He shoots three times. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The enemy is down; he blows up three rocks to his left and victory is his.
This sounds like a scene from the popular video game, "Counter-Strike," but it is not. It is from "Exodus," a popular Christian video game created by Wisdom Tree.
The aforementioned "he" is Moses, and he is shooting glowing "W's" that symbolize the word of God. He is on a mission to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land.
Diana James-Cairns, an employee of Digital Praise, a California-based company founded in 2003 that creates faith-based entertainment, said in response to the controversy surrounding the approximately $10 billion video-game industry, Digital Praise is trying to replace gory and violent video games with Christian games like "Exodus."
James-Cairns said the company's mission is different than other video game companies.
"The mission is to glorify God through the development of software for children, teenagers and families that spreads the Gospel of Jesus Christ while entertaining, enlightening and encouraging faith," she said.
James-Cairns said their best selling game is "Dance Praise," which it is similar to the popular game "Dance Dance Revolution."
" 'Dance Praise' puts a whole new spin on today's high-energy dancing games by combining two of today's most popular entertainment trends - contemporary Christian music and dance arcades," she said.
Ralph Bagley, chief spokesman of the Association for Family Interactive Media, a group of Christian interactive entertainment industry professionals, said he is positive Christian video games will be able to compete in the market with more mainstream games.
"Christian game developers are just trying to get the cash to make a top-notch game that is able to compete graphically and in the game play with games that have a $20 million development budget," Bagley said.
While companies such as Digital Praise and Wisdom Tree are optimistic they will gain popularity in the video game market, Patrick Ewell, president of the university's video game club, Genshiken, said he is skeptical.
"Absolutely not," Ewell said. "I would never play any game with a targeted message or agenda."
Ted Prettyman, vice president for Genshiken, said he is not supportive of the media promoting certain messages.
"I'm not a big fan of any sort of media trying to indoctrinate me with its themes," Prettyman said. "I think a game trying to teach me Bible stories isn't something I really want to play, and that goes for any religion, really. I don't think I would be interested in playing a game where I play as Buddha."
Prettyman said he does not think Christian games will catch on in the mainstream. He said if they do, he does not think it will be with anyone older than 15.
"Once you start getting up in age, the stories of games start getting much more captivating and complex," he said. "A great example of that is the 'Final Fantasy' series. Most of the games in the series have a great story where it's as if you're playing through a good book."
Bagley said these games do not have a specific age range they are targeting.
"In our case, we target everyone," he said. "We strove to not make preachy Christian games but rather games that are visually and intellectually stimulating that have Christian values."
Bagley said there is also a reason violent video games are still winning the popularity contest.
"The large game development companies seem to remake the same game over and over again and stuff it down consumers' throats," he said.
Bagley said he is disappointed in these games and the message they send.
"Games like 'Grand Theft Auto' that glorify extreme violence and sex are just wrong on many levels," he said. "First of all, you don't have to have extreme violence or sexual content to create a great gaming experience. Secondly, these games desensitize the players to violence, and we see the results in more school shootings and random violence in our society. It saddens me that the game developers that create these games are not held accountable."
Bagley said games made by companies such as Digital Praise are not only targeted at Christians.
"I have gotten many e-mails from people that were not Christians that thanked me for creating a cool game that they enjoyed playing," he said.
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