Gamer Satan

What do Doom, Pokémon, Christian radio hosts, the Columbine moral panic, and the literal Prince of Darkness have in common? According to decades of outrage merchants — they’re all recruiting your children for Satan!
In this episode we dive into the long-running hysteria around “satanic video games” — from the demon-slaying chaos of Doom to Diablo, Devil May Cry, Shin Megami Tensei, Dante's inferno, Afterparty and the global phenomenon of Five Nights at Freddy's.
This episode explores satanic panic, religious censorship, Christian fundamentalism, video game violence debates, culture wars, moral hysteria, and the recurring habit of blaming pop culture instead of people.
Are video games corrupting youth?
Is digital violence a sin?
Are cartoon boobs more spiritually dangerous than warfare simulators?
And why does Satan consistently get better branding than God in gaming?

If you enjoyed this descent into pixelated damnation, join our unholy inner circle on Patreon. For a small monthly tribute (cheaper than a loot box), you’ll unlock bonus content, behind-the-scenes chaos, and the warm glow of knowing you’re directly funding Satan’s media empire. 

Transcript

In this episode we will be investigating the devil’s contribution to the world of video games. Satan really is a superhero in the gaming world. A lot of game companies seem to have a healthy disrespect for religious superstition.

For example in the hilarious fighting game Fight of Gods you can be Jesus. 

[HOOTS, ‘Kickarse Jesus’]

But the industry does love to borrow the aesthetics and iconography of religion. And we all know when it comes to aesthetics and iconography Satan beats the rest every time.

[SATAN, ‘I work with what I’ve got.’]

There are a lot of video games featuring the Prince of Darkness and or his many minions. We’ll just touch on some of the notable ones in this episode.

And there are probably none more notable than Doom. In this science fiction horror epic space marine fights demons from and in hell.

Many have noticed the Inferno level of the game seems to be,

[STING, ‘Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.’]

In 1992 a five person team moved into an office they dubbed ‘Suite 666’ and set about creating the most evil, gory and violent first person shooter ever and a legend was born.

In 2012, Time said the designers of Doom,

[TTS, ‘showed a bracing lack of restraint in their deployment of gore and Satanic iconography’]

The series contains Baphomet, ortals to hell, a demon apocalypse and a spaceship made of bones, metal and flesh. 

[MARY, ‘What’s that smell?’

JOHN, ‘It’s my spaceship. Sorry about that, it’s made of flesh.’

MARY, ‘How does that work in space?’

JOHN, ‘It has its pros and cons.’

MARY, ‘Oh yeah?’

JOHN, ‘A con I guess would be every time we enter the vacuum of space the entire crew dies. But on the flip side, that does provide the material required to plug the holes.’]

Co-Designer John Romero said, 

[JOHN, ‘everyone in the company was an atheist. We didn’t believe in hell or heaven or any of that stuff.’]

By the way, John Romero follows exactly 666 people on Twitter and in 2018 tweeted, ‘Satan is my homeboy’.

[SATAN, ‘He might not be a believer but he’s certainly a fan.’]

Despite Hollywood’s long and fruitful partnership with the Dark Lord, they sidelined Hell and its demons in the movie adaptation of the game.

Lead programmer John Carmack said this about the film,

[JOHN, ‘My only regret is that they didn’t play up the satanic Hell aspect, that it just became a genetic mutation.’

[SATAN, ‘And it flopped. Just sayin.’]

The dicks who committed the Columbine Massacre were known to be Doom players and it was rumoured one of them had created a custom level of the game based on the layout of the school. This mythical custom level has never appeared but he did write in his journal about Doom and compared his planned shooting spree to the game.

Colleen Riley, spokesperson for Christian Mothers Against Violent Video Games, had this to say about the franchise,

[COLLEEN, ‘We believe that the Doom games are a morally bankrupt, depraved piece of pop culture that continues to endanger our children’s innocence.’]

[SATAN, ‘Did anyone else start to zone out as soon as they heard the words, Christian, Mothers and Against?’]

[MUM, ‘Hey, I’ve got one of my old games from 1993, do you want to play?’

TEEN, ‘What is a 1993?’

MUM, ‘It’s a year. Last century.’

TEEN, ‘No I don’t want to play a game from a hundred years ago.’

MUM, ‘It’s been described as morally bankrupt and depraved.’

TEEN, ‘Oh okay, put it on.’]

Podcast regular Pastor Phil Arms wrote a book called, Pokémon and Harry Potter: A Fatal Attraction. An expose of the secret war against the youth of America.

[SATAN, ‘Oh I take Pokémon very seriously and so do my demons.’]

Here’s a bit of the blurb from Phil’s book,

[PHIL, ‘Violence, psychic manipulation, witchcraft, murder, demons, wizards, magic, Satanism, and the occult are but a few of the featured attractions in the world of the ever-popular Pokémon phenomena.’]

