Recently Digital Crafter published a fighting game with a premise as obvious as the inane backlash that’s currently dogging it. Fight of The Gods pits religious figures against each other in a crude beat em’ up that enjoyed something of a meteoric rise in popularity on Steam. As you might have guessed, I hope with some consternation, the game's success did not last long before the perfunctory mews of zealots did what they do best: incite yet another banal internet discussion about the nature of censorship as it pertains to innocuous pop culture nonsense.
The controversy arose when The Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commision commanded internet service providers to block sites that distributed the game, declaring their actions imperative to ensure solidarity amongst religions, as they feared the game’s potential to engender hatred and bigotry. Perhaps, though I fail to see how a video game flippantly mocking theology could ever dream of engendering more hatred and bigotry than theology itself, but I digress. The Steam store is still inaccessible to many users in Malaysia as a result of this controversy and there seems to be no immediate plans to make the game at the center of the controversy available again.
Pqube, the publisher that collaborated with Digital Crafter to develop Fight of the Gods had this to say about the matter :
The game is not promoting any religious agenda and is not designed to offend. The description of the game on the digital platforms through which it is distributed provide clear guidance on the nature of the game and its content so that people can freely choose whether to play it or not.”
We are disappointed that that such freedom of choice is not given to everyone and in particular that the game has been forcibly removed from sale in Malaysia, although no direct communication has been received by us to as to the reasons for this. Nevertheless we respect any rules and censorship imposed in any given territory.
That’s awfully big of them, but I must make a point to disagree. Remember friends, freedom to “practice” religion, not enforce it. Keep your cockeyed, tribal, horseshit fairytales clear from the paths of the free market. Feel free to worship sun gods or converse with imaginary dictators all you like but be sure to do so in the confines of your own home. The absurdity of allowing fanatical belief to not only dictate what you can and cannot enjoy but what I can and cannot enjoy goes beyond the pale on sanity, and we shouldn’t be having any of it - not in this century. I understand that the release of the game in Malaysia transgressed actual local litigation, which is a matter that owes consideration all to itself, but penalizing crimes of thought can only give way to a messy outcome.
There is no decent line in the sand, and it is toxic to entertain such a notion. What human being, pious or otherwise, possesses the patience, sobriety of mind and forethought to accurately dictate what is and isn’t too far? There is no such human, so here’s the best we’ve got: If Fight Of The Gods is truly a tasteless work of blasphemy, allow all your dutiful children the opportunity to not buy the damn thing. Don’t trust them not to do so? Then maybe rethink the validity of your particular persuasion but in the meantime keep us out of it.
