SMITE Creators Address Controversy Over The Inclusion Of Hindu Gods

Written by: Mike Schaffnit (Twitter @MikeSchaffnit - Google+) | July 2, 2012 2:30 pm

90 Comments

Hi-Rez Studios‘ upcoming game SMITE has made massive waves in both the gaming and religious worlds.

Amidst the controversy over its portrayal of certain Hindu figures, however, it has been revealed that the game will not feature Jewish, Christian, or Islamic figures.

The controversy started when Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, requested the removal of specific characters from the game as having these deities controlled by the player trivializes them.

Hi-Rez chief operation officer, Todd Harris, responded by saying that they decided to use figures from the Hindu faith because it is one of the world’s oldest and most diverse religions, providing a good base of inspiration for several characters. The game, which is now in closed beta, will include more deities as development continues, not fewer.

When asked by GameSpot if the company plans to implement figures of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions, however, Harris responded by saying that Abrahamic figures were not included mostly for gameplay reasons: its tradition does not have stories about deities fighting one another with “awesome abilities”. Because of this, at best they would be support characters.

So what do you guys think? Would you be okay with running into the battlefield with Jesus heals?

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

SMITE Creators Address Controversy Over The Inclusion Of Hindu Gods

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http://twitter.com/squared002 Squared 002

I’m glad they’re not removing them. Some people get their panties in a wad over nothing. Just shut up and enjoy the game.

Speaking of, first come, first serve. Have a beta key for Smite! Whoever activates it first, enjoy and share the 2 free keys you get when you activate!

F1F1D-A05F0-18C44-F62BC-43C8E – Smite Beta Key.
Brian Simon

omg if Jesus was a character, that would be the greatest thing ever. Turning the river into a river of wine, multiplying items for all his allies, raising allies from the dead…hell, raising HIMSELF from the dead.

Hi-Rez. Make this happen.
St_Draco

For Abrahamic references they should bring in the iconic saints, angels and demons. Lucifer, Satan, Michael, St. George, etc.
- Old Ben
  
  But possibly not St. George Michael.
http://twitter.com/JDomino792 Joe Domino

Squared thanks for the key cant wait to try it out!
gary lusk

I want to play Jesus, just give him a machine gun or something..or take out the Hindu gods, the rest of the characters are from dead religions and Hinduism is still very much alive…i like that the guy from the organisation seems to be asking politely to take them out and not just throwing a hissy fit and “demanding”, which is what would happen if you put any Abrahamic characters in the game..
http://twitter.com/IkkisOK Alexander Ikalainen

I feel like the other religion would be stupid to include, cause non of them are really super natural powerful, they just make miracles or whatever. And if they were included the gameplay would be very poor cause they only done like 1-2 super natural tricks in their life. In hinduism I can understand why they would use them, they are very super natural lords of power, Jesus was just a guy who turned water into bread, what, so you gonna make jesus feed everyone with bread?
- http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP
  
  Most Hindu gods are fantastical in nature, not in action. Most of them don’t do anything more crazy than, say, turning water to wine, or walking on water. Certainly they don’t come back from the dead.
  
  As an Indian, I find it odd that they’d include gods from one of the largest religions in the world, still very much alive and with more than 1 billion adherents, with a bunch of dead religions. Make a Mayan/Incan pantheon. I, personally, think it’s fun as hell to play Kali – but either have them both in (Abrahamic + Hindu) or have them both out. Hell, if you use Abrahamic, you can use 3 different versions of God (The Father, YHWH, Allah).
- Old Ben
  
  I can turn water into bread. I just need some flour and yeast.
UtopianWarrior

I got some extra keys too, if anyone wants to give the game a try:

F11DB-AED2D-93B44-D35BF-1EF6D
F12BE-11494-B8F24-A33BA-9CC0C
Sharuko

This was bound to happen and I don’t blame the guys complaining. They included Hinduism with other “dead” religions, while Hinduism is the 3rd largest religion and still around today.
Maurice Reimann

St_Draco is right. We could totally have archangels. They’re not in the bible but were added decades or even centuries later, diablo showed the extreme side, and smite could have them (like gabriel) as support characters, with Janna-like skills for example.

