Hindus take divine mace to Sony Playstation

Hindu groups worldwide have called for a boycott of all Sony PlayStation products in response to the company's Hanuman: Boy Warrior, on the grounds that the PS2 game “trivializes the highly revered deity of Hinduism”. Sony's representation of Hanuman from the PS2 website The main objection to the game is that "the player …

[Cameron Colley]

FFS grow up!

Just because you believe in sky pixies doesn't mean those of us with brains in our heads should be nice about them all the time.

[Flugal]

OK then

Of all the popular religion manking has invented, I have a bit of a soft spot for Hinduism. It's as absurd as the rest of them, but with the elephants and stuff is seems as if they're having a bit of a laugh themselves, and the several Hindu folk I know seem to not take it all too literally.

OTOH, I did speak to a Christian woman at the weekend, who had her child (approx 6 yrs) hanbding out Christian propaganda. I asked her (the adult) how old she believe the Earth to be "5 or 6 thousand years, more or less". Ok...er, and the dinosaurs, when were they? "Again, about 5 or 6 thousand years..."

Religions are so bonkers they make me smile.

Paris...because I wouldn't let her play with MY sword either.

[Juillen]

Wasn't that..

The argument used by the Christian Church against the printing press when it was invented (that it trivialised the word of God, and was thus herectical)?

[Ihre Papiere Bitte!!]

To be fair...

If a video game was launched where you played Mohammed, can you imagine it getting as far as the shelves at GAME? (though I imagine the level where you wait for the mountain to come to you would be kinda dull anyways....)

Using a real* deity from a current religion shows extraordinary bad judgment on the part of the makers, and is probably just looking for cheap publicity for a bad game. All they had to do to avoid pissing off 1bn people was to change the name and image slightly, and there would not have been a problem - nor would there have been news reports about it to bring it to the attention of people for free.

I, for one, will not be buying it! Partly because I don't own a Playstation, of course, but that's entirely by-the-by....

*yes, yes, I know, they're all make-believe-sky-fairies to mug the gullible etc. Just go with me here, ok?

[Anonymous Coward]

Muslims take note

The Hindu's have protested (politely), no holy wars have been declared, no marches through the streets of London welcoming suicide bombers, no government monies will be given to aid 'reconciliation' - this is how its done in polite society!

[Anonymous Coward]

If I were hindu...

... I'd be more upset that they've made him look like a male version of Xena Warrior Princess, and about as camp. All he needs is a 'friend' called Gabriel and....

[Lionel Baden]

Oh Piss off you morons !

i loved playing Black and white thought it was awesum

Mebbe your just pissed that the game with your god in it was shit !

[Anonymous Coward]

@Ihre Papiere Bitte

I totally agree, this is a crass on-the-cheap advertising stunt. They could easily have had a very slightly different character and caused no offence at all. I know that there is no right to not be offended, but conversly there should also be a responsibillity to not needlessly offend others.

[Anonymous Coward]

first it was Manchester Cathedral

and now it's some kid with a minge on his face.

Sony, come up with your own locations and mumbo jumbo characters, ffs

anonymous coward - don't want any religious loonies to come for me (knees knocking) ...

[Winkypop]

Invisible Hindu Sky Fairies

Demand equal rights!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: FFS grow up!

@Cameron Colley:

" Just because you believe in sky pixies doesn't mean those of us with brains in our heads should be nice about them all the time. "

No-one's asking you to "be nice about them", just not to be nasty about them. "If you can't say nuffin nice, don't say nuffin at all."

There's plenty of mythology out there with no active adherents (no-one worships Zeuss these days) and that's fair game. But it's obvious that this is going to offend people. If you really believe religious people are stupid, gullible, or just otherwise wrong; well, you're not going to change them by pointing and laughing, so why do it?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a load of b****ks

Here in India, nobody cares - Hindu or Muslim. We'll happily buy the game if we think it's good / value for money. Some will pirate it. These religious schmucks are just that, and protesting to get in the news.

During the annual Dussehra and Ganesha festivals, various gods are depicted in contemporary contexts and there are never any protests (until now). The theme is usually good vs evil and you have idols depicting OBL being killed by some goddesses, Ganesha inaugurating a nuclear plant, and so on.

