Religion in games

[GarageGothic]

After reading up on the gnostic gospels, my game will delve much further into real religious practices than I had originally intended (don't worry, no damn templars, I promise). I'm not a religious person myself, so to me, this might as well be something I had made up for the game, but I think historical facts make games so much richer, like the GK series. And it fits perfectly with the original plot.

What do you guys think of using real world religions in games? The only time I can recall it being done, except in the "here's a cross, it will ward off vampires"-fashion, was in GK3 where it was used (or at least pretended to) in quite controversial ways. Of course there's always Odysseus Kent too, but I suppose humorous games are allowed to poke fun at the clergy.

Did anyone find the religious themes of GK3 offensive? Or were anyone turned off by the central position of religion in the game?

[Las Naranjas]

As Voodoun is a religion, I'd say GK1 dealved in as well.

Insofar that references may be offensive, as long as you don't actively denegrate religious figures in particularily harsh ways, you have nothing to fear from rational religious people.

And even if you do deliberatly set out to denegrate...hey, do what you feel like.

[GarageGothic]

Yes, I suppose you're right that GK1 does count, although its approach was more ethnographical than theological in my opinion - and was much less detailed than GK3, presumably because we are assumed to be familiar with most elements Christianity.

Thinking of it, there were also a couple of religious references in GK2 (The Black Madonna and the shrine at Altötting), but I really didn't like the way you used divine interference to solve a puzzle. On the other hand, it would be fun with a SCUMM-like interface that had a "pray" command

[Barcik]

I've been toying with the idea of creating such a game.

In other words, I think this is a very good idea for a game. You can make something interesting and unusual that way.

[DGMacphee]

Grim Fandango!!

The whole game is based upon a real spiritual belief of the journey of the soul.

I forget though -- was it an Aztec or Mayan belief?

From memory, I'm guessing Aztec -- but I could be wrong.

[Vel]

I think GK3 used turned the Chritianty upside down, and still got it right. I, myself, am an atheist, but I would rather believe in jesus's bloodline than that virgin mary was really a virgin and in the bible.

[Trapezoid]

Exploring religious mythology (I mean that in a good way, mythology is great) in a game can inspire some wonderfully intriguing plots. Christianity has a lot of "material" that works well (think Raiders and Crusade) as do more occult religions, and of course traditional mythology.
Edit: I'd like to add that modern paranormal stuff falls into the same boat. A lot of it is bull, but it's terribly interesting bull. There's a very rich world of information out there regarding both religion and the paranormal, and I'm surprised that more games don't draw from it...

[RickJ]

Perhaps a disclaimer of some sort would be helpful (i.e. "the events, characters, etc are fictional, are loosely inspired by historical fact, mythology,  and ancient/antiquated beliefs and practices.  Any similarities with contemporary groups are coincidental, etc, etc,...").

[GarageGothic]

I agree RickJ, I probably will have a disclaimer, not just because of the religious stuff, but because whenever you mix fact and fiction you need to tell people which is which. I even considered adding footnotes (not sure how to incorporate them within the game, so maybe it'll just be a document on the side) like Alan Moore did in From Hell, to acknowledge my sources and specify which parts are made up.

[Helm]

If you're going to talk about gnostics, hell, about any religion, have the courtesy to not have visible 'conclusions', be them moral or logical hardcoded in your design, about whether they were right or wrong. Leave that up to the player.

[Las Naranjas]

If you included Jesus in the game and then had the above disclaimer, it could be interesting...

[RickJ]

The disclaimer would need to be thoughtful and well considered text.  My little example serves to illustrate the point but is not really suitable for actual use.  The other thing to realize is that no matter what you write, someone, somewhere will pretend to be upset with you, just to further their own goals.  The "Harry Potter" thing is a recent example of how unreasonable people can be.