believe that a post-nuclear situation like Mad Max is plausible, how much more so for the Christian to believe that a Left Behind type of situation is possible, even inevitable.It is a problem; how do you have escapist apocalyptic Christian fiction without becoming a dangerous influence on young people? How do you balance entertainment with a desire not to have a generation of readers who want to launch nukes at Mecca in a effort to "hurry up" the 2nd Coming? Or bulldoze the Dome of the Rock so that the Temple can be rebuilt. The conclusion I came to long ago is that this kind of fiction is best avoided. The Bible is not very explicit about the end times, leaving much open to conjecture, but it is very clear that it will not be pleasant. Men will wish for the rocks to crush them so that they might escape. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. People will long for death but will not die. Pretty awful, right? I've decided that I won't support and apocalyptic Christian fiction unless it makes it quite clear that it will be, literally, hell on Earth during the end times.
But I still love apocalyptic fiction. Hence, my dilemma with Left Behind: Eternal Forces. I like the fact that they are making a RTS set in this environment. It is a great idea. But a part of me still recoils from the romanticizing of the end times. I think that weaving in religion just puts it too close to doctrine and too far from entertainment, and it is a dangerous doctrine.That said, our commenter, Jason, has an amazingly in-depth overview of the the game at his blog, Shock & Blog. He covers the controversy, reviews every mission(!) of the game, and generally comes across that the world's biggest fan of Left Behind: Eternal Forces. He does a good job of responding to criticism of the game, although at times he comes off as simply repeating the PR line from the game company. Check it out if you're interested in the game. He obviously loves it, and has some good information. Thanks for the comment Jason!
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Regular readers and listeners will know that don and I are both avid video game players. In addition, as a filmmaker I look at videogames a lot for ideas on where film may be headed in the future. 300, for example is, in my opinion, the best video game movie yet made and it's not even based upon video game source material.
Well, the Left Behind: Eternal Forces video game is in the news recently. For those who don't know, the game is a tactical strategy game that puts the player in command of a small army of christians to work against the anti-christ. Your primary weapons in the battle are prayer and worship(singing to convert enemies) but you also have the ability to simply kill the non-belivers. Apparently an expansion to the game is being released soon, and in order to head off bad publicity(mainly since the game was highly criticized and recieved generally bad reviews), the producers have decided to address criticism directly, contacting websites that have made negative comments about the game.
What did they say? Did they accept constructive criticism and go forward in the spirit of, as Paul said, "Live at peace with all men?" Not exactly.They sent out letters threatening legal action for the websites hosting "false and misleading" information.
That seems like just what Jesus would have done in such as situation, doesn't it? I believe the Gospel of Luke records Jesus sending several strongly worded legal letters to the Phairsees informing them that it was in fact libel for them to say that he was "a madman" and "the Devil."The really funny(and sad) thing is that the letter doesn't specify what "false and misleading" statments are being made. Gameology has posted all their stories on the game, and a quick perusal doesn't reval anything that bad. All christians are white, all women are barred from leading christian forces. It is possible to kill the bad guys but not necessary. All that jives with what I've seen from the game.
So, just for the record, Left Behind: Eternal Forces does not stink like a 3 week old dead lion with a beehive inside its festering torso. Not literally. (Gameology story)Powered by Qumana
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