June 3, 2009 -
A small band of demonstrators gathered outside the Los Angeles Convention Center today to protest Dante's Inferno, an upcoming video game from publisher Electronic Arts.
While attendees viewed Dante's Inferno at EA's booth in the South Hall of the LACC, a dozen or so members of a Ventura County, California church group marched on the sidewalk. The protesters carried signs with messages like "EA = anti-Christ," reports the Los Angeles Times:
Matthew Francis, one of the protesters, said he and his fellow church members were particularly upset that Dante's Inferno features a character who fights his way out of Hell and uses a cross as a weapon against demons.
"We think this game should never come out," he said...
Comments
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
This is downright perplexing. o_O I be a Christain and I hardly see how this is offensive... Slaying demons with crosses? That sounds like an awesome time. And them saying that EA = Antichrist due to this?
Come on... Think things through! D:
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
... this HAS to be a joke, or people trying to make Christians look stupid. I mean really I didn't read all of the Inferno and I certainly haven't played a second of the game but the parts I remember of the inferno had a very Christian message to it "and here lies so and so for committing some horrible sin, watch at the horrible things being done to them" "Here are the angels who did not take a side in the great angel war, and down further are the ones who sided against God".
Where were these people when God of War was released where you had to serve the ancient Greek Gods? Ah obvious aside does Dante's Inferno really let you cast judgement on demons? I haven't been following the game too well as I've been turned off by the fact that Dante didn't really battle anyone in the book (although to be fair it would be very hard to turn the book into a video game without big tweaks as the plot is basically Dante taking a guided tour through hell encountering famous people trapped down there).
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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Lets make sure no one ever tells them about CastleVania right?
Seriously, WTF, enough already. It's a game loosley based on a book, but more closley based, given the trailer, on a mix of Ninja gaiden and God of war.
Get over it.
Must remmber to buy this game just to spite them.
Yukimura is still here. "Well done Yukimura. You are japans greatest hero. Now, the chaos ends." Spoken by Tokugawa Ieyasu to Yukimura sanada just moments before Yukimuras death in Samurai warriors 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR9qIUXOjYY
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Just CastleVania? We better put Xenogears in a bomb shelter with these guys around.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Don't forget to add the Xenosaga series in the bomb shelter.
Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Xenosaga was alright but if you look at it the controversial issues were toned down probably because of reasons like this... if this is not just some publicity stunt.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Actually I think Xenogears caused such a fuss because of the whole "God was actually a gigantic bio-weapon and created humanity as spare parts" thing.(makes about as much sense as any explaination)
While the Xenosaga series with the exception of the Gnosis and some of the names, wasn't really about religion or gods, or not that I remember, it's been along time.
Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Not only is it based on a poem (a book if you want to call it that) it's a story that is THOUSANDS of years old. Once again I am reminded on how stupid people are.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
How in the holy hell is a video game in which you fight demons with a cross evil or anti-christian. It seems to have a rather pro-christian theme to me. These fundamentalist christians are idiots.
"No law means no law" - Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black on the First Amendment
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Funny...hell is a game... at least in the way faith nazis propagate it as a means of subjugation and devision... if you can not let something go then you make hell on earth for those around you...... and I do it daily by bitching about how much modern gaming sucks :P
I am a criminal because I purchase media,I am a criminal because I use media, I am a criminal because I chose to own media..We shall remain criminals until Corporate stay's outside our bedrooms..
http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
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http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
...and Christians wonder why fewer and fewer people are embracing religion these days. I just want to know what kind of life of leisure these protestors have to go out and picket against a game based on (very) old literature- on a work day during business hours. Seriously.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
To be fair, these are 'christians' from California, home of most retarded activists and activism. I'm sure that these people, like many members of PETA and Greenpeace, have no jobs, choosing rather to suckle from that government teat while they complain.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
True, but I always thought California activism was more about kooky liberal ideals (animal liberation, living in trees, radical feminism, etc). I guess someone in CA had to vote against gay marriage- and here they are apparently.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
To be fair, Austin_Lewis can't help but make digs at California seeing as he only heard lies and myths about it. And he doesn't live there to know what it is really like.
I'm from Ventura County, California. Which happens to be a very Republican area. Despite that Democrat voters are slowly catching up to their numbers. Hey, if Lewis wants Elton Gallegly, I'll be glad for him to take him off of us.