Jesus and Moses? Nah.

Also, I think the target audience for the game that is hindu is probably small enough that they don’t need to be worried about upsetting them too much (and I assume christians who would be angry if jesus even was somewhere in the background wouldn’t care about shiva either).
http://www.facebook.com/jason.jenkins.73 Jason Jenkins

seriously, not enough abilities for the Abraham deity figures, the plagues of Egypt not enough for you, or the splitting in two of an inland sea, how about raining fire and brim stone from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. *rolleyes*, they just need to go ahead and fess up that they were scared of offending Muslims by including allah or mohammad….or to fess up to not knowing enough of the bible/torah/koran to even know anything about the god spoken of in them.

lame excuse
- Sharuko
  
  Allah, God, Yahweh have no form or haven’t been described with any sort of form so I don’t see how they could include them. Mohammed, Jesus, Moses, David aren’t gods but Prophets.
  
  So I don’t see how they could use “Gods” from the Abrahamic religions when it is the same one god that no one knows what form they hold if at all.
  - http://www.facebook.com/jason.jenkins.73 Jason Jenkins
    
    God does have an image it is described in the bible in the second chapter of genesis, quick paraphrase “…let us make man in OUR image…” this right here clearly shows the God of the Abraham religions looks just look your average human, two eyes, two ears, nose, mouth, etc etc.
    
    as for everything else that’s been said, my point was is that they said there weren’t enough abilities or combat techniques that could be applied to God to place him in their game. this is a plain falsehood to me because the bible is filled with God doing all sorts of miraculous things, which is why i said that they are A) just wanting to not rile up the muslim community because they have laws banning images of God or B) the only thing they know about the bible is every drunks favorite verse of Jesus turning water into wine.
    - Sharuko
      
      The commentary on verses like that clear state it was not a physical likeness but a mental/moral likeness.
  - Jay
    
    Woah! Sharuko is that you?!
    
    Nice comment bud, Jesus tends to be seen as more than a prophet, but you definitely bring up a good point. I like it man, keep it goin…
- Zumime
  
  Whats up with people not realizing Allah is just “god” in a different language. Allah is not a different thing. /sigh
  - Old Ben
    
    > people not realizing Allah is just “god” in a different language
    
    Not exactly.
    
    “Allah” is not “god”. “Allah” is “God” (or “Yahweh”, or “Jehovah”). It’s a _proper_ noun (the name of a specific god), not the common noun (“god”), which would be “ilah”.
- Old Ben
  
  So… which god was Jehovah fighting in those situations you describe?
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP
    
    Which gods has Kali ever fought? Most of the Vedas have stories of her aiding soldiers in battle, I believe she also fought a demon, which is not unlike God’s Old Testament actions. And honestly, do you think they won’t include Hindu gods like Ganesh, the elephant headed God, who is the remover of obstacles and not known for his warlike behavior at all?
    - Old Ben
      
      There is no description of a god actually engaging in direct battle in the Bible. There are legends about Kali fighting Raktavija, for example, and personally participating in several battles, drinking the enemies’ blood, etc..
      
      And didn’t Ganesh get his elephant head after Shiva chopped of his because Ganesh made a move for his wife, or something along those lines? Even if he doesn’t fight much, a “remover of obstacles” sounds like a kick-ass support class. To answer your question: I have no idea if they’ll include Ganesh or not, and frankly I’m not very concerned either way.
      
      But the justification they gave was that “Abrahamic tradition does not have stories about deities fighting one another”, which is correct, and a more or less inevitable consequence of only having _one_ deity.
      - http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP
        
        Jacob fought an angel. Lucifer waged war against the throne of God. God fought battles with the Israelites in the Old Testament. God rained fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.
        
        It’s simply an excuse to say Abrahamic religions don’t fit the genre, but Hindu gods somehow do. Kali fought Raktavija (the demon I mentioned) ONCE, and suddenly she’s a “god who fights other gods”? Otherwise, she’s just a goddess of war who comes to soldiers’ aid against other human warriors.
      - Old Ben
        
        Jacob is not a deity, angels are not deities, Jericho was not a deity… can you spot the pattern?
        
