Faith Fighter No More
Posted by Derek Yu Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:31:00 GMT
Faith Fighter, the controversial browser-based fighting game where you could pit your favorite deities against each other Primal Rage-style, has been pulled from the creator’s website, following a brief statement from the Organization of the Islamic Conference condemning the game as being “incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims and Christians.” Molleindustria, who also developed the game Operation: Pedopriest, explains why they removed the game, citing a failure on their part to communicate the inherent irony of the game, which was created shortly after, and partly as a response to, the uproar over the Danish newspaper cartoons which depicted the face of the prophet Muhammed.
A more detailed write-up can be found here, on the liberal news and opinion blog The Huffington Post. Faith Fighter can still be played on Newgrounds.
TIGdb: Entry for Faith Fighter
Mocking religion is a human right. Not the other way around. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed with Molleindustria.
“We just want to make clear that the game was not intended to contribute to the media-assisted narrative ‘Islamic world vs freedom of speech’.”
This doesn’t make much sense as most people will only interpret this whole incident as “Censor-loving Islamists forced Italian game developer to remove game mocking religion”.
Hell, the Huffington Post article is even called “Islamic Group Forces Site To Remove Satirical Religious Video Game ‘Faith Fighter’”, so I guess mission anticomplished.
I hate it when religious groups who can’t stand to be subjected to ridicule attempt to bully people into silence.
i’m offended BY Muslims and Christains….
lol invisible sky wizards.
Wait you mean the deities in ADOM aren’t real??!
Too bad, it did!
I’m offended by all theistic religions; I request they be removed from the planet.
You know, doesn’t it strike any of you odd that whenever their is some sort of protest about some offensive material about religion (such as the Danish cartoons or the Muhammad Teddy Bear incident), it is pretty much always Islam that is at the forefront? As much as some of you may want to deny it, it pretty much is “Censor-loving Islamists forced Italian game developer to remove game mocking religion”.
Good God… :)
if some kid in middle school drew a picture of you doing a dog and you said “i find this incendiary in its content and offensive” you would so get beat up.
There’s an important piece of information missing from this story that I think probably won’t be immediately obvious to anyone not in the UK. It is an important point all the same, mind.
The Metro is a fucking joke.
It’s published by the same right wing twats who publish The Daily Mail which next to The Express is one of the most hateful rags published in the UK.
I wouldn’t wipe my arse on that sensationalist, scaremongering piece of crap for fear of infection.
The fact that they’ve gone out of their way to tinge a relatively unsensational story with their usual anti-Muslim, anti-Islam, anti-anything that’s not white or god save the queen stand up Christian doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.
That’s what they do. That’s what they are. It’s hateful in every possible way.
Yet people buy it. People believe the drivel and fearmongering crap they peddle. It scares me not just that people believe it but that there’s people that want to believe it.
Anyone got a download link or mirror for the game?
Sounds a bit like Australia then Oddbob.
Hm? I read the Metro article linked to from the Huffington post link in this blog post and didn’t see anything particularly anti-Islam. Are you referring to some other article? I don’t know anything about the Metro and don’t disbelieve that it’s a right-wing paper, but I just didn’t see anything particularly anti-Islam in that article. The only mention of Islam at all was:
“A spokesman for the Federation of Muslim Organisations said: ‘In the current climate, this game can only create fear about religion. ‘Having images depicting Muhammad in this way is also very offensive to our faith.’”
And that was alongside similar quotes from non-Islamic religions saying largely the same thing. It didn’t feel as if Islam were being singled out among all those other religions.
Anyway, I think this is a good game, I remember reviewing it back when it was first released. It’s a fun idea.
It’s all in the way they report things, Paul.
You can’t come out (in a mainstream newspaper at least, and given The Metro is as mainstream as it gets in that it’s given out on trains and on the bus etc…) and say “Look at the evil muslims” because that’ll get you fined and lambasted to high heaven. Not that it’s stopped them coming pretty darn close over the past couple of years.
Seriously, if you’re ever in the UK on a Sunday, try to ignore the newspaper headlines from the majority of papers unless you want to hang your head in shame at humanity. The gutter press is strong.
