1. Comment #15482 by jhb90277 on December 31, 2006 at 6:20 pm

Pretty funny stuff. I like the comparison between Grand Theft Auto and Left Behind. The buzz on the game, though, is that it is crappy, glitchy and ought to be "left behind" at the store.

Other Comments by jhb90277

2. Comment #15491 by DV82XL on December 31, 2006 at 8:06 pm

I am so sick of this 'Left Behind' nonsense. The fact that this fantasy series is being treated by some as scriptural authority - with encouragement from some popular pulpits - shows just how intellectually bankrupt Christianity has become.

Other Comments by DV82XL

3. Comment #15493 by jhb90277 on December 31, 2006 at 8:30 pm

They're obviously grasping. Church attendance has fallen, political scandals have affected the most "pious" in American govt and they need to keep ahold of current Christian youth.

I found this link yesterday when I was looking for photos of a mall Santa display from many years ago. Warning: it's an evangelical site, so grab a barf bag. The question is "what will you do if you get stopped by mall security (for handing out tracts)?


http://www.evtales.com/


I instruct the evangelism team that when Security tells them that they can't hand out tracts in a certain place they are to say, "I understand. Thank-you." Then they are to move to another place and continue (if conscience, convictions, and courage allows). I remind them that if they say, "Okay, I won't hand them out," then they have to stop. They must let their Yes be Yes and their No, No. To say, "I understand," is non-commital.

I have been instructed by our church lawyer to get their name, badge number, take a picture, and ask for the watch commander—and do the same with him too… and the same with the police, if they should show up! It is a violation of our civil rights for them to stop us (of course, we are never to fight or insist on our rights; the guy with the gun always wins). The reason our lawyer wants us to do this is so we can build a case later. In fact, he wants me to get arrested to test the laws. I say, "Wait a minute!, now!"

Also, when we get escorted out, we just come back in another door.
---

and it goes on. The point is that they're desperate to push this nonsense on anybody who will (or won't) give them the time of day.

Putting this stuff in a video games seems like the next logical step for them.

Other Comments by jhb90277

4. Comment #15495 by Mel Z on December 31, 2006 at 9:05 pm

So, What kind of guns would the player get?

presumably a "bible bazooka"

Other Comments by Mel Z

5. Comment #15497 by John Pritzlaff on December 31, 2006 at 9:22 pm

No, Mel Z, they actually get real guns.

Other Comments by John Pritzlaff

6. Comment #15501 by Sancus on December 31, 2006 at 9:53 pm

From the video:

How do they capture young people? Other than literally?

Key phrase! Indoctrination of children requires their literal physical capture and compulsory attendance.

Other Comments by Sancus

7. Comment #15505 by Nikki on December 31, 2006 at 10:16 pm

Hmm...I checked out the Wiki on this game a week or so before xmas. There was a quoted scource (name supplied) critisizing the game for making the two sides (believers and satanists/atheists or whatever) appear to be evenly matched.They said that this oversight undermined the christian message the game was intended to send! That paragraph or so seems to have disappeared from the Wikki now!
Wish I had copied it.
Edit: Added:
I just found the link I followed to the info mentioned above. From memory it still seems to have been shortened. I could have been wrong about a name being supplied there. It may have been somewhere else.
"Muddied religious message"
Some Christian speakers have called the multiplayer feature, allowing gamers to play from the perspective of the Antichrist's forces, into question. Detractors have suggested this feature takes away from the stated inspirational goal of Left Behind Games by making the forces seem equally matched or encouraging violent, anti-Christian roleplay."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind:_Eternal

Other Comments by Nikki

8. Comment #15509 by Cholmonedeley on December 31, 2006 at 10:37 pm

Luckily, like games based on DragonballZ, these games will never be good enough to appeal to anyone besides their pre-established fan bases. Their makers are made lazy by the guaranteed money that comes with such marketing ploys--the fans will buy anything with the right label.

