Is it detrimental to have a game world background rich in religious and/or spiritual elements? I''ve been focusing on two game worlds, one for my sci-fi game, and the other for a fantasy game I''ve been trudging up recently. In the fantasy game (which is sort of to Asian culture, what Ars Magica was to European medieval culture), I really want to strongly emphasize a pseudo-Buddhist (all flavors from Chan/Zen, to Tibetan), Taoist, Confucianist, Hindu, Shinto, and possibly a few others. Indeed, the tentative name for the game background is "The Boddhisatva Warriors". In a nutshell, the game centers around trying to find your peace and salvation in a world on the verge of extinction. Peace? Salvation?? In a Game??? Well, characters tend to gain power the more they follow the way of harmony. The more death they cause, the greater they increase the entropy and disharmony in the world. This in turn weakens them. In other words, it is the avoidance of combat or of saving lives which is the ultimate goal, even though the world is filled with beings both natural and supernatural which want to take out the characters. But I really want to stress much of the concepts of Do(Tao), In-Yo(Yin/Yang), and the common themes that run throughout all warrior cultures of virtually every race on earth. I''m not sure if this will jibe well for many though, as it may offend their own sense of religious values. While this is a game, I do intend for it to be as an intellectual tool (or exercise if you will) to make people think about the topics I want to introduce from a fresh perspective (i.e. not through the filter of their own religious/spiritual convictions). Don''t get me wrong, I''m not trying to convert anyone, especially since the game''s background is going to draw on a diverse syncretist amalgamation of several eastern and other shamanistic/animistic cultures (I''m currently doing some research on African warrior tribes like the Masai and Zulu and some of their indigenious spiritual beliefs as well as the Aborigines). But my intent is to purposefully act as a Devil''s Advocate per se, to make people question and think. And even in my sci-fi game, I have "martial houses" as well as Human Augmentation Program cells of which some have quasi-religious bent to them (think Jedi or Ninja) that is very prominent in the game setting. Is this too offensive? Even to just try to showcase a different point of view and purposefully pose situations that may make people question their own faith? On the one hand, questioning can make one''s faith in one''s chosen religious beliefs even stronger, OTOH, it could lead to a sense of confusion and make them doubt and fearful. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." - General Omar Bradley

quote: I''ve been focusing on two game worlds, one for my sci-fi game, and the other for a fantasy game I''ve been trudging up recently.

One game isn''t enough trouble? Or are you just having so much fun designing these games?

quote: In the fantasy game (which is sort of to Asian culture, what Ars Magica was to European medieval culture), I really want to strongly emphasize a pseudo-Buddhist (all flavors from Chan/Zen, to Tibetan), Taoist, Confucianist, Hindu, Shinto, and possibly a few others. Indeed, the tentative name for the game background is "The Boddhisatva Warriors".

Cool. I''ve been going back to Master of Magic lately, and so I''m envisioning something like that, but with religions instead of races. Do the city members convert one another? Do esoteric buddhists get special abilities related to mantras? Do Zen buddhists get immunity to illusions? Do Taoists get a longer scouting range (from scrying)?

quote: In a nutshell, the game centers around trying to find your peace and salvation in a world on the verge of extinction. Peace? Salvation?? In a Game??? Well, characters tend to gain power the more they follow the way of harmony. The more death they cause, the greater they increase the entropy and disharmony in the world.

Awesome. This goes hand in hand with morale -- too much fighting and your soldiers get unhappy, too little and they get rusty. Pursuing peace vehemently makes your soldiers rusty, and your nation weaker, but wealthier, both of which makes it a more attractive target. Pursuing conquest vehemently makes your soldiers tired and grumpy and weakens your country.

However, I don''t know how you can do this far better than anyone''s ever done it. Maintaining a large standing army requires resources that could otherwise be used for progress in most civilization-esque games. Extending that to another style is not difficult. What do you plan to do, above and beyond this, or how do you plan to clearly paint the effects as a reflection of eastern philosophies?

quote: In other words, it is the avoidance of combat or of saving lives which is the ultimate goal, even though the world is filled with beings both natural and supernatural which want to take out the characters.

Well, don''t go overboard with that. Even nonviolence is subject to the taoist principle of something (nonviolence) creating its opposite (violence), or even the other way around (violence creating nonviolence -- the chaos of the conquest of an empire leads to a pax romana).

quote: Is this too offensive? Even to just try to showcase a different point of view and purposefully pose situations that may make people question their own faith? On the one hand, questioning can make one''s faith in one''s chosen religious beliefs even stronger, OTOH, it could lead to a sense of confusion and make them doubt and fearful.

