Sony vs. Church of England, meanwhile CNN has field day

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jun 11th 2007 at 3:59PM }

This weekend the news broke that the Church of England was unhappy with depictions of Manchester Cathedral in the Insomniac developed, Sony published, game Resistance: Fall of Man. The Church had issues with Resistance's use of guns in the virtual cathedral and called the whole thing "highly irresponsible." Sony went ahead and finally issued a statement stating that they take the matter seriously: "Whilst we believe that we have sought and received all permissions necessary for the creation of the game, we will be contacting the Cathedral authorities in order to better understand their concerns in more detail."

So, that's that, until dialog begins between Sony and Church of England; however, while the two groups work out their issues, CNN's headline writer is having a field day with this story. The best example is the first story they ran about the Church's issues. The headline reads: Cathedral shootout game under fire. Who knew that Resistance was all about a cathedral shootout? Then their latest story had the headline: Church wants cash for 'sick' game. Funny thing is that the word "sick" never shows up once in a quote, it's merely a word supposedly used by the church to describe the situation, but there's no attribution. Get ready kids, the mainstream media might spin this story off its axis.

Tags: apology, Church, insomniac, religion, Resistance, RFOM

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jerk Face @ Jun 11th 2007 4:02PM

God hates the PS3.

matt @ Aug 27th 2007 6:21PM

this is the sony PR machine in full effect, no doubt.

sheppy @ Jun 11th 2007 4:07PM

CNN: Welcome to CNN. See, Fox News? We can make shit up too! Stay tuned to discover how a psychotic serial killer can kill you through your microwave! Because he's... like... electric or something. Our writers are still working on that one.

Jerk Face @ Jun 11th 2007 4:09PM

@3 Ha ha, nice.

Author X @ Jun 11th 2007 4:14PM

Uh oh, they made a virtual church to shoot each-other in. Now the Church of England is probably going to send them to the "special" church and not let them graduate. It's racism, I tell you! Racism!

Matt B @ Jun 11th 2007 4:15PM

You would think they would be happy since you are clearing the church of the evil. Maybe that is what they don't like.

sheppy @ Jun 11th 2007 4:16PM

Wait, kill HUNDREDS? Someone has problems with math.

IF you include the crawlers, you have over a hundred in that section of the game... MAYBE. But the area is not that long. In fact, it isn't even a huge section of the level. You go in... "oh shit, they're here" and you fight your way back out.

sicsided @ Jun 11th 2007 4:22PM

funny they are going after the big wallet of Sony's instead of Insomniac(even though I love them), isn't it????

sheppy @ Jun 11th 2007 4:22PM

Who was this church founded by? This guy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII_of_England

cc123 @ Jun 11th 2007 4:26PM

Pulled from the article:

"Govender said the church would also seek a donation to be used in its work with young people. He did not specify how much the company would be asked to pay."

This is what it's all about right here.

Crono @ Jun 11th 2007 4:26PM

All joking aside, sheppy, this illustrates that the media is far more interested in spinning the news to say what they want it to say (regardless of the 3 letter acronym you use to describe them), rather than just stating the facts.

All news media is biased, and has an agenda.

k0llateral @ Jun 11th 2007 4:28PM

Well its pretty obvious that the Church is owned by Microsoft

zwarren69 @ Jun 11th 2007 4:36PM

MSM fails on every level, thats why I get my news from various websites, that I feel are trustworthy, and AP.

Vince UK @ Jun 11th 2007 4:38PM

Yet in the very same game I found myself stood in a kids playground area, guns blazing.

The C of E don't care if this game is taken off the shelves, they just need the cash for their eroding gargoyles.

deaftly @ Jun 11th 2007 4:42PM

god vs the devil (ps3), whos gonna win this one

sheppy @ Jun 11th 2007 4:58PM

Thank you deaftly.

Without you pointing out who plays the role of the devil in your analogy, all of us would have been completely lost and all trolling efforts would fail.

farfisa @ Jun 11th 2007 4:58PM

It's a good thing they haven't figured out the "sick"SAXIS button combo for sodomy, or they'd be REALLY upset.

Greg @ Jun 11th 2007 5:10PM

This game's been on the market for 7 months... Why the hubbub now?

In the US, this wouldn't have any legal standing, as far as I can see. Since it's a historic landmark, I think it can be reproduced under fair use.

And @13: You rail against mainstream media but you get all your info from the AP? Seriously? Where do you think the "MSM" gets their stories?

Dark-Pen @ Jun 16th 2007 2:46AM

Well isn't this just rich >_>

Seriously though, 3's right, CNN is really no better than any other news source (I shunned them after their brief 2 minute time-wasting "coverage" of E3 a few years back, where they showed stockfootage of a guy playing SMB3 on an NES, and the guy said he "thinks" its Super Mario 64)

AssemblyLineHuman @ Jun 11th 2007 5:50PM

Greg: But the AP isn't the one that warps the headlines into something that is hardly tabloid-worthy.

Tony Blair @ Jun 11th 2007 5:53PM

As Prime Minister of England I declare that Sony be forced to produce a "speed chess" game that alters the law of physics and reforms the "turn based" aspect of previous chess games through its impressive speed.

mor @ Jun 11th 2007 8:36PM

i cant believe this is still going on, its none of there business what sony does with a building in a FAKE WORLD, what if it were in a book, would they get pissed off at that??

Shiro @ Jun 11th 2007 11:45PM

When media and church clash, nobody wins.
:(

Burnt Meatloaf @ Jun 12th 2007 6:05AM

*Greg: "This game's been on the market for 7 months... Why the hubbub now?"

It takes a while for people to figure out how to exploit all the loopholes, with additional contingencies. You're not going to blow a shot like this, and... let's face it, legal systems allow you to sue anybody years or even decades after something happens.