        There is no description in the Bible (nor, I’m fairly certain, in the Torah or Koran) of a god personally engaging in combat. In fact, there’s no description of a god with a physical form.
        
        You might think that Harris’ explanation is “simply an excuse”, but he’s technically correct. They wouldn’t have a clue what God should even look like, let alone what his powers should be. And, according to Abrahamic religions, God is omnipotent. That means he could simply make the other gods disappear, and he’d automatically win.
        
        The last thing a multi-player game needs is a cheater with access to God mode.
      - http://www.facebook.com/fimbulvetrr Dovah Kiin
        
        So its basically like goku vs batman
      - http://www.facebook.com/john.stokes.583 John Stokes
        
        I’m pretty sure that’s incorrect. I think God does take physical form at one point to be among the people.
      - Old Ben
        
        If even the Lateran Council couldn’t make sense of that theory, there’s little hope that some game designer could.
        
        Not to mention it’s not really canon for two of the three Abarahamic faiths and even for some flavors of Christianity.
        
        They could be cute and have Terence Hill as a playable character, though.
DerKomp

Personally, I think juxtaposing a living, thriving religion with an ancient, unpracticed religion is an insult to modern followers. It really trivializes live beliefs. Practicing Hindus have a right to take offense for that reason, and I’m certainly glad they speak out for it, especially without threats.

As far as other subject matter goes, many of these ancient gods (i.e. Greek or Norse) behaved very humanly and were manifestations of forces in nature. They were used for story-telling back then, and maybe the stories, not the worship of them, has a place in a great story medium like video games. As a Christian, I do think my faith is a contradiction to those old beliefs because Jesus wasn’t the wielder of thunder or anything relatively trivial in the universe. He is, to us, a being of unimaginable love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and wisdom beyond humans or anything in nature. I’m very happy with the fact that He would not make a good video game, so I do sympathize for the Hindus who surely will be shamed by this. Their gods must mean more to them than special attacks.
- Jay
  
  Well said, brother.
St_Draco

To add a bit to this discussion, gods like Ao Kuang, He Bo, Guan Yu, are not “dead”. They belong to Chinese/East Asian Folk Religion and are still venerated today by millions of people in Vietnam, Malaysia and secretly in China.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP
  
  Those are largely regarded as a mythos, and not organized religion. Hell, Guan Yu was a real man who merely has legends attributed to him. If you can find me the head of the religion which preaches the worship of those gods, I’ll find you a person who probably wouldn’t be happy they were being used in a video game. They are MUCH more analogous to the Greek mythological gods in this game, who, you know, are sometimes invoked by pagan rights.
QSatu

Lol at gameplay reasons. hi-rezz is simply hypocrites here. they won’t include anything from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions b/c it would create more sh**storm.
http://twitter.com/HarmonBlues Harmon

Hi-Rez should take a gander at the Godchecker website. “Now featuring over 3,700 Gods, Goddesses, Spirits, Demons and Saints!”
Odeezee

wow, i never heard so much BS from a game dev before. if you want to show parity then all religions need to have a deity fighting as a main character, NOT as a support character, it’s a game after all you can make stuff up. but they won’t because they are afraid of the backlash from all 3 of those religions as opposed to from the Hindu faith. hypocritical imo, shame on Hi-Rez.
- NightLord_001
  
  the abrahamic religions have only one deity, and he isn’t defined all that well. the game is about playing a god, and they only offer up one of those. also, his abilities are pretty much whatever will ruin your day, as opposed to other gods that have better defined abilities.
  
  by not including the abrahamic pantheon the game is down, 1 god. even if it was included, it’s still just one character. i’m having a hard time getting emotional over just one character.
http://profile.yahoo.com/TONVMNTPMGKQMHJ2EX2XVJ5KKU Brendan Coffey

