double-think
Tuesday, 12 December 2006 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freckles_and_doubtI am somewhat terrified to note that fundamentalist Christians now have their own video game, in which you try to convert the evil heavy-metal-music-wielding UN-remnant world-order forces of the Antichrist with your own brainwashing forces of believers, medics and Christian rock bands and lots and lots of prayer1, descending to actual violence only "in self-defense". This is Eternal Forces, based on the Left Behind series of post-Rapture adventures which are self-congratulatory, bloody and horribly, horribly popular.
While my opinions on fundamentalist religion are fairly well known, and my opinion of Rapturists is fairly unprintable (let's just say the whole thing is an egregiously smug and actively destructive wriggle-out from real-world responsibility), what amuses me most about this damned game is the double-think. Or, if you prefer, the rampant hypocrisy. There has been a lot of negative press about this game from Christians and non-Christians alike, not only because the game-play is apparently terrible, but because the Christian message doesn't seem to sit well with the assumption that it's somehow inevitable or unavoidable that non-Christians will eventually be slaughtered if they don't convert. I am amused to note that the game website claims that there is no actual violence in the game, and definitely no blood or gore: "Because our game is a ‘strategy' game, never does a player click a key or press a button to actuate a first-person violent act." Violence, note, is not real violence if it's not first-person. Explains a lot about the Bush administration's doubletalk on Iraq. The denial of violence is rather comically counterpointed, though, by the game description on the same site: as a player you can apparently "Conduct physical & spiritual warfare: using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world." Yup, not about violence at all. In a final irony, in the single scenarios you can choose to be the forces of the Antichrist instead of the believers, which is a poke in the eye to the evangelical purpose of the game, surely?
Amusing though this is, I fear I am using it to distract myself from my legitimate work, and I can feel![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wolverine_nun glaring at me, so I'll stop... < trails disconsolately off to do battle with own incoherence >
While my opinions on fundamentalist religion are fairly well known, and my opinion of Rapturists is fairly unprintable (let's just say the whole thing is an egregiously smug and actively destructive wriggle-out from real-world responsibility), what amuses me most about this damned game is the double-think. Or, if you prefer, the rampant hypocrisy. There has been a lot of negative press about this game from Christians and non-Christians alike, not only because the game-play is apparently terrible, but because the Christian message doesn't seem to sit well with the assumption that it's somehow inevitable or unavoidable that non-Christians will eventually be slaughtered if they don't convert. I am amused to note that the game website claims that there is no actual violence in the game, and definitely no blood or gore: "Because our game is a ‘strategy' game, never does a player click a key or press a button to actuate a first-person violent act." Violence, note, is not real violence if it's not first-person. Explains a lot about the Bush administration's doubletalk on Iraq. The denial of violence is rather comically counterpointed, though, by the game description on the same site: as a player you can apparently "Conduct physical & spiritual warfare: using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world." Yup, not about violence at all. In a final irony, in the single scenarios you can choose to be the forces of the Antichrist instead of the believers, which is a poke in the eye to the evangelical purpose of the game, surely?
Amusing though this is, I fear I am using it to distract myself from my legitimate work, and I can feel
wolverine_nun glaring at me, so I'll stop... < trails disconsolately off to do battle with own incoherence >- 1 I'm not even going to get into the rampant stereotyping: in unit design women can only be nurses, since apparently only men are able to build outposts, convert the faithful or produce Christian rock music. And all the Christian forces are white; black or Middle Eastern characters are bad guys. Oops, I did get into it. Hiss, spit.
