Hello, This question goes out to those who are especially interested in designing action/adventure and RPG games. Has religion made a major impact on your design? Not your own religion necessarily just your knowledge of other religions and such. Jehovah is viewed by Gnostics as fundamentally evil, jealous, rigid, lacking in compassion and prone to genocide. [edited by - Demiurge666 on March 30, 2004 11:00:53 PM]

Well, the combination of me being an atheist and my research into various mythologies has certainly affected the mythological aspects of my game designs. For example, I don''t design things including demons, angels, ghosts, undead, or gods of any kind. I might use an imaginary friend or other delusion generated by the main character''s mind instead, like in the movie _A Beautiful Mind_. When I designed a race of vampires they were simply an alien species that could get some biological benefit by drinking blood, and similarly my dragons are lizard-like aliens. Although perhaps the latter two examples are more the result of me preferring the science-fictional mindset to the fantastic one than they re the result of anything having to do with religion.

I also tend to choose heroes who are NOT solar heroes/messiah figures, but again, this might be just my bias against that character archetype''s personality rather than anything to do with religion.

A general understanding of religious stories, especially the ones that pertain to world creation, is a great boon to anyone who is actually undertaking that task. A game writer is building a world, and having a bunch of case studies to refer to (and "borrow" from) is always a good idea.

Also, religions put forth the most coherent metaphysical models of the universe. Anyone can use the idea of the moral dualism that can be read (erroneously) into christianity to build a polarized world with a solid teleological force for good and a constant battle against evil. A pantheon of gods is useful when you want a degree of unpredictability in their divine behavior, and the greeks mastered this sort of this millenia ago.

Also, religions tend to be easier to present to a common audience. Pretty packaging and heart-warming (or bone-chilling) stories that are accessible even to the illiterate members of society make for simple game stories that don''t get in the way of the lasering. I defy you to make an entertaining video game based on a Heideggerian worldview.

quote: Original post by Iron Chef Carnage I defy you to make an entertaining video game based on a Heideggerian worldview.

Does Sanitarium count? That''s a very entertaining game.

quote: Original post by Demiurge666
This question goes out to those who are especially interested in designing action/adventure and RPG games. Has religion made a major impact on your design? Not your own religion necessarily, just your knowledge of other religious and such.

Since I became a Christian, my ideas, stories, characters and such haven''t really changed. I don''t think it''s because I''m not a good Christian or whatever, but because I never wrote much of what I''d consider sacreligious. There are things I''ve chosed to leave out of my designs or whatever, though.

My knowledge of religions has always influenced what I right. To be honest, I only really started to write once I started studying Greek mythology. I always have heavy references, if you will, in my writings. A broad understanding of different mythologies and religions can definitely help any writer.

There are things that bother me in games now, though. For instance, I didn''t like the use of "Helter Skelter" as a name for a weapon in Final Fantasy X. For those of you who don''t know, Helter Skelter was the name of the war said to be the equivilant of every war, one on top of the other. Someone in the movie _Helter Skelter_ said that man will find every inadequacy, every flaw, about himself, and take it out on everyone else. This war was "prophesized" by Charles Manson.

I also didn''t like the use of an inverted star in the Manhunt ad. The symbol just bothers me, to be honest. I don''t know if I''ll let that influence whether or not I play the game, but it''ll probably stay in my mind.

If you''re designing a game that features an imaginery religion that is similiar to a religion found in the real world is your knowledge of that real world religion crucial to your game design? I can picture millions of gamers protesting and thousands suing a game designer for inaccurate information even though the religion found in the game is imaginery.

Jehovah is viewed by Gnostics as fundamentally evil, jealous, rigid, lacking in compassion and prone to genocide.

There will always be someone protesting a game, a movie, or anything else anyone makes for one reason or another. That''s how our society operates, unfortunately.

Game design, in particular? Or all your creativity?

I find that my religion simply sets standards for my work, but that''s really all. I guess there''s some more to it, but it''s very hard to communicate. Only the inside of me knows.

Essentially, I don''t like to show hatred. I don''t like to show evil. I like to show humor, and strategy. I like to make people think, and add their own thoughts to the mix. I guess a lot of this probably comes from my upbringing. I dunno.

BTW: Say ''hello'' to KingJeihova9 and Ninurta for me, ''kay?


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Benjamin Heath
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Definitely.

Although I''m baptized a Holy Roman Catholic, I consider myself something of a syncretist of Eastern Philosophies with a smattering of Gnosticism. Indeed, the more I learn of gnosticism, the more I see that it closely resembles Buddhism. I''m also fond of shintoism from what I know of it. It too shares a belief that mankind was once of divine nature, but somehow he got trapped in the material world.

I like how they each strive to make people think about the nature of reality and suffering. I''d like to get this across in my game.

Indeed, I''ll be making heavy use of some of their ideologies in my transhumanist pre-Singularity game.

I''m not religious, but I can enjoy a good mythology (Greek, Christian, or otherwise) for the stories that they are. And actually I''d love to make a Heaven vs. Hell game, with as much accuracy as possible, even though I don''t believe in the concepts myself.