Religion in Games? And realness.....

[SaiKar]

Religion is an element of a lot of RPGs... but I've noticed that the higher ranking members of the religious organization are almost always EVIL. It's a pretty disturbing trend.

Usually it goes something like this:

* commoners - believe that their God is good, but all the church lore is a bunch of lies or very distorted truths, and have no idea whatsoever what is really going on.

* Church leadership - usually using the Church for some sinister purpose, usually involving either fooling the commoners or ressurecting their God, occasionally both. Always attempt to have the hero's party killed many times.

* the actual God - some mortal that gained awesome powers a long time ago. Usually not actually evil despite what the Chruch is doing, though occasionally has its own malicious intentions.

I can think of four or five RPGs that follow this pattern off the top of my head. Modern RPG script writers always make religion an element of evil. It's kind of sad really and becoming very predictable.

[Drace]

Originally posted by neb87
I just get the sword a chop up the other photogrphy so he dosent keep askin for a pic the whole time

No hablo engrish.

[Prpl_Mage]

Nah my game lore is quite simple.

The God, the creator of time and space... Well s/he created time and space... And then all the other gods.

The god of fire created a fiery ball of lava in the middle of space.

The god of earth fashioned a cover of mountains around the lavaball to prevent anyone from reaching it.

The god of tide poured down water into the mountains and created the seas to cool the heat from the now- molten core.

The god of air created... Well air and the wind to keep the water in movement so it could would not boil and sooth the planet.

The god of ice frooze the entire planet to chill the core down to a reasonable heat and once it melted away it grind the mountain to soil and ground.

The god of nature used this oppertunity and made flora and fauna.

The god of light created (guess what? Oh thats right!) light, the light made things shine and grow.

The god of shadow created shadow, and with it had a battle with the god of light over what the world should be. The creator stept in and said; "Half a day you will each have your wish granted, one part of the day will be bright and the other dark."
And so the days were created and the night and daylight was the signs of the time.

Then the god of lighting created the atmossphere to keep the air circulating better instead of all around space.

And with all that done, the Creator gave life to the animals(thought and awareness), and fashioned the humanoids to live on the earth.
But the gods took two humanoids each and with their promises and power shaped them into the beeing best to represent their god.

Ok...After writing this I realised that maybe it wasn´t that simple...

Well to sum things up; most games-one race each element, other cases-people worshiping different gods, and most of the time- none of the gods are actually evil...Not even the god of shadow.

And Sai, a good example is Grandia II.

[Kinslayer]

Another good example is FF Tactis for PS1. Church is evil in thaqt game. Also in Xenogears, the Ethos is an obvious reference to the Church.

In my game (I hope I'll EVER finish it xD) I thought of making some referencies to religion and filosophies. I love those topics.

[Moosetroop11]

FFX SPOILER


And FFX. You would think that the minimum requirement of the pope was that he wasn't a zombie >.>

[Darkfox]

Another example: Breath of Fire 2

[plightofthepureblood]

Ive never been a fan of how religion is typically portrayed in games.

They always just make a religion, make the leaders either Evil, or Healers. The social effects of the religion are always either
A) Joe average, resents the Church
B)Joe Average is a Zealot
C) Joe average believes, but has no faith.


Religion impacts societies greatly. And if it was more carefully integrated into the Behaviors of the worlds poulous....wars in the name of god, oppression, repression, acceptance, denial, belief codes, mannerisms (aside from 'My godess!') and throw in some atheists, agnostics, new wavers.....

Heathens are found in all of them.
But nobody ever gets into the social elements of when these religions fail.
A look at out own world...reveals that when religions come into downfall, different effects change the world.

In most games, if the church gets brought down, everyone is all "YAY" no more zombie bishops!

But it plays a much more integral part in societies.



Most of the time, the situation is portrayed with a minset similar to the times of the inquisition.

And when used, it always seems to be a major element of focus in the storyline.

Im not sure why this is so. A game world can have a diverse religious element, without the storyline being driven solely by the goings on of the church.

[Krynth]

wow alot of replies that should help me thnx! but yea ive also noticed alot of games always have religions and and it being corrupt or evil in some way then the hero saves them and the old gods are worshipped again or the hero himself becomes god if not already one in the form of a mortal and then is worshipped,

as for its role in my game well depends on the player really, I'm just going to base it on what I know and read up on it more just to add on, but the player has the choice of going to church, im not going to push the player to go in the game........

Oh yea I've never met one but are there fanatics and doom-sayers as of today? I know when the millinium came there was alot of talk but I never actually experienced meeting someone really serious about it...

[aboutasoandthis]

I ended up having a lot of religion in my game. One is based on Christianity/Judaism/Islam, and the other is based on Astrology and the constellation. They are secretly linked.

I sort of agree with Saikar. A lot of religions in games follow that pattern.

Neither religion in my game is entirely "evil." It's more of an eyes of the beholder thing. I don't even have a main villain (Kefka, Sephiroth, Magus in the beginning, etc.). I'm trying to get a story that questions your morals a bit, like in Shadow of the Colossus or something. I might even have more than one final boss.

I think the best religion-related games were FFTactics and Vagrant Story. Sadly in both, the church was pretty evil and the main antagonist wasn't imo.

[Apex]

Originally posted by Razor
Krynth, try not to (ie: don't) quote someone if you're posting directly after them. Ta.

Anyway:  God? In my video games? It's more likely than you think.

His name is Aruseus, and he'll be introduced in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. He is a "creation" species pokemon, and the ingame lore is that he created the whole freaking universe. After it did that, it created time and space. Then, in a Legend of Zelda type twist, it made your basic necessities for human living, but instead of Power, Wisdom and Courage, it was Emotion, Knowledge and Will.

Anyway, in the old days, you might remember how Mew has the DNA of all pokemon in it, well now lines have been drawn to Adam and Eve. You know, because Adam and Eve made are the start of humans, so does Mew create all pokemon. Except for the previously mentioned ones, and those few manmade ones.

In conclusion: pokemon = Japan making everyone a Christian.


Or a Zelda fan.

http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm

Listen to the pokemon in reverse.



As for god in games, this is the perfect example...
http://gameboy.ign.com/objects/855/855299.html

[/smartass]