We'll Sue You If You Don't Takedown Your Opinion Of Our Game!
from the good-luck-with-that-strategy dept
Left Behind Games, makers of (somewhat controversial) religiously themed real-time strategy games based apparently isn’t happy that its video games were reviewed negatively across the blogworld. So, they did what any video game company would do: they improved their game. Oh… no, they didn’t. As pointed out by reader Grey, they simply pulled out the lawyers and threatened to sue a bunch of bloggers for posting “false and misleading” content about the games. Of course, opinions can’t be either false or misleading, so they’ll have quite a case on their hands. In the meantime, perhaps this was merely an attempt at a reverse “Streisand Effect” as the attempt to take down those negative reviews is simply getting a lot more attention on those negative reviews. Whether or not that leads to sales is another story…
Filed Under: streisand effect, video games
Companies: left behind games
Comments on “We'll Sue You If You Don't Takedown Your Opinion Of Our Game!”
Me Thinks
Somebody is trying to buffer overflow infiltrate TechDirt.
…
Re: Me Thinks
Maybe it’s Left Behind Games trying to keep this story from getting too much publicity. 🙂
I doubt that...
they can make a case on this.
As pointed out by reader Grey, they simply pulled out the lawyers and threatened to sue a bunch of bloggers for posting “false and misleading” content about the games.
The only way they can prove this is to prove that the reviewers knowingly lied about the contents of the games. If I were to review The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and gave it bad score because, “It doesn’t adhere to the Zelda tradition of having a major battle between Link and Ganon near the end of the game.”, then I could be held liable because I knowingly lied about the game. However such a lawsuit would not be necessary because my credibility as reviewer would be shot if I made such a false statement.
Too bad IQ isn’t a requirement to post on the web, lol
RTS? bleh. Now if it was a religiously based FPS, I would probably buy that one! That would actually be pretty sweet!
Re: Re:
I seem to recall hearing about a religious FPS in the news a short while back…
Re: Re: Re:
Would you be talking about the Halo trilogy?
If not then you will Live:)
Re: Re:
I agree on that one. Looks like I got a project to work on 😉
Good grief, if you don’t want people saying bad things about your games, then don’t make such lousy games. If you make a good game, it will get a good review, and you will get sales. That’s the way the world works. Deal with it. And by deal with it, I don’t mean sue everybody in life, because that will not gain you anything. This country has way to much litigation, and I think the entire public in general is really starting to get sick of it.
How do these idiots have so much free time? No life to live outside the blog.. People are ruining the Internet because they cannot find entertainment outside of the keyboard.. Get real losers.. who is John and why is he ruining this thread with 1’s… get a life people.. get a job, a girlfriend, a hobby.. jeeebus
no religion talk
this is what the game´s site says…
“Lead the Tribulation Force, including Rayford, Chloe, Buck and Bruce against Nicolae Carpathia – the AntiChrist
This game does not include references to any religions”
But the anti Christ aint a ref to Christ ??
looks like they wanted to get media attention with this.. bah .. looks lame sue me !
The game was not an excellent game I will give them that much. But after reading several of the blogs in question the case may hold water. The problem is that the bloggers gave false descriptions of what you do in the game. I’m not sure they played the whole thing before writing their posts. The game at frist glance looks like it’s based around being christian and shooting anyone who’s not. But as the story progresses anyone will come to understand that it’s not what the game is about at all. But you have to play the game and not already be critical of religion to see that.
I’m not a fan of the Left Behind genre, they took a far too literal stance on vaugue ancient prophecies for my tastes, but I had to try the attempt at a “Christian” game just to see if it would be as bad as I thought. It was. You can’t deny that. But the sites I’m reading right now look like they read someone elses review, formed an opinion of their own and wrote about the game without playing it.
Re: Re:
Care to tell us what they calim and how it differes from what really goes on in the game? I’m curious now. I hear the game is really bad so I can’t get myself to buy a copy. If you can’t tell us I’d be more than happy to turn to torrents. 🙂
freedom of speach. 1st amendment.
Re: Re:
I do love my peaches…
Re: Re:
Freedom of speech only refers to the government, ignant.
