A game where gods fight among gods has become an ire with local agency MCMC, that after the release Fight of Gods which allows users to choose their character as Buddha or Jesus and pit against each other, has been blocked.
All Steam accounts on mobile and desktop which streams the game has been blocked in view of the sensitivity of the issue, religion bodies in the country spoke out against the game that might cause uneasiness among citizens. MCMC applied the DNS on the site after giving Steam operators 24 hours to restrict the game from being broadcast in the country.
According to Multimedia Minister, the action was taken to protect users from untoward incidents, the objective is to ensure solidarity and harmony among our multi racial, multi religious society in the nation.
The game developed by Taiwanese publishers PQubegames has various gods depicted in the game fighting of each other to become the ultimate champion, characters include Buddha, Odin, Anubis and other ancient beliefs, finally highlighting the arrival of Jesus. (although there were no depiction of an Islamic god) The trailers on YouTube has over 700k views with mixed comments from netizens whereby while some find the game entertaining there were others who just brushed aside the sensitivity aspect with mostly unaffected by the games portrayal of gods fighting each other.
However as a young nation, we here at PC.com can understand MCMC’s action on the matter with religious issues in the country is taken with great care to ensure no parties are hurt or disturbed. Kudos to the agency for addressing this swiftly and realising the potential harm the controversial game can cause if released.
Online gaming in longer restricted within a small community, having turned mainstream today’s games are broadcast across the globe with both players and ‘watchers’ constitute a bigger audience than ever before. Publishers and developers will have to take into account the influence they have over young gamers and be responsible with the messages their games carry.
