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News Room Contributor  Posts: 8020 Joined: 12 Nov 2002     | |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2161 Joined: 14 Nov 2007    | Christ, it's not even out yet and it's already a franchise. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 780 Joined: 7 Jun 2008     | Goddammit, people. We're supposed to not look crazy by not getting up in arms about our lack of religion over every damned thing. What is it about videogames that incites people to protest so easily? |
Wordsmith Extraordinaire  Posts: 10317 Joined: 28 Nov 2007    | It's Will Wright, BTW. |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 89 Joined: 29 Nov 2007    |
Because people are insane and it's easy to blame video games for anything. Oi vey, I'm getting a headache. And I'm not even intending to play Spore: it's just not my kind of game. On another note, it's nice to meet another atheist. And a Calvin and Hobbes fan too? Bonus points. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1566 Joined: 5 Dec 2007   | Muahuahuahuahau And here is me thinking that Christians were intollerant :p |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1538 Joined: 6 Apr 2008   | *reads article several more times* *confused* Where are these 'criticisms by militant atheists'? All I really got was that there were some...and that they unfolded in a discussion. Where was this? A forum? Militant Atheists that work at the same company? *sigh* I wanted juice...not dried up steak... |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3252 Joined: 8 May 2008   |
That's most people on this site, really. Who doesn't like Clavin & Hobbes? I named my dogs after them! Anyway, no matter what, no matter how hard you try, people will be offended. That should be a new rule... |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2849 Joined: 8 Jul 2008  | Sooooo the Atheists were getting up in arms, why? |
Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 609 Joined: 12 Aug 2008    | ^^ because many atheists or so it seems find a sick pleasure in thinking they are supirier (spelling?) to us religious or argonistic folks |
Paperboy Posts: 14 Joined: 11 Oct 2004 | There is a category of infantile atheist who is exactly the same as the infantile christian: someone who is SO insecure they *desperately* need to go around "proving" to everyone that their answer is the only right one. I call them the "religion of science crowd" and the science they so desperately cling to as "the only right answer" isn't even modern, its the 19th C. science they get taught in high school where matter is one thing, energy is another, and mass and energy are conserved. I like telling them about vacuum fluctuation and watching their worldview explode. :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy (Btw. I'm an agnostic with a spiritual and philosophical bent. My wife is studying to be a episcopal priest. We both see no contradictions between a modern understanding of science and a modern understanding of religion.) Edit: *episcopal* priest. God what a slip. Anyone else notice the inherent impossibility of the original post? :/ |
Copy Clerk Posts: 89 Joined: 29 Nov 2007 |
Ooh, I like it. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 2161 Joined: 14 Nov 2007 |
Another Calvin & Hobbes fan here. Proof, if ever you needed any, that you can be a mainstream success without selling out. |
Muckraker  Posts: 246 Joined: 11 Aug 2008  |
Haha! But yeah. As an atheist (Admittedly I don't find myself militant although I did storm up quite a rant over that Baltimore parent who let her kid starve to death because he didn't say, "Amen") I do find this game intriguing and think Will Wright should just shut up until this thing is actually out. I also think religion has its artistic merits as do most reasonable atheists. We don't turn our noses up at the Sistine Chapel even when fundamentalists freak out at seeing nudity in artwork...this is what I meant by how I can get into rants. |
Paperboy  Posts: 34 Joined: 7 Sep 2007   |
I would love to be present when you laid that lecture on a christian, bud, cause after reading only the first few sentences of that wiki I felt my eyes crossing in confusion. As for the athiests, who gives a rats ass. I am offended that religion or more precisely FEAR of religion and its crazy followers have affected the production of our precious games. I say them there religious wingnuts should be treated the same as tax collectors and advertising executives. Ignore them. If they become a nuisance, well then shoot them. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 780 Joined: 7 Jun 2008 | Well, no one can really hate Calvin & Hobbes. Beats the hell out of Marmaduke. Anyway, what really steams me is the bunch of god-games that DIDN'T attract this kind of attention. I mean, if I sat down at a computer and typed out a manifesto of arguments against games that had slightly imposed the concept of deity, I'd be here for a year. Black and White, SimLife, Populous, hell, the Sims made a compelling argument for predestination. Albeit one in which your god would, for no apparent reason, sell your pool ladder at unfortunate times. |
