8/22/2005
Christian Video Games Hard to Find
By Kim Trobee
A lot of Christian parents and teens are wondering what is out there in the video game market for them. The answer is, not much, at least not yet. Video games rake in millions of dollars but many of them are not exactly family fare. Scott Scholler is one of the founders of the Christian Game Developers Foundation. His organization is raising funds to develop new games that would be good alternatives to those already on the market.
“We see that games can have very strong positive themes to them and still be an exciting, good, fun-to-play game.”
Scholler compares the video game industry to where Christian music was 15 years ago. He says the goal of their foundation is to bring together ideas and financial backing to get the Christian video game industry a bigger share of the market. His hope is that within a few years there will be a Christian games section in every retailer around the country. Steven Isaac, editor of Plugged-In online, thinks the jury is still out on the predicted success of Christian video games.
“There are probably more questions than answers right now. What does a Christian video game look like? How much violence can you and should you include in a Christian video game?”He says those and many other difficult questions will have to be answered as this new market begins to gain ground. Two games now in production are “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” a game based on the popular book series and another called “The Bible Game.”
A lot of Christian parents and teens are wondering what is out there in the video game market for them. The answer is, not much, at least not yet. Video games rake in millions of dollars but many of them are not exactly family fare. Scott Scholler is one of the founders of the Christian Game Developers Foundation. His organization is raising funds to develop new games that would be good alternatives to those already on the market.
“We see that games can have very strong positive themes to them and still be an exciting, good, fun-to-play game.”
Scholler compares the video game industry to where Christian music was 15 years ago. He says the goal of their foundation is to bring together ideas and financial backing to get the Christian video game industry a bigger share of the market. His hope is that within a few years there will be a Christian games section in every retailer around the country. Steven Isaac, editor of Plugged-In online, thinks the jury is still out on the predicted success of Christian video games.
“There are probably more questions than answers right now. What does a Christian video game look like? How much violence can you and should you include in a Christian video game?”He says those and many other difficult questions will have to be answered as this new market begins to gain ground. Two games now in production are “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” a game based on the popular book series and another called “The Bible Game.”
