Church of England offended by Resistance BAFTA nomination

by Scott Jon Siegel { Oct 8th 2007 at 7:00AM }

If the headline seems a little familiar, it's because we've been here before. First, the Church of England issued a statement regarding the "offensive" presence of Manchester Cathedral in Sony's Resistance: Fall of Man for the PS3. Sony followed up by issuing an apology, stating that they had no intention of offending, but that the content was staying. Church of England responded by saying that the apology wasn't good enough, and Sony responded to the response of the response by apologizing again.

Now, following the announcement of the nominees for this year's BAFTA Video Game Awards, the Church of England is once again up in arms, this time issuing a statement pleading that the nomination for Resistance: Fall of Man be pulled, claiming that the nomination "is like rubbing salt in the wounds" of the Church.

The spokesman for the Church of England claims that the nomination comes from the game's solid sales, which they believe were increased substantially by the controversy. No word yet of a response from either Sony or BAFTA. Resistance: Fall of Man was only nominated for one award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts: The PC World Gamers Award, which will be decided by a public vote, and not by a BAFTA panel.

Tags: bafta, church-of-england, churchofengland, manchester-cathedral, manchestercathedral, resistance, sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Curmeo @ Oct 8th 2007 7:37AM

go RFOM! Church of England please STFU kthanksbye.

Lips @ Oct 8th 2007 9:39AM

Damnation! No Donation? No Salvation!

James @ Oct 8th 2007 7:41AM

And rightly so.

James @ Oct 8th 2007 7:41AM

I don't know anyone who wouldn't be offended by Rfom up for a Bafta nomiation!

Koopaknight29 - (Nintendo Loyalist) @ Oct 8th 2007 7:43AM

Oh God, it's happening again!

By the way, what does BAFTA stand for?

sheppy2.0 @ Oct 8th 2007 8:24AM

There is a BIG HINT in the image above.

Jon @ Oct 8th 2007 8:29AM

British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Koopaknight29 - (Nintendo Loyalist) @ Oct 8th 2007 8:37AM

Sorry, really tired this morning. Kinda glazed over the image there. Thanks for being patient there, Jon.

Talmon @ Oct 8th 2007 7:46AM

Seriously, everyone has forgotten about this. Why do they insist on acting like a five-year-old stamping their feet over a lost toy.

sicsided @ Oct 8th 2007 8:31AM

its the Church. The house where all shall be forgiven, never lets go of a grudge....

ill trooper @ Oct 8th 2007 7:53AM

Yeah, well I remember a few years back the Pope sought forgiveness for the crusades...

VSpeck @ Oct 8th 2007 3:41PM

What does the Pope have to do with the Church of England?

Kattleox @ Oct 8th 2007 8:09AM

They are anglican and tend to disassociate themselves from the pope. I have to agree, however, that they likely stirred up some sales. I even had some friends over to ransack the building with. But that's the thing; Its a building. Nothing more.

dan stabbingworth @ Oct 8th 2007 1:11PM

It's only a building to you. That's kind of like saying, it's only Jerusalem. I bet some Palestinians would disagree.

Regardless, I'm an atheist, so it's only a building to me. It makes me laugh to see the churchies get so upset over this.

sheppy2.0 @ Oct 8th 2007 8:27AM

Well, maybe it sold much better due to the controversy but then their previous stance is invalid. Since they actually used it's good sales as a reason to recall the game. RFOM would have sold well with or without this controversy.

I mean, this isn't Jack Thompson cryfest helping turn 2 Live Crew from a dismal selling album to a natural phenominon because of his whining about "Me So Horny." This was a game that had the sales to begin with.

FOXHOUND @ Oct 8th 2007 8:34AM

And yet, there's no angled story where the church is most likely doing this for the attention, rather than the game, which was easily good on its own - featured church or not(which IMO, it's not a big factor in the game and could've easily been removed in newer copies. Hell, the bus terminal's a better level anyway).

Besides, churches have a lot more to worry about than some fictious videogame.

samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 8th 2007 9:05AM

It's nomination offends me, too, although more as a matter of taste than anything else.

LiqwidZero @ Oct 8th 2007 10:04AM

I couldn't agree with you more. Kudos.

jsn @ Oct 8th 2007 9:28AM

The Pope hates the PS3 too..

Chris @ Oct 8th 2007 9:45AM

These guys are just as bad as the muslims complaining about the zelda(OoT) music, images, sounds ect ect ect ect. You should be happy that sony is using the church not annoyed, if sony used my street or house I'd be happy - as long as they dont see my basement or dig up my garden >-_->