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• Praise His Name With Guitar Praise--Or Go to Hell

  If your worship of Jesus Christ permeates every level of your life to the point where you must include Him in your fictional guitar playing, your worries can now cease; Guitar Praise, a PC Guitar Hero clone, exists to remove all of the fun from music games forever.  Okay, Okay; I know I'm being kind of harsh.  To be honest, when it comes to Christian Rock, I'm of the same mind set as King of the Hill's Hank Hill: "You're not making Christianity better, you're just making rock and roll worse."  It's totally cool to worship however you want, though Flanders-ized products like this always seem a little disingenuous to me; I'm sure God has better things to do than fret over you playing "My Name Is Jonas" on expert.  Still, if you must have this product, it exists.  One question, though: just what are you doing on the secular Internet? If you're wondering just how Praise Hero plays, Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk has written a hands-on report that's obviously not as hateful (or fueled by Catholic school experience) as my own take on the game. One thing I thought was funny, though, was his mention of Guitar Praise's use of gentle encouragement for those who totally suck on toast: Digital Praise's Guitar Praise - Solid Rock adopts the same concept of "playing" rock tunes on an increasingly difficult level. But it inhabits a gentler world where a bad performance gets you mild clapping and gentle suggestions instead of the raucous boos and catcalls that accompany failure in Guitar Hero. Read More... Posted Nov 06 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: music, guitar hero, religion, bob mackey, religion and games, praise hero, christianity

• Sackboy Vs. Muhammad Round 2

  Leave it a representative from the American Islamic Forum for Democracy to sum up much more succinctly what I tried to take on a few days ago. Edge Online recently posted a reaction from said representative, M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., who weighed in on the whole LittleBigPlanet controversy: “The free market allows for expression of disfavor by simply not purchasing a game that may be offensive.” Jasser, who has also appeared on CNN, in the Washington Times and National Review, said that not only does the First Amendment support freedom of expression, but Mohammed also “defended the rights of his enemies to critique him in any way even if it was offensive to his own Islamic sensibilities or respect for Koranic scripture.” And, as with most cases like the LittleBigPlanet fiasco, the object of censorship is getting much more attention than it ever would have before the scandal. According to a news post on Edge this Monday: The track in question, Tapha Niang by Malian kora player Toumani Diabate, has seen a surge in sales on the iTunes website. The track features two passages from the Islamic religious text: "kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt," meaning "Every soul shall have the taste of death"; and "kollo man alaiha fan," meaning "All that is on earth will perish." Three cheers for freedom of speech! Now if we could only convince uptight book-banners that their actions are just as useless... Read More... Posted Oct 22 2008, 11:45 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: little big planet, religion, ps3, censorship, bob mackey, islam

• Sackboy Vs. Muhammad

  The recall--and subsequent delay--of LittleBigPlanet due to the presence of Qur'an quotations in one of the game's licensed tracks has angered gamers, and rightfully so. While some of the fan hostility is coming from having to wait nearly a week to get their hands on such a long-awaited title, much of the anger--including my own--stems from the senitment sent by Sony's course of action. In a medium still trying to mature, how will progress ever be possible when content is being kept in check by special interest groups (as violent as their extremists may be)?  As I griped about in this post, there's something about how games are still viewed as products--as opposed to entertainment, or art--that's keeping their content watered down when compared to what's seen in TV, movies, music, and other media. And content is soon going to be a problem for both Sony and LBP users due to the unfortunate bigotry this incident has caused. Just go check out any of the blogs/news sites that have reported on the LPB recall; nearly half the user comments carry a creepy anti-Islamic message that will undoubtedly carry over into the game's user-made content in the weeks to come. Read More... Posted Oct 20 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: little big planet, nintendo, religion, ps3, censorship, bob mackey, islam

• Where Are All Of Videoland's Nice Jewish Boys?

  Sundown tonight marks the start of 5769 according to the Jewish lunar calender (endorsed by werewolves everywhere). Become an honourary Jew and take the day off work to eat apples and honey. Everyone around me is doing it. Hell, any day is a good day to eff off and eat apples and honey. And by "apples and honey" I mean "wine" and by "eat" I mean "drink." In August 2005, I got to attend Otakon in Baltimore and schmoose with Rabbi Wolfwood. Rabbi Wolfwood is a widely popular cosplayer who dresses as Wolfwood, the travelling priest from the Trigun anime--but he makes a few necessary alterations to his costume, of course. Good Jewish boys don't carry Cross Punishers; they carry Star Of David...Punishers. The Rebbe and I talked briefly about a missing presence in games: Jewish characters. Though they tend to appear in big-name games developed in the West (Bioshock had its delightfully batshit Sander Cohen), Japan's roster of Jewish characters hovers somewhere around -0.1%. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 03:08 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: bioshock, metal gear solid, religion, nadia oxford, culture, fiddler on the roof, religion and games

• Christian Games Need Not Sucketh

  News of a "Christian" alternative to Guitar Hero has the gaming world laughing at Christians again. I can't imagine why. "Grab the guitar and play along with top Christian bands! Shred those riffs or blast the bass…you add a unique sound to the solid Christian rock. But watch out: if you can't keep up, the artists will take a break and stop the music." Oh yeah. That's why. How did Christian-oriented games end up as the #1 Choice for Scared Grandmas who need a Birthday gift for sonny boy? By all rights, Christian games should kick ass. They should make you think about your own spirituality. They should make you consider the wonder of the world around us. They should not be about unconditional lollipops and dodging Sunday-shopping heathens to get to Church. Speaking for my own upbringing, I am a Jew with a smattering of Catholicism. My mother was Irish-Catholic, but she converted. It basically means that she is one of a very few women in the world who has cooked chicken soup and matzoh balls while crying over the death of Pope John Paul the II. Read More... Posted Aug 29 2008, 08:39 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: guitar hero, religion, controversy, nadia oxford, paradise lost, religion in games, guitar praise, jesus, cs lewis

• Fire and Brimstone: Pastor Advocates Game Burning

  Well hell and damnation! Another church leader has called for a good old fashioned media barbecue. Pastor Richard Patrick seems to focus his attention on hip hop, but he also targets video games. In his defense, he seems much more interested in making a positive impact in his community than stirring up scandal for attention. In other words, he's no Jack Thompson: The problems ... are bad. I think they have got worse. Last year was pretty bad. ... Domestic violence is a big issue. A lot of the problems in this community are drug-related because it trickles down. I also think a lot of the problem is a lack of job opportunities in the community — hopefully that will change in the future. There is also a lack of outlets for youth. If you come here in the afternoon, you just see young people everywhere but with nowhere to go or nothing to do. Read More... Posted Jun 17 2008, 01:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: violence, cole stryker, religion, jack thompson