Posted on 02/07/2007 12:40:17 PM PST by Alex Murphy
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — At a recent board meeting, pastor Darrell Smith of Trinity Fellowship put a video game controller in each member's hands. Soon the 12 men were clobbering each other on an oversized TV screen as they played Altar Egos: Rumble in the Pew, the latest church staff craze.
"I haven't felt this good about church in years," said one board member, smiling and sweating.
Video game maker Electronic Arts created Altar Egos to test the market for Christian video games. The game, which EA describes as "Grand Theft Auto without the graphic violence and sex, and set in a church building," is not yet available in stores but was sent to hundreds of churches across the U.S. where it has become an instant obsession.
"It's a guilty pleasure," says a pastor in Appleton, Wisc., who plays with his staff as weekly therapy, but keeps the game a secret from his congregation. "It keeps tempers down around here. You seek out the person you're annoyed with and whack them. They say, 'Your sermon stunk,' and they hit me with a mic stand. And I say, 'Oh yeah? Well worship was lousy,' and bonk them over the head with a family-size Bible. Then we put down the controllers, go back to work and everything's fine."
Altar Egos does have a point: to find the hidden church check book and clear the pastor's office of all other players. But most people just enjoy the rumble.
"I like ripping up the hymnals. I don't know why," says one executive pastor who asked not to be identified.
Matches often get ugly as virtual staff meetings and Sunday services go badly wrong, with people hurling folding chairs and offering plates at each other, and yelling Bible-inspired insults ("I'm gonna lay you waste, snake." Whack!).
During an afternoon round of Altar Egos at Lifeline Center in Seattle, the on-screen pastor jumped on stage and bashed his associate over the head with an acoustic guitar. The associate responded by shoving the pastor into the baptismal tank and holding him under water. The pastor's wife came to the rescue. Meanwhile, the drummer tossed cymbals into the crowd, fomenting rage within the congregation.
"This is a great round," said the associate pastor, thumbing his controller to dodge blows from the head usher. "Even the organist is getting into it."
Some churches especially enjoy the feature which allows them to put real people's faces on the computer characters. Recently, pastor Rodney Ellis of People's Church in Baltimore walked in on his youth pastor beating up an on-screen version of Ellis. The real Ellis flinched for a moment, then said, "It's okay. As long as it stays on-screen."
After a particularly stressful staff meeting recently, associate pastor Jeff Gibanelli of Mount Holyoke Methodist church in Massachusetts locked his office door and played a hard round of Altar Egos. Half an hour later he walked out of his office "feeling tremendous goodwill" toward people he had just been bashing on-screen, he says.
Critics predictably don't like the game's violence and mayhem. They especially deplore that with a secret code players can get into the nursery and trash the room — dumping Diaper Genies and smashing toys.
"Major satisfaction," says one children's ministry coordinator who plays the game most Sunday afternoons.
Because Altar Egos can be played online with up to 25 players, some computer-savvy laypeople have been able to hack in before the game is released. Staff members at Living Way Church in Mobile, Ala., were surprised when an unknown assailant crashed their online game and began calling their characters by name and beating them senseless. The mystery player not only won the game but left before they could guess his identity.
"I was looking over my shoulder the next couple of Sundays," says one staffer.
EA is "excited" about early results and may issue more titles, including one based on a missions trip gone awry.
"Do yourself a favor and don't get into it," counsels Trinity's youth pastor as his on-screen character pile-drives the church secretary. "It's addicting."
PTL ping list/HAIR Club!
CC&E ;^)
Great. Here comes "Grand Theft: Auto - First Baptist Church Parking Lot"...
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