A friend of mine recently posted a link to this website on my facebook wall, and I figured I'd pass along the favors to the readership here. Check out "The Cross and the Controller" website here:
http://www.thecrossandthecontroller.com/tcatccom/Default.aspx
Also, a certain Colin Malcolm contacted me on facebook recently requesting that I ask around for Catholics who are involved in or interested in game development. While I find it hard to believe that Catholics AREN'T involved in this industry, I do think Colin presents an interesting question. How does a Catholic integrate game development into their Catholic faith? I'd love to hear from an actual game developer about this.
On a final note, Merry 4th day of Christmas!
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6 comments:
yo, from what I hear that site is DOPE (and orthodox adhering to the expression of catholic faith laid down in the first seven ecumenical councils). Ill yo!
Edited*
It's alarming that Catholics (that have the talent, education, sense of responsibility for their work, and the moral backbone to do it right instead of selling out) have sat on the sidelines of all of the media-types for so long as they have. The attempts I've seen consist largely in 1) overly rosy fantasizing about what they want the world to be like, 2) a Catholic joining the enemy's side inadvertently by trying to do what the non-Catholics are doing in their craft... which is kind of like trying to fix a problem by blatantly proposing to make it worse... or 3) a well intentioned Catholic with little or no talent but oodles of gusto, poised to take on the world... without first considering whether or not they can or should, or what the consequences will be to other souls if they try, just because they want to... Kind of like a man with a 2nd grade education trying to rush into the ER and proposing to do heart surgery, on the grounds that there's a need for it. Only the folks who work in the entertainment industry operate on minds, hearts and souls (not merely bodies)... without much understanding or caring what happens to them, or if they personally should be wielding the scalpel at all.
It'd be very, very refreshing to see some people with talent stand up and take a stab at fighting back, quite unapologetically, so long as they belong doing it. Our divine Model thought it not too much to face the scorn of arrest, crucifixion and death, without mincing words when it came to the truth. (Of course, it's worth noting that Our Lord was SENT to do what He did. Most people who actually try to combat the foul rot in the entertainment industry are (unfortunately) too often self appointed heroes who, though nobly well meaning, typically end up just reinforcing the image the world has of Catholics as either rank hypocrites (doing as the enemy does, but with a twist! ... to no avail, since you can't do good by imitating evil) or as being people who are utterly out of touch with reality (like those people who like to dream on paper without bothering about the real paradise that could be built on earth if men wanted it... the kingdom of Christ... what it really is and how really to go about building it.)
Who should do something about it is a complicated question. Partly, it's one of vocation (the gifts God actually did give us, versus those we like to think we have or wish we did), partly one of education (helps to have the education in the truth you hope to reveal), and partly one of upright moral character... the unwillingness to sell your talents for what you think the modern day audience wants, or the unbridled drive to just do whatever you feel like doing, rather than going for the truth, which is far and away more attractive (and applicable to our real lives) than anything Hollywood could ever crank out for some millions.
We should pray for vocations in the arts: for those real heroes who God will lead to the right and serious education in theology, Catholic morality and ethics, a profound sense and understanding of their responsibility for what they do in their field as it effects the minds hearts and souls of those Our Lord shed His blood to save, and the moral backbone to go out there and do it (right), whether or not they get paid. With people like that, Hollywood, the game industry, and the publishing industry would be like dry grass in a wildfire. Take away any one of those things, however, and you're just helping the enemy in your own, special way. Worse than typical hollywood garbage or subtle but deadly errors, are those that come in works done by Catholics (eg, errors against the Catholic Faith or the truth in general, but believed by the authors of various works, and so spread by them) whether that Catholic knew what they were doing or not.
I'm a catholic who is studying game development at my university. I agree with you, there are barely any Catholics in the industry. What I hope to do is make games based around morals and ethics which I've learned from my faith. Game development is such a powerful tool, and I believe it can be even more powerful than books and film if done so correctly. Currently, the game industry is still primitive, so there's still a long way to go before it reaches its true potential to enlighten the world of the Word of God.
There's not much of a problem at all with the medium (eg, the industry). What might help, though, is people willing to combat the all-out lies, error spouting, and ethics ebbing being carried out and carried on by the mainstream entertainment artists. What about a game, for instance, where you DON'T have to memorize Bible quotes, your character isn't named after one of the Apostles (not that that's necessarily bad, but...), you are not in the crusades, or in a cheap Diablo rip off... but you do see that being moral (or Catholic for that matter) doesn't mean being a weak, frightened wuss, but in fact, quite the opposite... yet without going overboard and doing the stereotypical "good-bad-guy" rubbish, which amounts to hypocritically saying, "but you can't be a manly good guy unless you're really just as evil as everyone else" (which is, in fact, actually being a bad guy)? There is nothing more manly, more strong and more brave than real, hard-core, backbone-of-iron virtue. Period.
The dirty little secret Hollywood and the video game industry will never catch on to: you can kinda make a bad guy look impressive sometimes... but when you see a hard-core virtuous man living, fighting and if needs be dying the way only hard-core virtuous Catholic men can and have, it simply trumps everything else. There is no equal, and there is no contest.
Ultimately you don't get guts by being an aehtist, nor discipline, nor any other virtue. That is why atheism is not artistically impressive. Catholic virtue made one guy who wasn't even Catholic dress down in the middle of winter, declare himself a Christian, and rush out of warm shelter to freeze to death with 39 other Catholics standing on a frozen lake, waiting to die rather than foresake the Faith. Living like a dirty suicidal gutter rat that can't make up it's mind never impressed anyone.
You could illustrate real, hard-core virtue in the entire good-guy cast, in 2nd rate S-NES graphics, and it would be hands down more satisfying for it's content than anything you will ever see in mainstream gaming today.
Something else they'll never catch on to: eye candy can't cover up for rubbish content, any more than blood and guts can cover up for flat-as-paper characters.
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