The Timothy Plan, a Florida investment firm which bills itself as "conservative Christian," is warning holiday-shopping parents away from what it calls the 30 "most offensive" video games.
While the usual suspects (GTA IV, Saints Row 2, Blitz the League II) make the list, there are some surprises as well, including the T-rated Bully: Scholarship Edition and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.
In its game rankings, the organization displays an obvious anti-gay bias. While it evaluates titles for sex and nudity, a gay/lesbian rating is also included, meaning that a game with a gay sexual encounter might get a double whammy when compared to a game where the sex is of the straight variety. This effect, for instance, pushes Fable II onto the group's most offensive list. Along that line a report prepared by the Timothy Plan contains this rather bizarre comment:
Army of Two: Homosexual Encounters: ...Somewhat homo-erotic undertones between the two main characters are present.
WoW made it onto the dirty thirty, thanks to a high "addiction" rating as well as a high rating for alcohol use (curse you, Noggenfogger elixir!).
How the group determined the addiction rank is really quite unfathomable. WoW received a 3, for example, the worst possible rating, while Lord of the Rings Online got a 1 and Age of Conan a 2. In fact, all of the MMOs were tagged for addiction as well as some multiplayer games like Halo 3. A few games (The Darkness, Devil May Cry 4) were punished for "demonic" references.
Timothy Plan president Art Ally (left) comments:
Many, if not most, parents who buy their kids video games really don't know the extent of sex and violence imbedded in them. From drug use, prostitution, murder and mayhem to vulgar profanity and blasphemy these games have become a powerfully negative influence on our kids...
I believe, if parents would take a moment to look at the report we've created, their game selections would be quite different.
The group maintains a corporate "hall of shame" which includes game publishers EA, Take-Two and Microsoft. The Timothy Plan also offers to screen your portfolio to see if any of your mutual funds have investments in shameful companies.
So helpful!
Document Dump: Get the Timothy Plan's game score card here. The group's press release with holiday shopping warnings is here.
Comments
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I think they're immoral scum bags but I'm not going to advocate them being treated as second class citizens.
That's where the big difference lies.
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"What for you bury me in the cold cold ground?" - Tasmanian devil
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
And another thing Pokemon gets a 0 ??? Isnt the whole premise of the game to go out capture creatures keep them in little balls and then make them fight each other ... how in hell does that not equal violence or the very least cartoon violence but Super Mario is bad?
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
also ironic considering the whole evolution thing
岩「…Where do masochists go when they die?」
岩「…I can see why Hasselbeck's worried about fake guns killing fake people. afterall, she's a fake journalist on a fake news channel」
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
YEAH! If I kept creatures in my balls, they would condemn me!
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Religious groups? Offended?
Well I never!
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Logic segment fault; reality dumping cache.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Oh thank god Wrath of the Lich King isnt on the list and since no one is playing the old content anymore we are all safe ...
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I don't think anyone here is saying they don't have the right to publish this list, I think most people just think it is unneccessary. I'd bet most people on here probably affiliate themselves as christian, so I don't think they are saying all christians are dumb by any means, just the over the edge extremist ones. Religious fanatics scare me. They are the biggest threat to free speech because they are afraid that their religion could ever be wrong.
I do agree a lot of the comments here are less inteligent though...
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
They're going gay-bashing, mark games as bad because of demonic references and try to help you not to accidentally invest in a company that happened to actually make games for MATURE people with a different taste than theirs. I can either find them disgustingly closed-minded or laugh my ass off at their limited worldview. I'll just go for the non-intelligent choice. =)
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
If they're talking about homo-erotic undertones in games, how did Lego Batman not make the cut? I mean, we all know about Batman/Robin as the poster masks of NAMBLA right?
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
*sigh*
Most of the games on their list are rated M which means minors shouldn't be playing them anyway. Honestly though how many corporations are totally clean of doing anything wrong? I find it hard to believe that in this day and age where there are dozens of layers between various companies and their investors and parent companies that any of them are in the right.
But seriously these guys do have the right to publish their list. I think some of the games are on there erroneously, Super Paper Mario for example, but their right to produce and publish their opinion is imutable.
I realize that most people here won't agree with me on this but I still feel it needs to be said. It would be nice if, just once, when something like this story comes up we could have discourse that rose above "dur, Christians are dumb, dur". It doesn't help you point and only makes you look like a jerk when you go that route. You have the right to do so, but other have the right to call you on it.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I love buying games the religious right hate. I'm suprised that they did not have that Left Behind game on a list of "good wholesom Christian games." :P
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
No, they didn't like that one either...too violent
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
If you'd excuse me for a second.
*Rolls over the floor laughing his ass off*
Shameful companies!
HAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Snicker, sniff, huff, heheheh...
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I'm pretty sure we have found Jack Thompson 2.0
Now with 80% MORE homophobe!
P.S. I think he may be a contender for the award for Douchiest Smile Ever.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
That reminds me of the old lewis black thing on the daily show suggesting they look for and complain about these things just so they have an excuse to watch them.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=127246&title=Back-...
I mean hell they reviewed all these games that all ready had an ESRB rating and even put the ESRB at the end of the report for more information.
EDIT: Just realized I posted the wrong link, sorry about that. Fixed it though.
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"What for you bury me in the cold cold ground?" - Tasmanian devil
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Oh noes not the Gay Sex!!!
Re: "Morally Reprehensible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing
Yet another pathetic attempt by a bunch of "moral" morons to whine about games.
Maybe they'd be better served chasing chupacabras instead of coming up with nonsense.
