Religious faith in videogames

[Dylan]

Shin Megami Tensei:

You can stop there. Every game in the Megaten universe is entirely centered around religion, and really of all types. Judeo-Christianity seems to be somewhat more prevalent, though.

[GSZX1337]

As a worshipper of Eywa, I feel that Avatar: The Game represents us accurately.

[weasels]

Valkyrie profile common theme is Norse mythology. and while it has only been once, i have read online someone bashing it due to not having "good religious qualities". there are some people that really need to lighten up.

[jfe2]

Dragon Age: Origins has tons of religion in it. Thank the Maker that Bioware knows what they are doing, and didn't make a huge deal out of it!

[Gamerforlife]

Dragon Age: Origins has tons of religion in it. Thank the Maker that Bioware knows what they are doing, and didn't make a huge deal out of it!

Yeah, I really enjoy hearing two of my party members bicker over it all the time. What's very interesting is the whole church versus mages thing going on in that game. If this sort of thing happened in real life and people could perform incredible acts of magic despite having no religious faith, you could see how certain people in the church would want that shit under control. Why believe in a god or in miracles when normal people can perform miracles using nothing but their own power? In Dragon Age, mages are either hunted by the church, controlled by the church or they simply remove their emotions making them obedient slaves with no more personality than a robot

[miked]

Grandia 2 was a complete religious mess if I remember right. Been awhile since Ive played that one, but I remember a general "purifying" villages by burning them down in the name of some fictional god and whatnot.

[MrPopo]

Grandia 2 was a complete religious mess if I remember right. Been awhile since Ive played that one, but I remember a general "purifying" villages by burning them down in the name of some fictional god and whatnot.

That is correct. The Church has an overzealous side, and I'm positive the Pope is going to betray me at some point, as there has never been a good Pope in a video game.

[Gamerforlife]

Grandia 2 was a complete religious mess if I remember right. Been awhile since Ive played that one, but I remember a general "purifying" villages by burning them down in the name of some fictional god and whatnot.

That is correct. The Church has an overzealous side, and I'm positive the Pope is going to betray me at some point, as there has never been a good Pope in a video game.

Grandia 2 was oddly enough the first game I thought of when I saw this topic, but as someone already mentioned how common religious themes are in japanese rpgs I didn't think it worth mentioning.

I have noticed that a lot of japanese rpgs make tons of references to all sorts of belief systems. Just look at equipment names, hidden bosses, or in the case of Final Fantasy games, espers and aeons. Odin, Shiva, knights of the round, etc, etc.

Okami was great in that it made you a god, but in wolf form. Essentially, you went around performing miracles among people with them oblivious to the fact that a god walked among them. Tons of great references in that game to Japanese myths and stories

[lisalover1]

I'm a Christian, so I really have some serious moral conflicts when playing games that have religion [especially Christianity] placed in a noticeably negative light. For example, I just was trying out Bayonetta, and I really, REALLY didn't feel comfortable playing it. What should I do if a game contradicts, and maybe even insults my beliefs? Worse, what if the game is actually very well-made, and otherwise enjoyable to play? Now, I don't want to be one of those people who makes a big fuss about a game just because of its' content, but this has been bothering me for a very long time, and I honestly don't know how to deal with it. Should I just not play the games, and possibly miss out on a good game, or should I just always regard it as total fiction? Or, is rationalization of the obvious just as bad as playing it at all? I want to play the SMT series, I want to play Grandia 2, and I want to play Bayonetta. But, I don't feel like it's right for me to do so. I want some other people's input on this; what should I do? Do I know they're bad games, and I'm just looking for an excuse, or am I just over-thinking a work of fiction?

[Limewater]

I'm a Christian, so I really have some serious moral conflicts when playing games that have religion [especially Christianity] placed in a noticeably negative light. For example, I just was trying out Bayonetta, and I really, REALLY didn't feel comfortable playing it. What should I do if a game contradicts, and maybe even insults my beliefs? Worse, what if the game is actually very well-made, and otherwise enjoyable to play? Now, I don't want to be one of those people who makes a big fuss about a game just because of its' content, but this has been bothering me for a very long time, and I honestly don't know how to deal with it. Should I just not play the games, and possibly miss out on a good game, or should I just always regard it as total fiction? Or, is rationalization of the obvious just as bad as playing it at all? I want to play the SMT series, I want to play Grandia 2, and I want to play Bayonetta. But, I don't feel like it's right for me to do so. I want some other people's input on this; what should I do? Do I know they're bad games, and I'm just looking for an excuse, or am I just over-thinking a work of fiction?

This is probably not the best place to ask such a question. As I understand it, most people on this forum are not Christians and will thus not share your values. Similarly, a lot of people who claim to be Christians may have very different beliefs than you do. I consider myself to be a very committed Christian, but it is possible that you would not even consider me to be a Christian at all if you knew my beliefs.

To someone to whom religion is no more real than a video game, of course there would be no conflict. Such a person would find your question ridiculous, but that person probably also finds a lot of your religious beliefs to be ridiculous.

I suggest talking about this issue with Christians you respect, and, more imporantly, look for applicable passages in the Bible. To start off, I would point you to 1 Corinthians 10:14-33.