A blogger’s opinion on Church of England’s charges against Sony

Back when video games were still starting out, controversies would revolve around cowboys saving a native American girl or female protagonists with big packages raiding tombs. Mothers who found their kids ripping guts out and eating eyeballs shouted their concerns. ESRB was formed to tag games with warnings and moderate sales to certain age brackets, but the noise never winded down.

Recently, lawyers bashing violence in video games have been the trend. Thanks to some ace-attorney all gamers know, law suits became common against companies like Rockstar. Today, another institution is rising up against a branch of the video gaming industry.

As most of us know, the Church of England is not happy about an English church being depicted in Sony‘s Resistance: Fall of Man. Instead of simply requesting the game to be pulled out like what Jack Thompson does, the church officials also ask for substantial donations and for Sony to support anti-gun crime groups.

More on this after the jump!

Back when video games were still starting out, controversies would revolve around cowboys saving a native American girl or female protagonists with big packages raiding tombs. Mothers who found their kids ripping guts out and eating eyeballs shouted their concerns. ESRB was formed to tag games with warnings and moderate sales to certain age brackets, but the noise never winded down.

Recently, lawyers bashing violence in video games have been the trend. Thanks to some ace-attorney all gamers know, law suits became common against companies like Rockstar. Today, another institution is rising up against a branch of the video gaming industry.

As most of us know, the Church of England is not happy about an English church being depicted in Sony‘s Resistance: Fall of Man. Instead of simply requesting the game to be pulled out like what Jack Thompson does, the church officials also ask for substantial donations and for Sony to support anti-gun crime groups.

To be fair, religious controversies with video games have a long-running history. In earlier times, games viewing religion in a negative context got censored often. A certain Xbox game, Kakuto Chojin, was taken out of the circulation for offending many Muslims. Nowadays, we get more games with religious references like the Xenosaga and Shin Megami Tensei series.

For some odd reason, the Church of England haven’t taken serious legal actions against games that allow God to be killed, or befriend Lucifer. Instead, Resistance: Fall of Man is taking the heat for having a cathedral backdrop on a game with a fictional setting and storyline.

We do understand the concerns, making a holy establishment as a hunting place for the Chimera and therefore a vehicle for violence-filled entertainment may be putting them in a bad light. But first and foremost, the game is rated M for a reason. It’s supposed to be in the hands of people in the right age and state of mind.

With the call for pulling the game off the shelves or changing the cathedral area, why should they also ask “donation” from the money the game produced? It’s such an irony, that the bread earned from an “evil” game be given to the holy church.

Did they seriously come up with such a request while taking into consideration the backlash from gamers and faithful followers alike? Donations are supposed to be voluntary, offered to help the church serve better. Does the Church of England want the donations because Sony never paid commercial fees to include the place in the game? Doesn’t that defeat the idea that they don’t want the cathedral to be a battleground in-game at all?

On the legal side, Sony may have a huge advantage. It’s not very likely to see R:FoM taken down for having a fictional church. In all other forms of media, the church gets defiled. There is no reason for a video game to be any special, since it’s even marked unsuitable for younger audiences. Books are available to all, while restricted movies can be viewed at home any time.

Church of England officials may have their reasons, but their requests don’t seem too good. Let’s just hope this problem gets resolved without both sides making each other look bad to the public.