Ok, so I got this game when I was still working. It was really kind of expensive, but with my employee discount it wasn't too horrible. It's called Left Behind - Eternal Forces.
I'm not going to go into the many many flaws of this game, the least of which is it's use of "adware" that really slows down the game when you start it to place real ads on the computer generated city-scape billboards in the game. The tech support is basically non-existant, consisting basically of an email tool that only gives back an automated response with no actual contact from a real person, ever. There's also very questionable theology used in the premise of the game and the actions of the characters, but like I said, I'm not going to go into that.
If you can accept that the characters you play in this real-time strategy scenario live in a ficticious world of "maybe, what if", and you can deal with the slow loading and occasional freezes, then it's actually not too bad of a game. If you have read any of the Left Behind series of books, then you kinda get the drift of the game. The game takes place somewhere in the timeline of the books between book two and book three (I think - it's been a while since I've read them).
You take various people through the streets of New York and recuit them to the New York branch of the Tribulation Force. You then use your people to build and protect churches in the city. Like any good real-time strategy, you build buildings, gather resources, and fight an enemy for domination of your territory.
So I've been playing this game, and being a fan of games like Civilization and StarCraft, I like this one too. One thing I really like is that whenever you complete a level you have to click on "get found clue". This takes you to a little tidbit about the Christian faith, mostly dealing with concepts in every day life and pointing people back to the Bible as the source of answers. From there you can also "learn more" and "talk about it". Those links take you to a discussion board set up for game players to interact with each other over these questions.
The only problem with the discussion board is, no one is talking. And it's a good possibility that no one is getting to it because they aren't playing the game. So far, I seem to be the only one who has posted anything there.
The creators of the discussion board obviously share the same theology as the creators of the Left Behind universe. However, that does not mean that the discussion board shouldn't be a useful tool for anyone wanting to debate and discuss these issues. So I am issuing a challege to everyone reading this - go to Dontbeleftbehind.com and join in the discussion.
Let me be straight, I am by no means an expert on any of the issues I've encountered so far going through the game, but I have left some comment of some kind on each. Mostly taking an "I don't know" stance, hoping someone would respond. So here's your chance. Share what you know. Take a stand for whatever your beliefs are.
