On Faith Fighter Removal
By now it’s hardly newsworthy to state that the flash game Faith Fighter by political game developers Molleindustria has been removed from their site, citing a failure to communicate the sarcasm of the game.
Now I might well be wrong here, since the point they make in the update closing statement is valid and the new game they put up to replace it treats every religion in a slightly more equal manner, but the whole thing reeks to me of something that is at best a gross oversight and at worst a malicious (though rather clever) ruse to push a hateful agenda even further.
I do not think that it came as a surprise to anyone that people should complain about this game, and given the inspiration I don’t think that Molleindustria did either – even if that was the case, considering the games they have not taken down I do not think they would take this one down because of the complaints mentioned. I propose that they knew taking down the game would cause their players (and perhaps a large part of the gamer/freedom-of-speech communities) to loathe the religious communities involved, and that this is exactly what they wanted to achieve.
Religion aside, setting someone up to condemn you just to make them look bad is in my opinion not only dishonest but also damaging to the public opinion about serious games. I hope I am wrong, and that this does not get any bigger than it already is.