Other Comments by Cholmonedeley

9. Comment #15510 by Nikki on December 31, 2006 at 10:38 pm

Oh, and New Year has already come, and the day is nearly over in OZ, so Happy New Year to every one. Especially best wishes, to those of you who wake up with a sore head afterwards :)

Other Comments by Nikki

10. Comment #15512 by Nikki on December 31, 2006 at 11:05 pm

I'm not a gamer, and so, am unfamiliar with where potential customers of this game would look for a review.
This first one I came across was a little heartening.
http://au.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/leftbehindeternalforces/review.html

"Another good thing about the Rapture is that it will take you away from disastrous, buggy games like Left Behind: Eternal Forces.
Score: 3.4 Bad"

On the top of another page I went to, the reviewer started out by saying it would be hard to review this game without considering the controversalial religous aspect of it.
At that point I lost my curiosity as to its potential popularity, purely as a game.

Other Comments by Nikki

11. Comment #15513 by chachi138 on December 31, 2006 at 11:07 pm

found this interesting tid bit here: http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/the_company.htm

"To date, not one high-quality video game has been marketed to this same audience. It is management's belief that LEFT BEHIND will be a catalyst for a new genre of video game entertainment; known, as stated by the Wall Street Journal, as "God Games"."

i can't wait to start a collection of "god games". i just hope you can choose between old testament god and new testament god, that way i can really put the smack down on some people old god style!

Other Comments by chachi138

12. Comment #15516 by kcjerith on January 1, 2007 at 12:05 am

Happy New Year, just got home and I am a little drunk! Just as a side note, from what i have seen, go to G4 tv (just google it) to check it out, this game sucks, bad graphics and crappy controls. Even though Their message is silly, I might have played it for the hell of it, but no, game sucks. Have a good one, be safe!

Other Comments by kcjerith

13. Comment #15517 by Nikki on January 1, 2007 at 12:12 am

12. Comment #15516 by kcjerith on January 1, 2007
"this game sucks, bad graphics and crappy controls. Even though Their message is silly, I might have played it for the hell of it, but no, game sucks."

Thanks for that bit of good news kcjerith :)

Another one from the fanatics and you don't even need a PC. Perfect for a lovely little sit around with the family. Highly recommended by none other than Ken Ham , himself.

"Intelligent Design vs. Evolution Board Game
Evangelistic, educational, entertaining.
At last, a board game that reveals the insanity of perhaps the greatest hoax of our times -- the unscientific "theory of evolution."
"Intelligent Design vs Evolution" is unique in that the playing pieces are small rubber brains and each team plays for "brain" cards. Each player uses his or her brains to get more brains, and the team with the most brains wins. It has been designed to make people think . . . and that's exactly what it does.
"Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron are doing much more than revealing the bankruptcy of molecules-to-man evolution. They have a greater purpose: proclaiming biblical authority and reaching the lost with the precious gospel message. Enjoy this wonderful family game as you also become better equipped to defend our precious Christian faith. -- Ken Ham, President, Answers in Genesis."
http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=536

Can someone pass that bucket this way please!

Other Comments by Nikki

14. Comment #15518 by GoodbyeGodNZ on January 1, 2007 at 12:37 am

More Theodrivel.

Other Comments by GoodbyeGodNZ

15. Comment #15520 by Nikki on January 1, 2007 at 1:23 am

Still, evengelicals using 'small rubber brains' to try and get more brains, is quite fitting really.

Other Comments by Nikki

16. Comment #15523 by lpetrich on January 1, 2007 at 3:05 am

In this game, you command the Tribulation Force, the people who have converted to the One True Sect of Fundamentalist Xianity after the Rapture.

Your opponents are the Global Community Peacekeepers, commanded by the Antichrist himself, Nicolae Carpathia, the leader of the One-World Government.

Your aim is to try to convert neutral civilians and GCP units, as the GCP tries to do the same to neutrals and your units. And while your units can pray, the GCP ones can swear, though the swearing is all bleeped out. I wonder if anyone will come up with an unbleeped-swearing patch for that game.

