A "Catholic" video game review source - Is there interest? Is there a need?

[Dwyer]

idon’tknow,

Please give me a brief review of the Madden series of games on the language used in that series; specifically, I was wondering if there is much swearing in those games, like in the NFL Football games series??

Thanks.

 

[ArchRemmy]

OK I just found this thread and had posted something similar in the GTA IV thread.

Reviewing games from a Catholic perspective has been on my heart for a long time and I would happily contribute if someone is setting up a site. I’ve followed the reviews on LifeTeen and PluggedInOnline but feel there needs to be more and would like to be involved in this expedition.

I am 25 and ran a couple video game websites in high school so I could help out somewhat with html. I also have a theology degree from Franciscan and love Catholic Answers so while I know offering game criticism won’t please everyone, it’ll definitely be better than all the reviews that state “You owe it to yourself to buy GTA IV” and “There is no reason not to love GTA IV”, etc.

I have Xbox 360 and my gamertag is LausDomini. Let’s see where we can take this

 

[ArchRemmy]

idon’tknow,

Please give me a brief review of the Madden series of games on the language used in that series; specifically, I was wondering if there is much swearing in those games, like in the NFL Football games series??

Thanks.

I don’t recall any swearing from Madden. You mostly just hear grunts and the QB calling the plays. First order of business though when loading up the game is to go to the music screen and turn off all of the rap/hip hop or hard rock if it’s not your thing. Fortunately that setting gets saved so you don’t have to hear the music you don’t want to hear from then on.

 

[ArchRemmy]

Hmm. Just what kind of Catholic “quality control” should I employ for this project? Many of the prospective staffers/writers for this website have a concern that they could write things that they’ll regret…

but isn’t that part of the risk of writing publicly in the first place? I can’t possibly please everybody all of the time anyway (just look at this thread)!

That said, a priest or religious as an advisor for the website/blog would probably be a good idea. I know a priest who plays GTA4…

Some ideas. A prayer gets written up asking God for help in writing the review and it is prayed before each assignment.

The review is submitted to the rest of the staff and the spiritual advisor for screening.

Offer a “second voice” review similar to Game Informer if another staffer has played the game.

 

[Larowyn]

So what are you planning, a review site that reviews games for content and scores them based on how much violence and immoral acts exist in them?

The most important details to cover in a game review are gameplay, graphics, replayability, learning curve, difficulty, story, music and sound, problems, and features. Naturally it would be important to mention things like the type and amount of violence and whether the protagonist is a criminal or whether the game glorifies immoral behavior, but if you focus the review just on that then the review is worthless.

Regardless of what I think of the futility of morality-only reviews, I would like to point out the usefulness of the Dungeons and Dragons alignment system, which scores characters based on their actions and attitudes, for determining the morality of characters in any movie, game, book, or television show. It would be pretty silly to reject games just because the protagonists are not Lawful Good.

 

[ArchRemmy]

As seems to be the consensus, the review would score the technicality of the game but also draw out problematic content that is overlooked by other sites, yielding both a technical rating and a morality rating, possibly also offering an overall recommendability rating. These are ideas for us to hack out.

A good example - I closely followed Assassin’s Creed, wondering how that game would treat God and Christianity - the trailer showed you, the assassin, murdering Crusaders. When all the main sites came out with their reviews I still didn’t have an answer so I eventually decided to play the game for myself and evaluate it. There are many warning flags that need to be thrown for this game and I would agree with the M rating on the box. There is bad language, graphically violent fights (blood spurting out of necks), and also problematic, the game suggests that both the parting of the Red Sea and the turning of water into wine were illusions. There are other themes to treat such as loyalty, consequences of disobedience, and the place of God in the ideal society.