I honestly don’t see the issue. If they are not inhibiting peoples rights to practice their religion then there should be no issue. There is a problem in the world with people having the freedom to practice their specific religion interpreting that said freedom as a right to impose their religion onto others. SMITE’s decision to use the Hindu gods and not use the Abraham figures does not effect anyone’s ability to practice their religion and therefore there should be no issue regardless if it’s found to be “offensive.” You wouldn’t put a muzzle over your racist grandfather (Metaphorically speaking of course. I’m not actually calling your grandpa racist) for his offensive language.
- Old Ben
  
  We had to when he started biting people, though.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ricardo-J-Valdivia/667333027 Ricardo J Valdivia

as an athiest and a fan of Hi-rez I say hi-rez should tell them……deal with it!
Kagitaar

Abrahamic religions have one ill-defined deity, God, all other figures are not deities and therefore do not fit. All the figures they include in the game are considered gods and therefore do fit, irregardless of origin. I hate to agree with Old Ben, but they are all imaginary friends, why the problems?
- Old Ben
  
  We disagree on the existence of the word “irregardless”, though.
  - Kagitaar
    
    How so?
    - Old Ben
      
      Is it supposed to be the opposite of regardless?
      - Kagitaar
        
        No, it’s just a more fun word to use.
      - Old Ben
        
        More fun? The prefix “ir” means “not”, so “irregardless” would mean “not regardless” (which is the same as saying “regarding”).
        
        Do you use “irrational” when you mean “rational”, “irregular” when you mean “regular”, and so on?
      - Kagitaar
        
        I know, but it is a word, if not a logical word.
      - Old Ben
        
        Any collection of letters is “a word”. There is no central authority deciding what constitutes a “word” and what doesn’t. New words are created every day, when new things are invented or discovered.
        
        But part of knowing how to speak a given language is knowing how certain prefixes and suffixes change the meaning of words, and (in English) “irregardless” would mean the opposite of “regardless”, just as “regardless” means “without regard”.
        
        If you prefer to use a prefix instead of a suffix, you can always use “disregarding”.
        
        Don’t misunderestimate the enworsenment of etymology.
      - Arkanthos
        
        lol m8, just go to politics and throw some of those word ballads u just wrote for some reason. Maybe you will get elected at something:)
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Feyd-Darkholme/100000194391744 Feyd Darkholme
    
    Irregardless is recognized in colloquial English, even though because it’s essentially a double negative word, and not strictly recognized as officially a word in most English dictionaries. When people say it, you know what they mean, rather like the word ain’t. Words like these are classified as “nonstandard” slang or even dialect only words… The argument is about as stupid as whether or not Hindu deities should be included in a video game.
    - Old Ben
      
      > When people say it, you know what they mean
      
      Never! Quoth Humpty-Dumpty: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
      
      When someone else uses a word, we have to try to guess what they mean. We do that by assuming that they mean the same as we would mean if we used the same word. And that’s why people agree on some spelling, grammatical and semantic rules, instead of each person making up his or her own words.
      
      When someone uses the word “irregardless”, it’s kind of hard to guess if they’re illiterate (and mean “regardless”) or if they’re just being cute (and mean “with regard”). To automatically assume the former would be a misunderestimation.
  - Jay
    
    Lolol I actually laughed out loud for that one.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Missed seeing your 1,000th post on GamebreakerTV. They should have baked you a cake.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=706513777 Luis A. Perez

No one has the right not to be offended. If they don’t like the content of the game, then don’t’ play it.
Hi-Rez does have to make a game that does fiscally well. And they would have to determine if putting in figures from Christianity, Islam and Judaism is fair game as long as they don’t’ lose a lot of revenue. The controversy alone might attract a lot of new players. If you use your imagination and search enough you can easily give Jesus, Moses, Muhammad fighting moves and abilities as easily as you can give them to Mario in Super Smash Brothers. Sure they are the most boring of all these religions, but it can be done.
http://www.facebook.com/fimbulvetrr Dovah Kiin

Just make jesus like shen in dota.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1123972011 Curtis Dalton

