Left Behind: Eternal Forces

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » 2006-12-19 01:28am

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/200 ... ersy_x.htm

More progressive thinking from the religious right. They made a video game that centers around violence towards non-Christians. You create Christian militias, and go around town "converting" nonbelievers. If you kill people, your "spiritual points" go down, but you can just pray for forgiveness, and you're all good again.

http://ga3.org/campaign/tell_wal_mart

This links to a pre written petition asking Wal-Mart to pull the game. You can rewrite it as you see fit, or just put in your name and e-mail, and fire off the petition. I've already sent one, and I hope you will all follow suit.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-12-19 01:29am

internet petitions accomplish a lot of things and i'm sure this one will force walmart to reconsider their business practices

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-12-19 01:35am

I would just like to say:

So what? It's a game. From what I hear it sucks anyway.

HSRTG · Post by **HSRTG** » 2006-12-19 01:41am

It's a game that, by all accounts, blows. This is getting way to much attention. Just ignore it. The Christian families that get this and find they have no fun because it's a bad game will do far more than any petition. They'll be less inclined to buy another game of its ilk, so this growing industry will fade away.

So let them make it. It'll blow over. If they make a sequel that's good, I'll pay it some attention. Other than that, it's just another mediocre RTS.

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » 2006-12-19 01:42am

Of course it will suck. It's made by Christian Right Wingers, they're too busy focussing on ideology and preaching to make anything fun. If we notify the people carrying it that not only will it hurt their wallets, but their reputation, they'll be less likely to carry any further attempts at promoting such medieval era horseshit.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2006-12-19 01:53am

HSRTG wrote:It's a game that, by all accounts, blows. This is getting way to much attention. Just ignore it. The Christian families that get this and find they have no fun because it's a bad game will do far more than any petition. They'll be less inclined to buy another game of its ilk, so this growing industry will fade away.

So let them make it. It'll blow over. If they make a sequel that's good, I'll pay it some attention. Other than that, it's just another mediocre RTS.

I played it. It's awful. I can provide screenshots if desired.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-12-19 01:56am

Setzer wrote:Of course it will suck. It's made by Christian Right Wingers, they're too busy focussing on ideology and preaching to make anything fun. If we notify the people carrying it that not only will it hurt their wallets, but their reputation, they'll be less likely to carry any further attempts at promoting such medieval era horseshit.

You'll excuse me if I don't share your enthusiasm.

Look, plenty of massively offensive games get made ALL THE TIME. Some games do it just for shock value. I personally don't give a shit if this game told you that your mother sucks cocks in hell because she didn't accept jesus as her savior "for real". Like it or not, games do have the right to say whatever they want. I have bought several games which have storylines that I do not agree with, but have gameplay I found enjoyable.

Starting a petition because a group you don't like made a game with parts you find offensive is moronic. Trying to get stores to stop selling it by telling them it sucks is retarded. If it doesn't sell, they'll stop stocking it. Is that so hard to understand. Kicking and screaming and causing a ruckus is stupid, and moreover, it's exactly what the people who want to ban GTA do.

No one forces you to buy a game. If you don't want it or don't want your kids to play it, there is a simple solution: don't buy it. If some people want to buy it, let them. It's not like this game will magically convert people just like it does in the game, and frankly there are numerous other games with much more objectionable content for sale than this (and even some with worse gameplay).

If it REALLY upsets you that much that this game was made, consider this: It was made for a reason. Think very hard what that reason is, and then maybe, just maybe, you'll realize why it's fucking retarded to go after a game that's going to flop anyway.

So put down the fucking torches and just sit back and smile as it dies a silent death. Then maybe you can put your time towards more productive things. Like playing games that are fun. Or work. Or breathing. You know, things that matter more than this game being published.

HSRTG · Post by **HSRTG** » 2006-12-19 02:43am

Covenant wrote:I played it. It's awful. I can provide screenshots if desired.

If you don't mind torturing yourself, I wouldn't mind a screenie of a heavy metal rocker de-converting some fundies. Just because I'd find it hilarious.

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » 2006-12-19 04:59am

Wait, you can deconvert people? Heh, that'd be neat. I might like playing as the Anti-Christ.

Tolya · Post by **Tolya** » 2006-12-19 05:53am

Whatever you are doing Setzer, stop it. This is the same fucking propaganda run that tried to pwn GTA:SA in the first place.

