What video games do you find evil?

They look so bad.

Definitely GTA.

I played an early version many moons ago (Vice City, not least because it reminds me of Miami vice, the music is from when I was a teen, and just the fun of jumping things on bikes etc).

I tried playing the later versions and they make me feel physically ill (yes, literally) just from the inner-city gang feel alone...and that's before we get to the prostitutes etc. Vile vile game.

There's very few I truly find evil tbh. I try to separate fiction from reality. However, one that comes to mind is GTA. I have a friend who loves it, but I take serious issue with some of the themes in it: beating up prostitutes is one.

Nithavela said:

The plot of the game is that of a false religion that offers false hope. In the end of the game, that false church is defeated and Sin (a giant monster) is defeated for good through a combination of self-sacrifice, willpower and throwing beach balls at it.

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I'd say that's a message that can be interpreted as fairly Christian actually.

MariaJLM said:

I'd say that's a message that can be interpreted as fairly Christian actually.

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Eh, it's pretty steeped in Buddhism and Shinto. After all, it's from Japan.

For example, look at this scene from the game. In this scene, the main character (the summoner Yuna, who is going on a pilgrimage to destroy sin, willing to sacrifice her life but abandoning the self-sacrifice once she finds out it would be in vain) is calming the souls of a village that was obliterated by Sin. (In this world, souls that aren't calmed and sent to the afterlife grow envious of the living and turn into monsters)

Sounds like the typical JRPG plot. Gotta kill God and destroy that world's equivalent of the Christian Church with the power of my friends. Usually the church in these games look Catholic for some reason and I gotta think there's simply an established rule on this point in the JRPG industry because I see this tired theme again and again in the majority of JRPGs, even when the theme doesn't need to be there (Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5).

I don't know if I would call that evil though, more misguided than anything. The Japanese developers seems to over-emphasise the evils of a type religion they have never experienced and that their ancestors violently persecuted all the while ignoring their own history and the vicious atrocities Shinto Japan committed during WW2. I suppose a game where the enemies are a Shinto priesthood class, the Shinto gods and Emperor wouldn't do so well in Japan so it makes sense why they target a remote religion with little influence or presence in Japan for criticism.

I wouldn't say I've played a game that was outright evil. Even the games with the worst messages or themes in them I would simply consider bad or poor, not evil in of themselves.

Ignatius the Kiwi said:

Sounds like the typical JRPG plot. Gotta kill God and destroy that world's equivalent of the Christian Church with the power of my friends. Usually the church in these games look Catholic for some reason and I gotta think there's simply an established rule on this point in the JRPG industry because I see this tired theme again and again in the majority of JRPGs, even when the theme doesn't need to be there (Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5).

I don't know if I would call that evil though, more misguided than anything. The Japanese developers seems to over-emphasise the evils of a type religion they have never experienced and that their ancestors violently persecuted all the while ignoring their own history and the vicious atrocities Shinto Japan committed during WW2. I suppose a game where the enemies are a Shinto priesthood class, the Shinto gods and Emperor wouldn't do so well in Japan so it makes sense why they target a remote religion with little influence or presence in Japan for criticism.

I wouldn't say I've played a game that was outright evil. Even the games with the worst messages or themes in them I would simply consider bad or poor, not evil in of themselves.

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There's actually historical reasons for that. Japan has a very weird relationship with the Catholic church. It dates back to when the Portuguese sent Jesuit missionaries there. The Christians at the time were heavily repressed and stuff because the Japanese leaders simply did not want any foreign influence in their country. I suppose they saw the Catholic church as a threat or something because they tried to undermine the authorities, despite Christianity technically being banned. I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable in Japanese history could expand on it.

On a more ironic note, despite Japan's weird relationship with the Catholic church Christianity is becoming more popular there. Through the Orthodox church, among other things. Japan actually has the largest Orthodox Christian community in East Asia, all thanks to missionary efforts by Russians in the 1800's and beyond.

MariaJLM said:

There's actually historical reasons for that. Japan has a very weird relationship with the Catholic church. It dates back to when the Portuguese sent Jesuit missionaries there. The Christians at the time were heavily repressed and stuff because the Japanese leaders simply did not want any foreign influence in their country. I suppose they saw the Catholic church as a threat or something because they tried to undermine the authorities, despite Christianity technically being banned. I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable in Japanese history could expand on it.

On a more ironic note, despite Japan's weird relationship with the Catholic church Christianity is becoming more popular there. Through the Orthodox church, among other things. Japan actually has the largest Orthodox Christian community in East Asia, all thanks to missionary efforts by Russians in the 1800's and beyond.

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The thing I notice is that JRPGS often emphasize an apparent slavery to religion and need to be free of it and make one's own decisions. To this extent those games that take on the 'Kill God theme" depict God as false and a tyrant. This is absurdly ironic given Japanese history of persecuting Christians after contact with the west and what the Japanese themselves did during the early 20th century with their fanatical devotion to the Emperor and way of Bushido. Yet they never really depict those analogues to themselves in such a light in these games or their media.

I would take their critiques more seriously if I believed they had any genuine understanding of the type of religion they seem to despise.