If they really were Christians
If these game developers really were Christians they would never had pulled out the lawyers and threatened to sue. They would have prayed for God to punish them. Hypocrites! This is why I don’t trust religion or the Christian church. There are other reasons such as their mindless loyalty to the Republican Party, which has nearly ruined this nation and turned it into a Christian Fascist state.
Re: If they really were Christians
I like your passion but you are way off subject with your rant.
Damn, I guess I won’t get raptured…
Re: Re:
I wanna bumper sticker for my old VW… Something like: In case of Rapture, Driver will be in someone else’s empty BMW!
Re #37
I do not think there would be any empty BMWs though. If so it would have to be very few.
1
I see you and raise you 1.
Faith-based advantage
That’s the real advantage to faith-based anything; true believers still believe, in spite of concrete evidence right before their eyes. Left Behind Games shouldn’t worry about the negative reviews; both they and their customers should just have faith and believe that the games are as good as they say they are.
Re: Faith-based advantage
This isn’t about faith. It’s about poor game sales. They are trying to blame the bloggers and not their own game design team for the quality of their game.
The power of prayer will fix everything.
sue u sue me
How about – I will sue u coz ur opinion is same as mine
A false statement is that “opinions can’t be false or misleading”. Opinions can legally be determined to be statements that are “slanderous” and/or patently “false and misleading”, which is something that can be brought to suit. It happens a thousand times a day in the American legal system, and frequently won by the plaintiff with damages incurred by the defendant.
I can’t just make stuff up, publish it, and expect to be completely immune to the consequences. E.g. “ACME cars are shoddy and worthless. Who knows they may blow up in your face!” That’s an “opinion” but libelous.
Christianity isn’t about “praying for punishment”. It’s about trying, and failing, to be more like Jesus. That means doing your honest best to love even your enemy. A real Christian would should ignore the slights or try to teach a better message, not sue some ignorant person for a half conceived opinion. Bad form.
Left Behind Books....ya they suck too
The books suck too. I read the first one and thought “Wow! This is gonna be so sweet!” And when I got about 1/3 into the second book I realized they were going to stretch this out and milk it for all the money they could. Last time I checked they’re still churning them out. Meanwhile I’m waiting for Half-Life2: Episode II.
the best possible solution would be to just get rid of the outdated myth we call christianity
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i second that
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Today’s religions are tomorrow’s mythology. The Romans and the Greeks were just as sure their gods were real.
Love thy neighbor
But only after smiting them! As Jesus said: “Beat the living crud out of people who don’t like you by dragging them through court, make them suffer the pains of being served a complaint, force them to fork over money to a lawyer” from the Book of Hypocricy 12:1, my favorite. I pray from it every day.
The game company sounds religious enough to me.
Buy our game, if not then you will be smited by the hand of the law. So give us what we want or more money so we can build a larger company to make more religious games for you to complain about!
Just like the church:
Buy into Christianity. If not, then you will then you will be smited by God. So give us mindless followers… I mean religious nuts… I mean Christ loving patrons… AND more money for God so he can help us help ourselves to build a larger foundation for molestors… I mean a larger church.
If they really were Christians
Adrian, please explain how he’s “way off” with his rant. Everything he said rings true to me. Defend your position.
I contacted LBG via their web page with some criticism… somehow I doubt they can defend their position.
A Thought - Off Topic
Way back when, over a month I am sure, it seemed like people were replying to absolutely nothing.
Now, they very well could have been, but I think I understand now, that they were replying to a post that was removed as spam.
Since My post ended up the first post here, yet was the 22nd at the time.
Makes sense since a couple other poster’s posts also were replying to the pointless now removed posts.
I see Kemosabi.
In the bible, Jesus says to turn the other cheek. Asshats.
The name calling in my comment above was toward the game developers and their lawyers, not to any commenters.
religion...almost like a woman...but doesn't invo
isn’t all religion a myth for the humans that refuse to cure their own problems? i mean, asking GOD for help when you didn’t do your homework doesn’t make it done.
religion was created by governments to have control over the population. this is actually a proven fact that you won’t hear on FOX news considering they still block out the “GOD” in “god damn”…
what humans should realize is that you can’t believe shiite that comes out of a human’s mouth..unless they’re dead..
humans are deceitful mofos that just love to do everything and anything for personal gain. in my opinion i think Bush should create a blackop to just rid the poor planet of human beings..well if i was a fascist nazi that’s what i would do 🙂
huh...