After playing the game I’d say the implementation of all the gods is sort of tongue in cheek, just do /taunt as Vamana and you’ll see what I’ll mean. The game is going for ridiculous and it’s in good humor, it’s not shaming any of the gods nor is it accurately portraying many of them. I would personally find Jesus or Abraham funny but the thing is the don’t have interesting or specific traits as game-play mechanics, would Abraham’s ultimate be “Circumsize?” and Jesus’s be “Conjure Fish?”…… nvm that would be AWESOME!
http://www.facebook.com/eric.english.3344 Eric English

6 armed sexy blue chicks seem much more fun to play than bloody pasfest marters…but that’s just me.
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

Clearly these guys never played WoW.
http://www.facebook.com/adam.meadors Adam Meadors

Saw this coming a mile away. Whenever anyone talk about religion someone is going to get pissy about it, no matter if you add X, don’t add y, remove Z, it doesn’t really matter. All tho that being said i still am really enjoying the game

P.S. Ra’s taunt is amazing!
Bobby Burrow

The only thing I could think of would be to put the Christian God into the game in either the form of.. well, “God” or “Jesus.” They wouldn’t necessarily have to be support roles. I’m thinking more the moses era.. the 10 plagues. Fire from the sky, Plague of toads, flies, etc. Maybe it could work.

I don’t know much about the game because I haven’t paid too much attention to it, but I can’t help but look at a game like Dota 2. You’ve got Zeus, etc. in that one too. But no religious characters that have to do with Christianity. Seems to be a common trend, so why is it such a big deal with this particular game?
http://www.facebook.com/Stugane Taneli Tuukkanen

Satan would be a great character… Maybe a melee caster and/or fighter?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Feyd-Darkholme/100000194391744 Feyd Darkholme

Update via RTSGuru: Despite a response from Hi-Rez indicating that nothing about Smite would change and in fact, more deities would be added, the Hindu leader who spoke out against the game isn’t giving up in trying to get things changed. In fact, he has new backers of other faith that have come together in support of his stance that the game’s content is offensive.

Rajan Zed, the Hindu leader who began the effort to get gods like Kali removed from Smite, was joined by Rabbi ElizaBeth Beyer and Buddhist Jikai’ Phil Bryan in condemning the game’s content as offensive. Rabbi Beyer, in a statement, asked that “the company…avoid trivializing the deeply held beliefs of Hindus by changing the product accordingly”.

No word from Hi-Rez on the continued effort.
Randall_Wolfcry

I agree that the “Abrahamic” tradition of faiths really doesn’t feel suited for any kind of PvP game. The reason being that the god(s) and heroes in these stories are always pretty much omnipotent so that doesn’t give you much guidance to pin them down into specific roles.

Honestly, the “Abrahamic” gods/heroes are pretty boring characters in this sense. Boring in the same way that Superman is boring. Superman has way too much power, and kryptonite is just a cheesy gimmick, so his whole premise is rather juvenile when you compare him to other heroes who have specific powers and varied limitations.

Superman sucks ass. Jus’ sayin…
jayremy

Through Moses in there, conjure plague, flood, locusts, snakes and/or whatever else. I am sure they can throw that dude in there. He may not be a ‘god’ but definitely fitting. I don’t think they need to cover Abrahamic religions though, because we all know the Norse, Greek mythology and others of the pantheon are much more fun in story and design. “God” seems rather boring of a mythological story, unlike Greek gods for example have more flaws, personality, specific powers and limits.
http://www.facebook.com/tony.barber.14 Tony Barber

they wont include Christianity, what the fuck is jesus gonna do? throw a fucking sandle? Satan is included in that pathetic mythology. Im wondering where the hell Osiris, Horus and Set are. maybe some Loki too.
- Randall_Wolfcry
  
  The red devil Satan image doesn’t even come from Abrahamic religious tradition as far as I know. I believe it’s a mixture of a few different European folklores.
joe stallion

Jesus is just a man.
Would like a link in the bible that Jesus said that, “My name is Jesus and I am your god, worship me”.
So I do not understand why he should be in Smite?
http://www.facebook.com/john.stokes.583 John Stokes

