Controversy from inclusion of Hindu figures prompts response from Hi-Rez Studios COO.
Hi-Rez Studios' upcoming game SMITE has made waves for its depiction of combat between the deities of various religions, but the studio is steering clear of some of the world's largest faiths.
Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios' chief operating officer, responded to GameSpot about controversy resulting from the inclusion of Hindu figures in its upcoming multiplayer online battle arena. The figures' appearances in the game prompted Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, to request their removal from the game, as he said putting the deities under player control trivialized them.
Harris initially responded by stating that Hi-Rez decided to use figures from the Hindu faith because it is one of the world's oldest and most diverse religions, providing a good base of inspiration for several characters. SMITE also pulls from Greek, Chinese, Egyptian, and Norse mythologies, Harris stated. The game, which is now in closed beta, will include more deities as development continues, not fewer.
GameSpot requested comment on whether the company plans to implement figures from Abrahamic (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic) religions into its game in keeping with its diverse roster of characters. Harris answered, saying Hi-Rez includes a diverse staff and that Abrahamic figures were not included mostly for gameplay reasons: its tradition does not have stories about deities fighting one another with "awesome abilities," he said.
"From [the] perspective of a video game, the key Abrahamic figures--Adam, Noah, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, are not that interesting in character design or gameplay. They are all human. They never overlapped or interacted with one another. They certainly never fought each other in dramatic fashion with unique abilities. They are all peaceful--at best they would be support characters," Harris said.
Connor Sheridan is the News Intern at GameSpot in San Francisco. He loves Super Metroid and has seen "Weird Al" Yankovic in concert three times.
Its funny how christian islam jewish and hindu faiths are known as "religion" while the ancient greek, norse, chinese, and egyptian faiths are known always as "mythology" all of the faiths are equally as ridiculous as the last, so where do they draw the line at whats a religion and whats a myth. considering theres no proof to support any of these faiths, id say its all myth.
Well Judaism, Christianity, and Islam only have one God, not a pantheon of deities like the other religions. It wouldn't incorporate into the game well (imagine playing as the Abrahamic God, AKA all-powerful being. It wouldn't balance well). There's also no really interesting myths associated with any of the figures (who are all human, and not deities in themselves but merely a representative for God). Couple this with the fact that there would be a massive backlash if you could play as Jesus, and it makes perfect sense why they made this decision.
It seems fairly reasonable from a purely design point of view- the myths/ religions they're using are all pantheistic and feature lots of stories of conflict between the various gods and demigods, which you don't tend to get in monotheistic religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Hinduism is quite unusual in being a pantheistic religion that still has a lot of followers in the modern world.
Of course, it's worth remembering that Shiva has been in Final Fantasy for ages, so it's not like this is anything particularly new in that respect.
1 Like As a Hindu im not offended by the fact that Hindu Gods are going to be playable characters. Im offended because if some one from the hinduism asks to not include them they get told that it is an intersesting story and gameplay will be great because they are combining all the ancient gods such as greek, roman and egyptian. However when asked will they include other religions they say no because the others are not interesting which is a lie. They don't want to offend the Christians, Muslims Jewish etc and feel its ok to take the Hindu deities because we don't make a noise(Thats because we or at least I was taught not to enforce my religion on others because its their own choice and not to care what others are doing)! The sad thing is the Hi-REZ developers would probably get many death threats and if they continued they would be killed!
1 Like But the reality is that Christianity, Islam, and Jewish are all rooted to the same person and therefore technically all share the same god with different points of views. Besides, they can't really put anything spectacular in. I mean with christians, they have god and jesus, with jews, its god, and with islam, its god...and i guess mohammed, even though hes just a prophet.
From a developers standpoint, why copy and paste
1. Try to make a game about surely controversial stuff.
2. Chicken out and scrap controversial stuff from game.
3. ???
4. Definitely not profit...
1 Like The New Testament has the Book of Revelations, which has gods/lesser gods/angels/demons/mythological powers battling each other and humans. The Old Testament has God being outsmarted by a talking, devilish snake.
(1) In the Old Testament (Genesis 32: 22-32), the Jewish God lost a wrestling match to Jacob (LOL).
(2) In Judges 1:19, Judah and the Jewish God lost a battle against men on iron chariots (haha).
(3) In 2 Kings 3:14-27, the Israelites and the Jewish God lost a battle against men worshiping a pagan God (haha).
