Month: October 2019

Religion plays an extremely large role in the lives of most people in the world. They are very devout in there beliefs or they may not even follow it that closely but to most it is a large part of their individuality. Although, there are a big amount of individuals that do not follow religion to closely called Atheists. They still are surrounded by religion on a day to day basis meaning that they are still heavily influenced by it. The many different types of religions are present in most of today’s increasingly modern world whether it be on electronic billboard ads on the side of the road or just a religious affiliated group posting on a forum. This has also taken a big step into the video game community with religion playing a large role in some games. In games like Far Cry 5, religion is the entire focus of the game. There is a cult leader named Joseph Seed and he puts a lot of his faith in his religion so in turn so do his followers. Although, the game is technically a first person shooter. The heavy dependency on faith is a big part as to why it so popular around the world.

The only other issue that can occur with such a extreme use of faith and religion in a video game is how they producers and developers chose to portray the religion and whether it fits the actual ideology of the faith. For example, there is a game about a cartoon “sack person” character and he goes on different missions doing random tasks to win the game. The game is obviously a cartoon-like puzzle game that has no obvious religious affiliations but the game chose to include audio from the Islamic holy book called the Quran. It was forced to crop out that audio because most countries didn’t want anyone to be offended but it is extremely controversial for a game made for seven and up children to be promoting a religion. Games also chose to make up their own religions as a way of streamlining the plot. In Fallout 4, there is an extremely radical group called the Children of the Atom who’s sole purpose is to gather around a not detonated nuclear bomb and pray to it as if it is their god. They also cause a bit of chaos for the main protagonist. Religion is in so many different games and has so many different effects to the plot of it.

Picture Sources:

Far Cry 5

Fallout 3

Bias due to cultural differences is very prevalent in the video game community. Countries ban games for having a rude message added on a wall in a side mission. It is not hard for a country to end partnerships with companies over disagreeing political views. Many games currently have a message before the initial start up of the game that states that there is no political, cultural, and social bias in regards to the game and usually that is enough for countries to not mess with the release of the game but lately it is becoming a hazard for companies. Different countries are taking a stance on whether the message actually counts as a good standard for promoting a safe gaming community. A good example of this would be the gaming franchise, Assassins Creed, on their very first game they released they put up the disclaimer that set a known standard for the game even thought it had the set rating of M for mature for the United States’s ESRB rating standard. ESRB stands for Entertainment Software Rating Board and as the primary rating system for video games in the United States there is a bit of a harsher time getting approved games in other countries with that rating.

A good solution for this would be to have a universal rating system that could be beneficial for the video game manufacturers and the different countries because than most games would be able to be approved at a faster rate and we could have a better control on more obscene video game content and have a globally recognized way of promoting games and hopefully stop the excessive banning of games that are deemed by countries to be offensive or inappropriate to be released in their respective countries. Also having a set standard for rating video games would allow minor glitches to be caught at an much more efficient way due to the fact that there will be a greater audience playing the game at one time so it will allow for more people to have a chance to catch things that may be less obvious to a certain server. It will also boost overall revenue for the countries the games are being played in as well as the manufacturers and game producers. A universal standard gaming rating system would be beneficial for everybody involved in the gaming community. It will also address censorship issues in more controversial countries and hopefully bring out a greater dialogue about the community.

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Assassins Creed Disclaimer Message

As sexuality becomes less stigmatized in the more developed technological age, how does it affect such a major platform like video games. In the United States, gay marriage was legalized in June of 2015. I remember sitting in my mom’s room playing games on my iPod touch when I looked over to the television where my mom was watching the news and  the words “GAY MARRIAGE LEGALIZED” were sprawled out on an extremely large flashing rainbow. My first thought was how I was glad this finally happened. Being a terribly uneducated kid on the topic of the LGBT community, I did not realized how big of a deal this actually was, like it was such a big step in regards to equality. I grew up in a not so religious Islamic household so when people first interacted with me and we would discuss how my religious and ideological views are very different than those that live in primarily Islamic nations, they would be very surprised. When you hear about Muslims hating gays and them wanting to stone them its mostly the more radical views of the Quran. I never understood why people would first come to associate hatred with something they know next to nothing about.

Many of the more radical Islamic practices lived in countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These countries have strict laws against homosexuality and anything basically gay. Video games are just a fictional method of interacting with a virtual story line so to ban an entire game due to a minor inconvenience is incredibly stupid in my point of views. The game, Mass Effect 2 and 3, it is an action role-playing game that consists of a space alien struggle throughout the game. The game was banned in the UAE because the player has the opportunity of having a homosexual story line added in a quest. One singular part of a series of games impacted the UAE government so hard that they were inclined to cancel the release of it in their country. A Japanese game called Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni, is a very graphic and sexual game regarding two women who have been infected by a virus. These two women are engaged in a relationship and as a result the ban was set in Saudi Arabia to ban this game. Although, the content of the game is very graphic and sexual. The primary reason the game was banned was do to the strong homosexual theme throughout the entirety of the game.