Hindus Ask PAX To Drop Smite

[Tropicaz]

I'm not going to lie, reading through these replies all this has done is make me think this game will be kind of awesome. When does it get released?

 

[SlamDunc]

I object to there objections not only because of free speech which allows the developers to do this and they should not be forced to censor it (I don't think that means that the Hindu groups can't complain either, they have rights as well but I don't think they should try to force censorship and instead try to convince the developer this is offensive and they should change it out of respect for the religion, not financial reasons.) but also because of the way they have chosen to object to this. They claim offence from using there gods with no concern for people who still follow the Norse or Greek faiths (However few there may be.). If a came about gods is offensive why only tell them to remove your gods? What makes Kali any more of a degrading character than Thor or Zeus?

I see it more as using somebodies intellectual property in a way the didn't intend, for example, let's say Star Wars didn't have it's copyright, so some guy remakes it where Luke is an alcoholic who beats children, and when people attack him for making this he claims free speech.

This argument is completely invalid based on the fact that nobody owns the IP rights to Hindu gods. Or any faith for that matter. If something is in a public space as much as this nobody gets to claim that it is not the way they intended for it to be used, they did not make it.

The gods were also not all made up by one person/known group who had express details about them. Faiths evolve over hundreds of years with hundreds of people contributing and sticking in their own 'intent.'

 

[JediMB]

Okay, screw having Jesus in Smite. He's just a bearded man, and no one can ever seem to agree on what his skin color was.

What we need is an archangel (Michael or Gabriel?) and Satan/Lucifer/The Devil.

 

[UberNoodle]

If Kali is offended let HER do something about it!

Exactly! Don't the religious see the ridiculous image they are creating: there's their god, pouting indignantly, yet completely impotent to do anything itself:

God: "But guys, they said I was a myth! They're using my picture in a video game! Aw, I'm so upset about this. I wish I could do something about it."

Grumpy old d**ks: "Don't worry, oh omnipotent, holy one. We have this covered."

God: "Oh, I hope it will be OK. Do you think they'll be upset?"

Grumpy old d**ks: "It's fine. We'll tell them everything which you can't. They won't know the difference. Do you need anything while we're at the shop?"

God: "Nah, I'm god. Aha! I mean, good."

Grumpy old d**ks: "Ah, yes. Very funny."

 

[sunsetspawn]

I trust the Penny Arcade guys to stand up to these enemies of free speech.

still no characters from the Abrahamic religions i see.

why is that exactly ?..

oh yes...they are shitebags.

still /golfcalp in the name of "freedom of speech" eh ?..

especially when its quite clear they won't actually dare offend anyone who might actually be able to mess with them in return.

cowards.

Exactly. If you're too afraid to put Jesus, Moses, and Mohammad in the game you really shouldn't pretend to be about free speech.

Jesus being violent would offend the rednecks, and they're a target audience for violent games. Gee, that's ironical

If you put Moses in a game then the diamond district (and H&M, and Hollywood, and maybe even the global banking system) would be put on hold so they could all whine and kvetch about getting royalties due to copyright infringement, and with the lawyers on their side that could get ugly.

And Mohammad? Well, he's arguable the best candidate for a fighting game considering he was a violent warlord, and I'm also pretty sure that Stone and Parker have proven that he can throw fireballs. But fuck that shit, because it would be kind of hard to enjoy your videogame's success without a head, amirite?

 

[Innegativeion]

I trust the Penny Arcade guys to stand up to these enemies of free speech.

still no characters from the Abrahamic religions i see.

why is that exactly ?..

oh yes...they are shitebags.

still /golfcalp in the name of "freedom of speech" eh ?..

especially when its quite clear they won't actually dare offend anyone who might actually be able to mess with them in return.

cowards.

Their job is not to include all the religions you've taken up a personal beef with. You might have noticed that Hindu deities are rather interesting looking, whilst anyone important in Christianity, Judaism and Islam is a bloke with a beard. So yeah, no shit they're not included.

Well, the SMT series managed to make judeo-christian entities look pretty interesting.

Demons and angels technically fall under the blanket of "abrahamic", after all. That includes folks like Lucifer, Gabriel, the guardians of edin with flaming swords, those really weird looking ones with like 6 legs and 3 arms (or whatever), and a dude named METATRON(no joke).

Plenty of wiggle room to make interesting characters, I guess the Smite folks don't think it'd be exotic enough?

 

[Woodsey]

I trust the Penny Arcade guys to stand up to these enemies of free speech.

still no characters from the Abrahamic religions i see.

why is that exactly ?..

oh yes...they are shitebags.

still /golfcalp in the name of "freedom of speech" eh ?..

especially when its quite clear they won't actually dare offend anyone who might actually be able to mess with them in return.

cowards.

Their job is not to include all the religions you've taken up a personal beef with. You might have noticed that Hindu deities are rather interesting looking, whilst anyone important in Christianity, Judaism and Islam is a bloke with a beard. So yeah, no shit they're not included.

Well, the SMT series managed to make judeo-christian entities look pretty interesting.

Demons and angels technically fall under the blanket of "abrahamic", after all. That includes folks like Lucifer, Gabriel, the guardians of edin with flaming swords, those really weird looking ones with like 6 legs and 3 arms (or whatever), and a dude named METATRON(no joke).

