Wednesday, June 13, 2007

It's the Church Of England's turn to have a go at games.

It's been at least three seconds since the press and other concerned parties with far too much time on their hands have whooped with indignant outrage at so called violent videogames. Enter the Church Of England who are demanding a full apology from Sony for allowing Manchester Cathedral to be used as a site of a violent shootout in Resistance: Fall Of Man. Sony say that they acquired "all permissions necessary" to develop the game.

Church leaders held a meeting on Monday to draft a letter and discuss what additional action to take against Sony.
The letter stipulates four demands:
1. An apology for using the cathedral
2. Withdrawal of the game, or modification of the section of the game to remove the cathedral interior.
3. Sony to make a substantial donation from the games' profits allowing the cathedral's education department to target more effectively those aged 18 to 30
4. Sony to support other groups in Manchester fighting against gun crime.

Games are always a ripe target for moral outrage. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. They even have Blair on board, so they can't lose.

In a reply to the church's misplaced ravings, Sony said: "Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is aware of the concerns expressed by the Bishop of Manchester and the cathedral authorities... and we naturally take the concerns very seriously.
"Resistance: Fall of Man is a fantasy science fiction game and is not based on reality."

There are certain elements of this argument that we can empathise with, but once again the morally outraged have got the wrong end of the stick. Games are an easy target and you can be sure that not one of them have even played or seen the game. That last line from Sony's reply: "...fantasy science fiction...not based on reality.." about sums it up.
You can safely bet that were it a film or book that had featured the same sequence , we wouldn't even be writing this article.

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