Plum Crazy

Right. OK. This is just a video game, and I'm not really going to get all worked up about it. However, this is possibly the stupidest statement I've read all day (the day is young, though!).

"The reality is that our game perpetuates prayer and worship and that there is no killing in the name of God.

"There is killing of course, it is a video game. But the basis of the game is spiritual welfare," said Troy Lyndon, CEO of Left Behind Games Inc.

Hmm. Let's go to the gamemaker's website, and see what they have to say about the game.

Game description

Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!

• Lead the Tribulation Force from the book series , including Rayford, Chloe, Buck and Bruce against Nicolae Carpathia - the AntiChrist.

• Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.

• Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices.

• Command your forces through intense battles across a breathtaking, authentic depiction of New York City .

• Control more than 30 units types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks!

• Enjoy a robust single player experience across dozens of New York City maps in Story Mode - fighting in China Town , SoHo , Uptown and more!

• Play multiplayer games as Tribulation Force or the AntiChrist's Global Community Peacekeepers with up to eight players via LAN or over the internet!

Wow, that second bullet must be a typo, right? Instead of saying "physical and spiritual warfare", it should say "physical and spiritual welfare". Surely, Mr. Lyndon, that must be so, if the basis of the game is spiritual welfare.

BS. You don't "wage a war of apocalyptic proportions" when you're simply trying to teach kids about spiritual welfare. You're "using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat", even (emphasis mine). It's clearly a game about war. War in the name of Christianity. You'd have been way better off saying what the manufacturers of games like "Vice City" have to say about their games - "It's not real." The fact that you're promoting this game as an alternative to games like "Vice City" concerns me far more than the content of the game. You're pretending that this game isn't exactly what it is. That raises the question, "Why?" Who are you trying to fool? Parents into thinking this game is better than other warfare games, or the rest of us into thinking it's not really about warfare in the name of Christianity?

As for the idiotic "There is killing of course, it is a video game," not all video games have violence and killing. Take, for example, this new game - The Shiva. It's a game about a rabbi who solves a murder. It's a puzzle game. There are puzzle games out there. They just don't tend to do as well as the violent games (except for things like Myst, but games of that caliber are few and far between). So, fine. You want a successful video game that will sell to teenagers. Stop packaging it as "spiritual welfare".