Cyber crucifixion in video game enrages Catholics
Kevin Eckstrom, Religion News Service
Issue date: 4/20/06 Section: DIVINE INTERVENTION
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Cynewulf -- whose real identity remains hidden -- has been playing about five hours a day for 10 months. He likened killing other players to popping bubble wrap, which he said becomes "strangely addictive somehow."
"The satisfaction of stabbing an enemy until he falls, and then giving him the final deathblow while he lies helplessly at your feet, is pretty rewarding in itself," he said in response to e-mailed questions.
But when Cynewulf hid in waiting for other players returning from a sojourn to the afterlife, and then killed them with no warning, Fraser-Robinson decided that his American barbarian had gone too far.
Fraser-Robinson, as the game organizer, is the only one who can impose a crucifixion as a punishment for players that break the rules. The seven-day crucifixions are a type of penalty box in which players are removed from play.
The experience was "surprisingly agonizing," Cynewulf said, but not because of any physical pain he endured.
"Being jeered at by the Romans while immobilized is not much fun, particularly since they are all weaklings who deserve to die by my sword," Cynewulf said.
Fraser-Robinson said crucifixion is reserved for only the most egregious offenses, such as hacking into the system or exploiting loopholes, even if characters go around "killing people and being generally quite nasty."
Two more characters have since been crucified. He said it helps maintain order among players, just as it instilled fear among Roman subjects. "They can see what he's done and what that got him," Fraser-Robinson said. "It's very effective."
Peter Blackman, director of the Churches' Media Council in Britain, which acts as a media watchdog group for British churches, found the game less troubling, especially since crucifixion was relatively commonplace under the Romans.
"This could be said to be in the same vein as [Mel Gibson's] `The Passion of the Christ,' which attempted to show the reality of the world" during Jesus' lifetime, Blackman said.
But two millennia later, Donohue said the game makes the death of Jesus -- or at least the way he died -- routine, almost ho-hum. "It's basically another example of exploitation," he said.
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- Anne Pessala in Washington and Al Webb in London contributed to this report.
"The satisfaction of stabbing an enemy until he falls, and then giving him the final deathblow while he lies helplessly at your feet, is pretty rewarding in itself," he said in response to e-mailed questions.
But when Cynewulf hid in waiting for other players returning from a sojourn to the afterlife, and then killed them with no warning, Fraser-Robinson decided that his American barbarian had gone too far.
Fraser-Robinson, as the game organizer, is the only one who can impose a crucifixion as a punishment for players that break the rules. The seven-day crucifixions are a type of penalty box in which players are removed from play.
The experience was "surprisingly agonizing," Cynewulf said, but not because of any physical pain he endured.
"Being jeered at by the Romans while immobilized is not much fun, particularly since they are all weaklings who deserve to die by my sword," Cynewulf said.
Fraser-Robinson said crucifixion is reserved for only the most egregious offenses, such as hacking into the system or exploiting loopholes, even if characters go around "killing people and being generally quite nasty."
Two more characters have since been crucified. He said it helps maintain order among players, just as it instilled fear among Roman subjects. "They can see what he's done and what that got him," Fraser-Robinson said. "It's very effective."
Peter Blackman, director of the Churches' Media Council in Britain, which acts as a media watchdog group for British churches, found the game less troubling, especially since crucifixion was relatively commonplace under the Romans.
"This could be said to be in the same vein as [Mel Gibson's] `The Passion of the Christ,' which attempted to show the reality of the world" during Jesus' lifetime, Blackman said.
But two millennia later, Donohue said the game makes the death of Jesus -- or at least the way he died -- routine, almost ho-hum. "It's basically another example of exploitation," he said.
===================================================
- Anne Pessala in Washington and Al Webb in London contributed to this report.
