Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

One thing I find interesting about the controversy surrounding the Left Behind games is the fact that what a lot of people seem the most offended about is a pretty standard trope of video games (and texts of any medium, for that matter) - the struggle between groups established as good and evil. Rockstar notwithstanding, a definitive majority of games puts the player in the position of anti-Evil.

In a video game setting, we feel a lot better squishing Goombas and blowing up aliens than fragging Muslims simply because they won't convert. Even in realistic games (again, Rockstar notwithstanding), there's usually some sort of "acceptable" justification for the blanket of death that the gamer often lays in gamespace (ie, AI is impossibly hostile and not eligible for redemption).

I remember at the last UF conference, there was some discussion of how Warcraft races tend to align light and dark skin color along the lines of good and evil. This is not a new problem, and games like Left Behind simply bring this complication to the surface. Putting real-world names and faces on the notion of Evil in a game that is not meant to be parodic changes everything significantly. The real problem is the irresponsibility of the representations - but in this respect, Left Behind is a bit more honest than most games.