Calm down everyone. It’s a news report, so don’t blow your top. People need to learn to live and let live; calm down and focus on what really mateers.
A stunning example.
Few, if any, would care to stand up and proclaim they know something, anything at all, definitively about the real world. This might seem a futile act, but let me try, for I am just such a fool. And I know it.
Being but human beings, and generally believing as we all do, when we see something false or even disingenuous, we then literally miraculously and quite religiously believe we have then had bestowed upon our own fabled internal system of intellectual ballast and steerage some unassailable logical means and mechanisms by which we can know something constructed entirely of the cold, hard stuff of incontrovertable truth, or at least something well worth making a snide comment about by exercising our vocal cords or, as here, the far more likely and the far more privately anonymous fingers that press the key caps.
I mock no one here as I make my observation, for this is our humanity bellowing out and demonstrating amply for all the other howler monkeys exactly which tree all the baffoons are up. I told you not, that I was a fool?
And if all our intellectual efforts are merely variations on this same droning theme, which they do so seem to be on most every occasion these days as the world disintegrates before our eyes into the future, and then again into the future of the future, then, oh! then! OH! (said with a fainting swoon by the first-personed fool)
Are we all not merely the very automatons by which we do so ernestly mean to demonstrate we are not by our vicariously vocal key cap machinations?
It is very trendy in a Richard Dawkins sort of way to hack away at and, bash these silly religious baffoons. And, they are silly.
But honestly everyone would do well to look into the mirror of self deceit we know as self reflection. For we all babble the same language of an almost constantly babbling humanity on this planet, and none of our iterated belief systems or our scribed knowledge sets could ever be said to reach escape velocity from this, the reality of the terra firma of all our common superstitions.
Don Robertson, The American Philosopher
Left Behind Games
I think I am going to have to review it. I do software reviews and recommendations. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to waste thier money if it is not a good game ; )
I think they should be embarassed to use lawyers to try and shut up the public about reviews which are based solely on the writers opinion.
Re: Left Behind Games
I am not the same Nick as the one that posted before. I just noticed I am not the only Nick here lol.
Re: Left Behind Games
I am not the same Nick as the one that posted before. I just noticed I am not the only Nick here lol.
Nothing better to do
So they don’t get their mind control message out, folks don’t like their game, so what does a good bully do? Tries to beat you up for even thinking that about him!
Come on, are you going to really tell me that some sane judge will actually take this case? Hell I will buy this damn game, review it, and post on it with my honest opinion and if the game SUCKS, then I will post it. Since when did freedom of speech become second rate to some COMPANIES opinion? A company is not even alive yet we are the ones persecuted for saying a piece of round reflective plastic was not worth buying. And to DOC and all the other lawyer cronies defending their actions as if the company was right, you too are destorying civil liberties and you don’t even know it. People first companies second
Idiots
I guess even right wing Christians have a hissyfit over losing their money like repugnant sell out capitalists and socialists.
they need to do it “the corporate way”.. buying blogger reviews
Crazy
I am a conservative, evangelical Christian and I think this game is an embarrassment to all Christians.
Christ taught that all people in the world have sinned, including Christians, and deserve the punishment of death. But that those who follow him receive a free gift of grace. It does not make them better than others, instead it makes them responsible to show that same grace and love to others. Christians are to live as aliens on the earth, in that they do not belong in the things of the world.
The crazy USA Christian right is an abomination. They believe they have to protect a Christian nation by showing hatred and intollerance to all who do not agree with them. They are the pharasees of today and God will punish them for their support of the war on terror and for tarnishing the name of Jesus.
Christians should show love to their enemies. So even if they do not agree with gays, other religions and people who have abortions, they should still show love and grace toward those people. Afterall, those people are not Christians and so Christians cannot expect them to follow the same rules. Christians should instead focus on fighting the powers that cause injustices(ie. the war in Iraq).
The whole idea of a rapture where Christians are swept away, leaving the whole rest of the world to suffer under the hands of the beast is unbiblical. The bible says that when Jesus comes everyone will be judged and it will be the end of the world. Leading up to that moment, Christians will be killed and persecuted for their faith. The idea that Jesus will save them from suffering is harmful to their attitude towards others. Jesus said that every Christian must be willing to peacefully follow him into death for their belief in him.
