A Christmas Present from Left Behind

I returned from my Christmas vacation (let’s call it what it is) to discover comment left by the good people of Left Behind Games. This is interesting for a couple of reasons: first of all, nobody has any reason to read this blog. I have a total readership of about 3, and (having checked myself) there is no Google search containing the words “left behind” short of “left behind chlorine silicon” that will turn up that post.

This suggests one of two things: either the “Left Behind” programmers have developed a fairly sophisticated bot able to detect only those blogs that are critical in any way of left behind (unlikely) or they are hiring some poor BYU student to scan the blogosphere looking for posts about the game and posting a form response.

Also interesting is the fact that whoever left the comment clearly didn’t read the article, which is not about the contents of the game at all but rather Wal-Mart’s decision to stock it.

The contents of the message are also worth reading.

Focus on the Family, Concerned Women For America, Women of Faith, Outreach Magazine, National Network of Youth Ministers, and Promise Keepers are just some of the organizations that support LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces [...]

You know you have a problem when the best review you can get is from Focus on the Family. That one line kills any sympathy they might have possibly gotten from moderate Christians.

Our game is the first game ever to encourage the use of prayer and
worship as the most effective means to resolve conflict. Physical warfare is discouraged as the least effective means for resolving conflict…and a gamer loses points for using a gun.

Which, of course, is why killing people also helps you to reach your goal of converting or “removing” all of the infidels from the world. I also wonder about the wisdom behind promoting prayer as “the most effective means to resolve conflict”.

Our game does not teach the pre-tribulation theology of the book
series, except that this worldview is utilized as a fictional backdrop
of the game.

This is fascinating. After fully endorsing the contents of the books, our friend tries to distance himself from the series (an attempt to win back the moderates they alienated in paragraph 1?). I suppose that this is understood much in the same way that “Medal of Honor: Allied Assault” uses the second world war as a “fictional backdrop” without “endorsing” the war or suggesting that it actually took place.

But I’ll stop talking about “Left Behind”. After all, I still haven’t played the game myself.

technorati tags:leftbehind, christianity, technology, religion, walmart, gaming

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