Critical Series - Faith Fighter
A recent post on WaterCoolerGames.com describes the newest creation by indie dev Molleindustria: Faith Fighter. In their own words:
Faith Fighter is the ultimate fighting game for these dark times. Choose your belief and kick the shit out of your enemies. Give vent to your intolerance! Religious hate has never been so much fun.
More informative than the description, however, is the disclaimer that also appears before the game’s own title screen:
This game is not intended to be offensive towards any religion in particular. Its aim is to push the gamers to reflect on how religions and sacred representations are often instrumentally used to fuel or justify conflicts between nations and people.
The game contains a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. If you feel that such a depiction would be offensive, we ask that you play the censored version of the game in which the character’s face has been removed. Or better yet, don’t play the game at all.
WaterCooler is well known as a portal for indie games with political or social messages—”serious games” if you will, though I contend that the games have none of the connotations of dreary, tedious preaching often associated with socially conscious games. But religious games are rare even for them, no doubt because even basement indie devs are wary of making games that make fun of faith. After seeing Molleindustria’s work on Faith Fighter, however, I am inspired to ask: why aren’t there more games about religion?
This game is so simple, I can critique it in one sentence: it’s a fighting game where the deities or mortal icons of the world’s major religions battle it out in Street Fighter-style arcade action. That’s it. There are six characters, each with their own special attack, and you leap and punch and kick until someone is knocked out. The art is stylized, cartoony, and 2D, and the sound effects are every bit as cheesy as the arcade classics this game emulates. I played a few round as God, and it’s a solid game.
But lets stop ignoring the gigantic elephant in the corner and answer that question: why don’t people make games about religion? I’m sure I don’t need to mention here the importance and impact of faith on people’s lives, from the micro to the macro. And we can see serious games made about an enormous range of social and political issues, including controversy-avalanche generators like Super Columbine Massacre RPG! and Waco Resurrection. Other art forms, most notably film and fine art, have long since gotten comfortable critiquing religious issues—solidifying the reputation of Hollywood as among the most godless patches of Earth in existence, despite the high incidence of devout faith among Hollywood denizens and stars. People acknowledge that part of the role of art is to “hold the mirror up to the world;” to be the place where nothing is sacred (pardon the pun). Games purport to be an art form as well, but developers of art games don’t go here—yet another sign of the medium’s immaturity. Then out comes Faith Fighter. They are, in no uncertain terms, satirizing religion. A game where God is drop-kicking Buddha? You bet your a**.
Molleindustria have taken a very important step with this game. Many developers believe that games have a unique power to teach; that their very nature as a participatory, active medium has tremendous power to increase awareness and induce new habits of thought in the participant. I submit games have another power that only manifests in the realm of serious games: the power of absurdity. Famed author Chuck Palahniuk wrote in his short-story collection Stranger Than Fiction about the film Rosemary’s Baby and its hidden genius. His argument was that the movie had a deeper social message hidden beneath the sci-fi/horror facade: it’s about abortion. No, I’m serious. Rosemary’s Baby is about a woman’s right to choose, a woman’s control over her own body and her own reproductive decisions. The genius of the authors of that story was that it was presented in a sci-fi/horror context, and the absurdity of the premise helped us bypass the taboo. Palahniuk credits this movie with helping the nation get comfortable with thinking about—and eventually talking about—abortion, and years faster than it ever would have happened via politics or social activist groups.
The absurdity makes it easy. The absurdity makes it funny, and approachable, and safe. The absurdity is the source of the power of the medium to send that message, and it’s a power only absurd media can wield. Games are certainly in that category (I’m sure no one will debate me on this). Games can and should leverage this asset—their lowbrow status, their ridiculousness, their childishness—and use it to tell these stories. Faith Fighter does that. Play Faith Fighter and you’ll chuckle at the cartoony Jesus in his diaper throwing punches at a scowling Muhammad, without even knowing how your thoughts are being seeded to think more easily about issues of faith in conflict. A message of tolerance by extreme arcade action: that is Faith Fighter.
I gave it a try and played also as God (versus Buddha) and found it really nice. But the curious thing was that to coworkers of mine saw me playing and their reactions were quite the same. They found it amusing at the same time it did just look wrong.
I think that the problem with serious games like this is the fun factor associated with the games in general. When a movie like Rosemary’s Baby scratches the surface of a taboo like abortion it does it on a “serious” way. People understand that it is a serious medium approaching a serious matter, and that’s ok.
When it comes to approaching a serious subject using a medium that brings fun along with it makes it feel just wrong. People feel guilty for having fun with a taboo/dogma. At least most of the people, because another bunch of people will only have fun, without thinking, and just very few people will have fun and give it a thought.
Interesting observation that I hadn’t thought of.
Although I have seen religious commentary presented in games before. First of all, you have all the Christian games that promote Christian beliefs and values. Those are obviously rather bluntly about religion. However, I’ve seen some games that touch upon religious commentary, although usually with great subtlety (or attempts at it.). Don’t know if they’re hidden in a way that “absurdity” fits right, more so than just general allegory or similar techniques. Allegory has been helping every media since, well, the history of the allegory in helping secretly express controversial issues without making it immediately apparent.
After all, all media is to, as you said, hold up a mirror to who we are as a people. How the different genres manage that requires different degrees of subtlety.
Actually, there is a lot of study in how ALL horror movies communicate the issues and fears of the people at that time. The ’50’s sci-fi/horror films are the most blatant, but other examples are often still very easy to see. I personally love to argue the deeper meaning behind one of my favorite slasher/sci-fi films, Cube - which I argue is an examination of different problem solving paradigms, each character representing a different one. I was actually going to write up something about what Cube can teach about game design at some point. =D
All that said, you’re right that it is strange that the movement of games most concerned with communicating issues through gaming is one that has only barely touched this topic.
Interesting point! Games do have an expectation of fun associated with them, and with good reason. By contrast, Rosemary’s Baby can be a very uncomfortable experience—it was for me, cause I’m a big scaredy-cat :)—and no doubt that unease is integral to the message. Perhaps in the case of games that leverage their nature of absurdity, they can also tap the expectation of fun to foster new perspectives based on a positive association, rather than a negative one. Perhaps if more people had fun playing with deities battling, they would come to associate positively with the symbolism of other religions. Excellent comment!