Legal Niches

Developers on Religion in Games

By pete_gallagher

While the majority of those queried wanted nothing to do with the subject, GameSpy did manage to corral a few brave game developers willing to discuss the topic of religion in videogames.

Lionhead Studios main man Peter Molyneux was one such game maker willing to talk about the subject, saying, 'There cannot be a hotter potato than this hot potato.' 

He continued:

Religion is one of those things where -- if you're specific about it -- you're going to get yourself into a mountain of trouble.

 

You have to be very, very careful.

Assassin's Creed creator Ubisoft was one company that declined to talk with GameSpy about the subject, referring the author instead to the disclaimer used in Assassin's Creed 2, which states that the game was developed by a 'multicultural team of various religious faiths and beliefs.'

Others who provided comment on the subject included Visceral Games' (Dante's Inferno) Jonathan Knight, 2K Boston's Ken Levine and Wizards of the Coast's James Wyatt, a former preacher.

Among Wyatt's comments:

Games aren't a place where you are expected to cling to a belief in something that can't be seen or proven. It's a world where the power of gods is demonstrated daily.

 

[The Lord of the Rings'] Gandalf was -- almost literally -- Jesus walking around with the adventuring party.

Head over to GameSpy for more on the subject.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on January 13, 2010 (boomark / email).