It's the Hindus sitting in the US / UK who need to pull their heads out of their backsides, stop acting holier than holy, and make the whole country look silly. I'd blame the US/UK gummints for not putting these nutters in an asylum, or deporting them. Actually no. Please keep them with you, just shut them up.

Anon. Of course.

[Gopal Patel]

What's the problem?

Being a Hindu myself I can't see a problem with it really, how's this any different to watching a cartoon about Hanuman? Hinduism is a really chilled out religion, anything that can heighten its awareness in a positive light can't be a bad thing. Need to stop taking everything too seriously and just realise what this is..a Game.

[Prashant Kerai]

As a Hindu myself *

with family on the subcontinent, I have to say Rajan Zed is a busybody and a killjoy to boot. Most Indian kids would love the idea of a game where they could be Hanuman.

* largely by default -- Hinduism is nice because they can't excommunicate you

[Avalanche]

Local uproar in the states

I thought I read something about this before on the Dutch site tweakers.net. As far as I recall only some Americans of Indian descent were in uproar. The game itself was developed by Indian developers and is specifically marketed in India and Hindu's in India did not see any problem with the game.

[Big Al]

Hypocrisy

I'd like to see Sony try launching a game in the United States that had players manipulating Christ... Hypocrisy.

And it's okay to target someone else's deities just because you don't happen to believe in them? Arrogance of the first order, and dangerous arrogance at that.

[Ian Ferguson]

I can see their point.

I can't see a major American (or Japanese) manufacturer publishing a game where you control Jesus, Mohammed or Buddha.

Or, if that doesn't seem shocking enough, a game where you control Princess Diana, Jade Goody or Susan Boyle.

[Andrew]

Ihre Papiere Bitte!!:

No games company would use Mohammed in a game. Not out of respect, but out of a desire to not receive letterbombs.

[Ye Cats]

But, but...

..the game was developed in India, presumably by Indians, and, I'm guessing, Hindus.

From what I can see the Indian gaming community have no problem with the religious aspect, just that it's a bit, er, shite. As one commenter says, it looks more like an N64 game; in fact, some might say a _C_64 game. The Japanese, of course, are thoroughly comfortable with their religious characters being embedded in games, anime, etc,, so I can imagine they wouldn't see the problem, either. I would have thought it glorifies Hanuman, if anything.

[Dave The Cardboard Box]

How about a game

where you shoot abortionists in churches to show your love for Jesus and how much you respect human life.

[Jason Yau]

Wouldn't it be

more fun if you played as Jesus killing bad guys with guns?

[steogede]

Transubstantiation

> The main objection to the game is that "the player controlled the destiny of Lord Hanuman while in reality the believers put the destinies of themselves in the hands of their deities". Accordingly, "controlling and manipulating Lord Hanuman with a joystick/button/keyboard/mouse" - including wielding the deity's "Mighty Mace" to inflict righteous damage on adversaries - constitutes "denigration".

That's interesting, here was I thinking that the game involved controlling a computer game character *based on* Lord Hanuman - when in reality players are actually controlling the real Lord Hanuman. Wow, the PS2 is even more powerful than I can have imagined.

So if the god in the game told players what to do and they blindly followed it, that would be alright?

[Cameron Colley]

@Anonymous Coward 12:32 GMT

Taking the piss out of the gullible and the misguided is fun -- and goes some way to offsetting the annoyances they cause in daily life.

Personally, I'm quite happy to have my "beliefs" mocked -- I just get a little sick of those we aren't.

[Anonymous Coward]

It has happened before and Sony bowed

Regardless of your opinion on religions (mine is pretty low) if this is accurate then Sony is not being consistent. They have delayed the launch of Little Big Planet last year just to remove a song that included words from the Qu'ran. So now if they don't do the same for Indus one might imply they didn't do it out of respect but out of fear and therefore Indus must crash a couple of airplanes into tall and famous buildings before they can get treated with the same "respect"....

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC Re: FFS grow up!

"No-one's asking you to 'be nice about them', just not to be nasty about them. 'If you can't say nuffin nice, don't say nuffin at all.'

My personal policy is "If you can't say something nice, say something nasty."

[Inachu]

If we can have Hanuman then.......

Where is the fighting Jesus action figure and where is Mohammad GI joe?

Where is the YVWVH YAHWEH fight god action figure of the jews?

