US: Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. As the video game industry gathers in Los Angeles this week for the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, a devout group of publishers is praying for a direct strike on their elusive target: the eternal souls of game players.
One game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, launched yesterday at the expo, features plenty of biblical smiting, albeit with high-tech weaponry as players battle the forces of the Antichrist in a smouldering post-apocalyptic world.
The creators hope the game packs enough action to appeal to a generation of kids reared on such titles as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and subtly coax them to consider their own spirituality.
Left Behind is part of a new wave of religious games coming out at a time when the mainstream industry faces increasing criticism that its products celebrate misogynistic mayhem. Another publisher is marketing games based on the Veggie Tales series of Christian videos for children. Another is pitching Bibleman: A Fight for Faith, about a superhero who stands up for the word of God with his sidekicks Cypher and Biblegirl.
Games "will be a new tool to get the two-minute generation to think about matters of eternal importance in a way that isn't religious", said Troy Lyndon, one of the Left Behind game's creators.
Christian-themed games historically have had limited appeal. Games producer Digital Praise has sold about 30,000 copies of its most popular product, a Christian title called Dance Praise. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has sold 5.1 million copies worldwide.
"Left Behind has the Antichrist, the end of the world, the apocalypse," said co-creator Jeffrey Frichner. "It's got all the Christian stuff, and it's still got all the cool stuff." That's why industry watchers predict such titles will find a broader audience.
"The reason that I think this game has a chance is that it's not particularly preachy," said financial analyst Michael Pachter. "I will say some of the dialogue is pretty lame - people saying, 'Praise the Lord' after they blow away the bad guys. I think they're overdoing it a bit. But the message is okay."
The game is based on the best-selling series of Left Behind books, which offer an account of the end of time as predicted in the Book of Revelation. One of the series's authors, Tim LaHaye, said the game had the potential to communicate ideas such as salvation to people who might not think of themselves as particularly interested.
But critics counter that in their rush to make Christian games appealing developers such as Lyndon and Frichner are doing little more than putting a religious veneer on the same violent fare. "We're going to push this game at Christian kids to let them know there's a cool shooter game out there," said attorney Jack Thompson, an author and outspoken critic of video game violence. "Because of the Christian context, somehow it's okay? It's not okay. The context is irrelevant. It's a mass-killing game."
The game's heroes belong to a group of fighters called the Tribulation Force, people whose husbands, wives or children disappeared in the Rapture, the moment when God calls believers to Heaven, leaving the unconverted behind to face seven years of tribulation. The game is set in New York City, where the Tribulation Force clashes with the Antichrist's Global Community Peacekeepers; each side attempting to recruit lost souls in the battle for the city.
"It's absurd," said Thompson. "You can be the Christians blowing away the infidels, and if that doesn't hit your hot button, you can be the Antichrist blowing away all the Christians." - (LA Times-Washington Post service)