The game is full of swipes at fundies' villains; the GCP includes Rock Stars, Secularists, and Cult Leaders. And units can be trained in:

TF - Mission Training Center
GCP - College

And the between-level parts of the game include lots of fundie preaching, including a Hovindian conception of evolution, and also lots of plugs for Xian pop/rock songs, complete with "Buy" buttons. This makes me think of what Jesus Christ had done about all those moneychangers in the Jerusalem Temple.

Over at http://www.iidb.org , I ran a poll on which side that IIDBers might prefer, and those who wanted a side all preferred the GCP -- none wanted the TF.

But the feature that is most likely to make this game's players pray is its instability -- it crashes a lot.


The Left Behind series has a homepage at what else but http://www.leftbehind.com ? And the LB guys have been VERY busy, cranking out not only a 12-book series, but also a 3-part prequel, a military series, a political series, study guides, etc.

And they are working on a sequel, "Kingdom Come", which takes place 1000 years after Jesus Christ makes his Second Coming and smashes the Antichrist and his troops in "Glorious Appearing" (#12 of the series proper). Its plot summary I shall now reveal:

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:7-10, NIV)

(one can use HTML tags here, and I used "blockquote")

Other Comments by lpetrich

17. Comment #15529 by John Phillips on January 1, 2007 at 4:22 am

Nicki, and of course they come pre-lobotomised so as to preclude the possibility of being polluted by us atheists and our rational thinking dogma :)

Other Comments by John Phillips

18. Comment #15531 by Vadjong on January 1, 2007 at 5:28 am

When will I be able to play "Total War : The Fourth Crusade" ?

Other Comments by Vadjong

19. Comment #15576 by losferwords on January 1, 2007 at 11:56 am

This doesn't surprise me; does anyone remember the TV commercial for the childrens' Bible Stories on video? It started out with two kids watching a TV show where two people were having a shoot-out, and the narator asked if you were tired of your kids watching violence on TV. Then he started to tell the audience about the wonderful Bible stories for children on 10 video-cassettes. It showed David and Goliath (one guy killing another), Joshua and the battle of Jericho (total war, genocide) and Noah and the Flood (more genocide). So the Left Behind game comes as no surprise when it's ok to be extremely crappy to other people in the name of the invisible dude that lives in the sky.

Other Comments by losferwords

20. Comment #15610 by sheldon on January 1, 2007 at 3:10 pm

This discussion about "they" is moot. The people who created this video game may or may not be Christians. They also may or may not represent most Christians in the world. So all this about "they are desperate for converts" is a bit useless.

That said, the game is ridiculous and more than a bit hypocritical. The idea of guns, violence, explosions, etc. in Christian entertainment is laughably typical of their followers. It reminds me a bit of a Simpsons episode in which Bart visits the Flanders kids and plays their video game which requires him to shoot random people with a Bible to convert them. One line was, "Nope, you only winged him...now he's a Unitarian."

Other Comments by sheldon

21. Comment #15750 by Sailnsouth on January 2, 2007 at 12:51 pm

Anyone unfortunate enough to have seen "The Passion of the Christ" can see from that how unadulterated carnage can sell in the religious community. Violence in the name of the church or to convey Biblical history has never been condemned

As always the target audience has to be the young impressionable minds who are the hopeful future of the church.

Other Comments by Sailnsouth

22. Comment #15752 by poppythinks on January 2, 2007 at 1:10 pm

Nominate Dawkins for the most important political person of the year.....channel 4 news tonight...
voting ends tonight....so do it now...email
news@channel4.com and tell all your friends to...
he's done more for political change than anyone
else i know, and the more people who read The God Delusion, the better off will everyone be.....

Other Comments by poppythinks

23. Comment #15825 by J.C. Samuelson on January 3, 2007 at 8:05 am

If you'll pardon the shameless plug, I've actually played the demo version of this game, and reviewed its potential for spreading theological nonsense (see here).

Truth be told, this game is a joke (as most of them are).

Other Comments by J.C. Samuelson