I will not buy it, I do not support what this game stands for, but there is something like the right of free speech and expression of opinions. If someone wants to preach apocalypse in a video game then go ahead, I don't care.

By doing whatever it is you are doing you are only setting the stage for another GTA:SA-like-Jack Thompson drama. Stop it please, dont be a moron.

If its crappy, it will not sell. Would it be good, I'd probably play it myself. And Im not afraid that playing a video game will suddenly convert me to christianity, just like playing Postal does not turn me into a mindless mall killer.

In short, let the free market duke it out.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2006-12-19 06:34am

HSRTG wrote:
Covenant wrote:I played it. It's awful. I can provide screenshots if desired.
If you don't mind torturing yourself, I wouldn't mind a screenie of a heavy metal rocker de-converting some fundies. Just because I'd find it hilarious.

It's hard. I only have the demo, since I'm not sure I want to actually purchase the piece of flaming Helldung, and every time I meet up with a rocker dude my horde of slavering pedophile fundamentalists shoot him to death. By Bubba Strong. Grrrr! Bubba Strong! Fire bad! That or maybe he's one of those guys who really liked the new army slogan.

Strong. Bubba Strong.

I like this one too. It's the Life Story of one of our young heroes. Named frends, your units have a creepy cult-like organization that works out of converted warehouses.

Disproving Religions is a totally normal Journalism class project.

Yeah. Barbed wire and sandbags in downtown. That's totally not creepy. I wonder why people don't like us?

I like how taking over this local bank generates revenue. Almost as if the funds were being redirected...

And the best part? Meet your fearsome adversaries:

DAMN YOU GLOBAL COMMUNITY PEACEKEEPERS!!

Seriously... what? How could this game POSSIBLY not sell?

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2006-12-19 08:26am

Holy crap, that sounds just so awesome!

That is, only if you can play the AGCP

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » 2006-12-19 09:04am

If the badguys have all the funding of the world's nations behind them, how come that one guy isn't wearing a shirt?

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2006-12-19 10:20am

Setzer wrote:If the badguys have all the funding of the world's nations behind them, how come that one guy isn't wearing a shirt?

Because he's an evil perverted buddhist hindu rocker atheist child molester, not a good god-fearing shirt-wearing stand-up Christian!

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » 2006-12-19 10:40am

PeZook wrote:Holy crap, that sounds just so awesome!

That is, only if you can play the AGCP

Damn poster is misleading. They try to make it look like there's two separate campaigns. Only time you get to play the "bad guys" is in multiplayer.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-12-19 11:46am

If there was any doubt at all that this was a bad propaganda piece instead of a game, take a look at the lowest screenshot at Arstechnica. Talk about creepy Starship Trooperesque "Do you want to know more?" brainwashing.

Can they get any more stereotypical?

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2006-12-19 05:03pm

Losonti Tokash wrote:
PeZook wrote:Holy crap, that sounds just so awesome!

That is, only if you can play the AGCP
Damn poster is misleading. They try to make it look like there's two separate campaigns. Only time you get to play the "bad guys" is in multiplayer.

Yeah, sadly you cannot take the AGCP by the horns and inflict on humanity a thousand years of peace. Sadly, this just makes me wonder who the good guys really are. Peacekeeping and free expression versus smarmy men in sweatervests preaching to people and setting up FUCKING GUN TURRETS in the street to shoot at the minivans of the unconverted? Yeah... hm.

I'm also kinda sad the only ads it generated were for nice things, like McGruff the Crime Dog. I'm definately not hardcore enough to get the cool ads the Ars Technica guys did.

Also, having read the article, they're wrong. Violence was my first and only resort. Once I had some solders, it was off to purge the weak. I can either try to painfully convert them or just kill them off. By attacking you can create a dead zone around the badguys to slow their rate of counter-conversion, and then turn everyone left into soliders to kill the evildoers. Prayer heals your faith, and so you can kill, pray, kill, pray, and so on, forever, until you are the only ones left alive. And it IS vicious to other religions. Buddhist? Hindu? Mormon? Join our version of Jesus, or die by my turret.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2006-12-20 07:33am

I guess the fundies are just like Jesus when he magically turned water into wine. They magically turn good game concepts into shit.

