Christian gamers: Strap on your armor of God and smite someone

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Sarah Linn
The Associated Press



PORTLAND — In the world of Christian video games, players sport the armor of God. Within their arsenal is a ball of liquid holy energy known as a smite. Demon-possessed Roman soldiers drop to their knees in prayer when they're hit.

Religious-themed video games represent a minute fraction of an $11 billion industry. But their developers expect the market to grow with the rise in popularity of faith-based entertainment, such as Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" movie and the "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic thriller novels.

About 100 developers of Christian video games will gather in Portland this month to figure out how to make the jump to the mainstream by finding investors and getting their games on store shelves.

Event organizer Tim Emmerich said Christian game developers — mostly evangelical Protestants — want to provide an alternative to shoot-'em-up games and spread the gospel without boring or alienating players.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001981897_smite17m.html

[proud patriot]

1. I'm going to go vomit now

:puke:

[NC_Nurse]

2. Oh, puhleeze!

Are they all gonna get 72 virgins when they die too?

[Ready4Change]

3. Can you play a minion of Satan?

WWII games let you play Allies or Axis soldiers. Space games let you play humans or aliens. Why not Satan?

[Cleita]

4. Why do games have to kill something?

I noticed that with the original pacman game, it had to gobble things up and your physical reflexes had to be right on, but your mind wasn't really used at all except as the receptor guide for hand/eye movements.

I suppose this is great for military training (Onward Christian Soldiers and so on.), but maybe our society is f----d because we are training the wrong part of our physiology at the neglect of the one that counts, our brains.

[Sugarbleus]

5. This is very disturbing to me......I'm very worried about

the youth in connection with these religious sects. I'm not against a spiritual program for those that believe in God, but this ultra right wing "religious" movement is way out of bounds....they ARE after the young, this I know for sure. This is just another brainwashing tool--along with the "new youth oriented christian music" and other entertainment programs they put out. IT'S NOT GOOD.

Youth, IMO, should be taught a belief system by their parents,not by a huge organization...as we well know, organizations can be dead wrong.