Legal Niches

PSA: Beware the Proliferation of Satanic-Themed Games

By pete_gallagher

The latest threat to the world is the recent explosion of satanic-themed videogames, which serve up God and Christianity as targets.

An article in the Philadelphia paper The Bulletin decries the rise of such games under the headline Buyer Beware: Satanic-Themed Video Games Concern Parents. The article hinges mostly on the opinion of one 'avid gamer,' a 32-year old (coincidentally) named Lance Christian, who states that this 'problem' has 'been going on for the last 10 years,' but has come to light even more recently, 'especially in the most recent games.'

Christian states:

I feel that the devil has a new tool to work with in this age of technology, and the majority of adults in a position of responsibility are left in the dark.

Christian offered a list of recent offending games, complete with descriptions:

• Tecmo's Deception: Invitation To Darkness–Players 'make an unholy pact and sell their soul to Satan in exchange for power' with the object of the game being to ensure the resurrection of Satan and obtain his power.

• Nocturne—A game in which the hero (a demon) destroys the three Archangels St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, then goes on to destroy God.

• Shadow Hearts—The hero uses his power to intercept and destroy God and 'save the world.'
  
  
• Dragon's Age Origins—The game revolves around the story of God going mad and cursing the world. A witch attacks believers and players can 'have sex' with her in a pagan act called 'blood magic' so she can 'give birth to a god.' Another scenario allows players to have sex with a demon in exchange for a boy's soul.

Other offenders include Dante's Inferno, Guitar Hero, Devil Summoner, Koudelka, Trapt, Bayonetta, and Darksiders.

The article also offers that:

Game publishers are cashing in on the satanic, anti-Catholic and the general anti-religion content themes and using them as a draw for buyers.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).