Copy Clerk Posts: 110 Joined: 13 May 2008   | Just because Spore has a strong evolution theme, doesn't mean religion has no place. You are creating a society, and societies tend to believe in a higher power(which in their case will be the player. HAH) |
Anonymous Source Posts: 10 Joined: 11 Jul 2008    |
Argonistic? Do you worship Argon? |
Beat Writer  Posts: 145 Joined: 4 Oct 2007  |
there fixed that for ya |
Time Lord  Posts: 9921 Joined: 13 Feb 2008     |
So, a God Game is not criticized by the church but is by atheists? Oh and....Pbbbbbbbrrrrrrtttt to all those who said there weren't militant atheists on the God thread. :) |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 63 Joined: 29 May 2008  | This just proves a point: I was told awhile ago that without religion, everyone would get along, but athiests are just as militant with their religion as christians and muslims |
Copy Clerk Posts: 110 Joined: 13 May 2008 | It just proves that there are extremists in any sector of society. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 907 Joined: 15 Jun 2008    | I am an Atheist and I have been looking forward to Spore. I can't help but get a chuckle out of the creature creator. It's unitelligent design. As I look at my ugly-as-sin bundle of limbs and gristle I think "What kind of God would intentionally make something like this? Oh yeah, me!" lawls |
Paperboy Posts: 14 Joined: 11 Oct 2004 |
Your right, it's fear, but not specifically religious fear. One of the primary forces in congress trying to lay governmental controls on videogames has been Senator Clinton of New York. She's not exactly beloved of the religious right, either. |
Paperboy Posts: 14 Joined: 11 Oct 2004 |
What kind of intelligent god designs a sky-scraper by stacking a suspension bridge on its end?? That, my friends, is the human spine. Nature is highly creative... but in more of a hacker way then an engineering discipline. |
Paperboy Posts: 14 Joined: 11 Oct 2004 |
Touche and +1 |
Paperboy Posts: 14 Joined: 11 Oct 2004 |
There's a great, and very accurate in terms of human nature, South park episode that explores that very fact. Its postulates a world without religion... and three warring camps that insist they know the only *right* way to be an atheist. Clarence Darrow said, "God made man in his image, and man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment." The sad thing is that people claim to believe in something bigger then themselves... but then are unable to actually conceive of anything bigger then themselves. Thus their god becomes simply a mirror of their own very human natures. In the end, the best definition I've ever been able to come up with for religion has nothing to do with divinity at all. Religion is a set of beliefs that the believer has invested emotional capital in. And by that definition atheism can easily be a religion. |
Muckraker Posts: 246 Joined: 11 Aug 2008 |
Eh. It's all checks and balances. Got to raise a little noise when Sects wish to take the theory of evolution out of teaching curriculum despite how it actually belongs in a classroom where as "intelligent design" belongs in a church. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 780 Joined: 7 Jun 2008 |
Good point. We have to have crazies and nutjobs and people on the outer fringe so that, in comparison, people who aren't look sane and straightlaced. Otherwise, no one could ever reach an agreement. We'd all be the outer fringe. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 919 Joined: 22 Jul 2008  | Have animal rights groups already criticized Super Mario Bros. for containing turle abuse? @meone007: Some atheïsts are just as militant with their religion (as far atheïsm can be considered a religion) as some Christians and some Muslims. Among every group of people, wheter it is a religion, a political movement or even the supporters of a certain football/soccer team or fans of a video game console, are a few idiots who abuse, misinterpret or take the original ideas of the group too seriously. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3085 Joined: 13 Jul 2008  | There's one problem I think with religion or the lack thereof. |
Paperboy  Posts: 13 Joined: 13 Aug 2008  | To quote ZP, "is not anti-religion and respects everone's right to believe in whatever claptrap they want" Sums it up good if you ask me... I respect your belief's, if you respect mine... You don't like the religious tones in a game? Don't play it! |