Ignatius the Kiwi said:

The thing I notice is that JRPGS often emphasize an apparent slavery to religion and need to be free of it and make one's own decisions. To this extent those games that take on the 'Kill God theme" depict God as false and a tyrant. This is absurdly ironic given Japanese history of persecuting Christians after contact with the west and what the Japanese themselves did during the early 20th century with their fanatical devotion to the Emperor and way of Bushido. Yet they never really depict those analogues to themselves in such a light in these games or their media.

I would take their critiques more seriously if I believed they had any genuine understanding of the type of religion they seem to despise.

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I think it stems from both a misunderstanding of what Christianity actually is and the historical context I already explained. The Japanese are still fairly religious, just not in the Western sense. The majority of the country is Buddhist and/or Shinto.

MariaJLM said:

I think it stems from both a misunderstanding of what Christianity actually is and the historical context I already explained. The Japanese are still fairly religious, just not in the Western sense. The majority of the country is Buddhist and/or Shinto.

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Most japanese are actually what is called "folk shinto". Which means that they observe religious holidays and hold to some superstitions, but religion doesn't play a major part in their life.

Ignatius the Kiwi said:

Sounds like the typical JRPG plot. Gotta kill God and destroy that world's equivalent of the Christian Church with the power of my friends.

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In FFX, Sin isn't god, sin a more like a demon or the leviathan. The church of this world doesn't pray to Sin, but mostly gives people false hope because they lack a tool to permanently destroy sin and try to prevent society from collapsing.

The destruction of the church also isn't part of the games plot, though the player has to defend himself from some corrupt parts of that church. After Sin is destroyed, the church built around fighting it more or less collapses on its own.

Nithavela said:

In FFX, Sin isn't god, sin a more like a demon or the leviathan. The church of this world doesn't pray to Sin, but mostly gives people false hope because they lack a tool to permanently destroy sin and try to prevent society from collapsing.

The destruction of the church also isn't part of the games plot, though the player has to defend himself from some corrupt parts of that church. After Sin is destroyed, the church built around fighting it more or less collapses on its own.

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Haven't played FFX. I know that the Church in that game is corrupt, which is the case with most JRPGS. I was more speaking about the general trend within the genre.

Well, it makes for good stories. Happens in a lot of western RPGs too, and other fiction.

Nithavela said:

Well, it makes for good stories. Happens in a lot of western RPGs too, and other fiction.

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It definitely does. I have played around with the corrupt religious organization in my own writing a bit. Basically I had an entire post-apocalyptic universe that was controlled by one corrupt religious group that founded after the apocalypse. Of course most of the stuff they taught publicly they kind of went against themselves.

Neostarwcc said:

I play a lot of controversial video games. To me, they're just video games. Probably in the eyes of God they're sin. I don't know.

But I guess if I had to pick a game I'd never play anymore it's gotta be GTA. Any game that supports the killing of cops, sex with prostitutes, gang leadership ...etc is not a game that a Christian should be playing. Or a game that I should be playing. But.. It's so fun!

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I for one am all for blowing up starships, monsters, aliens, demons, but I never play sports games (not because they are evil, just not my bit) or games where it is really human on human. Grand Theft Autos, Hitman, Leisure Suit Larry, etc. I am not for killing other humans in that form. Also, I am not into wanting to play a game where I make my character have sex if that is not happening to me in real life, nor do things as in The Warriors or Rockstar's Bully. I just do not play those. Never have.

Now, I like horror survival games if I get my hands on one I want to try. I just completed Jericho. Swears, lesbians, and burping demons, oh my. But the factor of it bothering me was not so much as I am shooting demons and listening to 80s music on my radio. The ending was not great, but I know they left it like that for the squeal that just did not happen.

Anyway, years ago doing my batchlor's studies for a degree in video game design (which has done me no good), I did several reports on video games and violence. Politicians love pointing out how video games cause problems, but so can books and movies and long lines at Starbucks. You feed your soul with what you take in, in any media form regardless. But can not always blame media since it is the person's soul, mental sanity, etc that "play" a major factor. One report I wrote was about a mother whose son always played games in his room. She never thought of video games being bad so never questioned him. However, he was playing Hitman a lot. One night he did exactly what he did in the the Hitman game: he went out and stabbed a nurse to death 80 times. Another report I did was a guy playing GTA. Went into a police station, shot and killed some cop peoples, stole a police car on a wild car case. He then did the same exact thing in real life. He was in his 20s.

I do not support those types of games and would never want my own offspring to play them as well. The younger the mind, the more undeveloped it is. Not until a human brain is at least 25 years of age, has it matured, but still, the soul could take in sometime and life shall imitate art.

Some games it is okay to play the bad guy depending on the game that is. Like being a Deception!

Bioshock Infinite. I never finished it

Just the same as with music and any other form of entertainment, I am not into video games that are full of blood and gore and any other thing that is against Biblical principles. Of course, I would not be considered a real gamer anyway, as I love to play games occasionally to relax a bit and such.

Myself, when I do play video games, I'm more into the stuff that a tried-and-true gamer would find corny. Also, as an '80s kid, I believe there is nothing like the old-school goodness of Atari - and the feeling of playing such games with a "joystick". Kids today just don't understand.

GTA
DOA
mortal kombat
the witcher

any game that has overtly violent or sexual themes I stay away from.