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Left Behind

Disagreeable

Well-known member
More on that "Christian" :mad: video game that teachs young people it's ok to kill nonbelievers. Entire article; link below.

“Sex and violence are the bread and butter of the video game industry. But a new game aimed at Christian teens is banking on blockbuster status by replacing the sex with prayer -- while keeping the violence.
Players can either join the Christians and kill nonbelievers, or join the demonic forces and smite Christians, in "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," a video game due out this fall as part of the wildly popular "Left Behind" franchise of novels.
"Eternal Forces" is the latest effort by Tyndale House Publishers to profit from the "Left Behind" novels, a series about the apocalypse that its authors claim has won over converts to Christianity.
But "Eternal Forces" may be the franchise's most controversial product -- more so than any of the books or movies. The game purports to teach Christian values while allowing players to kill in the name of either Christianity or the Antichrist.
Tapping into new market
"Our first and foremost goal ... was just to make a great game that gamers would love to play," said Jeffrey Frichner, president of Left Behind Games. "It ties into the fact that it does take place in the tribulation, and the `Left Behind' series has a lot of violence in it, and that's what's popular with video games."Talks between Tyndale and Left Behind Games, a publicly traded secular company, began in 2004. The game's makers were allowed to use the name and have creative control while granting Tyndale and "Left Behind" authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins final approval.
"There can always be complications when two organizations work together," said Jim Elwell, director of international publishing for Tyndale. "That hasn't been the case with Left Behind Games. ... It has been a satisfactory relationship."
Frichner said he and partner Troy Lyndon wanted to tap into the video game market by piggybacking on a well-known Christian product. The name "Left Behind," Frichner said, "stood head and shoulders" above the rest.
On top of that, the concept of the apocalypse for a video game setting could appeal to hard-core gamers who may not share Christian core values. And, he added, you can't have an apocalypse without violence.
"We are trying to think very thoughtfully and carefully about how we deal with the subject of death," Frichner said. "We care about these matters. We care about them deeply. But we don't want to shy away from the fact that there is violence and that is essential to making a great game with this brand."
Bodies stay on video screen
Frichner likens the game's violence to the movie "Star Wars" -- no blood or guts but plenty of fighting and gunplay.
The bodies will stay on the video screen instead of simply disappearing, which Frichner says will underscore that "death is a reality."
Points are subtracted for killing people while playing for the Christian forces, but can be retrieved by praying, converting nonbelievers, helping orphans and widows, and obtaining scrolls that contain Bible verses.
But there is an option -- when more than one player is participating -- to join the dark forces and kill Christians at will without being penalized. Frichner says that even though players on Satan's side can prevail in a particular battle, they cannot ultimately win the war.
The game has aroused critics.
The game's most vocal opponent is conservative Christian lawyer Jack Thompson, a critic of violent video games. Thompson published his book, "Out of Harm's Way" (Tyndale, $19.99), last November. He has since severed ties with Tyndale because of "Eternal Forces."
He said Tyndale, in backing the game, has "personally broken my heart." He accused the company of abandoning morality by exploiting a "cash cow" in the "Left Behind" series, and said co-author LaHaye "ought to be ashamed of himself."
"We've got a company that's really prostituting the name `Christian' and using it as a sales tool to market to Christian kids that which is harmful by any other name," Thompson said.
Blois Olson, spokesman for the National Institute on Media and the Family, said although he hasn't played it, the game does not sound appropriate for those under 17.
"Violence is violence and sex is sex," Olson said. "It doesn't matter if it's Christian-focused violence or non-Christian-focused violence."


http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/14992888.htm
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
We've got a preacher here who thinks this is the neatest game in the world. He just raves about it.

I told him yesterday in the grocery store...he was a raving idiot!!! He got all red face and blusterd off!!

I've seen this..... it's sick!!!
 

MsSage

Well-known member
Dis yes you would use one of the MOST liberal newspapers. I should know I cancled the paper years ago because of twisting news to fit an agenda. They have been know to flat out lie to suite thier cause.
Seems yall forget the time frame the books are based......AFTER THE RAPTURE. Whats wrong with showing it will be hell on earth?

Here is the review by X-Play. For those who dont have gamers in the house LOL X-Play is the #1 game reviewer around. They review ALL games.