Wow, what an abysmal piece of writing. "Deity-based MOBA SMITE will not use Jewish, Christian, Islamic figures" does not click with "Controversy from inclusion of Hindu figures prompts response from Hi-Rez Studios COO"
Probably shouldn't let interns make news stories. Just a thought.
7 Like Indian here and I see nothing wrong with Hindu deities being used in games and movies. Its because of stuck up people like Rajan Zed acting like they have copyright control of hindu religion that we won't ever get to see a good cinematization of Mahabharata/Ramayana. If Hollywood tried to make them, it would be more epic than LoTR movies. Maybe in a 100 years when conservatism in our nation/religion learns to take a freakin' CHILL PILL.
Gamespot: The place for 15 year olds that they know for certain that god exists/doesn't exist and to debate philosophical ideas.AKA the sewers of the internet.
@Jebril hapfft. Show me physical evidence that isnt a book written from someone else's perspective and ill be a little more open.
1 Like @Jebril Better here than in anything that might actually matter, like a newspaper, or on television, we all know those to be bastions of truth and intelligence, now if you'll excuse me worlds dumbest criminals is about to come on.
Thank Goodness! Glad they're keeping the Abrahamic violent, bullshit out of the game...
They even admit it that those religions are boring LOL!
Why not? are they trade marked or something? last I checked "Mythological" deities are the realm of free thought, I wanna see Jesus pop in with an airstrike squadron of angels, I wanna see Vishnu drop a 10 ton thunder hammer on a Building filled with whatever random myriad possible enemy, but I can understand that the medium that is gaming stretches to a very wide audience, and that it may be slightly out of context for someone else to write a story involving something as Iconic and Historical in nature, and besides gamers are really no different, we know how gamers are with THEIR religious Icons, Waiting in lines for days just to get a GLIMPSE of their favored deities amongst the unwashed masses, all huddled to hear the words of their prophets, seeking absolution and praise based on their continued unwavering faith that they're deity will bestow unto them visions of fortune and glory, where the most devout followers are seen amongst the few who follow the same path as messiahs. NOW try putting that into context with E3, and Major league gaming, also picture Team Ninja doing a Mario Game, there would be an outcry, that or Tissue and Sweat Sock sales would skyrocket from team ninjas portrayal of Princess Peach.
didn't Lucifer lead a war against heaven/god pitting angel against angel. how does that not fit into this game's premise?
2 Like Lost a lot of respect for Hi-Rez gained through Tribes due to this. People need to stop being hypocritical when it comes to religions. It is simply foolish to be worried over upsetting or insulting the Abrahamic religions, while shrugging off insulting other religions. They could have easily added Michael (archangel) into the mix.
And calling Moses and Mohammed peaceful? Mohammed led a holy war, and Moses began a genocide.
1 Like Come on guys. They are saying that they will only use fictional characters with awesome powers. I am sure that walking on water might be useful for running away from a fight, but Jesus has no combat potential. lets have a mock battle.
Jesus turns water into wine.
Zeus laughs.
Jesus runs across a lake.
Zeus pierces him with a thunderbolt.
Jesus respawns 3 days later.
Honestly christianity has the worst fictional characters for a game revolving around combat. Also Thanatos2k is retarded considering that Jesus was not in Persona 3. There was however a version of him in Nocturne.
@exedeath Just one name for you, Michael. Nobody said it has to be the main religious figures.
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1 Like @maxwell97 He did so without a drop of blood. people of Mecca, they themselves wanted it. I call this peaceful, comparing to all bloodshed and murders done by all conqueres throughout the history.
2 Like He may have conquered Mecca without violence, but there are PLENTY of other times when he did use violence in order to promote his idealogy.
6 Like Wow what a bunch of religious haters here on gamespot. I'm sure though you consider yourselves very openminded though with your hate of others beliefs. BTW there will be no responses to anyone's vitiate.
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1 Like @Jebril I agree, but he isn't making sweeping statements here. He believes that those religion's beliefs are wrong, and stated as much. Calling him stupid (Rayzakk) or a pig (frankblack789) is not a rational or intelligent way to react to such criticism.
@Tseng I think it's the fact that most agnostic/atheists believe that they are supremely right and ridicule others for having a faith and taking it seriously. I don't like it when religious people get in my face with their religious nonsense the same way I don't like it when non-religious people get in my face with their non-religious nonsense. Stop pretending like you know things people!
