Sometimes content is released that has a higher agenda than simply being entertaining. It's commonly known (or is it?) that games are used to educate and advertise, but how often are they used to address pressing issues?
Faith Fighter, no not that Faith Fighter, is a flash game developed by Molleindustria where, according to the website's own description, you "choose your belief and kick the shit out of your enemies." You can choose between God, Jesus, Buddha, Ganesha, Budai, and Muhammad. To no one's surprise, the game features a disclaimer before you play the game that says:
"This game is not intended to be offensive towards any religion in particular. Its aim is to push the gamers to reflect on how the religions and sacred representations are often instrumentally used to fuel or justify conflicts between nations and people."
The part that actually surprised me is what comes after:
"The game contains a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. If you feel that such a depiction would be offensive, we ask that you play the censored version of the game in which the character's face has been removed. Or better yet, don't play the game at all."
As watercoolergames.org points out, this is included because of a little something called the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy. Gee, come on guys, take a joke... You don't see Tom Cruise getting pissed when someone makes fun of misunderstands his religion, do you?
So what do you think? Are you offended? Do you want to book a flight to Italy just to slap the devs in face with your grandmother's autographed copy of the Qur'ān? Do you instead want to fly to Italy and buy the devs some balloons to show your appreciation?
FYI: If you like this you might like Bible Fight.
[via Kotaku]
I think nobody would've cared if not for that disclaimer
I saw that game on NewGrounds, the classic portal of Flash fun & idiocy, and NG probably has hundreds of flash vids/games depicting/defacing the prophet. So far, the death toll over that will remain at 0. Amusingly enough, having a disclaimer might be the most provocative thing to do.
The whole cartoon riots were incited anyway, much like the current Wilders film controversy. Journalists or people with agendas tend to rile up the crowd whenever they need, otherwise, do you think anyone would honestly care about some friggin' flash game? Let's not get over-PCd here
Flash games are totally going to change the world!
Religion or people's faith is a sensitive issue and unfortunately, some of those who have these beliefs usually will take offense over anything that looks or smells of irreverence. If anything, the story just points out that even a little flash game, however innocent in nature, can rile people up. Let's all lighten up.
Needs more Xenu.
Xenu is the hidden boss ;)
Excellent concept. I don't even care how it plays. Early GOTY candidate!
I concur with vincian. Maybe throw Charles Darwin into the mix for all the atheists out there. :-p
No FSM! I like the Holy Ghost being the equiv of the Fireball attack from SF2, and seeing the FSM float along in the background.