God could be given all sorts of abilities that would be fitting for combat. The real reason Hi-Rez aren’t going to do it is because they know that disrespecting the major religions out there will put them under heavy fire. I think Hi-Rez should apologise and remove the offending characters, and they should leave the internet dbaggery to r/atheism and other similar message boards.
http://twitter.com/Peter_aka_Tab23 Peter

Its actually rather simple if they don’t include them it will be “Why don’t i have my Jesus god man?” If they do include them it will be “Why are you making fun of Religions Man?” Its a mythological beings GAME not a religion game.And just think if they do add them can you imagine someone going “AWWWW YEAAAH i just got a kill with JESUS,suck on wine Zeus” xD
- http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP
  
  Isn’t that the problem? You’re using religious figures in a game about mythological figures. To 1 billion plus people, Kali isn’t a myth.
  - Old Ben
    
    Divine figures are, by definition, mythological. The only people to whom Kali isn’t a mythological figure would be people who either a) have never heard of Kali or b) treat Kali as an ordinary and unimportant figure.
http://twitter.com/thekkadvance The KK Advance

Well its pretty simple. Being kindly asked to remove a deity by the hindu guys is a far step from the absolute storm of crap the would hail down on Hi-rez if they used those religions. I dont care what they say is their reasoning behind it, its just the smart thing to do.
klona

It’s a video game. I have never before gone to
GameStop to learn more about my religion. Chances are I won’t in the near
future. Religions need to stop being so touchy about every little
thing. If the religions in general are afraid of video games trivializing
their Gods, they need to assess their other issues. Just my opinion.
robotadventures

they should add jesus and have him be able to float on water and the flying spaghetti monster. and what ever UFO space alien tom cruise believes in.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Renard/809580057 Justin Renard

Yeah, I feel sorry about all the Cheerios being cried into right now. We’re dealing with fantasy here, dudes. If they want to make a game about Muhammad fillin’ ice cream cones at a Dairy Queen it’s their right to do so. If “you mad bro” believers of either non-included or included faiths don’t want to buy the game, well, don’t freakin’ buy the game. Geez. So, Hi-Rez, if you’re going to make a game about religion you best be prepared to not give a flying (I hate not being able to use the real word) muck about what anyone says. Big ass middle finger to all the butt hurt morons. Oh, what about the Mormons?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000922697155 Joey G Marsala

I think they should leave out God, Jesus, Moses, etc. because they were not violent figures, although there are those that might argue that fact. They could add David and other warrior figures from the Bible and give them unique abilities based on the Bible stories associated with them. As a Catholic i think having characters like God and Jesus would be a little touchy, and I know that I would personally not buy the game just for that, but having heroic figures and warriors from the Bible would be kind of cool. I’m usually not offended by religious references in games, heck, Family Guy doesn’t even offend me! I’ll laugh my ass off all day to that.
- marcus boswijk
  
  I agree on leaving them out, because they are not part of the same set, all the gods in smite are from non monotheistic religions. On the argument that god is not a violent figure i laughed my ass off.
ArsenicSundae

Since the christian, muslim and hebrew gods are all just reskins of the same model, what would be the point of including all of them? Also, Jesus isn’t a god (according to the literature), and neither is Moses nor Mohammed. That should disqualify them right off the top. You see, that’s the problem with monotheistic religions. There’s only one top dog, which makes for rather dull and homogenous content. Not exactly great fodder for a game.

Besides, if people think the hindus are being loud with their complaints, stop to think for a minute about the cacophony that would be raised if either of the big three were included — except maybe for judaism, (they don’t really seem to care very much what nonsense we goyim get up to). That’s the kind of territory that could see games gutted or even shut down. It may all be fantasy and magic, but the reality is that there are just some groups who might be so irrational in their response that it isn’t worth the effort to even bother.
dekintold

