If you find the following post to be offensive, then that’s probably by design. Gamesheep.com is hosting a 2D fighting game called “Faith Fighter“, where you’ll get to fight as the divinity of your choice and beat up other prominent figures from the world’s major religions.
On tap are God, Jesus, Buddha, Ganesha, Budai, and Muhammad. Each character has a few special attacks, but you can pretty much play and win with just the regular punch attacks. This is by no means a challenging game; the novelty lies in playing these characters as warriors.
It’s a given at this point that anything to do with religion will draw both offense and controversy, simply because people are hard-wired to be offended when something even approaches their sacred sensibilities. However, according to a statement displayed at the beginning of the game, “This game is not intended to be offensive towards any religion in particular. Its aim is to push the gamers to reflect on how the religions and sacred representations are often instrumentally used to fuel or justify conflicts between nations and people.”
The statement goes on to warn that the game presents a depiction of the prophet Muhammad (as seen in the screenshot above, fighting Ganesha), and if that offends, to just not play the game at all. Honestly, I find more wisdom in that one sentence than in most of the self-serving justifications trotted out by those who use their religion to oppress others, or to make governmental policy.
And you know what? I want to see my favorite deity kicking ass! That’s part of the reason I’m a follower! And honestly, taking offense on someone else’s behalf is always a losing proposition. These spiritual figures have been around for thousands of years; I’m sure they’re above petty attempts to belittle them… and if they aren’t, they’re not quite the omnipotent beings they claim to be, are they?
My only complaint with Faith Fighter is the sparseness of its roster. Where’s Baal? Cthulhu? Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Comments
William
April 29th, 2009 - 9:41:36 AM
yeah a few more deities would help. maybe an alien-inhabited Tom Cruise or something
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cheguevara
May 21st, 2009 - 11:26:36 AM
fuck you ,you shouldn't post that ,that thing hurts people feelings,especially the muslims...
2