Video game giant funds fake Christian protest of ‘Inferno’ game
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EA's Logo for the video game Dante's Inferno

Los Angeles, Calif., Jun 9, 2009 / 04:52 am (CNA).- Video game giant Electronic Arts has admitted it funded a group of fake protesters who pretended to be Christians as a publicity stunt to spur interest in its upcoming action game very loosely based on Dante’s “Inferno.”

The game company hired a group of almost 20 people to stand outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the Associated Press says. The phony protesters passed out amateurish material and held signs bearing slogans such as “Trade in Your PlayStation for a PrayStation,” “Hell is not a Game” and “EA = Electronic Anti-Christ.”

Holly Rockwood, an EA spokeswoman, said the charade was arranged by a viral marketing agency hired by the company.

A web page in the crude style of 1990s web design was also created in connection with the stunt. It depicted crosses crushing the word “sin” and placed images of the King James Bible among phony condemnations and thinly-veiled promotions of the game.

“A video game hero does not have the authority to save and damn... ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE. and he will not judge the sinners who play this game kindly,” the site said.

EA’s video game “Dante’s Inferno” claims to be inspired by the first book of Dante Alighieri’s theological poem “The Divine Comedy.” Its character uses a cross as a weapon.

While Dante’s epic poem placed his beloved Beatrice in Paradise, the EA game makes its Dante character rescue Beatrice’s soul from Lucifer, USA Today says.

"We've tried to faithfully recreate the geography of hell as he wrote about it," the game’s executive producer Jonathan Knight told USA Today.

Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno” depicts various circles of hell in which sinners are punished according to their defining sins.

Dante placed the fraudulent and the sowers of discord in the penultimate Eighth Circle.

In the Divine Comedy the Inferno is followed by the “Purgatorio,” a poetic exploration of purgatory, and then by the “Paradiso,” Dante’s depiction of the blessed in heaven.

He closes the “Paradiso” by exalting God as “the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.”

EA has not announced any sequels to its game.

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: tom
waspam, nicaragua 06/21/2009 06:22 PM EST
the ginger bread boy mocked his maker and then a bunch of folks along the way who got mad at him. bottom line: he met a fox. common sense wams against thinking yourself so clever. you start out making money but lose in the end.
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Published by: j
texas 06/18/2009 05:40 PM EST
I am a youth minister and I think games are just fine in moderation and with mature persons. This however is an insult that EA would attempt to do something like this. It makes it out that christians or those who follow Christ are stuck up and focused on things like this. I could care less about protesting for a game until now. I would only protest because of the way they pidgeonholed all of christians. Is it to much to ask for just a commercial or does a company like this have to take peoples religious interests outside of business? Play the game I don't care but i will do my best not to buy ea for a while and ask others to do the same because they wanted to do this. By the way, I do not like the KJV. It is a terrible translation. I can read greek and I find that NRSV and NIV are much superior. This is not against the game what so ever, it is against the way they felt they should advertise and it is insulting to me personally.
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Published by: L
Philippines 06/13/2009 03:14 PM EST
What EA doesn't realize it that this was a poor use of money. I'm sure there are tons of REAL crazy (and REALLY stupid) street preachers out there who would love to protest video games like this (in fact I've met a few of them myself on YouTube).

As to Don's post however, the market for "Christian" games would actually be very small, depending on what we would define as "Christian".
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Published by: Don
Canada 06/12/2009 09:53 AM EST
Wow!The Length companies will go through just to promote a game, desperate times brings on desperate measures.
Perhaps someday the Christian video gamers and producers will relize there is a market for Christian Games and develope something worth playing.When ????
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