Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist
June 11, 2008 - by Ian Bogost

Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist is a trippy, disturbing game from Messhof, aka Mark Essen. It's very abstract, often frustrating, and will likely make you physically ill. The compelling title is indeed tied to the game's themes, although don't expect them to cash out in a tidy fashion. You'll have to work on this one. (via Rhizome, thanks to Gene) ...

Molleindustria's Faith Fighter
January 23, 2008 - by Ian Bogost

Molleindustria's at it again, this time taking on religion. Faith Fighter aims "to push gamers to reflect on how... sacred representations are often instrumentally used to fuel or justify conflicts." In other words, a critique of the exchange value of religious figures and icons. It's a much less controversial topic than their last title about religion, Operation Pedopriest, but perhaps also less direct and biting in its commentary. Remembering controversy over the Danish muhammad cartoon controversy, Faith Fighter offers "Normal" and "Censored" mode, the latter with Muhammad's visage blocked out. ...

The Rapture of Lawyers
October 5, 2007 - by Ian Bogost

Zach Whalen writes today about a letter he received from Left Behind Games threatening legal action, received in response to his several posts about Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a controversial game about the army of God after the rapture. Zach posted the letter itself, and notes that it is a form letter sent to a number of people, including Tim Simpson, Radical Congruency, Raving Atheists, and left-wing uberblog Daily Kos. GamePolitics has a mention of the letters and I'm sure many comments will follow over there. I haven't read all the articles in question, but the cease and desist is ...

Italian Government bans Operation Pedopriest as child porn
July 1, 2007 - by Ian Bogost

Recently we covered Molleindustria's Operation Pedopriest, a game we suspected would cause controversy. And it has. Molleindustria has removed the game from their website after a point of order in the Italian Parliament move to call the game "virtual pedo-pornography" under an Italian law that makes it illegal to depict sexual acts with children. Molleindustria offers more on this, with links to the laws in question. As they said in an email to us, who says that Italian government is slow and bureaucratic? The game itself is still available on Newgrounds. Meanwhile, WCG friend Liz Losh has written an extensive ...

Video Game Evangelism
July 19, 2006 - by Ian Bogost

Brian Crecente of Kotaku and the Rocky Mountain News just wrote an article on Left Behind: Eternal Forces, which we've discussed here before (and he also blogs it at Kotaku). Brian asks if the game might be "the first mainstream PC agenda game," and also offers a preview of the gameplay in the article. I played the game at E3 and wrote about it in my forthcoming book, Persuasive Games: Videogames and Procedural Rhetoric. But, you can get a preview of my opinion in Brian's article: The prayer, he points out, is completely generic. "It could be Islamic or Judaic," ...

The Rapture will be Advertised
June 9, 2006 - by Ian Bogost

Left Behind Games, creators of the forthcoming Left Behind: Eternal Forces, have announced a deal to include in-game advertising via the Double Fusion network. The game is based on the wildly popular book series of the same name, in which believers left behind after the rapture battle the army of the antichrist. I interviewed Left Behind Games and played the game at E3, and I've written it up for my forthcoming book but haven't yet done so for Water Cooler Games. I'll be doing that in the next week or so. The game takes place in New York City, and ...

Is your PC ready for the Rapture?
December 30, 2005 - by Ian Bogost

For those of you who don't know it, Tim F. LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have penned some 14 novels about life on earth after the rapture. Taken together with the associated kids books, graphic novels, audio books, fresh poultry, armored cars, vacation timeshares, and dutch ovens, the series has sold over 600 gazillion copies. A few years back, the group behind these tales of post-apocalyptic end of the world goodness created Left Behind Games, a division that promised to allow the 30 million billion people who had bought the books and dutch ovens to take on the role of ...

iBelieve - social commentary goes meta
November 7, 2005 - by Ian Bogost

I'm breaking the rules a little with this post. It has very little to do with videogames. But it's too good to pass up, and it does relate to the broader themes of our project. In a brilliant move, artist Scott Wilson created iBelieve, a cross-shaped lanyard and cap for iPod shuffle. Its purpose was social commentary: Inspired by the world's obsession and devotion to the iPod, ... [iBelieve] is a social commentary on the fastest growing religion in the world. But much to Wilson's surprise, religious organizations have started buying the iBelieve in bulk! Incredible! I've been thinking and ...

Live from the Serious Games Summit DC (day 2)
November 1, 2005 - by Ian Bogost

Here we are at day two of the Serious Games Summit DC 2005. I'll be live blogging to the best of my ability today. For my coverage from yesterday, click here. There were many concurrent sessions both days, and I had a talk both today and yesterday, du ring which I could neither blog my own session nor cover others, so the content here represents a segment of the total sessions covered at the event. Keynote: Riding the Cutting Edge of Distributed Intelligence (Dr. Dave Warner) Roundtable: Beyond Q&A: Assessment Methods for the Next Generation of Serious Games (David Michael, ...