You have to remember that California is a huge state and pretty much has every type of political party you can think of there.
I'm also betting that these protestors are from Thousand Oaks or Simi Valley. If I'm wrong, then Camarillo.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
What state has the most out of control spending? The most (and largest) 'racial issue' protests? The biggest gay pride parades (not saying this is a bad thing, but it IS activism)? Berkley College? The biggest Million Mom March showing (an idiotic event run by people with barely a grasp on reality or fact)? Rosie O'Donnell? I could go on, but I'd rather go downstairs and drink and watch a movie... probably gonna watch Role Models.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Oy what makes you think they're from Simi Valley? I live there and I've never eoncountered the batshit crazy (although I have seen WBC but I don't know where they're from).
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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
I think there is more to it than this alone. There is also the fact that some congregations want to remove people that they see as sinful like gay couples when the purpose of a church is not to seperate believers from the world but to encourage nonbelievers to come in and join.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
And then there's all the, you know, science. It's a little harder for people to preach that the earth is flat and that leeches can cure plague now that society has become less retarded. Sure, some people will believe it, but more and more will be skeptical as time goes on.
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Believe in something! Even if it's wrong, believe in it! -Glenn Beck
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Ahh, can you imagine a world without religion? No pushy "My God is better than your God" types, no moral outrage on things that aren't really moral issues.. No crazy extremists out there to kill anyone who doesn't believe..
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Does that weeny in the back have a sign that reads "Play Dante's Inferno, go to hell"?
If that's true, I have to play this game. That way, when I die, I won't have to hang out with these *crude remark deleted*
Seriously, take yourselves a little less seriously. No one is attacking your religion and no one is trying to to force you to play this game if you don't want to. Take it as a tribute to a classic, you silly people. I understand you don't like...anything, but...wait, nevermind, keep doing this. It makes you guys look like a joke, and that seems appropriate.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
"Does that weeny in the back have a sign that reads "Play Dante's Inferno, go to hell"?"
Wait isn't that the premis of the game?
Honestly I don't know what's worse these *crude remark deleted* or the ones complaining about the Hanuman game. For the record I am a Hindu and I don't really care about the Hanuman game it's just a game what's the big deal. Didn't play it, have no intention of playing a lousy game.... now if it was well made then I might play it :P
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
I can just only imagine the people out on the streets.
Dude on street: "Hey, hey, what's this Dante's Inferno game you guys are bitching about?"
Protester: "It's a horrible game about the Divine Comedy which is set in hell."
Dude: "Whoa, what do you do?"
Protester: "You play Dante and you wield a scythe killing deformed demons and disembowling and beheading them in grues- wait! what are you doing?"
Dude now at Gamestop: "Pre-order for 1 Dante's Inferno please."
Then IRONIC FATALITY!
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Bad publicity is free publicity.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Dumb protests by stupid people is also free publicity
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Even Jesus thinks this is stupid
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/1951/801950-jesusfacepalm_super.jpg
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Nevered thought I see the day when me a Jesus agreed on something regarding gaming. I mean why is it so bad to kill demons? Aren't they the symbol of evel?
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
http://www.killatia.com/
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
I've never figured out why a Christian would have a problem with destroying demons. Would they prefer a nice chat to try and work things out? Over tea, perhaps?
This stinks to high heaven of a PR stunt that will blow up in EA's face.
______________________________________________________________________ mykalgaidin.gamerdna.com
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
These protesters need to go to Hell.
When Jack Thompson runs his mouth, does anyone really care what he has to say anymore?
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Only uber-conservatives that get off on proving how much holier than thou they are.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
I think you just responded to his sig.
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Game on, brothers and sisters.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
They're absolutely right - they should have made a game based on the Paradiso instead, running around dismembering Angels.
ffs, Hell's been appearing in games since DOOM. People need to wake up and think about what they're protesting.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
...That would be an awesome game too, one that I would definitely play.
Hell, the point of games like Fable and Star Wars KOTOR is to give players the chance to be either good OR evil! Sometimes I feel like being evil for the hell of it, and other times I feel like being the 100% righteous person that I know that I'm not. (I admit, I'd give into some temptation in real life).
-If an apple a day keeps the doctor away....what happens when a doctor eats an apple?-
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
It's like it's blasphemous to attack demons. They're evil, and protected by the church?!! WTF?