Anyway, so they can’t come out with something that’s outright hate. That’s against the law. So they do something far more insidious and far more damaging in the long term. They weight the article.
“Muslims are particularly outraged because Islamic tradition prohibits drawings of Allah.”
It’s all in the implication of the text. “Muslims are particularly outraged”. The implication, of course, not being a minority of Muslims. Oh no, all of ‘em. And look, here’s your one line explanation and justification. Funny culture, Muslim innit? Look at how silly and different they are to us civilised folk.
It’s planting little tiny seeds, y’know. Just little factoids, tiny little stories like this. And rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat until you’ve said it enough times that hey, it’s got to be factogeddon.
Throw a Buddhist in so y’know, it doesn’t look like a complete hatchet job and Bob’s yer uncle.
Couple all that with the fact that it was evidently the journalist who went out of his way to bring the game to folks who he knew would get irritated and annoyed by it, and bingo. Hatestory101.
Ah, that’s true about that sentence, I missed that – it’s even an inaccurate sentence. While it is true that in Islam you’re not supposed to portray Allah, Allah wasn’t actually in the game, it was Mohammed. And Muslims don’t believe Allah is Mohammed the way Christians do with Jesus and God.
(One of the comments in that article was a Muslim who liked the idea of the game and found it hilarious, as an aside.)
I guess the Metro doesn’t seem so odd to me since I live in the US, and here pretty much every newspaper is like that, even the NYT says similar things occasionally.
So anyway, what I take out of this blog entry is:
This really was a great idea for a game, and fairly well executed too.
It’s a pity that people were offended by this game enough that the creator felt the need to take it off his site.
It’s a pity that people (including people like comment #8) are painting Muslims as entirely more offended than they actually are (for political or other reasons).
Wow, auto-list formatting! This blog software is interesting.
Check out the sequel, Faith Fighter 2: http://www.molleindustria.org/faith-fighter
Even better then the first one.
Remember, if someone hates you and your way of life, let them.
If you hate them and their way of life, please do everything in your power to appease them.
@Paul in comment 18: I’m not only saying that in response to Islamic organizations attempting to have ‘offensive’ media removed from their eyes, it’s everyone. I did put it in this thread/entry, but that’s my basic retort against any religion-centric censorship requests.
Hell, just today in class someone said that they thought all anti-Christian/satirical media should be burned. (Woot livin’ in the bible-belt!)
“I’m offended by all theistic religious texts, I request they be burned.” (had to adapt it)
I doubt all, or even any kind of extreme majority of, Muslims could possibly be offended by anything, just the same with Christians or Jews or Hindus.
Molleindustria mentioned two catholic priests complained about the game too.
Are Santa and the Easterbunny in the game as well? They should…
Never mind Islam, check out how badly Ganesha is getting pwn3d in that screenshot! TIGSource is going to be shut down by the Hindu inquisition for this! ;-)
What the fucking hell… Seriously, I know it won’t happen in my lifetime, but I can not wait for theologicide…
Raiten said he was a bit disappointed with Molleindustria. I’m fucking infuriated. If you’re gonna make something satirical/funny/mocking, stick to your guns. I’d rather see a group say “Hm, this might be offensive and not accomplish what we intended” and not post/tell their joke rather than this reactionary “pull it due to kvetching” crap.
Granted, I think the Faith Fighter 2 that has been put up is rather funny, and an excellent counterpoint to all this, but the censored prophet is just another win for tight ass Islamics who don’t know their place when it comes to free speech.
My two bits? Islam needs to shut the fuck up. It’s ok to yell at infidels and damn everyone to hell, but heavens to Betsy some joke is made that involves Islam in any way, shape or form. Fucking bullshit all around. Normally, I’d say “religious radicals” but it seems only the radical Islamists get noticed. Mainly because they’re batshit enough to kill people over this bullshit.
Take care and be safe everyone.
So… is it on P2P networks yet?