Plenty of wiggle room to make interesting characters, I guess the Smite folks don't think it'd be exotic enough?

No, I guess not. The game includes 5 religions, they have no duty whatsoever to include one religion to balance the books for including another.

If the designers aren't interested in digging through Christian fiction to come up with blokes like Metatron then that's abso-fucking-lutely fine because it's their game and they can include whatever the hell interests them.

 

[toapat]

Honestly? Im all for bashing of all religions as equally possible (Im looking at you Taoism, you coward).

On the other hand, If Christians are fine having Jesus being a playable character, why the hell should Capitolism: The Religion be complaining?

 

[TheSYLOH]

What i really want to see is a team battle.
Moses, Jesus and Mohammad vs Zeus, Shiva and Thor.

Admittedly the Abrahamic religion team is support heavy.
Moses acts on Debuff with his curses of Egypt, Jesus healing and Resurrection and Mohammad does physical DPS and Tank.
The polytheistic team seems to have doubled up on lightning elementals, but has strong close combat capabilities.

 

[direkiller]

I trust the Penny Arcade guys to stand up to these enemies of free speech.

still no characters from the Abrahamic religions i see.

why is that exactly ?..

oh yes...they are shitebags.

still /golfcalp in the name of "freedom of speech" eh ?..

especially when its quite clear they won't actually dare offend anyone who might actually be able to mess with them in return.

cowards.

Jesus could make an awesome Melee/Support if done right (set him up like a melee version of Hel, call the stance changes "Prince of Peace" and "I Bring Not Peace, But a Sword". Yahweh is OP, being invisible and all though. Since none of the Jewish or Muslim prophets are accused of being divine, it's kind of hard to use one of them as a "god" unless you think Mohammed and Moses could beat of Odin and Ra...

You can always go with when Yahweh was part of a polytheistic religion and bit less powerful.
Yahweh Sabaoth"God of the armies" make him a puppet master style champ.

 

[piclemaniscool]

Every time I hear another gripe about this game, I try to relate it to a religion I'm more accustomed with. then I realize a hack and slash game starring Jesus would be hilariously awesome. Maybe fantasy RPG, fable style.

 

[direkiller]

Every time I hear another gripe about this game, I try to relate it to a religion I'm more accustomed with. then I realize a hack and slash game starring Jesus would be hilariously awesome. Maybe fantasy RPG, fable style.

it's not so much another gripe
as the same guy/group griping to diffident people to stop promoting the game.

 

[DanDeFool]

I still think Smite should include the Archangel Gabriel and Lucifer in their lineup. While not really "gods", per-se, they'd still make good characters, and maybe the hindus would chill out if they weren't the only modern religion whose deities were being trivialized.

 

[cikame]

Hindu deities were mean't to be worshipped... by Hindus.

The world doesn't have to take steps to avoid upsetting me, what makes any other human more special?

 

[TheBelgianGuy]

Could we please stop saying "Hindus ask..." whenever this particular group makes a noise? I doubt they represent a majority of Hindus. I wouldn't think it fair if the WBC was just called plainly "Christians" in every article.

 

[Nieroshai]

It's all fun and games til it's your own faith being portrayed by an outsider. People need to focus more on themselves within their faiths and less on whether anyone else respects them. Hell, I'm a Christian, I know none of you respect that. And I don't care, I'm here to talk games and nerdy crap.

I respect that, I'm a Christian too.

I feel that people need to learn to not push their beliefs into everything. Hinduism is the 3rd largest religion in the world, it makes sense that people would draw inspiration for it.

My favorite games, movies, and anime draw heavily from other myths and religions. Norse, Greek, Hindu, Japanese, Chinese, what have you. My favorite author, David Eddings, called it the Mythological Fishhook. There's something about these myths and creeds that draws us into them, and the story by extension.

I think we could all take a page out of the Hindu playbook and treat all religions as legit, but have your own favorite flavor. Life would be a lot more peaceful.

 

[CentralScrtnzr]

I'm sure there were also Greeks in the Classical Age performing various public religious rites and those of private cults offended by the representation of the gods in the epic poetry of Homer and the like. But, by a landslide, the Greeks embraced what was really the popular fiction (or non-fiction, as they might have esteemed it) of Homer. People still read Homer today, some of them even enjoy it; the religious rites of the ancient Greeks are now long dead. I'm sure there's some argument in there for the staying power of media in the mind of the people against the appeal of blind adherence to gods and idols.

 

[II2]

Gabe and Tycho are big Tribes fans and Hi Rez has done well by them recently in that respect...

That said, while their voices obviously carry a lot of weight at *their* convention, Robert Khoo handles all this stuff directly, not Mike and Jerry. He's a pragmatic guy; I expect he'd relay the concern on to the Smite devs, but leave the decision to them.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

I love how PAX ended two days ago and this is still on the Most Commented list.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

To be fair, this group has every right to complain about the portrayal of their god in a video game.

Equally, everyone else has the right to completely ignore them, and go about their day.

I remember Bill Hicks on offending Christians...

"So, I'm doing a gig in the deep south, and these guys come up to me after the show, shove me in the chest, and go "come here!", musta been physics majors, I'm guessing, and they tell me they don't like what I said about Jesus... I told them, "So, forgive me!"