The LA Times and Talk to Action run down the militaristic premise of a game I can't wait to play, the dominionist Christian Left Behind: Eternal Forces. The LA Times writes:
The game is set in New York City, where the Tribulation Force clashes with the Antichrist's Global Community Peacekeepers in a tale that makes the United Nations a tool for Satan. Each side attempts to recruit lost souls in the battle for the city. "Eternal Forces" is a so-called real-time strategy game — players act as battlefield generals for their virtual armies, deciding where to place units and when to order attacks or retreats.In the game, Tribulation squads unleash the usual arsenal against the Antichrist: guns, tanks, helicopters. But soldiers lose some of their spirituality every time they kill an opponent and must be bolstered through prayer. The failure to nurture good guys causes their spirit points to drop, leaving them vulnerable to recruitment by the other side.
The player's choices prompt intervention by angelic forces or unleash demons who feast on the faithful. As players progress through the increasingly difficult levels, they see Scripture passages presented as secret scrolls and hear inspirational music.
In multiplayer games, participants can choose to command the Antichrist.
The LA Times also includes a mini history of Christian games (though how could they leave out the pioneering titles of Wisdom Tree?)
Even creepier, from Talk to Action:
If you happen to blow away a neutral party - and collateral damage is inevitable in the End of Days - then you will lose "Spirit Points". But you can power back up with merely a brief timeout for prayer, or by converting one of New York's terror-stricken citizens.
Sounds a bit like C-Level's Waco: Resurrection, without the irony.
Surprise: HuffPo readers aren't happy.
As I note in the book (pages 290-291 for those of you reading along at home), video games as they exist today do lend themselves well towards simplistic us-versus-them scenarios, and therefore propagandistic, nationalist and sectarian variants seem inevitable—white power games, anti-Israel Islamist games, go-USA military games, etc.
This is not only because the military model is so deeply ingrained in modern games' FPS roots: unlike cinema or literature, the format has not yet found ways to create advanced forms of sympathy, empathy or complex moral shading for its characters. Video game characters--including their protagonists--don't have convincing interior lives (Max Payne notwithstanding), even if they have ever-more convincing exterior appearances.
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