You''re being way too concerned about this. There was a console game in which you kill God, and most people merely found it fascinating. There''s nothing especially infuriating about eastern religions. Heck, in my martial arts class, we meditate every day, and it''s held in a baptist church.

Well it depends on your target audience.

Since (i think) youre an inde developer you probally wanna use it as a basis for imporving your skills ect. Then show off to your friends.

Therefore you have no problems here.

Now religious fundameltalist group members take these thigs way more seriously than the other average person and may take offense. But if its good they may play it any way .

I don''t see why this would offend anyone. If you are using them as themes, which by definition are underlieing meanings in a story, you have no problems. Since I assume you arn''t overtly telling people their views are wrong, you are doing nothing wrong. Now if you pulled a Nietzche and said "God is dead", then you may have some trouble.

Yeah, two games are a pain in the ass

Actually, I''ve been putting the sci-fi game on hold due to school, though I occasionally go back to it if I have time. This other game is actually more RPG oriented. In fact, I''m thinking of it being a PPRPG game but with a chat interface, similar to OpenRPG. I think this is much easier to implement than the massive RTS I''ve been thinking of, and is probably a much better "cut your game design teeth" design than the epic RTS I''ve been slowly evolving.

In some ways, this RPG is more dear to my heart since it asks some really (to me) profound questions at a personal level, whereas my other game asks profound questions on a more national/cultural level.

Yeah, maybe I am being too sensitive, but I''d rather people understand my intentions straight up, than assuming that I''m some sort of Judeo/Christianity basher or something. Now, if my game set in an alternate history that examines what the world might have been like if Christianity had taken on James'' teachings instead of Paul''s....then maybe people might have stronger argument to say I''m a Christianity basher (at least from a Paulist perspective).

It is true that this would be an indie game, so the mainstream will probably hardly even glance at a game like this.

As for how I''d treat the Christian view of God? Well, the denizens of this world would probably scratch their heads and wonder why someone would look for peace and salvation from a being that exists seperate from themselves. Nor would they necessarily believe in an afterlife that is granted by following a set of rules. Their world view is that true peace and knowledge can only come from the things that we can do, not from thinking or praying or meditating. So while God may not be "dead" per se, the inhabitants of this world wouldn''t necessarily see God the way Christians do.

So the denizens of this world for the most part feel that they are a part of, or a reflection of God. In other words, they are not seperate from the divine (this is a more Shintoist and Taoist viewpoint).

The trick to this game though would be in having to have a different mindset as a player, to let go of the Christian concepts of good/evil and instead look at it as going with harmony (the tao) or against the tao. And this is where I think my game background might become offensive rather than in any creationist belief system. While, I''m going to try to not make it sound like a soapbox, I''m sure that my own bias for these eastern viewpoints may be highlighted in the background descriptions. Which begs a question, if one does have a preference for a certain thing, how do you not come across as being too impartial towards that thing?

Make your game Dauntless. And make it how you want. It is certainly a poor idea to be fearful of offending anyone, and allowing that to persuade you. GTA3 offended plenty of people ... but it''s a brilliant game. It would have been a shame if Rockstar had concerned themselves with how these types of people viewed it.

Christian types especially love to be offended. It''s how they get their jollies (I mean...they attacked Disney because of being "offended"!). Don''t worry about it. If people can''t have an open mind, then just chuckle at them and move along.

quote: While, I''m going to try to not make it sound like a soapbox, I''m sure that my own bias for these eastern viewpoints may be highlighted in the background descriptions. Which begs a question, if one does have a preference for a certain thing, how do you not come across as being too impartial towards that thing?

That''s not a concern. In making a game, the only ways to express a bias is either to express it in the story via exposition or to structure the rules to favor the style of play you desire. Gamers can reject exposition in the story, but do not ever reject the rules of the game, even when the rules favor a style of play that would be otherwise undesirable. Even in the exposition, the only way to offend a Christian audience is to feature a Christian, and reject or ridicule his views. So just don''t feature christians in this game (pre-monotheist?), and you''ll be fine.

There is no reason you can''t include religion in a game or anyother form of media. The best startegy would be not force the religion and philioshies your trying to express on the player. Instead make it a natural part of the game by tieing it directly in the gameplay and game mechanics. If the player knows that violating the Bushido is going to cause them problems then they more will most like stick to its teachings.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

by the way, do you really think that these non-violent philosophies breed non-violence?