Gotta thank you for bumping this - this is a great article.
Like others have said, I am definitely against gaming used as any sort of Christian recruitment tool. Not only is it ineffective, I think that it is wrong to try and steer any one towards a certain religion. I maintain a firm belief that people should be able to associate with any faith they want, and if someone is an atheist, good for them.
If anything, I do think that using games as a way to teach gamers about different religions (not just Christianity). It would be great to learn about happens in the Bible or play a Hindu who dies and his journey to become one with Brahma. If it ain't preachy, and it's done well, I'm all for it.
In terms of religion in game stories, as long as it's done in an intelligent, mature way, it's fine with me. There have been many games that have dealt with religion well; there are quite a few Japanese games such as Xenogears and Grandia 2 involving religion(funny how Christianity rather than Shinto plays a large role in lots of Japanese media).
See the theme here? I don't want to be converted, but I'm fine with learning more.
*maybe it should be noticed that I consider myself agnostic (A.K.A. atheist but not really)
Like others have said, I am definitely against gaming used as any sort of Christian recruitment tool. Not only is it ineffective, I think that it is wrong to try and steer any one towards a certain religion. I maintain a firm belief that people should be able to associate with any faith they want, and if someone is an atheist, good for them.
If anything, I do think that using games as a way to teach gamers about different religions (not just Christianity). It would be great to learn about happens in the Bible or play a Hindu who dies and his journey to become one with Brahma. If it ain't preachy, and it's done well, I'm all for it.
In terms of religion in game stories, as long as it's done in an intelligent, mature way, it's fine with me. There have been many games that have dealt with religion well; there are quite a few Japanese games such as Xenogears and Grandia 2 involving religion(funny how Christianity rather than Shinto plays a large role in lots of Japanese media).
See the theme here? I don't want to be converted, but I'm fine with learning more.
*maybe it should be noticed that I consider myself agnostic (A.K.A. atheist but not really)