I took a gander at a review of Everquest from Christian Spotlight which is a subzine of Christian Answers Network. The CAN is apparently a fundamentalist group, non-denominational and would like you to contribute $15/month to support their website.
I was suprised at how much they didn't mind about Everquest. The reviewer seemed pleased at the relative lack of graphic violence, and even the innate polytheism of the game didn't seem to bother him too much... although, it did lead him to make an interesting comment:
The dieties go from worshippers of life, tranquility and justice, to disease pestilence and chaos. One can also choose to remain agnostic, which from a Christian perspective would be the easiest choice.Personally I would choose to worship The Nameless, who I agree with others is clearly meant to be an EQ version of the monotheist Tri-God (YHWH/Jehovah, Christ, Allah).
The reviewer also said they played a monk, who are healers, because they don't use magic. It's true they don't have magical powers (spells, anyway), but they aren't healers either.
And then my favorite part:
On the plus side. "Everquest" is a great place to preach the gospel. A simple zone wide chat message will attract many to ask questions about Jesus, or about Christianity.ARRRGH! It's that guy who's always spamming then incoherent gospel crap in GFay! I respect the right to religion and all--but damn that gospel guy in GFay is annoying. In my experience he generally only seems to have read the Gospel of John--which annoys me because Mark is much better.
But back to Christian Spotlight. The review is much fairer than I would have expected from a fundamentalist publication what with the polytheism and violence and magic, but violence doesn't seem to bother the editorial staff at Christian Spotlight... of course their reviews are sort of weird too... take for example their review of Jedi Knight II: Outcast, which received ratings of [4/5, 4/5. 3/5 and 5/5] from them....pretty good scores, right? except the review concludes with
Overall "Jedi Knight 2: Outcast" will leave you feeling cheated and robbed of your money. But there are a few elements worth checking out, so it's your call. Don't say you haven't been warned.I'm not sure if I should /shrug or say "WTF?"
Posted by illovich at December 18, 2002 01:17 PM