Church of England seeks to remove Resistance from shop shelves
by Jem Alexander 
{ Jun 9th 2007 at 6:40PM }
The Church of England today has stated that if Sony do not remove Resistance: Fall of Man from the shelves then it will consider legal action. The Church is outraged at Insomniac's inclusion of the nave of Manchester Cathedral in the game. More specifically, that they "encourage people to have guns battles in the building." Why the C of E have chosen now, seven months after its original release and two months since it was made available in Europe, is a mystery.
The worry seems to be that people will assume that shooting a gun within the cathedral is "acceptable" and try to emulate it in real life. Or that it will act as a catalyst to increase the already present gun-crime problem in the city. The Church of England seems to have the idea that Resistance "shows a virtual shoot-out in the cathedral's nave in which hundreds of soldiers are killed". This is only true if you consider crawling Chimera beasties as "soldiers." The cathedral section is a very small fraction of the entire game, lasting only 20 minutes, if that. It contains only alien enemies, as the rest of the game does, and includes no cutscenes or story elements which show a single human death.
Sony have yet to officially respond to the Church but a spokesman told the Times newspaper that "It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all." He also states that permission was sought when necessary, throughout the entire development process. Funny that they mention Doctor Who, considering the recent episode which ended with a man transforming into a monster and chasing his victims through Southwark Cathedral before being killed. We wonder if we'll see a battle to get those DVDs removed from shelves, once they're released.
[Thanks to everyone who told us about this]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh @ Jun 9th 2007 6:46PM
What is every company (MetLife aka GetaLife), Church, and even the city of New York going to say when the new Grand Theft Auto comes out?
nawtyeravgjoe @ Jun 9th 2007 7:01PM
before anybody says anything, i'd like to point out that the Church of England and the Catholic Church are two different churches. i dont like ignorant bashing.
Lucas @ Nov 8th 2007 7:10PM
That's just ridiculous.
They would have to remove the Resident Evil 4 copies from shelves too, as there are images from a church, where half-zombies appear and try to kill a little girl using flame arrows. U_______U
bootsielon @ Jun 9th 2007 7:25PM
As I said in another thread, I hope this backfires to the church of england with a little bit of hate crimes against them. Not specifically signed by Sony fans or anything, simply by anyone as karma payment. You know, just for spite and schadenfreude.
sam-evans @ Jun 9th 2007 7:42PM
I Wonder why they dont like the free advertising?
I dont think it encourages people to go shoot up churches, it does however encourage people to kill monsters in monster infested churches
Tom @ Jun 9th 2007 7:47PM
R:FoM is just a game, and the people who play it should (and, for the mostpart, do) know the difference between fantasy and reality. The people who seem to have a problem understanding the difference are The Church of Englad.
@bootsielon
You're advocating hate crimes against the church? It's people like you who give us gamers a bad image. You are an asshole.
acedoh @ Jun 9th 2007 8:29PM
Boots your comment are utterly outrageous...Is it okay to commit crimes just because someone or something disagrees with you??? I don't have any idea what person you are but those comments are unbelievable.
a.j. @ Jun 9th 2007 8:33PM
@ #4 what the F is wrong with you? that's exactly the kind of pimple faced, no life having, asshole comment that people use as ammunition against gamers. the Church doesn't want the building in the game because they're afraid it promotes violence and you go right ahead and fall right into it. stupid dick.
P @ Jun 9th 2007 9:22PM
Thought i recognised the church but passed it off as ignorance because 'they all look the same' ;) Used to work about 100m behind the Cathedral and drink 100m infront of it :)
Its quality being able to whoop monster-butt in familiar scenary (Manchester area, rather than the church, almost certainly the only time i'll ever go in there!!)
Its interesting that the C of E is happy for the killings to go on everywhere else, but not inside there little sacred buildings. If its done in a church then it means people might copy that, but if its copied outside the church there not fussy?
I really dont see as they have a hope in hell, but as with everyone else thats tried they'll fail and the gaming community will see how pathetic some people perceive their innocent gaming pleasures.
Andir3.0 @ Jun 9th 2007 11:39PM
@P: Some people think the church is "holy ground" or something like that. It's part of the reason I hate religion, but that's another matter. (If there was a "God" every ground would be "holy ground")
Look at some of the games and movies out right now. (Most vampire movies, Highlander, even Oblivion...) The Church seems to be invincible to violence and can even somehow avoid a fiery inferno capable of melting stone and buildings around the church (yet somehow it remains unscathed) and remains perfectly safe to attack. It instills false hope in a building that would fall just like any other building (perhaps quicker and even more deadly with all the elaborate works) in the face of a disaster. Then again, most religion is all about instilling false hope, so I guess I can see where they are coming from.
Breeze @ Jun 10th 2007 12:46AM
The Church of England should focus their time on resolving the thousands of lawsuits brought against them by former Alter Boys.
