Agent Alby explains why she thinks it would be unwise to introduce religious themes to YoVille.
This is a debate which has been rumbling on for ages now. From time to time we see posts from religious YoVillians, asking for their faith’s religious items to be released into YoVille. The latest request was for a Christian Church to worship in. After a great deal of thought, I, personally, have come to the conclusion that this is not a good idea, and would like to explain why I feel this way.
If you wish to worship your God, that is fine by me. I may not believe in your God, but I will strongly defend your human right to worship him. (All I ask in return, is that you allow me the same respect in choosing not to worship him.) But is an online game the place to do it? Does it, in some way, devalue that religion? I was brought up in a Christian home before I chose to follow a different path, and if I were to tell my father, a 73 year-old life-long Methodist, that people wanted to ‘create’ their religion in an online game he would be extremely unhappy about the idea. For him, a Church is a sacred house of worship, not something to ‘play at’. Having said that, I do appreciate that younger generations may see it differently.
Of course, there’s not just Christianity. What about other religions? If there is a place for Christianity in YoVille, then it stands to reason that there is a place for Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism and other religions there too. But is there? I have had some bad experiences lately so perhaps my views are coloured by such experiences. I have had more than one YoVille forum poster tell me that I am going to burn in hell because I do not believe in the Christian God. I have also been told, by a couple of religious people, that I will ‘rot in hell’ for supporting Gay and Bi players. All this has really got me thinking that Zynga are right to not openly encourage religion in YoVille.
For me, belief, be it in a God or purely Spiritual, is a very personal thing. It’s what is in your heart that counts. So to see people openly condemning those who do not share their faith is, to me, morally wrong. By all means do your own thing, worship your own god, live your life the way which YOU wish to live it. But please do not try to judge others who may not walk your path in life. There is room for us all to walk our own, individual paths.
Which brings me back to YoVille, and in particular, the forums. How many threads have we seen, where what started out as a nice friendly religious debate, has turned into a free for all with name calling and hell, fire and damnation? Some of the posts, from so-called religious people, have sickened me. The depth of some of the hatred has been really unpleasant.
If Zynga releases religious items then in my opinion it would be only fair to release these items for all religions. Of course we can all imagine how hard that would be. There are something like 20 major religions, never mind the smaller ones. Now this could result in some very religious people crying that, since theirs was the main religion, only their faith’s items should be released. However, although Zynga is a US based company, it is played all around the world, by people of all creeds, races, colours and religions. Could you imagine the backlash if Zynga went along and favoured one particular religion over all the others?
We live in a big, beautiful, wonderful world, rich in different cultures. We can all learn so much from each other if we are willing to open our minds – and more importantly our hearts. So please let’s share an equal level of respect for ALL religions, and keep them out of the game!
Alby x
Do you agree that religious items should be not released in YoVille? Or would you welcome such items? Please leave your thoughts in the comment box below, and please share this article with your friends and family. Thank-you for continuing to support YoRehab.
