Chris Morris, a weekly columnist for CNN Money, tackles the topic of religion and video games in this week"s piece. The article includes interviews and comments with several members of the gaming community, including id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead, who believes that the lack of religious concepts in video games comes down to people"s sensitivity with religion and heightened ability to become offended by its interpretations.
"What you might think is ... couldn"t you make a religious game where critics, fans and retailers would all line up and universally say "Here"s a game that has some sort of moral or educational value?" But people tend to take religion extremely personally and therefore have more opportunity to be offended."
While major religious groups have ventured into other entertainment mediums such as the music and movie industries, games based on religious content still remain rather taboo for the mainstream video game industry. While certain games such as many popular MMORPG"s often give players missions with moral undertones, it might be a long time before you see a game from a major publisher with content straight out of the Koran or The Bible.