If one religious sect can be slighted then so can all the others

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously...

Ok... so I'm a Christian (yeah yeah, heard it all before, and no I don't believe the earth was made just 5-6 thousand years ago... I'm one of those christians who doesn't just stick their fingers in their ears going "La la la la" whenever anyone challenges their interpretations...)

But I digress... I've long held the belief that I don't need to stick up for God... what's the point in a deity who needs humans to protect them from the big bully boys?? Doesn't really seem like much of a deity if that's the case!

[Sean]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

BAAAHHH HAHAHA HA HAHA. HAHAHAHAHAH AHAHA. I love it. Religion is so useful and constructive. If they are so faithful and such true believers, why don't they sit back and let Sony release it unfettered and wait for the horrible retribution from their god to all the unbelievers. Oh man, too funny. Let me know how that boycott works out for you guys....hahahahahah...

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, please

I'm christian, and, thanks to some commenters here, I now want a game wher-in you play Jesus. I think, ideally, it should have some pretty great graphics, and probably a morality system, kind of like KOTOR and Fable. If the authors prefer it to have some moral message or whatever it could show the long term effects. If not, that is fine too.

Sounds fun.

[Anonymous Coward]

As an atheist Hindu..........

.....I was always proud of the fact that we had a relatively smaller percentage of fundamentalist nutjobs as compared to other major religions, with the exception of Buddhism. Silly thing to be proud of, but there you go. Looks like these self declared custodians of the Hindu faith are trying pretty hard to close the gap. I guess this is what we get after 60 plus years of vote-bank politics.

Maybe I should get these idiots to stop my 4 year old nephew from 'playing' Hanuman. His version doesn't involve a playstation......just me getting beaten up with his little plastic mace! :-)

ps - Yes, atheist Hindu. Don't believe in the 30 million divine spaghetti monsters. Love the way of life.

[Moss Icely Spaceport]

How about: Religion Wars!

Make a game where ALL the religions battle it out against each other!

......Hang on, isn't that what happens in real life?

[Manas Straw]

@Prashant Kerai & @Gopal Patel

Totally agree with you. All the fuss seems to be from way across the seven seas.

Have not heard any protests here in India. In fact, we have ads for the game on kids' channels. And yes, from what I have seen in the ads, the game certainly could do with a lot of improvement. Looks like a game for kids, by kids. Expected much more from Sony.

[Lionel Baden]

@Icely spaceport

First off you name is bloody difficult to type !

Secondly that idea Rox !!

Powers for individuals

Jesus get x2 lifes. after dying revives after 3 min

dont know much about other religions :/

but there is that 6 armed lady !

the fat buddah dude can flatten people :D

Im really thinking halflife 2 could easily do this :D Wooo

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not about "talking nicely" @Re: FFS grow up!

>" No-one's asking you to "be nice about them", just not to be nasty about them. "If you can't say nuffin nice, don't say nuffin at all." "

No, that's exactly not what this asshole is doing. Read the complaint again:

>"The main objection to the game is that "the player controlled the destiny of Lord Hanuman while in reality the believers put the destinies of themselves in the hands of their deities""

The complaint is that anyone talks about Hanuman in any way at all except by accepting the 100% truth of whatever the adherents claim about him, in other words, these bastards demand the right to tell us what we may and may not think.

Hanuman is a monkey god. Monkeys are mischeivous and like playing. A game about Hanuman is entirely appropriate. As a lot of nice Hindu people have been pointing out, these extremists do not speak for the mainstream religion which is seriously one of the most laid-back and tolerant belief systems going. Just like any other intellectual system, of course, those with simplistic mindsets and rigid dogmatic ways of thinking forget that there's a meaning behind it and just get lost in blind obedience to and enforcement of a set of rules, which is all they see is there. They have very much lost their way, the poor blind fools.

[storng.bare.durid]

Some people are just too sensitive for their own good.

They need to watch some south park and chill.

[John Dougald McCallum]

Mahabarat

Did any one see this on Channel 4 when they were doing their test broadcasts before they started officialy I only saw ot sporadically but seemed to me that the Hindu religon/gods were all about betting the crap out of each other then going home having a feast ,getting laid ,then starting it all over again in the morning.Seems to me that it is prime materiel for a console game.