Atheists Pissed About Spore
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 - 9:46am
One article I read made it seem like a specific group of "militant atheists" are calling Spore "indoctrination," but Shacknews is making it seem like it's more than just that... and with Wright's quotes included, I wonder if that's not true.
It's this kind of BS that makes me catch so much sh*t for being an atheist. I thought the newsletter said we're supposed to sit down and be quiet until we reach critical mass.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
For those of us with draconian filters at work (cant see link) can someone give me an idea of what is going on here....
I get this sense that this thread will end up in P&C territory.
Mainly because I have this strong urge to drag it there.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Could you post the "indoctrination" link? I'm curious how a $50 video game could be considered indoctrination in any way.
Xbox Live: StaatsM
In the Civilization stage of the game, you can choose for your species to be a spiritual society (along with militaristic or economic) and now militant atheists have their panties in a wad because god is playing a role in the evolution concept. Jim Sterling has some interesting comments over on Destructoid about it.
I haven't wrapped my mind around the concept of a militant atheist yet, but there you go.
ArrMatey - BM Hunter
Probably in a similar way that a free game is considered indoctrination. See America's Army.
Which is just silly. What a person *believes* and what is the ultimate truth are not always the same. There's no reason not to allow your virtual peoples to have beliefs about you(the player, "god") and your impact on the world. Or lack thereof.
Edit: These things ARE called "god games", after all.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
Did they raise a stink about Black and White or Okami? Seems odd to fault a game based on evolution for creationism when there are games out there that explicitly put the player into the role of a god figure.
I suppose I can't get too riled up, though. They have a right to be pissed. After all, us supersticious god-bothering sheeple get games designed by Wil Wright. They get Golden Compass games.
L337 is not a word. BA7F is a word.
PSN name: DoubtingTom396 Frie-hend meeeee uuuuup!
From what I've heard, yes.
I went back to look for it before posting the thread but couldn't find it. If it turns up again I'll be sure to add it in.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
As a worshiper of the Norse pantheon, I laugh.
*Legion* wrote:
PSN: BoogleGWJ
Atheists are always pissed about something.
"All that time you waste dating and having sex could be better spent scouring the web for new game developer press releases." - Quintin_Stone
Fixed that for you.
It's because we only have ourselves to blame !
"sous les paves, la plage !!"
Eve-Online : Elizabeth Lockley
I see what you did there.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
Meh, any group of people will have idiots making them look bad. Any belief system, including Atheism, will have retarded fundamentalists.
kuddles wrote:
MechaSlinky wrote:They're probably just doing it for attention. They figure, make a big deal out of nothing and they'll get on the news, and some people may even agree with them.
I'm Norse.
Seriously, believing in Norse mythology works perfectly. I don't have to argue my view, because nobody cares about us Norse anymore, everyone is too focused on insulting Christians, punching Atheists, and killing Muslims. Thor always has my back. And I can't technically be proven wrong.
Lets see Jesus protect you from that!
-T.A.s.
All these protests are getting annoying
"WAAHHHHHHHH!!! YOU GOT GOD IN MY EVOLUTION GAME!!!"
"WAHHHHHHHHH!!! YOUR ARMY GAME MAKES KIDS WANT TO BE IN THE ARMY!!!"
"WAHHHHHHHHH!!! THAT PRINCESS IS FAT AND THAT OFFENDS ME!!!"
Agnostics for the win! We by definition, can't strongly believe anything enough to be called militant. Please universe, don't make me eat those words with bizzare links in response to this.
The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!
http://isisless.deviantart.com/
XBOX LIVE: AtomicVideoHead
As long as its something you arent forced to accept in game then I dont really see the issue.
From what others have posted it sounds like you have the choice in the matter.
Yes! And it doesn't even look like its a deep choice either.
The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!
http://isisless.deviantart.com/
XBOX LIVE: AtomicVideoHead
I was going to post something very similar to that but apathy kicked in. Or maybe it was an existentialist realization that it was pointless anyway.
Xbox Live: LiquidmantisGWJ | PSN: LiquidmantisGWJ
Web: Mantis on the Mountain
--
My wife liked the man part monster I made. -Pharacon
Well, YOU GOT EVOLUTION IN MY GOD GAME!!!
Why does this make me think of Reece's Cups?
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
I find it ironic anytime a healthy vaccinated person bitches about science...on the internet. - MaverickDago
I think its probably the former. Whenever an existentialist thought process overcomes me, how contingent I am tot eh universe, and how the universe itself is pointless, well, that doesn't make complacent so much as inspire hooliganry! Beware, news stands, I will draw elephants on you!
Or maybe I kill arabs because the sun told me to. (thats going to be taken out of context by someone)
The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!
http://isisless.deviantart.com/
XBOX LIVE: AtomicVideoHead
Without wearing his protective wrist strap he may inadvertantly let go and damage his television!
Even if you are Thor, safety first!
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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Xfire/Xbox Live: StylezXP
And even if you don't, who f*cking cares? It's a game. If you don't like it, don't buy the game.
Yes. The Internet is groaning under the weight of all these stupid f*cking loudmouthed crybabies. Thanks for nothing, Web 2.0.
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Y'know, I never understood how someone could have damaged their television with their Wiimote. That is, until I saw a cousin try Wii Bowling for the first time. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen...
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
I find it ironic anytime a healthy vaccinated person bitches about science...on the internet. - MaverickDago
If Richard Dawkins or a large atheist group were involved, that would actually be news, but all Wright said was that that some atheists, somewhere, were surprisingly critical of the religious elements of the game. Not exactly a call for jihad. It's not even call for boycott.
The big sites really seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill here, presumably in an effort to troll for page views and comments. They conveniently forgot the first part of his quote:
Everything can be debated, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's debatable.
--Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City
This is a great example of why I hate blogging. I'm looking at five open tabs of everyone commenting on this "news": Shacknews, Destuctoid, Kotaku, etc. and only one of them actually links to the original Eurogamer article. Actually, they link to an article that talks about the interview, which is a separate link.
So what did Will actually say?
So let's see...Eurogamer actually used the description "militant atheist" and Will said that most of the atheists testers were very tolerant.
So instead of finding the source interview and understanding the context, we get multiple articles ranting about "militant atheists" and Jim Sterling going off the deep end and calling all atheists: "overbearing", "pushy", "arseholes", and "utter c*nts". You stay classy, Destructoid.
No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of.
Xfire: Pharacon
Tempest says: "A team hat doe snot communicate and talk to each other about what the next move will be is going to lose."
Mex is my hero = "f*ck it, I'll do it. WE'LL DO IT LIVE."
Yeah, it seems to me that Will was just surprised that atheists had more issues with the game than Christians did, not like he was being barraged with hate mail or boycotted by angry chanting Dawkinites.
Reactionary video games press FTW. Hey, I just heard that Matt Damon hates this game.
I'm like a flashing lightning and a rolling thunder, I'm like a stepping razor
I had suspected that someone was just blowing it out of context like this. As a "militant atheist" I was confused as to what exactly the complaints were with religion being included in Spore. As long as it's not being forced upon the player who the hell cares?
pascal's wager is a fool's bet
Yup, as usual, and from the same sites that constantly whine about how game info is released through carefully formulated PR statements, who fail to see the irony.
I would think the first rule of PR is to ignore forum people, because they vacillate between crazy and liar. - Elysium