Just wondering what christians and other monotheists out there think of the superb Black & White game (www.bwgame.com). As an atheist, I have of course no problems with it, but I was curious to know how monotheists reacted to a “god” game… What do you think of it? Would your god approve? How could this affect people’s (and particularly young men and women) view of religion? Will this lead to more or less believers in an higher power? Would an anti-religion government (communist chinese government) disapprove of such a game?
As a monotheist, my reaction is a bored, “So what?” Not the first time I’ve ever seen a computer game, or any game, for that matter, with “Gods” and “Angels” instead of “Duke Nukem” and “Pig Cops”, or “Freddie Fish” and “Evil Octopi”. Big deal.
Kids. They think they invented everything. :rolleyes:
Given that there hasn’t been a massive uproar about previous god-games (never saw a coalition of conservative Christians decrying Populous, after all- or even LucasArts’ Afterlife) I tend to think that the people who would protest are busy frying bigger fish.
I’m a Christian. I don’t give a damn. It sounds like a fun game. If I play it, I’m not actually trying to be THE God…I’m just playing a game. Anyone who does care is getting too uptight, IMO.
Jman
I like it because there’s nothing more satisfying than eating an evil dude with a giant cow. Then I accidentally set my poor beast on fire…
I’m soo going to hell. 
Just a reminder, everyone: “What do you think” questions are opinions, and do not belong in General Questions, which is for facts. Ordinarily, such threads go in our “In My Humble Opinion” forum, but seeing as this thread is on a religious matter, I’m putting it in Great Debates, instead.
Heretic!
'tis the very opposite, as is revealed here
I was teaching my ape to catch fireballs when B&W stopped working. Just a warning, there are rampant bugs. The more your creature learns the more bugs appear. After a week or two, bam your system registery is corrupted back up is corrupted and B&W no longer plays.
You know I always wondered why I heard death every 2 seconds while playing and all my towns die out:) As a christan I have moral objections to a half-finished buggy game.
As an agnostic, I was more offended that the game was dull. Neat idea, but after two, three hours, I wasn’t terribly compelled to go any further. Seemed mostly to be sitting around, waiting to build up enough prayer points to cast another miracle so some random town would come a little closer to worshipping you. Plus, my worshippers kept starving to death. Maybe if they do some major patchwork, I’ll go back to it.
Only the most painfully anal would regard a game - any game - as a “tool of the devil”.
Why?
IT’S A FRIGGIN’ GAME!
Tell that to Ashcroft 
And on a related note, “IT’S A FRIGGIN’ MOVIE!” certainly doesn’t stop religious groups from slamming the latest releases in the theater for being un-(insert faith here)an. Like these people
That said, I imagine Black & White could make such people restless if they thought about it, since the whole game is saying, in essence, that good and evil are both equally valid approaches to life – “brainwashing children into discarding morality, concerned only with the possible consequences of their actions” etc etc.
But having said that, it’s not near sensational enough to get anyone’s attention. Nevermind that there’s a host of truly horrid things you can do (the game rewards you heavily for live sacrifices of children, for instance ) it’s not graphic or visceral enough to get the prude brigade out in force like the latest Awful Violent Game Of The Month is.
Any piece of software that starts trying to contact someone over the net without my knowledge or permission is definately a tool of Satan. S
Regards.
Testy.
I love the game, it does have it’s flaws, and it can be boring if you are expecting instant gratification or steady progress towards fixed goals, but if you approach it more as a toy than a game it’s a lot of fun. I started out with an ape and I tried to be an Old Testament kind of god. My beast and I rapidly turned evil (this is reflected in the game in a number of ways, from your beast turning dark and growing horns to your temple getting all dark and spikey looking) because the game does not take the allegiance of a mortal into consideration when determining the value of it’s life. I was fairly good to my own people, except when they started to lose faith in me, but I was vicious towards other tribes. I started over and this time I have been managing to remain pretty good (though I accidentally do evil things sometimes) and my creature (a leopard) was glowing and looking very noble. I left him alone while I micromanaged my villages and his alignment dropped from +0.62 to +0.19 (it ranges from -1 (pure evil) to +1 (pure good), apparently because he was occasionally stealing livestock from herders.
Better yet, tell that to Leiberman. He’s the one who has been leading the “crusade” against “violent” movies and video/computer games.