As of commenting, and in the main post, it’s still up on NewGrounds.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/421199
I think we all need to watch more South Park and learn to grow together! Only through South Park can we break down these social, economic, and racial barriers. It’s time to rise above this nonsense and be more understanding while also being less sensitive. Even the lines and roles between that both males and females play has become misconstrued and warped by society. South Park sets things right and makes us step back and think for a change. This particular court case explains it all very well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHFk_GXRkZk&feature=related
So, Molleindustria basically got stoned to death over the Internets.
At least they’re not being assholes. I think that’s the right decision. The muslim people just don’t have any sense of humour about their religion, so let’s just stop trying to annoy them, with the pretense of “free speech”. Some european right wing fuck countries just discovered they were in looooove with free speech, coincidentally it was on the subject of fucking with the muslim eh?
Step One: Depicting their religion is an insult to a Muslim.
Step Two: Fuck that, do it anyways.
Step Three: THE EVIL MUSLIM IS ANGRY, ZOMG, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, WALLA, WALLA, WALLA
Step One: Calling the pope a pedophile is an insult.
Step Two: Well, let’s better not insult someone.
Step Three: The good christians are calm, zomg, this proves it, they’re superior! lulz!
Why so serious?
Not letting religion rule the world is very offensive towards religion.
Hooray moderate Islam!
another proof that religion leads people to do stupid stuff.
@AmnEn: Operation Pedopriest proves that they aren’t on a side of things. Also i insult christians a lot and they’re not calm at all D:
The only superior ones are pastafarians.
A real shocker that the muslism are the ones who are upset.
Never mind that, the Catholics and Buddhists are just as angry! On last nights news in Thailand I saw a Buddhist monk bite the head off a chicken at a Celine Dion concert and A Catholic Priest was caught kissing a woman in Brisbane… A WOMAN!
What the fuck is the world coming to!?!?
Someone believes in something I don’t think is real, and I’m angry. FUCK!
Who needs to P2P it? They released the Flash source under the GPL, making it legal to pass around by anyone who’s not afraid of a fatwa (or the other religions’ equivalents, lest anyone forget that they all have blood on their hands.) Bravo to them. My username above should be a link to it, and if not, google for faithfighter-fla.zip and you should get it.
You can also find the Windows binary by googling for faithfighter.zip without the fla. As for the Flash version, newgrounds still has it up and you can get the address of the SWF file using Flashblock, Adblock or maybe even just viewing the page source.
“another proof that religion leads people to do stupid stuff.”
I prefer to see it as proof that right wing media will do anything for a cheap shot at a story. YMMV, obv.
@mrfredman - that’s ace. Absolutely perfectly done :)
At least in Faith Fighter 2 they didn’t leave out Scientology – boy that would get them a lawsuit! And the great… Meatballulhu?
If you’re upset an image of your deity is getting beaten/doing the beating, you’re showing that you think your god is small, or you’ve made him small. Christians especially should focus on more eternal things to get passionate about… not obscure fighters.
In response to post 18, let me put it this way. Travel to Saudi Arabia and start carrying around a picture parodying Muhammad and see what happens to you.
I should remind you that Saudi Arabia is a nation where not a single church, synagogue, temple, vihara, or wat is allowed to be built. To preach other faiths is illegal and will get you tossed in prison. Carrying around a bible, tanakh, or any other non Muslim text is illegal and will get you tossed in jail. To covert to another religion or become atheist is illegal and will get you tossed in prison. Can you imagine this sort of scenario in America or Western Europe?
This is the ideological setting that defines many parts of the Muslim world (not just Saudi Arabia), and you think I’m just some bigoted fool exaggerating Muslim anger? I don’t make this stuff up, just follow the news dude.
Nice to see Pastafarians getting some respect.
I guess The Astral Deity Association (TADA!) didn’t support the game like they said they would.
Exactly what Oddbob says. I wasn’t saying that Muslim governments don’t censor. I was saying that Muslim people in developed nations don’t get upset by things like this, by and large.
pauses Rock Band and looks out his window
Hm… religions haven’t died yet. Oh well…
unpauses Rock Band
Religions is ok, but it must be private and don’t interfere with public, in other words no fanatism.
Someday someone will come and tell us we are all biological-robots, so what? Robo-muslims of Dooms? lolz
I think both The Organization of the Islamic Conference and the commenters here are overreacting.
