Religious stereotyping was at play at a recent video-game trade show where a game company hired 13 people to protest the upcoming game “Dante’s Inferno.”
A group of protesters claiming to come from a church held signs such as “Hell is not a Video Game” and “Trade in Your PlayStation for a PrayStation” in front of the nation’s biggest video-game trade show last week. They pretended to fight Electronic Arts’ new game “Dante’s Inferno,” loosely based on the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Ben Fritz from the Los Angeles Times originally offered this report:
The protesters, who came from a church in Ventura County, held signs with slogans such as “trade in your playstation for a praystation” and “EA = anti-Christ” as they marched and handed out a homemade brochure that warns, “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.”
Matthew Francis, one of the protesters, said he and his fellow church members were particularly upset that Dante’s Inferno features a character who fights his way out of Hell and uses a cross as a weapon against demons.
The Associated Press clears it up by talking to a spokeswoman, who said the stunt was arranged by a viral marketing agency hired by EA.
Granted, it doesn’t look like a kid’s game. But lest you think Christians shun Dante, check out this Christian History issue.