2 Like How is saying that characters from Abrahamitic religions arent badass enough PC? People are jumping to conclusions. Obviously, polytheistic religions offer a bigger variety of interesting characters.
1 Like I just think they're afraid (rightly so) of putting in figures from the Abrahamic religions. I mean, there are PLENTY of badass figures from Christianity alone (Michael the Archangel anyone?), But it's fairly obvious everyone and their grandmother would throw a fit as soon as Fox News does a 'story' on this game without giving all of the details. Unfortunately, it's just bad PR for them if they went through with putting them in. So the only thing that's bothering me, is that they should just admit they don't want to put in these characters in fear of offending people, instead of saying they're are not interesting in character design or gameplay.
4 Like In Persona 3 I had Jesus, Satan, AND Lucifer on my team.
Some developers are simply cowards. Jesus could have been a support hero with healing and debuffing. Mohammed can move mountains with his mind.
Don't give us your pathetic excuses.
5 Like Yeah, what a bunch of cowards. Easy to tick off the Hindus because they won't make a lot of noise; but ticking off the Christians, Jews and Muslims is a no go. What happened to their hard stance on including figures from all religions? Oh, those figures aren't "are not that interesting in character design or gameplay". What a cop-out; where's the snarky reply now Hi-Rez?
2 Like you sound stupid, i also dont think they would be that interesting in this game mostly cause it seem they are trying to be "accurate" with the abilitys. whats jesus going to do? feed you bread and fish till you die?
@justinka777 What about all that healing the blind,sick, and ect. Sounds like a decent support character to me.
@BigFeef Big, how do you make a non OP hero out of a supposedly All powerful and all knowing being that exists everywhere, and who's true appearance can't be seen by mortal eyes? Will to bet that Hi-Rez chose not to go the Abrahamic way because there are no depictions of the deities in this faith...And before you go and say well Jesus is depicted everywhere, that's an interpretation of what someone thinks Jesus looks like that didn't exist in the holy texts, unlike most of the gods in Smite.
1 Like @cziiki Your comment shows your ignorance. They did find a way to make a non-OP hero out of the Hindu goddess Kali; the aspect of change and time of the all-powerful supreme being Brahman.
It's so easy to disrespect the beliefs of another culture you do not really understand; and the response to a Hindu group's request to remove depictions of their deities received what can only be called a snarky response where the COO of Hi-Rez, Todd Harris, was trying to lecture them on the philosophy of Hinduism: "SMITE includes deities inspired from a diverse and ever expanding set of pantheons including Greek, Chinese, Egyptian, and Norse. Hinduism, being one of the world's oldest, largest and most diverse traditions, also provides inspiration toward deities in our game. In fact, given Hinduism's concept of a single truth with multiple physical manifestations one could validly interpret ALL the gods within SMITE to be Hindu. And all gods outside of SMITE as well. Ponder that for a minute. Anyway, going forward SMITE will include even more deities, not fewer."
2 Like @cziiki Ok, I'll quote my Hindu friend directly; maybe then you'll get why this is upsetting to some and why the dev's stance to brush is off is disrespectful.
"Hinduism is basically monotheistic; we worship the different aspects of the same God, just like some Christians worship the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost I think. The depictions of the different aspects differ mostly because much has been lost in the long history of our religion; but things like this still shows a fundamental ignorance of our culture and our religion. This is like if we in India made a video game using your depictions of God and Jesus: as a an old bearded guy and as a cross-bearing younger guy. We don't understand it, we're just using your own art. Would that offend you?"
@BigFeef Big, the point I was attempting to get across is that there are depictions of Kali, both as Kali and Mahakali (her existence closer to that of Brahman). The dev's chose to take Kali as an aspect of the seven tongue's of Agni, so while she does exist in some texts as Brahman the depiction is that of a deity and not an all powerful god.
True people are bound to get offended with thing like this, but the point I was attempting to get across is it is more likely that they chose to create gods that had depictions prestated in texts and culture rather than letting character design arts attempt to create depictions of deities that have no base for depictions(IE: Yaweh, Hyperion, Satan, Coeus, Jesus). It's the equivalent of trying to guess the color of scales on a dinosaur when all you have are the bones, we don't know what these beings look like because there are no depictions in religious text.
Greek, Egyptian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jainism, Wicca, Norse, Chinese, Native American, etc. we have detailed descriptions and depictions of what these gods should look like.
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