Openly makes sense that it just doesn't fit your type. Perfectly sensible.
I see no reason for me, who has nothing to do with Christianity nor does want to have anything to do with it, to want to play a game that was made with Christians as their target audience.
I understand your perspective. If the material is not your flavor, then why would you play it. That's like, I wouldn't play a toddler's balloon popping game because, that's just not my flavor, but my toddler would go to town with it.
Thank you for your thoughts.
Hmmm... I'm not a Christian, so my thoughts are quite... not against, but not "YEAH" either, on this type of subject.
Usually in a game I look for nothing but quality and creativity, so religion doesn't really make me choose sides in likeness.
Of course, here's a few that would probably deter me from enjoying it...
1. It's purely about religion.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate religion or anything! I just find too much of it to be quite... bland and forced... unless they manage to make it very interesting with a cool backstory and all that jazz. If it was purely about the religion and it's history... then no...
2. Forces you to convert.
What I mean by this, is I don't want a game to tell me or make me believe their ways are the right ways. There really isn't more to say about that.
3. Mocks it, or mocks other religions.
Self explanatory. Why would ANYONE enjoy something like that. Unless it does it in a funny way and for jokes, then I'd be a little okay, but only if it didn't go past the line of what's okay and what's not.
To be honest, I've never played a game or seen one that has done this. But if I had seen one, then these rules are how I'd critique it.
I see that same issue Kyoku in Christian gaming (
in regards to the 'purely about religion' and 'force to covert' comments). The reason why I think I see this is because designers construct the game with a split audience in mind. They want to reach
Christians and
Non-Christians
alike, which, on the outside seems like no big deal, but when you dive deeper, you realize that, in various areas, those two audiences are dynamically different, disagreeing on a lot of lifestyle choices. This is my
theory though. As a result of such a split audience, they try to "
Evangelize" Non-Christians and hope that Christians will be entertained as well. This I have been tempted with during design stages of the game I'm currently working on, and many people have suggested this as well. I find that it makes me have to "SPELL-OUT" everything for the Non-Christian audience simply because it's not what they're familiar with. As a result, this makes the game watered down for the Christians and, in turn, boring.
Thank you Kyoku for your comments!
Two that I have played are:
1. "Catechumen" made in 2000 with a budget of $830,000
2. "Ominous Horizons: A Paladins Calling" made in 2001
Both are FPS and both were made by N'Lightning (which no longer exists due to poor sales of both games).
Basic game play was you would go through these levels fighting demons/guards/monsters. You had a health bar called faith which could be restored by collecting Bible verses. Though normally you would be in such a rush running from monsters you never got to read them much. The AI in both of those games tended to run around all crazy when you got near (sometimes they would run right up to you then turn around to fall into lava or something). They also had fairly poor graphics for 3D games.
Another one I have played was called "Captain Bible in Dome of Darkness" which used Bible verses as attacks against monsters. Though the catch with this one was the monster would have a deception you would have to beat by using the right Bible verse. Pretty certain that this one suffered the same fate as the above though. This game used very pixelated graphics that tried to give an illusion of depth in some of the hallways. This game was made in 1994.
Anyway I liked those games and still play them from time to time.
Sarlecc, Your comment is interesting because you build the case that these games did poorly in the market and in design, but the awesome thing is, you
still enjoyed and continue to enjoy these games. As far as the future of Christian-gaming goes, I think your comment speaks life to the idea that they
got something right. It wasn't all bad. Its important, then, to encapsulate what worked and what didn't.
In response to your other comment and in regards to the direction of other member's insights, I think game design becomes extremely
rhetorical because the audience is highly important. It would appear that the
audience will dictate the life of your game towards the end.
Thank you Sarlecc, very helpful words.
Speaking as a Christian myself, I find it hard to get interested in such things. Since we view religion stuff as (effectively) factual, anything related to it is viewed almost automatically as either "edutainment" (bleh) or purely fictional dramatization, which many Christians are wary of for both warranted and unwarranted reasons alike. Basically, your only audience would be those who are super interested in the subject matter in a learning sense, kind of like how big history buffs enjoy true-to-life historical stories and biographies.
Christian, enjoys education for fun, and likes video games. It *feels* like a pretty narrow market, you know? I think the only way you could really market such a thing is for it to be a "funner" way to legitimately learn scripture. This would not only require material sufficiently complex to warrant the game (in other words, you yourself would need to solidly understand it), but it would also take ace-level design skills to make it more than just bland edutainment. You'd be open to criticism on both your game design and your actual teaching material... ouch!
The other approach would be allegorical storytelling like C.S. Lewis did, but that doesn't seem to be the focus of this thread.
EDIT: To clarify, I mean 'edutainment' as the somewhat derogatory term for simple education material masquerading as a game, not *all* educational gaming. Otherwise it would be silly of me to condemn and suggest it in the same post. XD
Rhaeami, I love the coined phrase "edutainment". I have to agree, that those type of games chase me away. Its a strange phenomenon to consider, that anything having to do with learning, makes me want to run (
trauma from grade school maybe?) Once again, audience is key. Those "super interested" in the type.
No, wait, in response to your allegorical reference, I think thats exactly what needs to be done to lift up the particular stigma on Christian-based games. Breaking from the edutainment type such as bible trivia (which is like the only Christian-based games I can find on the app store unfortunately)
My Thoughts: Hmm... I think many Christian-based games have been ill-fated, though hard work have been implemented. Once more, I think its the theory of trying to please two dynamically different audiences or as Rhaeami said, the "edutainment" type.
I think they've fell short in the actuality that Christian living according to the bible is extremely adventurous. Especially when it says that "we don't wrestle against the flesh but against spirits" and that "the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but that of the spirit". The bible provides the context that the "
battle" (I make an emphasis here -- RPG battle), is spiritual. Reading the book of
Acts has allowed me to see that, in fact, there is a highly appealing aspect of the bible that provides context for an extremely compelling video game.
As for the direction of my personal game, I hope to add the presentation like John Bunyan's
Pilgrim Progress. Which established a unique story that didn't exactly "force people to convert", but rather made them think about everything as a whole. I also want to move away from edutainment. But more study on the matter is needed.
This whole discussion has really enabled me to see how powerful games are in a rhetorical sense. O_O. audience is KEY.
Thank you so far for a peaceful discussion.