Anonymous Source Posts: 3 Joined: 12 Sep 2007 | This is the biggest pile of horsecrap I've ever read. If you actually look at the source, Eurogamer, you will see this little tidbit: "Eurogamer: You describe yourself as an atheist; take the so-called militant atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who see faith uniformly as a bad, negative and dangerous thing. Do you see it more benignly, even if you don't necessarily believe?" So Dawkings and Hitchens are "militant" now, because they want religion out of public life and back into the private domain, where it belongs? Because they see faith as a "uniformly as a bad, negative and dangerous thing"? Is voicing your opinion now "militant"? Where are the guns? Did they blow themselves up somewhere? Did they call to "overthrow" the government? Did they call for violence? No, they just said what is on their minds. And now they are labeled "militant". Don't worry Christians, I'm sure in a couple of years they will be titled "terrorist", but certainly not because they are "militant", in any sense of the word. I also feel appalled by "the escapist" for this whole article in general. Even the author, Malygris, saw, that there was simply not enough meat to this story, and therefore decided to put other "etc"-information in, to make it look as if there's anything substantial to this news, in regards to the headline. This article here is even longer than the section of which it feeds of at eurogamer, which just says it all right there. If you thought this post was "militant", I suggest you go kill yourself. I heard heaven is a great place, and you wouldn't want to miss brunch with your all-loving creator.... |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3085 Joined: 13 Jul 2008 | you are ignorant and narrow-minded |
Paperboy Posts: 25 Joined: 22 Jul 2008 |
Argon is a Noble God but alas rather inert... Sorry couldn't help myself. Seriously though, what was the specific issue these Militant Atheists (Sic) had? Without knowing what the problem was this is a bit of a non-story isn't it? Gift. |
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Will Wright Says Spore Criticized By "Militant Atheists"
Will Wright says that while the creative team behind Spore took pains to avoid offending religious groups with the game's evolutionary themes, they did receive some unexpected criticism from atheists.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Wright said the development team had a number of members who were "pretty religious," and that while including the concept of religion in the game was important, they wanted to ensure they weren't causing offense to any religious people or groups. Describing himself as an atheist, he said, "I see a lot of benefit and danger in religion like anything. I think our bigger fear was that we didn't want to offend any religious people; but looking at the discussion that unfolded from this thing, what we had was a good sizable group of players that we might call militant atheists, and the rest of the players seemed very tolerant, including all of the religious players."
"And most of the atheists were very tolerant as well," he continued. "I didn't expect to hit hot buttons on the atheist side as much; I expected it on the religious side. But so far I've had no critical feedback at all from anybody who is religious feeling that we were misrepresenting religion or it was bad to represent religion in the game. It was really the atheists!"
Wright also said that unlike The Sims, he's been trying to think of Spore "less as a product and more as a franchise or brand" in relation to future possibilities for the game. "Whereas The Sims we kept expanding vertically, we kept selling expansion packs to the same customers over and over, I think Spore we want to say what other kinds of experiences, activities, formats, media can we bring Spore out. And at that point you have to say, what does the brand mean?" he said.
"And that's where we've been thinking about Spore - as this brand that's the intersection of creativity and science," he continued. "Science is an inherently interesting thing: A lot of the time it's not presented that interestingly. If you look at documentaries on cable television - if you're into that science it's kind of fun to watch. And there's some pretty good science shows for kids, but aren't that many fast-paced, really intelligent, very visual things for adults that feel like entertainment. That's the kind of direction I want Spore to move in."
Will Wright's full interview with Eurogamer can be read here.
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