Everyone is a number in this dystopian near-future where cameras track your every move. Score above 90 and your set for life. Score below 75 and you’re on your own, kid.
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But this is so much funnier. Instead of just reading the wonderfully literate, wholeheartedly sane, and not at all creepy Left Behind books, now you can play the video game. Convert or kill non-Christians and ascend into Heaven. Yippee! Holy war against non-believers? Fun fun fun. I wonder if there’s a discount for buying the Left Behind game along with The Global Islamic Media Front’s Quest for Bush game. Hmm, now there’s a Friday night for you. 18 Responses to “Left Behind (but not far enough)”Leave a Reply |
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I was going to blog about the Union of Concerned Scientists who have issued a 
I saw this in the game store the other day. The package had a blurb from AOL saying something like, “promotes good values & morals,” or some such hootenanny. Why does this strike me as something Ned Flanders would buy for his kids?
It’s worse than you know. (MAL: It usually is.)
And what is it exactly that distinguishes these people from the Taliban?
They make video games instead of opium to hook their followers.
Having read the link and the description of the video game it doesn’t sound very provocative. When you disregard the hyperbole of its opponents it sounds like a typical video game where you battle evil forces, except it has evangelical meassages and links provided as you progress into different rounds. Isn’t it a lot like a christian rock band that plays heavy metal music. Both provide an evangelical message that is dressed up in a manner designed to attract a certain audience: teenage boys and young men who like violent video games and loud music.
Lauren, you ask what disdinguishes the makers of the game from the Taliban. I would suggest that it is the fact that the video game makers don’t kill people or train and arm others to join them in killing people. I think the evalgelical aspect of the game is distorting your prospective. For example, aren’t you easily able to distinguish the makers of games in which the players sell drugs and kill people for points with murders and drug dealers who actually do those things in real life?
I suppose, Missile, at some point I will cease to be scandalized by the fact that I have to share this country with hordes of sexist nutjobs who want to hurtle not just themselves but you, me, and everyone else backwards to a time that never really existed but that nevertheless survives in the fetid waters of their perverted minds. Until that moment of true enlightenment (or will it be the final nail of cynicism?) arrives, I can’t help it. It freaks me out that Americans–not merely a few whackos but whole swaths of the country actually think that women should be kept in their place and that someday soon the people who worship the right invisible superhero in space according to the right book will be sucked up by the Rapture.
You’re right. They’re not as bad as the Taliban. I did, however, once have higher standards for Americans than that.
You don’t have to lower your standards just yet. First, as far as women being kept in their place, I don’t know that evangelicals preach about that (I have never been to one of their churches). I assume you take that position because they argue against abortion, but I would simply note that they do so for reasons divorced from choice – choice is not their issue – their issue is life. As for people believing that anyone who doesn’t also believe in their brand of faith will be doomed, so what. Maybe they are right, obviously we don’t think so and/or have decided to roll the dice. So, let them squawk all they want. Let them print bumber stickers and make video games and lobby their political representatives. They are not a threat to the country, just a thread that will always be part of the fabric.
Actually, Missile, I was referring to Niall’s reference to the limited role-playing options for female players within the Left Behind game as well as to evangelicals’ well-established belief in “traditional” gender roles both in marriage and in society. These are Promise Keeper people, remember.
Also, believe me, I don’t care whether a group of people thinks I’m doomed. And you’re right to bring this up. I wholeheartedly support people’s right to believe any whacked out fairy tale philosophy of their choosing. But evangelicals are not merely exercising their freedom to believe stupid things. They are actively organizing to impose their whacked out philosophy on others by corrupting our secular democracy with Christian dogma. And, here’s the kicker: they’re succeeding. That’s what freaks me out. I like our democracy, flaws and all. I don’t want to see it turned into a Christian theocracy. They do. Don’t you think that’s worth fighting?
I find little difference between the evangelicals’ attempts to turn “our secular democracy” into a Christian theocracy and the far left’s attempts to turn our secular democracy into a socialist state. Why does one bother you so much and the other not at all? Arguably, the creeping socialism that is so much a part of significant factions of the Democratic Party is a far greater danger to our secular democracy than anything that any evangelical is trying to do to you or me.
We already live in a socialist society, Rocketeer. Every time you drive on a road, turn on your lights, turn on the faucet, obtain a public education, call the police, go to the library, walk home by the light of a streelight, or do any number of things, you can thank socialism. Any modern society is comprised of a matrix of different organizing principles–socialism, capitalism, conservatism, liberalism, and many others. There is a robust and on-going debate about which aspects of our lives should be brought under the organizing principle of socialism (i.e., health care) and which should be subject to the natural efficiencies of the free market (i.e., monetizing natural resources). Undoubtedly there are Americans who want to convert more aspects of life to socialism than I would approve of. But I’m not aware of any fringe socialist movement that has the ear of the White House the way evangelicals do. The only potential increase in socialism I can see on the horizon is socialized medicine. We can argue about whether or not it would work here but I find it hard to be scared of it. It certainly doesn’t scare me as much as the evangelical playbook. And if you want a litany of things to fear courtesy of our god-fearing neighbors, go read the Union of Concerned Scientists’ statement I mentioned above.
