Not sure if this is religion or technology or current event .. but it's s kinda interesting.
I'm wondering how close to reality this game really hits.
This is a new facebook game. It was 'Priestville' and now is 'Vatican Wars'.
It isn't put out by the Catholic Church. It's by SGR Games.
'Priestville' morphed. There became a race to become pope. Players ended up blackmailing each other and bullying each other. Most were just fine
and played sacramentally correct but there was A LOT of bullying . Those that ran the game had no way of knowing how many of the players were
actually catholic, how many weren't catholic, what the motives for play were, or how many were in it to play for power.
Vatican Wars - Facebook Game
“This data confirmed our belief that this is the most powerful and compelling tool we’ve ever seen for increasing Mass attendance,
religious practice and interest in the Priesthood,” said Cheyenne Ehrlich, founder of SGR Games, LLC. “But we also had some problems. Players
blackmailed and bullied each other to try to control the online Papacy. This required us to make changes to the game before we could roll it out on a
larger scale."
The company stressed in its releases that it is not associated with Zynga, nor is it associated with the Roman Catholic Church.
Ultimately the game is seems to be about debating theology in a respectful and thoughtful way and non-Catholics are encouraged to join the game at
apps.facebook.com/vaticanwars. It should be noted that in order to play the game you have to choose a calling - there is no option to play as another
religion or as a non-believer. The differences in choices seem to be more about politics than religion.
more info from the press release
“We had two major problems to solve in PriestVille,” said Ehrlich. “The first was the lengths that some players were willing to go to
become Pope. It was horrifying. We had three reports of a player being blackmailed into quitting the race for Pope in the game. And the amount of
player bullying we saw turned our stomachs. It was so awful that, on several occasions, we considered ending the game.”
Sounds like real life. How many priest are actually in it for ministering to the people and bringing them the sacraments and how many are there for
other reasons ... how many are pedophiles who are posing as catholics so they can get into a rich target area ... that kind of thing.
I'm wondering what prompted SGR to put this game out. They aren't 'catholic' .. they aren't fundamentalist and trying to make some other religion
look bad ... perhaps they are just brainstorming and came up with it because they are running out of other ideas ... or could there have been some
outside influence that wanted it on Facebook. (I'm sure Facebook isn't as innocent as it appears)
Anyways .. I think it has had interesting results. Says alot about the cross section of humanity, about big organizations, about what drives people,
etc. Not sure if it would directly translate to the same percentages of good guys/bad guys in the real priesthood .. but again ... it's
interesting.
edit on 6/23/2011 by FlyersFan because: moved sentence