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Hornets, Jack Thompson can geaux chase a chupacabra.
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Pelicans. Solidarity for the Saints = No retreat, no surrender. 2013 = Saints' revenge on the NFL. Even through the darkest days, this fire burns always.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I'm convinced that there's a slope angling down the continental United States which explains why all the kooks end up in Florida.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I'm convinced...actually, it's just easier to say: Fuck you.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
It's the tax rates.
Re: "Morally Reprehensible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I'm surprised those kooks don't complain about the shape of the state of Florida as it resembles a certain part of the male anatomy after taking Viagra.
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Hornets, Jack Thompson can geaux chase a chupacabra.
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Pelicans. Solidarity for the Saints = No retreat, no surrender. 2013 = Saints' revenge on the NFL. Even through the darkest days, this fire burns always.
Re: "Morally Reprehensible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
"Florida? But that's America's wang!"
"We prefer 'The Sunshine State'"
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Yes the conservative Christian love gay bashing and their whole holier than though crap. Honestly didn't Jesus preach peace, and only he without sin may cast the first stone etc. etc?
Oh well, maybe as a counter attack someone can show just how much money they stand to lose by not investing in 'sinful companies'.
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"What for you bury me in the cold cold ground?" - Tasmanian devil
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
(Matthew 10:28-39) "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. {29} "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. {30} "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. {31} "Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. {32} "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. {33} "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. {34} "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. {35} "For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; {36} "and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.' {37} "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. {38} "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. {39} "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
Also, there's a passage where Jesus whipped the money changers and overturned their tables in righteous anger, but I'm too lazy to get my bible out and find that too.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Looks like the Timothy Plan overlooked the fact that Jesus is anti-family and forgot to put him on their hall of shame
岩「…Where do masochists go when they die?」
岩「…I can see why Hasselbeck's worried about fake guns killing fake people. afterall, she's a fake journalist on a fake news channel」
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Conservative Christians cannot be any further from the messages they claim to convey. I would rather my child see bare breasts than most Christian ideology.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Children come head first out a distended vagina, how can anything out here in the cold, cold world be worse than that?
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
that's why I don't have a MILF-complex
岩「…Where do masochists go when they die?」
岩「…I can see why Hasselbeck's worried about fake guns killing fake people. afterall, she's a fake journalist on a fake news channel」
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I think it's hilarious that there's no number 13 on the list... just two number 12's.
Oh wait... ALL the numbers are messed up. Or maybe it's my acrobat reader?
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
The number in the red circle is the total offense score. If you look at the games in the score card, there is a breakdown of what the score consists of.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/okceca
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1325674091
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Got to say, the zealotous religious types are who I shield my children from.
I'll take "free thinkers" for $1000 Alex.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Oh man, that Army of Two comment is fucking hilarious.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
What ? They don't have The Witcher in this list ? What a shame !
(I know, this game was released last year, but it's been re-released with the Enhanced Edition right now)
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I find that a lot of these critical reports by conservative groups tend to largely ignore European and Japanese-made games. Except for Final Fantasy games which are attacked by such groups for its use of...fantasy, and occult material.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I like this part of the Bioshock review:
LANGUAGE: Strong Language: Strong profanity including the “f-word”, as well as numerous others we prefer to not include in this report.
--- Official Protector of Videoland!
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
? I don't remember there being any harsh language in Bioshock, unless it was coming out of my mouth that is.
Besides the rampant heresy of DNA mutation is far more important to shield your children from. Take that natural-selection.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Most of the "fucks" were in Fort Frolic, when you were listening to Sander Cohen's diaries.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
"From drug use, prostitution, murder and mayhem to vulgar profanity and blasphemy..."
Blasphemy. Yet one more reason why I think "devout" Christians can go to hell. Their unwarranted hatred of gays (seriously, who cares?) and fear of anything remotely sexual is completely out-of-place in a supposedly civilized culture.
At least they aren't calling out Spore for promoting evolution.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Christians shouldn't take the english bible too literally. It's actually poorly translated in some areas, and the choice of words are for art sake, which leads to many interpretations.
I heard the the original Bible doesn't say that being gay is a sin. It actually said something about prostitution. Even in the english version, if you look at the paragraphs before and after, it was all about having sex for greedy pleasure, and not for love, which homosexuality doesn't fall under.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Spore is actually somewhat creationism.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
I haven't played it, but from what I understand of it, it's a bit of both.
IT'S INTELLIGENT DESIGN! /joke
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
No, its pretty much creationism. Natural-selection may come into play if you really suck at the game and your little buddies get wiped out.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Like they said in the commercial, it's more like creatoultion-ism. Yeah you are designing them but as you get new and better parts they evolve sharper teeth, faster legs, etc.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Cool. I have my XMas list now (at least for good games I've missed. Still not going to buy crap)
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
File Damaged... can't check out the score-card.
What? No mention of Mass Effect? How could they bash Army of Two without making mention of the hawt, dripping wet, smouldering blue alien, lesbian love scene, that got all of us fanboy.... Okay, i think i just answered my own question. :p
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Blue alien sex isn't sexy to anyone unless you're in love with the Blue Man Group.
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Mass Effect is there, and it mentions about the whole homosexual thing about female to female, when it is infact female to a monogender species. Get your facts right people!
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Mass Effect is in there? Why the FUCK am I not surprised?
*PicardPalm*
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"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon
"A Chrono Trigger is anything that unleashes its will or desire to change history!" -Gaspar
Re: "Morally Responsible" Investment Firm Goes Gay Bashing in
Jesus Jack Jones Thompson approves of being a moron himself....