I’m curious why so many republicans support or at least downplay the corrosive influence of evangelicals. They have perverted your party. They are the standard-bearers of big government and paternalism.
You are right, of course, about creeping socialism and some socialist endeavors are inevitable in any organized polity. But that does not mean that you or I should surrender in the wake of its relentless march during our time. And, should it come to bear, socialized medicine will be a disaster and a danger to anyone who prefers freedom. On my darkest days, I am deeply saddened by the recognition that there is almost nothing you or I can do to stem the steady but inexorable growth of the central government and, every time the central government gets larger, we get less free by the minute. Every choice that is taken away from us makes us less free. Take social security, it is practically taboo (and certainly a political death wish) to suggest that it be abolished but the fact that so many citizens depend on social security for their primary source of retirement funds makes us all less rather than more free. And, when your civil liberties ultimately erode to nothing, it will not be because some born again Christian had the President’s ear in 2006 but rather because the Government in some future decade demands that you trade your important personal rights for your retiremend dole.
We agree on the general badness of an ever-expanding central government, Rocketeer. Here’s where your logic evades me: other than higher taxes, how do socialized medicine and social security impinge on my freedom? Does Bush’s recent statement that he wants to expand the military fall under the umbrella of creeping socialism?
I quote: “I’m inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops, the Army, the Marines. And I talked about this to Secretary Gates and he is going to spend some time talking to the folks in the building, come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea.”
What if proceeding forward on the idea of a expanded military includes the draft? Would you consider that a freedom-crushing creep of socialism? Or is it only health care and retirement funding that frightens you?
I ask these questions because I suspect we have stumbled upon a core difference between liberals and conservatives. Whereas liberals tend to define freedom as an individual’s right to live without the interference of government in his or her private life, conservatives seem to define freedom as the ability to pay lower taxes. But then, the military (which is a socialist institution) does not pay for itself.
Um, back to the original topic and Lauren’s assertion that this is a terroristic game, the game is admittedly meant as a recruiting tool for a particular world view that says, in effect, “well, fella, you didn’t make the cut for round 1 of the Rapture. But go get your gun and kill everyone who doesn’t believe what they’re supposed to believe and maybe we’ll reconsider.”
So people are told to kill infidels and their reward is a late (as in post-death, not as good as rapture) trip to heaven. Tell me how that’s different from an al Queda game in which the objective is to kill as many infidels as possible to earn a trip to heaven with 72 virgins?
[And don't say the difference is the virgins, because no one believes there are _that_ many virgins in heaven, and even if they are, they _still_ won't have sex with you...]
This statement is posted from an employee of Left Behind Games on behalf of Troy Lyndon, our Chief Executive Officer.
There has been in incredible amount of MISINFORMATION published in the media and in online blogs here and elsewhere.
Pacifist Christians and other groups are taking the game material out of context to support their own causes. There is NO “killing in the name of God†and NO “convert or dieâ€. There are NO “negative portrayals of Muslims†and there are NO “points for killingâ€.
Please play the game demo for yourself (to at least level 5 of 40) to get an accurate perspective, or listen to what CREDIBLE unbiased experts are saying after reviewing the game at http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/controversy.htm
Then, we’d love to hear your feedback as an informed player.
The reality is that we’re receiving reports everyday of how this game is positively affecting lives by all who play it.
Thank you for taking the time to be a responsible blogger.
In your own link, SJR, is a statement from arstechnica.com that reads: “the game makes it clear that shooting is the last resort.” Okay, so “as a last resort” you can shoot people in the name of Christ. Excellent.
In the same link is a quote from IGN, which reads: “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.”
Believe me, SJR, I have no interest in stopping you and your company from distributing this game. I think it’s hilarious. Moreover, even if it were more violent, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. I don’t have a problem with violence in video games any more than I have a problem with violence in movies. It’s not my thing, but I understand that there is a huge difference between game violence and actual violence.
I’m sorry you and your PR team have to deal with what you call “misinformation” but which seems to me more like “slight exaggerations.” But please, have some perspective here, SJR. You work for a company distributing a Christian video game of religious conversion based on one of the most soundly lampooned book series of all time. Did you honestly think you’d come out of it without a heavy dose of satire?
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