Posted Jun 16, 2007 at 09:57AM by Nicolo S. Listed in: PlayStation 3, Opinions & Analysis Tags: Sony, ESRB, Jack Thompson
Ó

The 'New God' - Image 1


Back when video games were still starting out, controversies would revolve around cowboys saving a native American girl or female protagonists with big packages raiding tombs. Mothers who found their kids ripping guts out and eating eyeballs shouted their concerns. ESRB was formed to tag games with warnings and moderate sales to certain age brackets, but the noise never winded down.

Recently, lawyers bashing violence in video games have been the trend. Thanks to some ace-attorney all gamers know, law suits became common against companies like Rockstar. Today, another institution is rising up against a branch of the video gaming industry.

As most of us know, the Church of England is not happy about an English church being depicted in Sony's Resistance: Fall of Man. Instead of simply requesting the game to be pulled out like what Jack Thompson does, the church officials also ask for substantial donations and for Sony to support anti-gun crime groups.

To be fair, religious controversies with video games have a long-running history. In earlier times, games viewing religion in a negative context got censored often. A certain Xbox game, Kakuto Chojin, was taken out of the circulation for offending many Muslims. Nowadays, we get more games with religious references like the Xenosaga and Shin Megami Tensei series.

Mary Magdalene and the young boy who collaborated with Lucifer - Image 1Mary Magdalene and the young boy who collaborated with Lucifer - Image 2


For some odd reason, the Church of England haven't taken serious legal actions against games that allow God to be killed, or befriend Lucifer. Instead, Resistance: Fall of Man is taking the heat for having a cathedral backdrop on a game with a fictional setting and storyline.

We do understand the concerns, making a holy establishment as a hunting place for the Chimera and therefore a vehicle for violence-filled entertainment may be putting them in a bad light. But first and foremost, the game is rated M for a reason. It's supposed to be in the hands of people in the right age and state of mind.

With the call for pulling the game off the shelves or changing the cathedral area, why should they also ask "donation" from the money the game produced? It's such an irony, that the bread earned from an "evil" game be given to the holy church.

Did they seriously come up with such a request while taking into consideration the backlash from gamers and faithful followers alike? Donations are supposed to be voluntary, offered to help the church serve better. Does the Church of England want the donations because Sony never paid commercial fees to include the place in the game? Doesn't that defeat the idea that they don't want the cathedral to be a battleground in-game at all?

On the legal side, Sony may have a huge advantage. It's not very likely to see R:FoM taken down for having a fictional church. In all other forms of media, the church gets defiled. There is no reason for a video game to be any special, since it's even marked unsuitable for younger audiences. Books are available to all, while restricted movies can be viewed at home any time.

Church of England officials may have their reasons, but their requests don't seem too good. Let's just hope this problem gets resolved without both sides making each other look bad to the public.


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22 Comments


Sort by:
   by Blade - 2007-06-16
 » What I want to know is...

How fighting against Aliens is going to cause kids to have massive gun fights in the Cathedral like they are stating :S.

   by mik3yl3 (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » lol

church needs to stfu and stop being greedy


   Re: Supersonic (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » ..

Its all about the money, its all about the dum dum deddy dee dummm. I'm sorry i'll stop singing now.. :)
   by ME (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » only if

Only if the church took such drastic actions in fighting molestation by priests.... one can only hope.


   Re: zeromatrix (Unregistered) - 2007-06-17
 » ...

Well said
   by smfrank92 (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » retarded

its very likely that 3 million ppl will willingly give up their copy of rfom and sony will pay 5 million dollars to some child molesting greedy priests. Who the hell am i kidding?


   Re: Project D (Unregistered) - 2007-06-17
 » Clarification

It's the Roman Catholic church that's infamous for child molestation cases, not the Church of England. Not to say some CoE priest hasn't molested children before, but they're not the ones with that stigma.
   by bj (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » .

. basically i agree with everything written

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   by Oo (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » email

dean@manchestercathedral.com is the email of that bastard...


   Re: mik3yl3 (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » lol

hahahahahahahahaha spam his ass!
   by Zed. (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » Chill Out C of E

Sign the petition to ask the Church of England to chill out:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/CofEChill/index.html

   by Screw Manchester Cathedral (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » They suck

Bunch of idiots. Who the hell do they think they are. Sony has no right to donate s**t. I hope they never do. I hate idiots like Jack Thompson, and these guys...Sony shouldn't be their b**ch.


   Re: bopoo (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » ...

I agree with your points but i think you should calm down. Remember, these people lead their lives by the rules of a fiction book, we should pity them.

   Re: Project D (Unregistered) - 2007-06-17
 » re: bopoo

Ouch. As a Christian, that offended me as much as the CoE demanding donations from Sony.
   by Gameboy (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » ...

This is by far one of the biggest piles of $hit i've read. We want a donation? So it's wrong to have a fictional battle, in a fictional setting but ok to pocket profits made from it? Hypocrites!
I'm so sick of these people who think gamers are complete retards or 8 year olds and we're going to go out and mimic everything we see in a game. If that were the case i'd be a mass murderer ten times over by now.
Facts are the only reason the church is doing this crap is to take away from bad rap it got in all those molestation cases and if they can make buck while at it then that's just a bonus...hope they all burn in hell and the chimera torture their greedy souls...


   Re: Project D (Unregistered) - 2007-06-17
 » Confusion

The Church of England is protestant, not Roman Catholic. CoE priests are allowed to marry and have families and such. It's the "chaste" Catholic priests that are infamous for molesting children.
   by Lucca (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » ...

ill think, Resistance makes the Church Famous, lal, ill be proud if my house were in a Alien VS Human War Game as a Battlefield.. oh gawd.. it makes me *****ing laughing xD

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   by salo1129 (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » i agree

well all of these comments made me laugh they r so true i mean yah sure blame sony for everything so they can be bankrupt.what about blair blowing up mosque in iraq nobody says anything.lets do one thing ask (order) sony for a donation for them to.


   Re: vincent (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » umm

bankrupt? rofl they're far away from being bankrupt. the only thing that can bankrupt them is like bombing the banks they go to.
   by Hahahz (Unregistered) - 2007-06-16
 » OMg

Oh my god. When I was scrolling down and saw Jenova's picture I was like NO WAY. Looked at the title and I was like... oh...

*sob*


   Re: lol (Unregistered) - 2007-06-17
 » me 2

i thought the same thing, FF7! woot! ps3 remake Finally! party! then title hit me and FTW i was pissed. why is jenova here anyway? shouldve put an angel from resistance fom.
   by fgts (Unregistered) - 2007-06-17
 » we abuse our religion!

Their chuch sucks and they dont have enough people donating to keep them going. Their using god and jesus to get them money from corporations, like sony.

Sony should just buy them a ps3 and leave it on their door step and they'd stop their blasphemy.



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