Christ Centered Gamer

Hey guys I was just wondering what you opinions on the spiritual content in Diablo 3 (i.e foul language, blood and gore, spiritual references etc). Also would you recommend this game?

I've got close to 11 hours in this game and am in the second Act. There is a lot of violence and gore, very similar to the Left 4 Dead games. Zombies puking other zombies out, slow and fat ones that split open to unleash snakes or demons within them. The females have to work their way toward armor that cover their body more. My Barbarian's legs are still pretty vulnerable but my stomach and shoulders are now pretty well covered. One of the playable characters is a witch doctor which uses voodoo magic and voodoo dolls. I haven't played that class. I have heard the D word. I'm very happy to report that there are no pentagrams in the game but you unlock various looks and styles for a banner on the character selection screen. You can unlock and have a pentagram on the banner unfortunately.

This game will score well on the gameplay aspect but poorly morally.

Hope that helps.

The Diablo games really aren't meant to be spiritually educational to the Christian populace. And considering there is a witchdoctor class in this game, worrying about pentagrams seems to be practically pointless, if we are going to talk about it in this regard. It is a game with lots of gore and blood, just enjoy it and have fun with it!

blacksinow wrote:The Diablo games really aren't meant to be spiritually educational to the Christian populace. And considering there is a witchdoctor class in this game, worrying about pentagrams seems to be practically pointless, if we are going to talk about it in this regard. It is a game with lots of gore and blood, just enjoy it and have fun with it!

Do you plan on doing this every time something of this nature comes up?

Yeah, I am. I am going to give my thoughts, like everyone else on this forum does. If you do not like it, then put me on ignore and move on with your life. It is a discussion on Diablo 3 and spirituality, look at the title of the forum topic.

Look, I'm not saying anything about Hell and pentagrams. But pentagrams have about the same significance as voodoo. So thus, it can become pointless worrying about pentrgrams alone when there are other types of things that can influence you. Honestly, I'm really not sure that the cathedrals in the diablo games are relevant to Christianity either. But if anyone has played the other diablo games and knows of any connection, go ahead and correct me.

If we can't have any kind of mature discussion on spirituality, why should we even bother talking about these things in the first place? There ARE going to be other people who will bring things of this sort up, not just me. You can either participate, or ignore. But if I were doing something wrong, the mods would have said something.

I just point out stuff as I see it and let the reader decide from there. That's our purpose I can't give a blanket statement that says "Every Christian should run and get this game now!"

ccgr wrote:I just point out stuff as I see it and let the reader decide from there. That's our purpose I can't give a blanket statement that says "Every Christian should run and get this game now!"

Oh I know. It's a discussion though and people talk. And there ARE situations, where points that may or may not have been made before, do need to be brought up for different reasons.

Awesome thread btw. This is my first post here at CCG. In fact, I stumbled across this forum after searching long and wide for Christian gamer opinions on Diablo 3 - kinda surprised at how little discussion there was on this game.

I must say, that as a Christian, I am certainly concerned about the spiritual content/nature of Diablo 3. As a huge fan of the first game (epic late night circa 1998 jam sessions as a teenager), I have always maintained an avid interest in the series, and though I refrained from playing the second one, I reluctantly decided to give Diablo 3 a go. Admittedly, this was largely due to the fact that my Blizzard supplier handed me a free collector's edition (I work as a gaming buyer). While the game is not based on Earth, one cannot help but notice the many similarities, particularly when it comes to the names of demons and so forth. I have however, only spent about an hour in the actual game world, but in that time I could certainly tell that another 50 more hours to this endeavour would easily be achieved. The game is amazingly polished and from a pure gaming perspective, it is a genuine work of art. In this age of annual gaming iterations, we don't often see companies take a "when it's ready, we'll release it" approach like Blizzard seem to do. That being said, while I am probably just searching in vain for justification to continue playing the game guilt free, my belief is that each person's walk with God is unique, thus our convictions may surely differ also. If we feel uneasy about it (as I still do), then maybe it isn't right for us. Otherwise if not, then I bade you an enjoyable time in your return to Tristram!

God bless you.

You know...

I completely agree with that 100%

blacksinow wrote:Yeah, I am. I am going to give my thoughts, like everyone else on this forum does. If you do not like it, then put me on ignore and move on with your life. It is a discussion on Diablo 3 and spirituality, look at the title of the forum topic.

Look, I'm not saying anything about Hell and pentagrams. But pentagrams have about the same significance as voodoo. So thus, it can become pointless worrying about pentrgrams alone when there are other types of things that can influence you. Honestly, I'm really not sure that the cathedrals in the diablo games are relevant to Christianity either. But if anyone has played the other diablo games and knows of any connection, go ahead and correct me.

If we can't have any kind of mature discussion on spirituality, why should we even bother talking about these things in the first place? There ARE going to be other people who will bring things of this sort up, not just me. You can either participate, or ignore. But if I were doing something wrong, the mods would have said something.

You know, it's highly telling that when claiming that a discussion is mature and bidding others to be mature in their discussions regarding this topic, you can't seem to do the same without attacking someone else (who happens to be tenured on this forum and a former mod, unlike yourself). I don't think I much like you after seeing quite a few of your posts; if I was still moderation staff, I probably would be trying to poke the bear about now, because no one else seems to want to cross you. It's kind of ridiculous. Lighten up and move on, or leave. Up to you.

As for pentagrams, they formerly were a Christian symbol, just like inverted crosses, until about the middle of the 20th century, when they started being associated with Satanism (LaVeyian Satanism, which is basically the worship of the ego) and paganism. Voodoo, contrary to your claim, is essentially witchcraft. I don't know about voodoo dolls in the game; I just know that the witch doctor is insanely powerful and a ton of fun to play with in co-op (a friend plays as a witch doctor and throws jars of spiders at EVERYTHING).

Bottom line is this: Diablo 3 is a very dark game that has had a reduction in certain elements pertaining to game world and atmosphere. It doesn't have pentagrams anymore. Nor does it have crosses. There are demons with names based on Christian mythology (calling it that because true lists of demons related to such arcane texts as the Lesser Key of Solomon, which is a medieval grimoire about magick; there are one or two passages pertaining to Belial in the Christian Bible [2 Corinthians 6:15], but they reference Apocrypha, which is not canonical). Much of Diablo's mythos appears to pull names from The Satanic Bible, which again is related to LaVeyian Satanism (a mockery of Christianity, and not a worship of Satan in and of itself; this does not say that it's a religion that shouldn't be considered evil, because it extols the worship of the self above all else).

It's kind of fascinating, because not only does this pull from Christian apocryphal texts, but also from Kabbalah and esoterica related to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Of course, there's the aspect that both Heaven and Hell are physical places on the same plane as Earth, which is again a fiction leading to a dark fantasy. But there it is.

okay let me see if I got this thread summarized..new member comes here asks for moral input on Diablo 3. I provide input given my limited playtime thus far. Blacksinow tells new member to lighten up. ohno think blacksinow is redundant. Another new member finds this thread informative. Drewsov doesn't like blacksinow and tells him to lighten up. Thread gets off topic and locked before a flame war ensues and new members get bad impressions from our bickering.