P @ Jun 10th 2007 1:55AM
Dare I say 'amen' to both the above ;)
Stupid thing is, with nonsense like this there pathetic claim/potential (failed) lawsuit has a higher chance of making me want to track down a gun and fire off a few rounds in there than R:FoM would ever have done hehe
What I dont get is they seem to feel they have a devine right that should mean Sony or anyone else could possibly use the building in their game. If it was private property or had any legal grounds to stop such from taking place then they'd have a leg to stand on, and im sure had they attempted to infest Old Trafford with zombies (asside from the daytrippers) then the club would have come down hard on Sony. I could be wrong, but sounds like it has the makings of an ideal way to waste the donations of church-going folk to me.
vizunary @ Jun 10th 2007 2:40AM
Jem or Nick, you need to ban bootseilon and remove his msg... I dislike organized religion, but that is the single dumbest fucking thing I've ever seen on any of these blogs.
Naaiif @ Jun 10th 2007 7:57AM
Get over it man, it was just a comment, and although distasteful, i found it funny.
Ubermonkey @ Jun 10th 2007 9:35AM
hahaha
ok then, next time a bunch of aliens invade earth, i'll take care to advoid fighting them in a church
nick @ Jun 10th 2007 10:57AM
lol. this is really funny. obviously this isnt the first game or movie that involves violence in an actual place and this is the first time anyone has ever complained. What about the 7 grand theft auto's or the 3 call of duties which also include war scenes and killings of humans in real churches???
Kr155 @ Jun 10th 2007 12:01PM
(tears form as he looks down at his modified m4 assault rifle in his right hand, then looks down at a plane ticket to Manchester England clenched in his left hand. Tears streak down his face as he drops them both and runs crying to his room.) They Burst My Bubble!!! I wanted to shoot aliens in historical british buildings! :(
John @ Jun 10th 2007 1:39PM
1st of all, bootsielon was making a joke, get over it
secondly, the church of england are just making twats of themselves. theres no way sony would take rfom of the shelves (they know its a major selling point of the ps3) and theres even less way they would win in court (think about it lol)
ok so theyr unhappy with this section of the game but thers rli nothing they can do about it. best bet would be to keep their mouths shut lol
OMAC @ Jun 10th 2007 1:43PM
So, basically the church is against having guns in church, but mutant aliens enslaving mankind is okay?
WebMaster @ Jun 10th 2007 2:42PM
@ John
First of all advocating hate crimes isn't a joke. Quite honestly, all someone has to do is perform such an act and then point the finger back to this blog and his comment and the chances of a very valid lawsuit are very real.
Boot is an ignorant, disengenius, radical fanboy that need to grow up and realize what is acceptable and what isn't.
John @ Jun 10th 2007 2:55PM
@WebMaster
fair point lol
i stand by my claim that the church of england r making twats of themselves tho lol
3cubedminus3squared @ Jun 10th 2007 3:31PM
Thats one way of getting the game off the shelves ;)
In all seriousness though, this is pretty stupid.
If I owned a church, I would love for it to be in a video game or movie, and if the only way for that to be possible is to add some violence, then fine. I don't care.
maverick_saturn_626 @ Jun 10th 2007 4:59PM
Pointless as far as I am concerned, a game is a game, by playing it in a church or playing the game taking place in a church makes no difference, will God strike me down because I am playing a video game which involves churches?
Rather ridiculous as far as I am concerned and while I agree to some point that it is rather irresponsible of Sony to do that without direct permission, what do the churches plan to do next? Sue the creators of 28 Weeks Later for featuring the royal cathedral in a zombie and violent movie?
WTF? It seems like suing each other is a daily kick these days.
Dylan Betts @ Jun 10th 2007 8:19PM
huh. How do they know that the Church is even in the game unless they have played it? A bunch of hypocrites if you ask me.
Shanshu311 @ Jun 11th 2007 10:52AM
I agree, this whole thing is lame. Uber lame. So lame, it limps. I posted a similar rant on my blog http//www.shanshu311.blogspot.com
It's so lame that the Church of England is complaining about something so simple and unrelated to religion. The cathedral was used as a background for one part of a level in a video game. It wasn't part of the plot, nor did the level focus on the cathedral at ALL.
This whole thing is stupid and I hope it goes away soon.
nick @ Jun 11th 2007 5:11PM
# 19 is right. Sony is obvoiusly not going to remove it from the shelves and if the church decides to take sony to court the church will definately lose.
john @ Jun 11th 2007 9:20PM
From the gist of these comments, it's obvious that gamers (that misunderstood and increasingly demonized class) are way more intelligent than whatever entity brought these charges... oh wait! That would be organized religion! (Throws intelligence out the window with the bathwater, and the baby). It was impressive to see everyone making assiduous and astute comments in the absence of our usual rivalry 'twixt consoles-- when we're attacked as one, we band together! (hugs, pink hearts for eyes, techno love-music).
I'm serious, though, it was neat to see everyone rallying for the same cause (being able to play videogames without persecution: 'help, help! I'm bein repressed!')