Christianity is extremely important to me. I was a pastor’s son, and intend on being a pastor myself. It is hard, I think, for anything you find important to you to be trivialized. Thinking about the game having a Jesus avatar is hard for me to swallow. Like many have said I would simple just not buy or read about the game.
You could always have Arc Angels with flaming swords represent Christianity. But when you step out to make a game like this you have gone beyond let’s be nice and back away from this and that.
It doesn’t make much since to me to go out and make a game with this subject matter. I love video games, and to me a good game can work without a story, of course great games work well and have a good story. So to me you could just keep the game mechanics and write a good story to go with your avatar characters, I understand that by using subject matter we are all familiar with you can just turn the game on and understand what is going on, but I love a new good story.
However, if there is anything I learn more every day is that somebody will always be offended by whatever you say or do. I am sure this post will offend somebody and the counter post I get to this one will offend another person and the guy that counter post that post will offend the other guys person. I believe that one needs to at least have their voice heard when they believe something is wrong, you don’t have to be a pain in the butt about it but you have to speak out. If I don’t speak out about what I feel is wrong then you will stop and the next person will stop and then we would just be sheeple.
- http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
  
  I think it that is actually a very hypocritical stance. Especially because of your Christian faith. On the one hand I think it is absurd to demand or even assume that your beliefs have a “hands off” reputation in popular culture while at the same time not caring about others. You belief is just as subjective and un-provable as anyone else’s, so why should it get special treatment? In all fairness it really shouldn’t.
  
  Beyond that there is the fact that one of the great Christian traditions is trivializing
  other faiths. You people have a very long history of calling other gods aspects
  of the devil, and have brutally murdered the worshipers of other faiths throughout your history. Not only that, more than half of your celebrations and traditions were directly stolen from faiths you’re predecessors went out of their way to destroy. Saying that this game trivializes religions is more than a little hypocritical when your faith was built on the foundation of overtly destroying others.
  
  People didn’t flock to your faith because they believed in your god, or had a vision, or felt some connection to the gospel; they flocked to it because if they didn’t your predecessors would have killed them. Remember that. I think, on behalf of your faith, you owe the world an apology. But then I am bias because 2/3 of my ethnic heritage were subjugated by your kind, one of them being retroactively recast as the villain to make your kind feel better about mercilessly slaughtering entire villages full of women and children while their husbands and fathers were away hunting and farming.
  - dekintold
    
    I think where we misunderstand one another is Faith vs Religion. People will and still do insane things in the name of Religion. Christians being no exception. Jesus’ entire stance was built that Religion was taking over faith. He taught the story to Nehemiah in John 3 that when the Jewish people were being snake bit that God told Moses to make a brass serpent and raise it up to cure them, all they had to do was look at the statue. After it was all said and done the Jewish people forgot that it was their Faith in God that cured them and not the Brass Serpent, they in fact burnt offerings to that serpent for 500 years. He goes on to teach, that people will do (have done) the same with him. Insane things in his name because of the Religion they have formed around him.
    
    So when people did those evil things they did them in the name of a Religion. At those times with those people that religion could have been interchangeable, it was just that it happened to be done in the name of Christianity. I can certainly list some ghastly things done in the name of science, patriotism and even other religions. But, a true Christ follower does things objectively and tries to look at things the way God does – though that in itself is a tall order .Living in Faith means I believe that Religion can not save me, but the Grace of God can I try to treat others in the same light as God has decided to treat me.. I wish I could explain better and do better to apologize for things done in the name of Christianity, it will always fall short. All I can say is for my life I try to live better than those who have come before me.
    
    I also believe that my faith is very provable, though I am sure that is a response you have heard from many others before. I have also spent allot of times studying and listening to others beliefs. I have chosen secular schools and many other roads in attempts to keep me uneasy and make sure I choose what I choose because I choose it. Not because of my Social Upbringing. Included secular Degrees in Sociology and Psychology and trying a Masters in Counseling.
    
    Sorry for the itchy subject matter and counter response. I appreciate you posting to me though Jonathan I love to be challenged, it keeps us from being zombies. Disagreements and discusion is always good…..Until someone breaks out “your momma jokes”…..then its no loger good times its just trolling.
    - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
      
      Agreed on the trolling point. That said, and keeping this one short, I’ll tell you something I’ve said before that has gotten me into a bit of trouble.
      
      “Faith can save a man’s life. Worship can uplift a community. Religion destroys civilizations.”
      