Recognizing all of that, the game is still amazing. Technically I would give the game either a 9/10 or 10/10 for execution such as graphics, music, acting, and all of the wonderful little details that breathe life into the ancient cities. Had the morality been neutral or positive I would not hesitate to award the game a 9 or 10. But did all of that problematic material negatively affect my experience? As a Catholic, it did. That is the point. With this particular game I still feel you can have a great experience with it - an 8/10 experience. But you should be an adult who can filter out the unwantededness and see through the murky waters.

Now an important question for debate is whether you can filter that stuff out, see past the flaws. For example is the line of dialogue towards the end of the game that proposes that turning water into wine was an illusion. Follow this out and the game basically states that Jesus was a deceiver. Is that the game developers’ position though or is it just one character’s theory? How should we react to that? Personally, I reacted by staying firm in my belief in Jesus and thus was disappointed and detached from the fictional story being given. But that line of dialogue doesn’t change the exhilerating feeling of climbing a church tower while the wind swirls about and birds fly gracefully around - the things that make the game fun and worthwhile.

 

[roccoangelo]

Andy K,

As someone who’s been playing videogames since they’re beginning, I think you’re idea of having a videogame review site which grades them from a Roman Catholic perspective is long overdue.

Without question, the moral undertaking that such a site would demand is quite heavy, and so it would be of great necessity to implement a grading system that has the capacity to morally ‘filter out’ games with are not worthy vs. games which are, and of course, as previous posters have mentioned, also grade a game’s for its gameplay and various kinds of artistic and technical achievement.

Having said the all of that though, it is also my personal conviction as a catholic that the spiritual and moral themes and message that a game conveys should hold top priority over other aspects of a game as to wether a game is deemed worthy for a catholic to play or not.

You have my support, prayers and co-operation if you are in need of someone to help grade a game with you.

Dominus Vobiscum,
Rocco

 

[linebyline]

Should a “Catholic” review site use such a system? Should it simply adopt the Decentfilms.com model of separate scoring for the “artistic” value of a game and another score for its “moral/spiritual” value? Should it simply be “thumbs up/thumbs down” ala Ebert and Roeper? Should it simply be text?
Should it take into account the actual genre of the game (it’s great for role-playing fans, bad for shooter fans), etc?

Almost all of the above, I’d think. Decentfilms uses all those elements (save the Siskel/Ebert/Roeper thumb thing), at least in the better reviews. I wouldn’t cut out even one part of that successful formula. I also like the idea of a combined overall reccomendability rating, and I would further suggest a summarized list of specific moral violations/issues (also a fixture of decentfilms).

Wow, that was gushy. Lest I be misunderstood, Greydanus has made his mistakes.

…Not all games are shooters (just as not all movies are violent). This is just another reason why such a resource is needed, IMO. Games are just as diverse as movies, music, and literature. If this is understood to be true, they deserve their own outlet where Catholics can engage them as they do other forms of media, no?

Yeah. I like Fr. Mitch, but let’s leave the video game reviews to someone who knows about them. Someone needs to tell these people that there’s a long road between Kirby/Pokémon/Mario types and the Bloodrayne/Doom/GTA crop, with a whole spectrum in between like Zelda (fantasy violence), Metroid, (Sci-fi violence), Star Fox (a little of both). Not to say that violence is the only issue, nor that the E-rated games don’t have their share of bad stuff (Rouge the Bat, anyone?)

Also, I wouldn’t be against the idea of making a Catholic themed game. Perhaps we should start a thread?

 

[Belgarion]

hmm…A Catholic viewpoint in a review?
That’d be something I’d like.

Games are popular and parents need to learn to recognize bad influences.

Someone ought to make a website with that…

I’ve actually come to a moral issue in one of my games. Perhaps someone could help with it.
I have no problem with violence in games.
Its not violence in reality and as an older brother, I make sure my siblings aren’t exposed to anything horribly violent. (War movies like Saving Private Ryan where someone gets stabbed…it was scary even for me…that kind of death sucks)

But when a game treads on religion…it bugs me.
I can deal with games like Oblivion, since its fantasy and obviously those gods are just imaginary.

