While doing the readings for today’s class, I became increasingly curious on the topic of religion in video games. Upon doing some readings, I discovered games that tried to incorporate religious beliefs (well, kind of) into something that would appeal to someone who likes video games. Some of the results were actually quite hilarious, including some odd variations on the Noah’s Ark story, one where you just shoot fruit at a bunch of goats and another where you stack a bunch of animals on your head and then dump them into the ark for example. The fruit person shooter Noah version (sorry for that) legitimately looked as if they took a level from doom and then just threw in a slingshot. But one game that I stumbled upon that really peaked my interest was a game called Left Behind: Eternal Forces. It made me think of my American Literature class, discussing today how “apocalyptic fiction” has become a trend in Christian writing. This game seems to tag along with that trend, because it is literally a game about trying to avoid going to hell. You control as the player a religious group that is trying to save people in a post-rapture New York. You can go around trying to preach to people I think, and sometimes even use lethal force when you can’t. You have a “spirit level” and if it drops too low, you lose. There is also an option to play as the antichrist factions, which you “brainwash” people with secularism. I honestly just don’t get at all where this game is coming from. I understand the desire to have an enticing game for people who are super Christian, but is this really the message they want to send to people? As I write this I’m trying my hardest (as messed up as it sounds) to not think about the Crusades, and other earlier forms of “spreading Christianity” that were mainly violent, and that are still happening today. But if you are trying to spread what are supposed to be the “good Christian values,” I don’t know if this is the best way. The game basically instills the ideas in it’s players, at least for the time they are engaging in it, that if you don’t worship Jesus, you’re the enemy. If you don’t want to hear about it or begin to believe, excessive force should be taken. This game just seems to give off awfully radical vibes. It’s interesting to note too, that from what I have read the most reoccurring critique it got from the Christian community was that the game included the ability to play as the Antichrist units. Very few were about the excessive violence and the misrepresentation of what,  I thought I understood it meant to spread God’s word. This game came out in 2006 for the PC through the developer/publisher Inspired Media entertainment. Not to my surprise the company closed down in 2011.