Hindu Group Wants Religious Arena Combat Game Pulled From QuakeCon

[rug]

Wednesday, Aug 1, 2012
Kate Cox

QuakeCon 2012 is coming up in just a few days. It's a huge LAN party, featuring well-known speakers and panelists, and sprawling over Dallas. The roster of games, of course, features Quake tournaments but other games make a showing as well. This year, the online battle arena game Smite is one of a handful of competitive titles slated to be playable.

Rajan Zed, of the Universal Society of Hinduism, has put out a statement asking the organizers of QuakeCon to consider withdrawing Smite from the competition line-up. The statement asserts, in part:

Reimagining Hindu scriptures and deities for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees. Controlling and manipulating goddess Kali and other Hindu deities with a joystick/ button/keyboard/mouse was denigration. Goddess Kali and other Hindu deities were meant to be worshipped in temples and home shrines and not meant to be reduced to just a "character" in a video game to be used in combat in the virtual battleground.

This isn't the first time Zed and the Universal Society of Hinduism have expressed dismay over the way Hindu deities, particularly the goddess Kali, are portrayed in Smite. A handful of other religious leaders have backed Zed's statements, and there are essays out there explaining how the use of existing deities in Smite is an uncomfortable kind of cultural appropriation.

http://kotaku.com/5930588/hindu-group-wants-religious-arena-combat-game-pulled-from-quakecon

[Scootaloo]

1. Well, I don't blame them!

I mean, four arms? That shit's way OP. Almost as broken as Mohammed's invisibility cloak.

That shit needs to be nerfed.

[trotsky]

2. Well, as a wise person once said...

"A minority based on an intellectual, and often transient, conclusion, is far from a minority based on sexual orientation, ethnicity or race."

So their concerns are irrelevant, it appears.

[rug]

4. Do you see this portrayed stereotype as intellectual, racial or ethnic?

[trotsky]

5. The offended people are Hindu.

"A minority based on an intellectual, and often transient, conclusion, is far from a minority based on sexual orientation, ethnicity or race."

[rug]

6. And do you consider Hindus an intellectual, racial, or ethnic minority?

BTW, it is error to assume only Hinds are offended.

[trotsky]

7. Aha!

So if there are theists who agree that a cross or church should not be on a city seal, will you admit it's a valid issue and not "bullshit"?

Trapped again, rug. You're going to need your best snappiness to change the topic and take a swipe at me to bow out of this one as usual.

[rug]

8. Trapped!

The "Aha!" is precious.

Of course putting a cross on a logo is a choice - a free choice. The issue there, unlike here, is not free choice but what value one puts on that choice.

Hmmm . . .



So there!

[trotsky]

9. Yes! This is why I play the game.

It's so funny seeing you react when you're cornered.

I asked a question. You didn't answer it. Here it is again:

So if there are theists who agree that a cross or church should not be on a city seal, will you admit it's a valid issue and not "bullshit"?

Yes or no.

[dmallind]

10. There is no Hindu race or ethnicity obviously

I suppose we could use the label intellectual despite its emotional load. But they are certainly a minority based on opinion.

The difference between this claim and almost all atheist claims (atheism also being a minority of opinion natch) is that they are not complaining about establishment or preference by government - merely the appropriation of non-copyrightable characters for entertainment purposes.

Considering that every single atheist in mass media is portrayed as an emotionally crippled behavioral deviant (often until they finally "see the light&quot it would be rather time consuming to complain about that.

[exboyfil]

3. Combat and Quakers?

I am really confused. I thought they were pacifists. Oh the name is Quakecom and not Quakercom? I misread it.

In all serious we could have a video game in which the Old Testament heroes kill children on God's command as well. It is in the Bible. I would suspect that would generate some controversy as well.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. Has anything resulted from prior protests along these lines?