But in one game, Devil May Cry 4, it does a mixture of realism and fantasy.
Devil may Cry is one of my favorite game series.
It follows a half-demon named Dante. In Devil May Cry 1 he basically keeps the devil (Named “Mundus”) from escaping the Underworld(Hell, The demon world)
Dante’s father was a full demon named Sparda. Sparda had awakened to justice and took pity on mankind. 2000 before the events of DMC1 (I don’t know why they picked 2000 years, AKA Jesus’ time) Sparda defeated Mundus and sealed him away. He lived among humans and later (MUCH later) married a human woman that gave birth to twin sons. Dante, and vergil. Their father died when they were about 7, their mother died when they were about 9. Vergil turned into an anti-hero and Dante the hero.

etc etc

The games have treaded lightly on religion, treating it as an ally rather than an enemy.
Demon worship is clearly labled as evil. etc etc

However in DMC4…they turn on religion…to the casual observer at least.

There is a new Protagonist, named Nero. Nero is a human who receives a power from…some unknown source. His arm turns demonic and aids him in battle.
Nero himself is part of a cult called “The Order of the Sword”. The Order worships Sparda, Dante’s father…and a demon…

Now, here’s what annoys me. (since demon worship is also labled as bad in this game) All the members of the Order are named after CATHOLIC prayers and hymns.

Sanctus is the leader of the Order, referred to as “His Holiness” and dressed like a priest during Mass. He even has a “Pope hat” as everyone puts it. He turns out to be evil and even becomes a demon. In his character description he is defined as “The infallible leader of the Order of the Sword and the Vicar of Sparda”…replace “Order of the Sword” and “Sparda” with “CAtholic Church” and “Christ” and who do we have a description of? His plan is to control the “Savior” and rule the world. They somehow gain control of a large statue-like demon…whom they must be mistaking for Sparda…since Sparda looks different. And they call this demon “The Savior” and think he is a god.
When you fight Sanctus, he frequently shouts “Repent!” and “The Savior is coming!” …it gets annoying

Kyrie is a good and modest girl. One of those who was actually manipulated by Sanctus. She is Nero’s love interest.

Credo is Kyrie’s brother and is the “Captain of the Holy knights”
He goes along with Sanctus’ plan, but was manipulated as well.

Agnus is the leader of the Order’s R&D department and summoned most of the demons you fight in the game. Evil of course.

Gloria is a newcomer to the Order and dresses…rather immodestly…

The producer of the game was asked a question by a magazine…The question and answer kinda ticked me off.
They said that the game has a :corrupt religion that is eerily reminiscent of the Roman Catholic Church" and asked him about it.
Kobayashi, the producer, answered that they tried to make the Order different than any religion out there. So anyone who thinks otherwise has “preconceived notions about religion”
Well…if he wanted to keep it from being like any other religion, he could have kept away from the Catholic references.
I figured perhaps that the Order was a corrupt copy of the Chuch. Evil always tries to mimic good, I applied that to this case…but it just seems to me that that particular mindset conflicts with the producer’s explanation of trying to make the Order unlike otehr religions.

I’m sure there’s more…I must be forgetting something…

But it does have some good points. One being a scene where Nero is talking to God saying “You know, God… I always hated that you made my arm like this…But now with it, I can finish this thing!”
Another being a demon talking to himself after seeing Sanctus on the “Savior”
“A human? Posing as God? How ridiculous”

So it kind of point towards God really being there, but it seems like much of everything is like some attack on the Church. Like they’re trying to make the Church look evil…but I could just be critical

I think we need someone to review things like this
I’d be interested in doing it if I knew where to go. lol

 

[ArchRemmy]

I looked into decentgames.com but the price tag is $550. There is always decentgames.net for $35 or if someone comes up with a different name it could be even cheaper. Try register.com. I’m going to email my buddy who went to school for web stuff. Anyone have the capability to start a website from scratch?