'Faith Fighters' Developers Launch Sequel to Controversial Game
A team of game developers has put back on its Web site a video game that pits major religious figures such as Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha against one another in head-to-head combat.
On top of that, they have also added a sequel to "Faith Fighters" that "teaches the universal values of tolerance and respect," though most who play the game will find it close to impossible to "give love and respect to all the religious entities on the screen."
"Game over! You didn't respect a religion and now the world is a total mess!" exclaims the text that appears after a player fails in "Faith Fighters 2."
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The unveiling of "Faith Fighters 2" took place just days after Italy-based Molleindustria took down "Faith Fighter" following a complaint from the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).
In an official statement Tuesday, the association of 56 Islamic states called the game "incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims and Christians" and called the hosts of the game to immediately remove it from the web.
An OIC spokesman said "the game would serve no other purpose than to incite intolerance," according to the organization.
Through Molleindustria did take down the game "immediately" as requested, they made clear that they did so as a "symbolic act" and not because they were "bowing to the foundamentalists (sic)."
"[W]e have no sympathy for any religion but we are aware that muslims are victim of widespread racism in the western world," they stated.
Furthermore, the team of the developer wasted little time before putting the game back up along with the new "Faith Fighter 2."
Molleindustria claims that its mission has been to spur serious discussion about the social and political implications of videogames and that its original fighting game "depicted in a mildly politically incorrect way all the major religions as a response to the one-way islamophobic satire of the Danish Mohammad cartoons."
"If a established organization didn't understand the irony and the message of the game and is claiming it is inciting intolerance, we simply failed," they added.
As of Friday evening, OIC has not issued a statement regarding the reposting of the game and the launch of the sequel. Notably, however, the organization was not aware of the original game until they stumbled across it through an article on Metro UK, which Molleindustria accused of having "successfully manufactured this controversy."
By then, the game had already been out for more than a year ago and reportedly been played by millions of players on the internet.
