Just the mention of a video game made from a Christian worldview and… oh, there you go. I can hear the moans now.
The problem is that the collective opposition concerning the Christian gaming market is usually justified. The majority of the developers working in this genre have limped along on shoestring budgets with small teams, many times being only a single guy in his basement. The games are a pretty good feet under the circumstances but, until recently, they haven’t been worthy of comparison to the big budget giants. Even now it seems that this sector of the industry is still floundering, trying to figure out what’s going wrong.
The problem I see is that Christian games are either low quality, too preachy or too expensive. Look at Gospel Champions, for example. It would be hard to lay down ~$150 for a kid’s game not knowing if it is any good just because it claims to teach catholic values. Take the poor game based on the Left Behind series – the books made for great reading but the game turned out horrible.
The thing is that the idea of a game with religious elements is certainly plausible. I mean take the Legend of Zelda series for example. I just finished Wind Waker (yeah I know 5 years later) and it was jam packed with a mythical religion. Look at Star Wars and the Jedi Knights’ use of the force. Now the religion used in these examples isn’t your typical sermon material (in fact it was quite heretical). The point is that you can make a great game with a supernatural/spiritual theme, you just have to do it right and, by all means, focus on great game play.
Time and again it has been shown that when the focus of a game is on anything besides playability the product is going to fall short. Just the other day I wrote about the poor quality of games based on movies here and I think that is a perfect example.
It’s not that games based on the Christian religion can’t be made, but the focus needs to be on game play. Who wouldn’t want to play as the archangel fighting demons or in a FPS fighting against the rise of the Antichrist? Sounds like 10 good hours of good clean fun in front of the big screen to me… just make it fun to play.
Read [Gaming Today] Also Read [Fox News]
Gospel Champions video games are available in Christian bookstores throughout the country for MRSP of $14.95. The higher price of $125 includes a site licence allowing a parish or school to distribute copies of the game to all of their members.
Gospel Champions is cool! I know several Catholic children who love it! I think they have 2 volumes and this is like 14 stories on each! Stores are starting to carry this!