Game Politics ([info]gamepolitics) wrote,
@ 2006-05-06 08:12:00
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Entry tags:bonanza gold, christian games, game violence, left behind, religious right

Investors Take Stock of Violent Christian Game Maker

Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a real-time strategy game based on the best-selling Christain fundamentalist book series, is due out later this year. It's clear that the brains behind the company are praying for a bountiful blessing of profits.

In fact, the game developer's parent company has left its old name behind. Formerly known as Bonanza Gold, Inc. (does that name tell you something?), the firm will now trade as Left Behind Games, Inc. A press release says, "Left Behind Games Inc. is committed to developing high-quality inspirational game titles for the computer and video game market."

The newly-minted game company's OTC stock closed at 2.60 on Friday.

GP: Expect Left Behind to catch a lot of heat - and a lot of publicity - when it launches. Game violence critics as well as segments of the Religious Right are sure to blast the game. Some already have. But as we saw with protests against 25 to Life, that only seems to help, not hurt sales...

I'll be meeting with the Left Behind folks at E3 and will have much more detailed info for readers following the interview.

Want to talk about it? You can discuss this story via the "comments" feature (click below), or in the new GamePolitics Forums...


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Bah. The church will love it.
[info]startropics
2006-05-06 02:38 pm UTC (link)
They defended the amount of violence in Passion of the Crikey, so an accurate depiction of the rapture shouldn't be far off. In fact, they probably welcome it.

Ya see that gamers? THAT'LL BE YOU IF YOU DON'T REPENT NOW!

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Re: Bah. The church will love it.
[info]traiklin
2006-05-06 04:48 pm UTC (link)
Hey I'll love it to aslong as it's a good RTS (My favorite Genre :D) and I'm not big into any religion.

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My only question is....
[info]johnhummel
2006-05-06 05:46 pm UTC (link)
Is it fun? Other than that, I could care less about the religious aspect. May as well make a game about Greek gods and then get all offended at the idea.

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Re: My only question is....
[info]nitkin1
2006-05-06 08:30 pm UTC (link)
age of mythology?

its a fun game, you should try it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: My only question is....
[info]johnhummel
2006-05-07 12:39 am UTC (link)
Heh - my point exactly.

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[info]scazza
2006-05-06 06:25 pm UTC (link)
Ya, for me who is very anti-religious, and someone who hates seeing religions push itsself upon people, I really do not mind this game comming out. I am also up for open expression when its done right and tastefully and this game seems to be of that sort.

Many of the previous "bible games" have been stupid cheap money grabs with jesus slapped on the cover, put there to fool parents into thinking that the game they are buying will help their child. This game actually looks to be a real game that can be fun, and may have some "wake up call" gameplay to some.

As for me, I will give it a shot because I too love RTS games, and wouldn't mind seeing a christian spin on the genre.

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[info]turbinerocks
2006-05-06 08:44 pm UTC (link)
Could this be the Stryper of Christian video gaming? The thing that angers uptight parents AND purists of the genre and makes a lot of people in the middle happy?




I say, right on. The books are swill and unreadable on a level that should make anyone with a 7th grade education cringe, and a lot of feckless morons use notions of the Rapture to feed their revenge fantasies against the unbelievers. On the other hand, a good game is a good game, regardless of where it comes from, and we need more Good Games, and less big budget theme parks on rails masquerading as video games.

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[info]demon_jd
2006-05-06 11:40 pm UTC (link)
GP: Expect Left Behind to catch a lot of heat - and a lot of publicity - when it launches. Game violence critics as well as segments of the Religious Right are sure to blast the game. Some already have. But as we saw with protests against 25 to Life, that only seems to help, not hurt sales...

What about the fact that it will categorically suck ass? I think that'll hinder sales, although, 25 to Life showed that that theory doesn't hold much water either...

Seriously, if any of the Left Behind games can even be deemed playable by normal people, I'll eat my f'n hat.

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[info]rubberbandiv
2006-05-07 12:31 am UTC (link)
When did the evangelical xian right claim hold of the word "inspirational"? This makes me sad that I can't use it to connote something that is meant to inspire people without being explicitly xian in its message.

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Religious Right Bash?!?
[info]grimm24
2006-05-07 05:39 am UTC (link)
Why would religious political figures bash a game that is based on books that are suggested by church figures?

The books are good so im hoping that the game wont be just some stupid gimik.

Question though: Do you get the fight the anti-christ as the last boss?

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Oh, for the love of...
[info]jaimas
2006-05-09 03:04 pm UTC (link)
You know, I've read the Left Behind series. I did this as part of a school project.

Sorting out all the details of this series would take a few hundred pages of explanation, as there are numerous splinter beliefs within it which are, in and of themselves, a splinter from more traditional Christian teaching, called Pre-Millenial Dispensationalism.

Basically, it works like this:

7 years before the Tribulation, All Christians are magically sucked away and can enjoy the coming seven year torment of the faithless from their box seats in Heaven instead of having to endure it with everyone else on earth. Also Jesus is balding or something, what the hell.
This, despite involving Jesus coming and doing so after the first time He did it, is not the Second Coming. It's a secret coming. If at any time Jesus or any of his IM forces are captured, God will disavow any knowledge of His actions. This 1.5 Coming allows all the Christians of the world to rest easy knowing they won't have to actually go through any hard times for their faith, and also allows them to revel in the fact that all those non-Christian jerks will be getting what's coming to them.

The Left Behind book and movie series, which follows very strongly in the Pre-Millenial Dispensationalist tradition and was influenced by writers like Hal Lindsey, features an attack by Russia and Ethiopia on Israel in which Russia expends its entire nuclear arsenal to destroy a nation about the the size of New Jersey. The attack, consisting of thousands of nuclear missiles, is entirely negated by a giant fireball in the sky which saves Israel from any and all harm and yet few if any of the people within the story seem to take this as a sign of divine intervention.

....Russia and Ethiopia.

Adjectives fail me.
Damnit.

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