Since you apparently can restore your faith points without any trouble at all, you get a dominant strategy of just killing and praying. Who thought that would be a good idea? Being able to convert enemy forces to your cause and use them is a great idea though, it's a shame they seem to have ruined it.

I like their interface too. Good thing they write the name of the game in the upper-left corner. You know, in case you'd forget what you're playing...

Post by **Kuja** » 2006-12-20 01:02pm

Covenant wrote:Peacekeeping and free expression versus smarmy men in sweatervests preaching to people and setting up FUCKING GUN TURRETS in the street to shoot at the minivans of the unconverted? Yeah... hm.

JESUS CANNON, FIRE!

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-12-20 05:04pm

I suppose you could tell that something was wrong with this game the instant the 'Forces of Peace' are branded as the bad guys... and for some reason, the avatars of the game that you play are either Steve from 11th Grade, or Big Tattooed UN Triad Thug Man?

Something is mightly funny about this game.

Medic · Post by **Medic** » 2006-12-20 08:20pm

Tolya wrote: Whatever you are doing Setzer, stop it. This is the same fucking propaganda run that tried to pwn GTA:SA in the first place.

I will not buy it, I do not support what this game stands for, but there is something like the right of free speech and expression of opinions. If someone wants to preach apocalypse in a video game then go ahead, I don't care.

By doing whatever it is you are doing you are only setting the stage for another GTA:SA-like-Jack Thompson drama. Stop it please, dont be a moron.

If its crappy, it will not sell. Would it be good, I'd probably play it myself. And Im not afraid that playing a video game will suddenly convert me to christianity, just like playing Postal does not turn me into a mindless mall killer.

In short, let the free market duke it out.

Precisely, the intellectual and legal battles they fight to try to get patent falsehoods taught in science class aren't comparable to misadventures into the video game market.

I mean honestly, I'd love to think the setting and subject of a video game could make inroads into intellectual pursuits -- then any game based on historical events would, in theory, spark interest in otherwise indifferent consumers to learn more about history. I'm almost certain this doesn't happen; more likely the most a common ignoramus tends to gleam from something like Rise of Nations is that Katyusha rockets are something from Russia circa WWII with +5 attack bonus!

On the gun turrets though, that's just plain dumb. Shouldn't the unconverted play more of a role in strategy? A resource both sides fight for instead of just apathetic enablers of the other side to be slaughtered? I'm offended because it's shovelware not because it's blatantly propagandistic. I see this in the same light as Gundam: Crossfire, not Kitzmiller V. Dover.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2006-12-21 07:08am

SPC Brungardt wrote:Precisely, the intellectual and legal battles they fight to try to get patent falsehoods taught in science class aren't comparable to misadventures into the video game market.

I mean honestly, I'd love to think the setting and subject of a video game could make inroads into intellectual pursuits -- then any game based on historical events would, in theory, spark interest in otherwise indifferent consumers to learn more about history. I'm almost certain this doesn't happen; more likely the most a common ignoramus tends to gleam from something like Rise of Nations is that Katyusha rockets are something from Russia circa WWII with +5 attack bonus!

I don't think the setting is going to make anyone think twice about their religion or whatever, because it simply isn't designed that way (though I bet the designers thought they would get people to think past the gameplay by encouraging conversion of units, but that doesn't really work). What I'd hate to see is people of average intelligence that don't really care about religion pick up little snippets of misinformation about evolution and all that, from those loading screens. I mean, if you're having a discussion about evolution and some guy comes in and says "I heard that only microevolution blahblahblah".

Thankfully, someone would have to actually like the game for that to be the case, and apparently the game is so bug-ridden so that's unlikely to happen...

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2006-12-22 01:35am

Has anyone seen the TV commercial? If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was either a Mad TV parody, or Ned Flanders bought air time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkVE1AzH1Dg

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2006-12-22 04:09am

Lord Poe wrote: Has anyone seen the TV commercial? If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was either a Mad TV parody, or Ned Flanders bought air time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkVE1AzH1Dg

Christ, that's comedy gold. "Prayer is essential! And you lose points for fighting!"

Guess those gun turrets are really "prayer turrets".

Post by **K. A. Pital** » 2006-12-22 04:48am

Jesus Cannons rock.

In the next incarnation of the game, you'll have Preachers in armor running "Venerate the Immortal God-Emperor" and destroying heretic scum..

Oh wait. That already exists