You have obviously missed the point. A majority of Muslims take their religion damn seriously to the point that such serious censoring throughout the Muslim world is a social NORM. A norm absolutely in contrast to free speech that the West covets. Sticking your head in the sand with a lame Saudi Lulz “argument” (which, by the way, is absolutely irrelevant to the topic at hand) doesn’t change the fact that the continuous string of Muslim rage and violence is absolutely unseen in any other religious or ideological party today.
“A majority of Muslims blah blah”
Got any figures for that, Captain Broadstrokes?
“A norm absolutely in contrast to free speech that the West covets.”
Ah, the western world that never seeks to censor in the slightest. The western world that introduces bizarre-o porn laws in Britain that make no sense, the western world that has members of the Christian religious right who believe that scientific knowledge should be replaced by a creationist teaching, the western world… oh, I could go on, man. You get the picture.
“the continuous string of Muslim rage and violence is absolutely unseen in any other religious or ideological party today.”
Hahaha! You’re cracking me up, man. Keep going!
gaah i hate muslims they kill everybody no i’m not generalizing they are all terrorists gaah muslims are anti free speech motherfuckers gaah i’m an idiot
Hey wait a minute there, that’s wrong.
“Ah, the western world that never seeks to censor in the slightest. The western world that introduces bizarre-o porn laws in Britain” They’re bizarre-o laws because they’re exceptions; in Muslim countries they’re the norm. People normally don’t approve those laws. In those countries however it’s the majority that supports religious laws. They seek religious counseling for all aspects of their life, it’s simply their culture. But we can’t let that override our freedom of speech; they do what they want in their countries and we do what we want in ours.
“A majority of Muslims blah blah Got any figures for that, Captain Broadstrokes?”
I know quite a few and although the ones that live in Western countries aren’t radical at all, their relatives in their home countries are. Know any Muslims that can back YOUR statements?
And how are they any more radical than the Christian right?
Always excuses for spiritual miscreants. Way to go, religion. You’ve ruined a perfectly good game. Now we’ll have to make it Ezekial’s Lame Ass, Pansy Scripture Debate, Allah’s 99 Names For Ugly Americans, or some other useless shit. Is there anything religion can’t rape? They even think they have science by the balls. This is what money goes toward in the religious world. These presumptive, boring jackasses all around the world who might as well be waving Chinese take-out menus to support their beliefs. Spiritual wankers. We’ll go to Heaven if Faith Fighter doesn’t exist. Right. Okay then. Because your god totally gives a shit? If he does then I want to go wherever everyone remotely interesting goes once they kick the bucket. Plus, you get to flog the rest of us and protect your own asses with lame logical loopholes and really bad arguments. Part of me was looking forward to this… Retarded theists, illogical deists, clingy panentheists. Fuck all of you. Now its time for my nap, I’ve gotten too angry for my own spiritual good. No problem, I have aversion therapy tomorrow and after that I’m going to a book-burning in my bomb-strapped jeep with my boring Mormon friends. Thank God for freedom of religion. It’s all totally harmless fun. It could never be corrupted.
Fucking.
Unimpressed.
Cue the ad hominem argument from the agnostic theists now.
“Got any figures for that, Captain Broadstrokes?”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6309983.stm
By the way, that’s 37% of British Muslims between 16-24 years that want sharia law. In Muslim countries where it is already in effect, it’s obviously much higher. And if you know a damn thing about sharia law, you know that’s not good for free speech. But since you haven’t come up with any actual factual arguments supporting you case, you probably don’t know a damn thing about sharia law.
“the western world that has members of the Christian religious right who believe that scientific knowledge should be replaced by a creationist teaching”
Last time I checked, the Christian religious right who want creationism taught is a minority, and haven’t led widespread protests and terrorist attacks in support of their cause. Nor are they in power in ANY nation of the world. Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, the UAE, Iran, Syria, the Palestinian territories on the other hand…
“Hahaha! You’re cracking me up, man. Keep going!”
Yah, because 9/11, the London and Madrid bombings are all so funny! You retarded tosser.
the game sucked anyway and it didn’t make any meaningful commentary on anything. It shouldn’t have been censored but it shouldn’t have been made in the first place either.
“They’re bizarre-o laws because they’re exceptions”
What are you on about?
They’re bizarre-o because they’re bizarre.
It’s got nothing whatsoever to do with them being exceptions, in fact - if anything the Extreme Porn laws are retaining a fine British tradition of idiotic censorship which has pretty much covered most media forms from books, to films and beyond.
There is nothing exceptional about them. Silly, in my opinion, yes. Exceptional? No. Although I kinda wish they were y’know.
“They seek religious counseling for all aspects of their life, it’s simply their culture. But we can’t let that override our freedom of speech; they do what they want in their countries and we do what we want in ours.”
Yes, amazing isn’t it. I’d hate to think that anyone in the west seeks religious counselling for all aspects of their life for fear it may influence another country. Oh wait, hang on, I’m just going to stuff the Archbishop of Canterbury behind the sofa so we can pretend he doesn’t exist. Y’know, just in case he’s a threat.
Did anyone mention Resistance: Fall Of Man? Bloody David Marshall threatening free speech over a Cathedral! Dammit! We’re all going to die in a ChurchofEnglandogeddon.
“Know any Muslims that can back YOUR statements?”
Erm, what? Which statement would I need to clarify with a Muslim? The one about the right wing media chasing a story and succeeding to rile people up? That one? The one about Saudi having a terrible record of Human rights just like Mugabe? Do I need to get a Muslim to clarify those? Would it make you feel better? Perhaps we can throw in a tourist from Spain too?
Tell you what. One Muslim, A Spaniard and a Welshman. That’s my final offer.
I don’t think it’ll achieve much though :(
Also this:
http://playthisthing.com/faith-fighter-2#comment-2339
“And by the way Faith Fighter is not just online everywhere but also available on molleindustria.org, the removal lasted just about 24 hours.”
What factual arguments for what case do you actually want? I’ll ask a second time.
The one about the right wing media having a field day whenever they can to get a story? Well, I can’t explicitly prove that but anyone with half a brain and an understanding of how media works won’t exactly find it surprising.
The one where I said that not all Muslims were insulted by Molleindustria’s game? Well, I don’t think we need a graph for that one, do we?
Perhaps the one about Mugabe and Saudi having atrocious human rights records?
There’s plenty of facts and figures for that scattered around, man.
So, that only leaves one other argument I’ve made that isn’t in your head and that’s you’re talking crazy talk.
You’ve just posted a link to a survey that calls your own argument bunk to justify your own argument.
Do I really have to say anything else when you can trip yourself up so amazingly?
“And if you know a damn thing about sharia law, you know that’s not good for free speech”
Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s not, but I’m not entirely sure what your point is.
Do you think that in the next, say, 12 months we’re going to be living under Sharia Law or some bastard form of it that will curtail your rights to free speech unless we stop these Muslims first?
Is that what you think?
Do you think for the 24 hours that Molleindustria took the game down that free speech had taken a blow at the hands of the Muslims despite the game still being available online everywhere else?
Is that what you think?
Do you seriously believe it’s only Muslims who get offended by things and ask for them to stop?
Really?
Or, I’ll be blunt with this one. Do you see Muslims as a threat to your way of life?
“Yah, because 9/11, the London and Madrid bombings are all so funny! You retarded tosser.”
slow clap
Raise your game, man. That’s embarassing.
The whole “take offense” thing is basically hopeless considering that you could argue the koran should be banned due to hateful statements against jews.
Ban religious schools imo. There is no religious freedom as long as indoctrination starts in childhood.
“‘This game is going out of its way to upset people and I think it should be taken off the internet,’ said Douglas Miller, pastor of the Link Church in Birmingham.”
Only God can take things off the internet, Doug.
I am a christian and i dont find this offensive at all.
Been on middle east for years in the past, i’ve seen tons of Magazines/comics where other religious portraits other than Muslim being shown in a very immoral way like Jesus and Buddha making out or just for laughs. But you don’t see any Mohammed because they will be arrested on the spot or worst, stoned.