Oh, this would be awesome! I would LOVE to see a game that actually does something daring! As long as you didn't blast stereotypes in people's faces, I think that most of the gaming population (a group that is very accepting of different ethnicities/religions/whatever) wouldn't be offended. I'm not religious, but as long as you didn't label Muslims "Terrorists" or Christians "Saints", or vice-versa, it would be very cool.

I think that maybe instead, however, you would want to (assuming you are making the game's religions based on human factors) make different aspect of a religion, like how zealous its members are expected to be, what their core ideals are (although in most religions today they follow quite similar core ethics), what kind/how many gods are in the religion, etc, rather than basing it directly off a modern-day religion. Especially 4000 years in the future.

Anyways, religion is a force that has probably had more control over the human mind han anything else for thousands of years - introducing it into games would be dangerous, but, if handled correctly, beautiful!

My two cents.

one other thing! I think that it might be best to focus, paradoxically, on the human side of gods. For instance, on how religions, regardless of their validity (which might be total in the game you make, I'm making no assumptions), affect peoples lives and actions, and how much control they have over peoples lives. Also, you might want to think of how aliens worship, and what they worship. I read a short story by Orson Scott Card that talked about a race of immortal aliens who worshipped humanity because we died, and the fact that we die makes us create beauty to outlast us, and that is what they worshipped. They had on beauty like ours. I thought that was really cool and out-of-the-box, so if you are going to design religions of the future, do it with creativity!!

Quote:

Original post by silverphyre673 one other thing! I think that it might be best to focus, paradoxically, on the human side of gods. For instance, on how religions, regardless of their validity (which might be total in the game you make, I'm making no assumptions), affect peoples lives and actions, and how much control they have over peoples lives. Also, you might want to think of how aliens worship, and what they worship.

Thanks, great suggestions. Very divergent cultures (aliens especially) provide a great lense for viewing our own beliefs. Another culture might view Christianity as the worship of a ancient, powerful man who was nailed to a tree; they might pose thought provoking questions, as well, that make for interesting story. Dan Simmons really did this well with the Hyperion books.