Religion in games

Sooner or later you´re confronted by it, religion. With the church starting to lose more and more followers it´s actually suprising to see still a lot of mentions of it in games. But then again religion mentioned in games isn´t usually a good thing for the church. Other times religion is just borrowed to explain something or to give someone a background with something. Of course religion is so much more than just the church, there are so many types of religions that I doubt I could type it all down in an afternoon. I think religion can make a creepy game even creepier, just look at the first Silent Hill, and can give you a false sense of security, the temple of time in the ocarina of time, which means that a place that is considered holy isn´t always safe.


Religion means whiny people complaining? If that would be true then there would be a lot of religious people and I think I mentioned at the start that there is a decrease of the number of religious people. But there is truth in religious people complaining a lot when it comes to certain games, a game with a lot of violence is considered as evil and that will twist the minds of young children. That kind of makes you wonder what certain priests did to young children, is that the way then? But I´m not completely blind to their complaints, I guess that a game like Lucius can make some parents worry. Because in the game Lucius you play as the son of the devil. Still I don´t see the link between playing a game and turning evil, I think you either are evil or you´re not and playing a game doesn´t really change that.


Game developers don´t handle religion that seriously? I guess some developers can be a bit negative towards certain religions, I think Rockstar likes to tease a certain religion in the USA but still it´s all fun and games. But other developers like Ubisoft actually handle it with care, in their Assassin´s Creed games they always mention at the start that they don´t mean to upset anyone with their work. Which shows respect to those with different beliefs and ideas. Religion in a game isn´t something to bully those that believe in someone or something, games are meant for amusement and not to rally people to rebel against certain religions. Making jokes about certain religions can be considered as an act of hostility or you can just take it and move on, it really depends on the person what to do with it. I think a game developer can do whatever they like, as long as it´s nothing too crazy, but it´s nice if there is some sort of respect for others who have a different view on the world. But in a way this doesn´t need to be said, a game is amusement and not something you should take too seriously. Something some people don´t always seem to understand...