I haven't been on the computer much recently (which means I haven't been writing much on this blog) because I've been busy doing other things. There are other reasons, which I'm sure I'll address in future blog entries. I spent time with an old friend of mine recently...
Kratos
My friend Mike owns a PS3, and he bought God of War III as soon as it was released, and as soon as he bought it I was over at his house to beat the hell out of the gods of Olympus and anyone else who would dare feel my Spartan rage.
I'm not much of a video game player - not like I used to be a long time ago when video games were two-dimensional; however, when it comes to the God of War games, I can't get enough.
As I hunted down the gods of Olympus, it occurred to me that these video game bad guys were at one time actually worshiped by people. Before Zeus joined the ranks of such video game villains as Goro, Bowser, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, and that guy who said "All your base are belong to us", he and the other Greek gods fell under the rubric of mythology; before that they were religion.
I wonder what video games will look like in the future. I can't help but wonder: will any of the religious figures of our time become video game bad guys in the future? Imagine Jesus as one of the combatants in Super Smash Brothers, or Buddha tossing barrels at you like Donkey Kong. Blasphemy? The ancient Greeks might have said the same thing if they saw how I slaughtered their gods as Kratos in God of War III.
I wonder what religion will look like in the future. Which deities will have passed from religion to myth to video game? Which will continue to hold "true god" status, and which will drift off into obscurity? What new gods will take their place? I can only guess, but what's significant to me is what has happened to Zeus, Poseidon, and the rest of the Olympians. They were once feared and revered. Buildings were constructed in their honor. Now, in stark contrast, gamer geeks all around are enjoying Zeus and the rest of the Greek pantheon as characters of fiction, and nothing more. Will Yahweh, Allah and Vishnu one day be looked at the same way? I can only wonder.
Glimpses of such a future have been seen already. Adult Swim gave us Bible Fight. YouTuber DarkMatter2525 gave us God Fighter and God Fighter 2. Of course, the distinction between these and the God of War games is that GoW isn't an attempt to mock or poke fun at the Greek pantheon.
And as if he could read my mind, Mike posted this comic on my Facebook profile:
Dead-Logic.com
