what i find rather ironic is that streaming vids can technically act as a form of free marketing. As someone versed in the legal field myself, this is not only legislative overkill from an academic point of view but it's also bad PR. As long as the proper IP right holders are credited there's really no reason to shut these things down. Granted you normally should ask an IP owner for permission before making use of their product for to make something like a video but to give this kind of protection to those IP holders is like giving a missile launcher to a kid just because he's throwing a tantrum over sharing his toy. I'm not an American myself but let me say that if this passes, the U.S. legislature will have shamed itself.
@TheTrueMagusX1 to continue what you were saying about science and religion, let's not forget that einstein's theory of relativity has recently come under the risk of being debunked. The reality is that even the 'laws' of science are under constant risk of evolution and revision. The same concept has applied to theology since time immemorial. If one actually knew the evolution of the Christian faith from a historico-theological perspective(a subject my university called Christian Anthropology back when i studied it), you would see that both Judaism and Christianity evolved over a very long period of time. I won't go too much into the technicalities, but what worries me primarily about people putting too much faith in science (no pun intended there) is that they often forget that science in itself, quite ironically, is not an exact science. if the latter were not the case, then humanity could find itself backed into philosophical corners where once something is decided it becomes immutable. This obviously wouldn't work as it means that we could never correct inaccuracies. Christianity, sadly, has been learning this lesson quite bitterly over the last century. Quite ironically, I think science needs to get with the times lol
i think that saying that Christian extremists are the problem would only be telling half the story. while i acknowledge that Christian extremism is not healthy, I also think there is such a thing as secular or anti-religious extremism. what bothers me is that the latter, especially in the gaming world, are aggressive in their approach and would actually stifle the artistic field of video game creativity simply because there's a spiritual element to the narratives. i call on any such people to extend the same respect they expect others to give them over their lack of beliefs to those that do believe in something. otherwise this entire thread can easily become a flame war which i'm sure wasn't the intention of the author.
As a devout Catholic I endorse a lot of the points made in this article. What I would personally love to see is Christian game designers take new leaps by giving narratives of a positive and enriching nature without throwing aside a little poetic license. If one looks at other artistic media like C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia or J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, it's clear that written literature made this step almost a century ago. My point is that it would be nice for these 'Christian Games' instead of Bible bashing in an oft times cheap and tacky way (yes Super 3D Noah's Ark I mean you), artists and designers could take a more poetic approach to giving concrete Christian narratives. Being a fan of many RPG's like Final Fantasy, Warcraft and even Diablo (let's face it, we all know Jesus was the only one who could pull it off, but the thought of being the one to drive the blade right into evil's heart is a fun thing to imagine), it would be nice to have stories which are overtly Christian in influence without being overly burdened by the ongoing reality-philia we Christians tend to have that magic=bad etc. Going back to the two series of books I mentioned above, I can say that those books were a great facilitator of my spiritual development as well as just being fun to read. I'm just saying that as a gamer, it would outright rock to have be able to get the same result while playing a video game. I could go on about this for pages but I'll stop here :D
nice to know that the mentality involving understaffed groups working insane amounts of hours to meet unrealistic deadlines isn't only a problem where I live. We always complain about unemployment yet if there are trained people who are not being scooped up by companies to create these kinds of conditions (and i'm not just referring to the video games industry), then you just end up with an economy crippled by excessive social benefits and broken people that actually have to finance them through taxes. If the industry employed more people to meet those deadlines, I have no doubt that the excellent work it would yield would more than make up for the profit decrease brought about by employing more people.
though i'm not crazy about the exclusive nature of nintendo products, i have to admit that they always come out with cool and innovative things every year. They may not flaunt the best of hardware but they've moved gaming in directions nobody ever even thought about at the beginning. If they managed to create something your grandma can pick up and play, i'm very much looking forward to any new innovations they might have :)
paxis85's comments