Using a cross as a weapon actually sounds like a holy metaphore: the Cross saves us from Hell. How much more religious can you get?
This games seems like more sympathetic to the church than most movies. A lot of games do; from fighting demons in Doom, to the anti-Darwinistic messages in Half-life 2, games seem more tolarant of religion than any other medium, and yet these churches continue to attack them.
And we wonder why our congregations keep dwindling...
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
yeah, what anti-darwinistic messages in Half life 2. u'll have to explain that one.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Like the other guy says, Listen to Breen. Pay attention to what the characters are saying, listen to the actual story.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Oh, you mean the bad guy, the guy you're looking to stop. It's a classic story telling technique. Put the view you're against in the mouth of either the idiot or the villian, thus proving how useless the argument is.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Exactly. Darwinism isn't the belief in evolution, but that natural selection is the only way to progress. While HL2 portayed evolution as a fact of life, it portrayed that outcome as undesirable.
Dr. Breen, while claiming that everyone was destined for it, believed that only he and his "select few" were destined for the next phase in evolution, and that the Combine, "our benefactors" as he called them, were the answer. By selectively killing the population, he thought he was ensuring that only the stonger survived.
Meanwhile, the Combine themselves were portayed as hideous in their evolutionary superiority. Barely more than grubs with cybernetic implants, they couldn't breath, see, or move without their cyber appendeges. It's like the people from Wall-E to the tenth power.
The Resistance, on the other hand, showed how powerful humans are in their present form.
While this view isn't directly religious, it does show some powerful views against evolution.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
That's not what Darwinism is. Some evolutionists will tell you that it has nothing to do with evolution (like my idiot ecology professor), and some will even use the word "progress", but that's not it at all. There is no progress in evolution, only change. And the theory of natural selection implies evolution. You can't just have natural selection that stays within certain bounds. And if the Combine were so disgusting, doesn't that make a case for evolution? They didn't get the way they are by relying on nature after all. Yeah, I really don't think there are any pro or anti Darwinistic messages in HL2.
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Believe in something! Even if it's wrong, believe in it! -Glenn Beck
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
"While this view isn't directly religious, it does show some powerful views against evolution."
How so?
Just because a coward (Dr. Breen), Is spouting propoganda to the populace in order for them to fall in place with his plans (The Combine's Plans), It doesn't mean he was actually believing what he was saying. There is nothing against evolution in Half Life 2. Cutting off someone legs and putting metal contraptions on it isn't tantamount to evolution. For evolution to even be a classified event, it first needs to succeed. I see the evolved biological human (not their technology which isn't evolution but a by product of it) beating back the Combine in HL2.
Now you would be correct in that statement IF Dr. Breen was correct in his statements on the big screen, instead of it being a propoganda tool to suit his own ends.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
I'm sorry, it is early. Are you arguing against what I said, or just making a remark?
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
listen to the white haired guys speech when you first come off the train. he talkes about how natural stuff like sex and having kids is bad and they should let go of it.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
"anti-Darwinistic messages in Half-life 2"
What are you talking about? No seriously WTF?
-It’s all fun and good till the zombies get you.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Gotta admit that most of us would agree with the ea/antichrist thing.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Wel--Well, yeah, but not in this context. The shit they pull make them look like the devil; Dante's Inferno makes them look like angels.
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Game on, brothers and sisters.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
In Bayonetta, angels are the bad guys- and you'll be beating up a lot of them. (I'm surprised at how bloody it is turning out to be)
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Anyone else found it amusing that that one of the signs read "Hell is not a Game"? I mean practically tempting people to make a witty remark about it.
My personal take "Hell is not a game, IT IS REAL!".
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Actually Hell IS a game. "Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller", released 1994. Starring Dennis Hopper. Don't think anybody raised a bitchfest about it back then, and this was in the days of "Night Trap".
Maybe instead of calling it Hell, EA should call it H-E-Double-Hockeystick Place, would that placate everyone?
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
That game was TERRIBLE!!
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
Yeah but at least it was allowed to get made without a bunch of obnoxioius non-gamers screaming about why it shouldn't be.
Re: Dante's Inferno Ignites E3 Protest
If by "obnoxioius non-gamers" you mean "people hired by EA for a publicity stunt"
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.