Go ahead and sue me for my comments, but remember the bible says Christains cannot sue other Christians.
The Rapture
The only thing wrong with the Rapture is that it hasn’t happened yet! Wouldn’t this world be a much safer, more peaceful place if all the Christians were to suddenly disappear into thin air?
Of course it would also be a safer, more peaceful place if all the Christians were to follow the teachings of their Savior, but that is of course a ridiculous expectation. Christians are the LAST people anyone could expect to act like Christ.
sued for an opinion? yah...
It would not be the first time someone was
sued or fined for an opinion. It’s easily
found to be immoral to penalize or criminalize
someone’s thoughts, but that is the sad
world we are living in now! The question
really is ; What are You (You reading this)
doing to counter this psychotic trend in society?
Do you like the idea of some rich company or
person suing you over your private opinions?
Want to be free to speak about anything?
Remember what a “Free and Just Society” is about?!
Wake Up Everyone
🙂
this story
this convinces me the companies ideas totally suck rocks.
lets let themselves go bankrupt trying to sue people because their games suck so we dont have to suffer piss poor games, or hear about these whining wannabe’s anymore.
I’ve never played one of their games and just seeing this is plenty incentive to never want to be confused as someone who is supportive to their efforts. at least they chose a proper name for themselves with Left Behind Games, to me they may as well be “flushed down the toilet games” now.
prejudice
It seems to me by broad brushing everyone who falls under the category “Christian” you are coming off as prejudicial.
Unless there is some unwritten rule that if you are not a Christian it isn’t hypocritical to slam and broad brush because there is no inherent ethical code.
When I was an student at SUNY Albany studying evolutionary psychology and ascribing to secular humanism I had the mind to consider a live and let live philosophy.
The left behind guys are mislead in their theology no doubt about it. The left behind books are quite off track on Biblical prophesy as well. I think they have swallowed the NeoCon koolaid.
I think it is wrong that they are suing people, and I find their game to be abominable – especially the violence that is portrayed in their game. The philosophy of the game is the same in much of main stream Christianity today – “Let’s take what the world has and make it Christian”. They have Grand Theft Auto so we should have our own version and make sure it has reference to God. It’s the same philosophy that brought the world Stryper!!! What a joke!! And it’s so incredibly obvious to the unsaved and yet many Christians are eating it up. It’s a sad commentary and it indeed was discussed in the Bible in Revelation 3 regarding the church at Laodicea.
These guys are wrong and I’m glad that their efforts are yielding no success. I would like to think that God is not blessing them for their misguided efforts. In light of the scriptures – even if they were successful, one would conclude that it wasn’t a result of God’s blessing anyway. But I digress from my current digression.
To you skeptics I would hope you would not look at Christians like the left behind crowd and assume we’re all like that. I would also hope you would dig a little more into what is going on in the world at large and compare it to what the Bible says is supposed to happen in the last days. Just to name a few items: A country called Israel exists and is troubling to the rest of the world. Russia and Iran are going to war against it. China and other eastern armies are going to war against it. A one world government will be instituted, with a one world currency, and a one world religion. This will be established by someone who comes forward and actually accomplished a peace treaty with Israel. Furthermore, this person will be acknowledged by all other world religions (The Buddha, Krishna, Mahdi, Messiah, etc). Although these items are somewhat touched upon in the LBH series, they take too many liberties with what transpires.
I do care about the people posting on this forum, and I acknowledge that we all have been given the inalienable rights to choose our fates, so I have no grudge to bear for those who do not share my beliefs. I only hope to have an open exchange of ideas and mutual respect for the right to voice them.
Also while I’m here, I might as well put a plug in for RonPaul2008.com – although I figure most here are up on his candidacy for president.
Peace.
Christianity-The Death Cult
By definition, Christianity is a Death Cult – its followers only get their reward after death. Some believe they only get their reward after the death of the entire world!
Christians are always suspect because they want the world to end, which they define as the moment when their favorite sky monster comes down to earth and takes them all to live on a cloud called “heaven”. Christians should never be allowed to have the reins of power as they will inevitably come to a suicidal solution, consciously or not, and will choose to take us all with them into their little fantasy world.