Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
As the video game industry gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center for the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, a devout group of publishers prays for a direct strike on their elusive target: the eternal souls of game players.
One game, “Left Behind: Eternal Forces,” which debuted Wednesday at the expo, features plenty of biblical smiting, albeit with high-tech weaponry as players battle the forces of the Antichrist in a smoldering post-apocalyptic world.
The creators hope the game packs enough action to appeal to a generation of kids reared on such titles as “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and subtly coax them to consider their own spirituality.
“Eternal Forces” is part of a new wave of religious games coming out at a time when the mainstream industry faces increasing criticism that its products celebrate misogynistic mayhem.
Another publisher is marketing games based on the “Veggie Tales” series of Christian videos for children.
Another is pitching “Bibleman: A Fight for Faith,” about a superhero who stands up for the word of God with his sidekicks Cypher and Biblegirl.
Games “will be a new tool to get the two-minute generation to think about matters of eternal importance in a way that isn’t religious,” said Troy Lyndon, one of the “Left Behind” game’s creators.
Christian-themed games historically have had limited appeal. Developer Digital Praise has sold about 30,000 copies of its most popular product, a Christian title called “Dance Praise.” By contrast, “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” has sold 5.1 million copies worldwide.
“‘Left Behind’ has the Antichrist, the end of the world, the apocalypse,” said co-creator Jeffrey Frichner. “It’s got all the Christian stuff, and it’s still got all the cool stuff.”
That’s why industry watchers predict that titles such as “Eternal Forces” will find a broader audience.
“The reason that I think this game has a chance is that it’s not particularly preachy,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. “I will say some of the dialogue is pretty lame – people saying, ‘Praise the Lord’ after they blow away the bad guys. I think they’re overdoing it a bit. But the message is OK.”
The game is based on the best-selling series of “Left Behind” books, which offer an account of the end times as predicted in the biblical book of Revelation. One of the series’ authors, Tim LaHaye, said the game had the potential to communicate ideas such as salvation to people who might not think of themselves as particularly interested.
“We hope teenagers like the game,” LaHaye said. “Our real goal is to have no one left behind.”
But critics counter that in their rush to make Christian games appealing developers such as Lyndon and Frichner are doing little more than putting a religious veneer on the same violent fare.
“We’re going to push this game at Christian kids to let them know there’s a cool shooter game out there,” said attorney Jack Thompson, an author and outspoken critic of video game violence. “Because of the Christian context, somehow it’s OK? It’s not OK. The context is irrelevant. It’s a mass-killing game.”
The game’s heroes belong to a group of fighters called the Tribulation Force, people whose husbands, wives or children disappeared in the Rapture, the moment when God calls believers to Heaven, leaving the unconverted behind to face seven years of tribulation.
The game is set in New York City, where the Tribulation Force clashes with the Antichrist’s Global Community Peacekeepers in a tale that makes the United Nations a tool for Satan. Each side attempts to recruit lost souls in the battle for the city. “Eternal Forces” is a “real-time strategy game” – players act as battlefield generals for their virtual armies, deciding where to place units and when to order attacks or retreats.
In the game, Tribulation squads unleash the usual arsenal against the Antichrist: guns, tanks, helicopters. But soldiers lose some of their spirituality every time they kill an opponent and must be bolstered through prayer. The failure to nurture good guys causes their spirit points to drop, leaving them vulnerable to recruitment by the other side.
The player’s choices prompt intervention by angelic forces or unleash demons who feast on the faithful. As players progress through the increasingly difficult levels, they see Scripture passages presented as secret scrolls and hear inspirational music.
In multiplayer games, participants can choose to command the Antichrist’s forces.
Religious games make up a tiny piece of the $25 billion global game market. Most are distributed online by publishers or sold in Christian stores, not the big retailers that sell most games. Some analysts estimate that Christian games could rack up $200 million in annual sales within five years.
To generate buzz for “Eternal Forces,” Lyndon and Frichner plan to distribute 1 million sample discs to churches nationwide.
Not suprisingly, Left Behind Games’ attempt to make Christianity accessible to youngsters through the use of lethal firepower has its critics. Thompson, for instance, said he severed ties with the “Left Behind” books’ Christian publisher, Tyndale House, in a dispute over “Eternal Forces.”
“It’s absurd,” the video game critic said. “You can be the Christians blowing away the infidels, and if that doesn’t hit your hot button, you can be the Antichrist blowing away all the Christians.”
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