Is it possible to make a good Bible game?
- Thread starter DrDeath3191
- Start date
As I see it, the problem with Bible based games to date is that they aren't made by professional developers so much as they are made by professional Christians who think a computer game is a neat way to spread their faith and often producing a well coded and enjoyable game is secondary to 'the message'.
The result is that you don't have a game as the end product but a recruiting tool - and not usually a very good one.
I'm not taking shots at Christians. It's pretty clear that there *are* parts of the Bible which would make an interesting premise for a game - even just the mythology itself could be used as a backdrop for a variety of genres.
I'm not interested in necessarily playing as Jesus or a famous Bible character - that's more likely to annoy fundamentalists than anything else - but an RPG set in Biblical times could be pretty good. Imagine being an investigator sent to find out why Gomorrah has gone quiet and then getting sidetracked or something.
Ultimately my point is that a Bible game wont work as long as it focusses on trying to convert people instead of being what games are meant to be: FUN. I play to relax, I don't want to be converted.
The result is that you don't have a game as the end product but a recruiting tool - and not usually a very good one.
I'm not taking shots at Christians. It's pretty clear that there *are* parts of the Bible which would make an interesting premise for a game - even just the mythology itself could be used as a backdrop for a variety of genres.
I'm not interested in necessarily playing as Jesus or a famous Bible character - that's more likely to annoy fundamentalists than anything else - but an RPG set in Biblical times could be pretty good. Imagine being an investigator sent to find out why Gomorrah has gone quiet and then getting sidetracked or something.
Ultimately my point is that a Bible game wont work as long as it focusses on trying to convert people instead of being what games are meant to be: FUN. I play to relax, I don't want to be converted.
Fourty years of fuck-all in a desert, climb a mountain, get some really stupid commandments and spend the next several thousand years butchering people who won't follow them.
The second half of the game is when you can't do that legally so just annoy the crap out of the with it.
But then, I'm rather biased.... as the charred remains of my last bible will testify.
The second half of the game is when you can't do that legally so just annoy the crap out of the with it.
But then, I'm rather biased.... as the charred remains of my last bible will testify.
With reference to the OP, a game about saving the jews from egypt would be awesome. There could be a bit like where you blow up Megaton in Fallout 3, but instead you press a button and all the first born children in egypt die. But you get good karma for doing it. And then you have to remove all the real world evidence of this happening.
Would a Bible game also allow for genocides, rape and slavery? You know all the moral parts where God commands his chosen people to slaughter his enemies and take their daughters.
I dont see why a game automatically defiles the subject matter. I can see how Jesusblaster 2: Assault on the Moneylenders would be offensive and would cheapen the source material but why would a game set in biblical times, using backdrops provided by the text be an act of sacrilege?Offworlder said:
It doesn't have to be a game where you play as God or as Jesus for it to be Bible-based. If you're against computer games being based on the Bible are you also against books which discuss the Bible? What about musicals or films like Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ?
Surely you cant think that the Nativity plays held at Christmas are defiling the book upon which they are based?
I don't see why films, plays and books are a legitimate form of expression but the medium of video games is still viewed as something less deserving of recognition. Films can be tasteful in their depiction of material - why can't a game be?
Well, I did my Theology Dissertation on Christians and videogames so I did a spot of research into Christian games and gamers. My journey showed me that it is entirely possible to make games based on the Bible but unfortunately most Christian Developers wanted to use them as a springboard to conversion first and a fun experience afterward. This meant that most of the games I came across sucked.
Some have already mentioned the biggest problem with a Bible based software- Everyone would ***** about it. Atheists would moan that they were 'trying to convert them!' (Which would make me laugh considering how godless games are generally) and the Conservative Christians would yell 'blasphemy' or something. (Which would annoy me because the Bible is more violent than all the GTA's combined).
So in short, yes it's possible but I doubt it would be received well.
Some have already mentioned the biggest problem with a Bible based software- Everyone would ***** about it. Atheists would moan that they were 'trying to convert them!' (Which would make me laugh considering how godless games are generally) and the Conservative Christians would yell 'blasphemy' or something. (Which would annoy me because the Bible is more violent than all the GTA's combined).
So in short, yes it's possible but I doubt it would be received well.
I'm an atheist, but I'd love to play a bible game! The genocide bits would probably be too easy but fun nonetheless.Redlac said:
Nah, am I the only one that ever found the bible incredibly boring? Greatest book ever wrote my ballochs Id prefer reading Pride and Predjudice or something anyday over it, and the christian god is so boring how do you make a game based around an undescribed, unkown being who dosent seem to be all that powerful. I mean the roman gods you can work with, the norse etc but that?
God was more tempermental in the Old Testament, and that's where all the fun war, sex and murder is. The NT is not going to make a fun game. OT, however... well, take a look at the previous posts.Nmil-ek said:
Possibly. Maybe someone could make a jet ski-centered racing game where all the major characters in the Bible don a wet suit and race each other on jet skis, except for Jesus who will run.
You should be God having to level the city of Sodom. It would play like the AC130 section of cod4 leveling buildings and murdering civilians.
The final encounter would involve spitefully turning Lots wife to a pillar of salt as QTE due to a minor indiscression.
The final encounter would involve spitefully turning Lots wife to a pillar of salt as QTE due to a minor indiscression.
Go play the NES Bible games made by Wisdom Tree.
THEN you come back and tell us you can make good Bible games.
THEN you come back and tell us you can make good Bible games.
Interesting fact: Those games are actually remakes of their old crappy games when they were some other company making unliscenced NES games. They just slapped the Bible on top to sell it to gullible folk.Cid SilverWing said: