8 Years of History in 8 Days: Day 2 (May 21, 2007)

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
From a post on the toj-general Yahoo! Group, dated July 31, 2000:
ExecutorPico recently requested that I sponsor an Unreal Tournament, citing
that UT has a violence content control option. While I would have
immediately turned UT down due to violent content, this violent content
control (hereafter call VCC) would eliminate the explicit violence factor.

So is violence all that keeps Unreal Tournament from being a viable ToJ
chapter? Perhaps it is not that simple.

I recently discovered a similar VCC while randomly looking through the
options in Half-Life. The discovery thrilled me, as it resurrected the old
Half-Life question. For all those who were not around for the first time the
question was posed, here is a quote from that e-mail:

+AD4-THE HALF-LIFE QUESTION

Nothing in Half-Life is demonic. There are aliens in other games, and some
Christian theorists state that aliens are actually the physical
manifestations. But these are fictional aliens, so let's not overthink this
one. +AD0-)

The troubles with founding a Christian clan on the game Diablo are clear.
Yet Half-Life presents a new question: Should we found a Christian clan
based on games that graphically depict violence?

This is a much more difficult question, and one I continue to struggle with.
The Half-Life modification, TeamFortress Classic, encourages team members to
specialize in one task and so work together. Elihu plays an excellent sniper
and I play a decent spy. Yet when a person steps onto a grenade and he
explodes, +ACI-gibs,+ACI- or body parts fly everywhere. While we know that this
looks SO fake, it is still a graphic depiction of violence. We play the game
for its challenge, not for these graphics.

This is a much more difficult question, and one I continue to struggle with.
The Half-Life modification, TeamFortress Classic, encourages team members to
specialize in one task and so work together. Elihu plays an excellent sniper
and I play a decent spy. Yet when a person steps onto a grenade and it
explodes, +ACI-gibs,+ACI- or body parts, fly everywhere. While we know that this
looks SO fake, it is still a graphic depiction of violence. We play the game
for its challenge, not for these graphics.

Clans also take on a different meaning in TFC. Even Elihu and I, who tack on
a +AFs-7+AF0- to the end of our respective handles (for identification
purposes),
prefer not to play against clan members. While Starcraft and other strategy
games cater to 1on1 or 2on2 matches, 16 people are standard for Half-Life
TFC. This means that eight clan members can join one team, while the other
team scrambles to defend their base. The clan members, already established
in their roles and methods of communication, proceed to tear the opposing
team apart.

We can currently play Starcraft on a private server with one or two other
people. If we had enough people, we could play 4v4. A game of TFC with four
people would be extraordinarily boring. Eight would be alright, but the game
truly needs 12 to 16 people to make it fun. Then consider the demands of a
dedicated Half-Life server. Half-Life servers demand much more of the
system's resources.

The possibility of a Christian Half-Life TFC clan does remain. I would
appreciate your thoughts and comments on this. This serves as an example of
the complex issues regarding game choice. I did not write this so much to
elicit a response as to provoke thought.+ADw-

With violent content no longer an issue, would it be appropriate to sponsor
an Unreal Tournament of Half-Life or even TFC chapter? Before you rush to an
answer, let me state a few things:

First: Even without explicit violence, your objective is still to kill
individuals.

My personal opinion on this? The Bible says 'Thou shalt not murder.' This
does NOT refer to war-time killing. Christian Americans take pride in their
country, and claim that this country was protected by war. Many Christians
understand that war is all too often a necessary precursor to peace. This is
human nature. This is how I justified a Starcraft chapter, and similar logic
would help me justify a FPS (first person shooter) chapter.

Second: For a true team experience, TeamFortress Classic requires four or
more people. For scrimmages, at least eight people would be necessary.

Yes, individual members can log on. Pairs of members could even join the
same team (as Elihu and I often do). But internal matches would demand
several people. For more on this topic, please refer to my previous post on
the Half-Life question.

Third: Whose choice is it to censor the game?

Should I make it mandatory to turn on the VCC, or leave it up to the
individual ToJ member? This presents a very difficult issue, on which I have
not yet formed an opinion.

In conclusion, this is a much more difficult question than the Diablo
Question. I would appreciate everyone's opinion on the matter.

God bless,
Tek7
 
From a post on the toj-general Yahoo! Group, dated August 1, 2000:
While on the subject of Half-life, I was wondering if anyone played
counterstrike...? It's squad based combat pitting terrorists with
counterterrorists, and it's ALOT of fun. I don't think a clan would
be a good idea as it does contain quite a bit of violence, and you
can't use VCC. However, it is great fun, and can be palyed with
anywhere from 2 to 32 people (though 2 people is rather dull... 4 is
the minimum generally, at least 6 is a good idea) If you haven't
tried it, it's a free mod for Half Life...goto www.counter-strike.net
for more info ^_^

God bless!
Corin
 
I know this thread is a few days old already, but I had to add this gem:

From an e-mail from Maddmedic dated February 1, 2000:
To any interested ToJ members.
Travis aka Jesus~is~Lord Administrattor with Seven Seals has extended an invitation to us to attend the Seven Seals fellowship tonight Tuesday 020100 at 0900 hours EST.
It will be on Bnet in Channel Seventh Seal.. Have joined in the past, when I could. They are generally very good...Afterwards lottsas gaming and they have a few whom know how to play...
Madd
Old school Starcraft players and those familiar with the origins of the Christian Gamers Alliance should get a kick out of this. :D
 
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