Left Behind: Eternal Forces First Impressions - Putting Religion into Real-Time Strategy
Based on the best-selling series of novels, Left Behind: Eternal Forces looks to connect its Christian theme to gamers. But will gamers bite?
By Jason Ocampo, GameSpot
Posted Apr 7, 2006 4:20 pm PT
There's no getting around this: Left Behind: Eternal Forces is a game that most people will have an opinion about, even if they never play it. That's because this real-time strategy game is based on the best-selling Left Behind series of novels about those who are "left behind" after the rapture takes Christians away to heaven. Obviously, with a premise like that, Left Behind represents the latest in the Christian-themed video game movement, or as developer/publisher Left Behind Games puts it, the "inspirational games" market. We got our first look at Eternal Forces recently to see what the game is like.

Left Behind: Eternal Forces pits good versus evil on the streets of New York City.
In the Left Behind story, those left behind after the rapture splinter into different factions. There's the Tribulation Forces, who are the "good guys" that have seen the light, and then there's the Global Community Peacekeepers, who are led by the antichrist. The Tribulation Forces seek clues from those who were taken, and that's the focus of the game. Eternal Forces is set in New York City, as the Tribulation Forces must battle the Global Community Peacekeepers to uncover certain clues. Though Left Behind authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins aren't involved in the story, key characters from the novels will appear as hero characters in the game's approximately 40 missions.

Since it is set in the modern-day world, Eternal Forces resembles other, modern-day real-time strategy games. You'll control infantry, armor, and other military vehicles as they battle it out, only this time the action takes place on the streets of the Big Apple and not some distant battlefield. However, Eternal Forces is also clearly designed to reach out with its message. The game will feature biblical facts between levels, accompanied by tracks from Christian rock groups. For example, we saw one screen that compared many Hebrew names in the Bible to their modern day meaning. Troy Lyndon, the CEO of Left Behind Games, told us that you can quickly skip over this by hitting the continue button, but they're also putting in a button to learn more if you're intrigued. There are other obvious religious themes in the game. For example, you may come across scrolls that bear a scripture from the Bible, but they also act as power-ups. If you're low on food, using a scroll to summon the angel of harvest will boost your food levels, and so on.

As you'd expect, you'll be encouraged to do good while playing the game, but you may also do evil, as well. Like many real-time strategy games, Eternal Forces features a variety of resources that you need to accumulate to build units. One of these resources is your spiritual rating, which measures how good or evil you are. If your troops kill civilians and innocents, your spiritual rating drops, and if it drops too much, you may see your units defect (each unit has his or her own spiritual rating), and if drops too far, demons will show up. While demons are incredibly powerful units, they're uncontrollable and capable of turning on you as well as the enemy. On the other hand, if you do good (by building churches), your spirit rating will rise, and angels may appear to help you out. This idea of consequences, as well as rewards and punishments, reinforce the game's sense of morality.

Left Behind does have some interesting gameplay mechanics. For example, the developers have meticulously recreated about 500 blocks of Manhattan to battle in and around, and you can clearly get a feeling for the urban canyons of New York City. What's also interesting is the way that you use buildings. Part of the real-time strategy mechanic in the game requires you to convert buildings and turn them into structures that you can use. For instance, convert a building into a bank and it generates cash. Or convert it into a combat training center, and you can send civilians that your evangelists recruit there to train as soldiers. What's interesting is that these buildings remain unmarked from the outside, which means that if you're attacking enemy territory, you might not recognize their structures unless you get close enough, or if you have a spy scouting around.

Killing civilians will definitely make you a friend of the devil.
While you will play the single-player campaign from the perspective of the good guys, the multiplayer will let you play as either side. This will raise some eyebrows among some of the game's audience, but Left Behind Games felt it was important to represent both sides in the game. Each person in the game has his or her own life story, which explains their choices in life and how they got to where they were.

It'll be interesting to see how well the game does when it ships. The Left Behind novels have sold more than 60 million copies, so there's a sizable potential audience out there. And movies such as The Passion of the Christ show that there's a market, as well. Lyndon says that the company plans a grass-roots outreach to churches to generate buzz, similar to those used for Mel Gibson's movie and last year's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Ironically, Lyndon also says that the game has its critics among some Christians, including longtime video game critic Jack Thompson, which goes to show the tricky line that religious-themed games must tread. Left Behind: Eternal Forces is scheduled to ship later this year.

-GameSpot
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/leftbehindeternalforces/news.html?sid=6147323&mode=previews
 

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