Left Behind Games Inc., a publisher of Christian-themed videogames, has secured a pilot release of its titles in 100 Wal-Mart stores in the Houston and Dallas areas.
Three games will be sold as part of a test to determine the viability of selling the titles in additional Wal-Mart locations. Left Behind Games, also known as Inspired Media Entertainment, believes that Texas is ripe for its offerings, noting that there are over 23,000 churches in Texas, with over 5.0 million Evangelical Protestants and more than 1.7 million Mainline Protestants.
CEO Troy Lyndon has high hopes for the Christian game market:
The US market for Christian video games could reach $648 Million within the next five years based upon just 3% of video game sales being in the Christian segment.
Comments
Re: Christian Games Hit Texas Walmarts
I would love to know where you're getting your ideas from because I've lived in the strictly Christian midwest my entire life and have absolutely no clue what the hell you're talking about. I don't think anyone is selling indulgences these days...
Re: Christian Games Hit Texas Walmarts
Direct indulgances no, but christian charity is billed as a way to be morally superior to non-christians. Often when I get into ethical debates on right wing message boards, the example of 'christians give so much more to charity, so we are ethically superior to you aethists, so don't question our motives!'.
It is still treated as an ad-hoc indulgance... give so much to charity, wip away a little sin so you can do other bad things.
Re: Christian Games Hit Texas Walmarts
That's theologically incorrect. That doesn't mean people don't say it, but they don't have any Biblical justification for it.
Re: Christian Games Hit Texas Walmarts
This is always hard whenever anything comes up that has to do with religon, but let's remember that this is a video-game politics site, and we should try to avoid confrontation on religious grounds here.
I think that 3% is a very ambitious goal for Christian game designers. The major problem is that most don't seem to realize that the game needs to be a game first and a message second. No matter how good the message is, if it doesn't get played, it doesn't get across.
Every character in the Left Behind game had a detailed backstory (I mean the random NPCs) that would change if the character was 'saved' or 'converted' by either the tribulation forces or the 'bad guys'. It was a pretty decent effort... But the game sucked. So it didn't really matter how detailed all that was. I didn't care, because the fact that bunching a few guitar-playing musicans together was the best defence possible, since you could raise/lower your foe's 'faith' attribute enough they'd join your side instantly.
I look forward to the day when christian desginers realize that the game needs to be good and playable first.
Re: Christian Games Hit Texas Walmarts
maybe not required so much as pressed.
constant sales infomercials, ad's, even in the churchs they make a habit of pushing this stuff at times (though usualy in some innocent fashion as the preacher will go on about it and "inform" his group of people about its function in his life... sounds familiar doesn't it? infomercial anyone?)
i've been to at least 2 churchs that have done that, one of which also doubled as a recording studio for a radio show while services were being held.
thus selling various religious items ALL over and exploiting peoples beliefs to make a fast penny of some cheap crap one could fashion from random household items and/or junk gotten from a hobby shop or wal mart.
inumerable books "explaining" the bible, movies, news letters, magazines, etc...
its exploited in every way thinkable, and somewhere some church has their hands in the pot funding this stuff.
the bible explanations get me the worst though, its ONE PERSONS interpretation, not the actual, or factual, just ONE persons version of how THEY see it. joke from dilbert here "if i have to explain it, its not funny" the bible shouldn't be getting reinterpreted. much like the U.S. constitution that only leads to more problems. letter of the law vs spirit of the law, why must we always run off of spirit of it and go with the "you know what i mean" as opposed to the "what i said" when dealing with written texts.
and sad thing is, thats how we find ourselves with folk along the Jack Thompson breed. He interprets it his way to follow his agenda, carefuly selecting various verses that'll back his arguement and only his arguement, neglecting various other verses that may directly oppose his own views, or misrepresenting them so they don't.
as i said down lower, its a book that was written in a time when anyone could claim to have heard god, and they'd gather followers far and wide without question, then translated from dead languages into our own, and continually revised(??? what?!) over and over in various interpretations and languages. one single out of line word or phrase changes the meaning of EVERYTHING though. reminds me well of Arnold Rimmers Dilemma from Red Dwarf.
His family was "seventh day hoppists" every sunday they'd hop all day. because of a typo in his mothers bible that said "love, faith, and hop. The most important of which is hop."
though a joke in all regards, it can easily happen to someone who blindly follows anything they're told. (i'd like to take a moment to point out the bold word there just in case it was missed, and make note its not a "will")
Re: Christian Games Hit Texas Walmarts
I'm pretty sure you just went to some bad churches. Try going to the smaller ones; they tend to be more normal and less commercialized.
I think you also need to do a little more study on the history of the Bible. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the current texts are about as accurate as can be expected when translating from one language to another, and people are extremely careful in trying to preserve the meanings in translation. Revisions tend to occur simply to try to make the text more readable these days.
Re: Christian Games Hit Texas Walmarts
I just don't like the idea that people are exploiting religious people for money. My great grandmother is a Born Again Christian and she spends quite a bit of money on religious things, notably the Daily Bread (A series of small books with interpretations of the bible and other things).
However, I have read in either Edge or Games(tm) that there was a religious video game studio that has made Christian games with the intent of helping people while spreading the word of Christianity lightly. The knock on effect of their software has helped people live with themselves. They've received a lot of mail from people who've played their games and they said that the game has helped them and changed their lives.
That's what I want. I want a religious game that can spread the word of their faith while at the same time improving those who play the game. If the game is just put out into the market with the intent of exploitation without helping those that play it then I'm against it.
"God, is that you?"
"No! It's a me, Mario!"
Re: Christian Games Hit Texas Walmarts