      I was raised a Baptist but now consider myself an agnostic, so while I do not hold myself to any structured religion I do not reject faith. Or as Tom Hanks put it in that movie Angels and Demons; I’m an academic, my mind tells me I will never understand god, but my heart tells me I’m not meant to. Faith is a gift I have yet to receive.
      
      I don’t have a problem with people worshiping whatever god, so long as they don’t try to force it on me, but even so some groups have a nasty habit of taking things way, way too far. In particular once a belief manages a large enough following it becomes rather hostile; just look at the way southern Christians treat….well, anybody not a southern Christian.
      - dekintold
        
        I find it funny, becuase I am currently attending a Southern Baptist Church and Preach on the Southern Baptist pulpit circuit. And the hostile way they treat others, they treat themselves even worse. I preach at churches that are closing their doors because of the way they think, because “thats how grandpa did it”, and “we dont care for them guys over there.”
        
        I have found my soul searching to change my views on Religion and in particualy Southern Christians. I hope I get to influence others to get away from Relgion and find their faith, if not its ok I have to try anyway
        
        I think, if you dont mind me recomending, “Radical” by David Platt he is at the spear head of a “new (old)” way of Christian thinking. Short book awesome guy..
        
        Faith is simple, the probelm is, it is so simple its hard. Grace is even simpler/harder.
        
        All this to say…..I play video games mmkay…
        
        >.<
Joseph Gabrielli

Being able to play as Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammad would in my mind be an okay thing to do, let people get mad and then let them get even more angry when Jesus gets one shot because hes support, but being able to play God(Allah) would just be stupid and would cause a complete uproar in the community. Personally I don’t see a difference in killing God, Jesus, or Muhammad and killing a minion.
- pc11
  
  Odin, Thor, Ra, Set,… these gods not only are insanely cool in their respective mythologies they were portraied as bad asses.
  
  Christian and Islamic gods/profets are weak pussies. Who would even want to play as them!
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=580293546 Saif Abu Al Saad
  
  Um Muhammed was a prophet and not a god, putting him in the game would be stupid as the game is about gods and deities not prophets
http://twitter.com/TuxPants Mamoru Chiba

They should use whatever deities make sense for their game and just be okay with not being endorsed by churches. The only way you should be able to stop a company from doing something like that is by getting so many people to agree with you that it doesn’t make fiscal sense for them to do it. I doubt that’s going to happen.
http://www.facebook.com/mert.matthews.3 Mert Matthews

Our tanks full name in swtor was Jesus Christ the friendly in swtor that is all i have to say
pc11

Playing as Christian characters? LOL

My God has an hammer and calls lightning. Your god was nailed to a cross. Argument over.
http://www.facebook.com/joseph.handibode Joseph Handibode

Its about gods/deities. So only God or Jesus could be included in the if they chose. But moses, mohammed are person/prophets not deities.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Kris-Yeisley/554290488 Kris Yeisley
  
  Guan Yu wasn’t a god he was a Chinese General serving under Liu Bei in the Han Dynasty. In the game, when he dies he ascends to Godhood. They could put characters from The Big Three, but they won’t because it’s not politically correct to make fun of them.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1375412151 Erik Merickel

In short, the “gods” used in the game are the same ones we tell myths and legends of great battles and conquests over. Its a game of “What if i pitted this mythical god of war vs that one.” Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Ra god of the sun, Thor, god of lightning. These are gods that we *STILL* tell stories to our friends and children about their epic battles.

Yes, if they wanted to add Christianity in, they could use something like Gabriel or Michael the Archangels… because we tell stories about their epic battles as well. But fundamentally a character like Jesus doesn’t fit. That wasn’t His role.

Muhammad wasn’t a god, he was a prophet.

Now I do think they could find mythical figures to add (Archangels/Demons), but the Monotheistic religions make it much harder. Especially since Jewideism, Christianity, and Islam come from the same root concepts. I’m not saying they are off limits, just that it makes little sense to add in simply “God” as that would be to abstract, or Jesus because he was not a martial character.

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