Holy games
August 5, 2005 - by Gonzalo Frasca

Wired reports from the Christian Game Developers Conference in Portland, Oregon. I find particularly interesting that the article is so concerned about the violence or lack of it in these Christian games. Why would Christian games need to be non-violent? Has anybody read the Bible lately? I mean, the book has tons of extremely violent content (God kills little children when he gets mad, remember?) Tons of violence on the book and none on the games? Come on! Certainly the Old Testament is more bloody than the New, but if you have seen Mel Gibson's opus it should not surprise ...

Islam games, Christian games, ...
July 28, 2005 - by Ian Bogost

We recently reported on the 4th Christian Game Developers Conference, happening this week in Portland. On a related and unrelated note, I recently came upon this op-ed (thanks to Andrew), by NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Friedman cites a WCJ report that the Iqra Learning Center, a site investigated after the 7/7 London bombings was the sole UK distributor of Islamgames, "a U.S.-based company that makes video games [featuring] apocalyptic battles between defenders of Islam and opponents." The op-ed cites Ummah Defense I, in which "the world is 'finally united under the Banner of Islam' in 2114, until a revolt ...

Christians + Game
July 26, 2005 - by Gonzalo Frasca

News.com reports (via Reuters) on Christian games. As you may know, the 4th Christian Game Developers Conference (CGDC) will take place this week in Portland, Oregon. The Reuters report includes some interesting facts and sales figures, as well as quoting some of the developers. ...

Equipping Game Developers to Glorify God
June 21, 2005 - by Gonzalo Frasca

The 4th Christian Game Developers Conference is taking place on July 28-30th in Portland, Oregon. Along with Ian, we have promised ourselves to attend for a couple of years now, but we have always been too busy. I don't think I'll make it this year neither, but I don't lose hope. Portland is great when it's not raining. ...

Power Politics free for Educators
June 3, 2005 - by Ian Bogost

WCG regular Randy Chase has just announced that his prexy election sim Power Politics III (on WCG: 1, 2) is now free for use in the classroom. The new version will also have likely '08 candidates. Click through for the full press release. ...

E3: The Bible Game
May 19, 2005 - by Ian Bogost

I'm running a bit behind with E3 coverage, but I'm going to try to catch up today. While everyone else covers the predictable stuff, I'm going to try to share my impressions of the more unique games on the floor this year. I knew about The Bible Game from Crave before arriving at the show and was happy to stumble upon it on the floor. There are two flavors, one for GBA and one for PS2. Disappointingly, both are quiz games, although each tries to overcome that creative defect in a different way. ...

Ressurection = Bonus Life?
May 1, 2005 - by Gonzalo Frasca

Going to the Christian Game Developers Conference has been a plan that Ian and myself have postponed a couple of times now. Every year, as July approaches, we feel the urge to witness this "alternative" GDC held in Portland, Oregon (a fantastic city in spite of the rain). Note to ourselves: CGDC will held form July 28th to the 30th this year (information to be posted soon on their website). The fact is that the New York Times publishes today "Playstations of the Cross", a very good article on Christian games. I found particularly interesting the quotes about the rhetorical ...

Halo for Jesus
March 20, 2005 - by Ian Bogost

This is different. The Christian Post writes on How to Witness Using Halo 2, a rather bizarre account of how youth ministers are teaching kids to use Halo 2 to "testify the faith." Apparently the ministries really don't like Halo 2 (on account of its violence), but they perceive the game to be so culturally pervasive that they can "take something hugely popular in our culture and turn it into a way to share the most important message." One minister equates the game's premise -- a hero saving the world from aliens -- with Jesus saving the world from eternal ...

Religion and Games
July 25, 2004 - by Ian Bogost

Two notes on this topic. First, a reminder that next week, from 29 July - 1 August, is the Christian Game Developer's Conference in Portland Oregon. It's not too late to register, and the cost is a very reasonable US$40. Second, Gamer Dad has a great article up about representations of religion in games. The article is an extended version of a 2002 Computer Games Magazine article, but it's worth a read, featuring thoughts from Richard Garriott, Sid Meier, Will Wright, Peter Molyneaux, Phil Steinmeyer, and Jane Jensen. ...

Games go to Church
April 20, 2004 - by Gonzalo Frasca

Ship of Fools, a hip Christian online magazine ("the magazine of Christian unrest") will launch Church of Fools on May 11th, 2004. It is going to be a 3 month online game project. They have a project description and some pics. The projects builds up on The Ark, a Big-Brother game they launched last year where you had to vote-out Bible heroes and villains. I am not very sure what the game component of Church of Fools will be (their description sounds more like a 3D chat room), but I am looking forward to check it out when they launch. ...

Game and Holograms for Peace in Jerusalem
March 29, 2004 - by Ian Bogost

Wired reports on a plan to use a blimp, holographic temple, and MMOG to bring peace to the middle east. ...