What version of Pokémon is Phil playing?

Universal Life Church gave this advice to parents of Pokémon players,

[TTS, ‘seize their poisonous Pokémon paraphernalia and burn it. Hopefully they will come to see their sins and repent.’]

I can just imagine trying to seize my kid’s stuff and burn it.

[REPORTER, ‘In breaking news, a man was burned to death on a bonfire he’d built in his backyard today. It’s unclear how the man ended up on the bonfire. His three children, while all being home at the time claim to have seen nothing.’]

Christian radio host,

[SATAN, ‘Oooohhhhh remember radio?’]

Christian radio host, Rick Wiles tried to scare his young highly tech savvy RADIO listeners by telling them ISIS could use the Pokémon Go app to target real life attacks on people and places in America.

[CIA, ‘I have some disturbing news Ms President.’

PRESIDENT, ‘What is it?’

CIA, ‘Al Queda got Jigglypuff.’

PRESIDENT, ‘Noooooooooo!’] 

Devil May Cry featured a ‘Devil Trigger’ that let you become a devil while you combat demon hordes. The lead character is called Dante because the game was,

[STING, ‘Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.’]

This game has been made into a play. I kid you not. A real play in a theatre with actors. It doesn’t stop there. It’s also been turned into a musical but then again literally everything gets turned into a musical these days.

[DIRECTOR, ‘Thank you we’ll let you know. Next!’

LILDEVIL, ‘I’m here to audition for the role of Satan in the lavish Broadway production of Satan is my Superhero.’

DIRECTOR, ‘Right and what makes you think you’re right for this role because I’ll be honest, you’re not quite the vibe I’m looking for.’

LILDEVIL, ‘Hmmm, good question, good question. First I think you better answer your phone.’

DIRECTOR, ‘My phone’s not…’

SFX RINGTONE

LILDEVIL, ‘No seriously you should take the call. It’s very bad news.’

DIRECTOR, ‘Hello… I understand. I’ll be there right away.’

SFX FOOTSTEPS

LILDEVIL, ‘Tragic, anywho she won’t be back. Now I’ve made a lot of changes to the script but don’t worry I’ve got plenty of copies for everyone. Okay, let’s take it from the top of the third act where Judas finally admits I’m the real star of the show and not him.’]

The creators of the 2018 game Agony were

[STING, ‘Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.’]

The game is about a soul that has ended up in Hell due to a deal with the devil. Tricked into believing there is a way out of Hell the protagonist ends up releasing the beast from its shackles and starts Armageddon. 

[MUM, ‘Dereck! Are you playing with that beast’s shackles again?’

DERECK, ‘No mum!’

MUM, ‘You better not be. We can’t afford a whole Armageddon situation right now.’

DERECK, ‘I’m not an idiot! I’m not touching anything!’

MUM, ‘Okay good.’

DERECK, ‘Mum?’

MUM, ‘What is it?’

DERECK, ‘Beast got out.’]

Shin Megami Tensei mostly takes place after an apocalyptic demon invasion. Amongst the remnants of humanity a cult of Yhwh and a cult of Lucifer are fighting to bring their respective gods to Earth. There is suicide, cannibalism, homosexuality, the Arch Angel Gabrielle, a great flood and Cathedral that will bring a thousand year kingdom. This game has it all and three different endings depending on whether the path you follow is with YHWH, Lucifer or your own.

This game was big in Japan but took a long time to make it to the west.

[EXEC, ‘Okay, we’ve had a look at the game and before we can release it in the U.S. you have to make some changes.’

DESIGNER, ‘Sure, like what?’

EXEC, ‘EVERYTHING.’]

In Afterparty you must get yourself out of eternal damnation by drinking Satan under the table.

 [MUM, ‘You can’t play that game! It’s got Satan in it!’

TEEN, ‘Oh no Mum we don’t play it for the devil, it’s the binge drinking we’re into.’

MUM, ‘Oh that’s alright then.’]

The 2010 Dante's Inferno is obviously,

[STING, ‘Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.’]

Lead character Dante fights his way through Hell to rescue his true love. Kind of the opposite of what happens in the poem but it’s a video game. Who cares?

In the lead up to the release of this game the publisher Electronic Arts produced fake Christian outrage and protests about the game. They offered up dates with hot models to promote the sin of lust. But my favourite claim is that they Rick Rolled game bloggers with a box that once opened could not be stopped from playing Rick Astley until it was smashed with a hammer to promote the sin of anger.

[SATAN, ‘I don’t like that Rick makes people angry like that. I do wish he’d stop.’]

In Diablo humanity is caught in the crossfire between heaven and hell. You must defeat many demons and eventually the Lord of Terror himself.

In 2013 Guinness World Records named Diablo as the 44th best video game villain. Number one on that Top 50 list was Bowser from Super Mario Bros.

[MANAGER, ‘The rankings are out. Do you wanna know?’

STAR, ‘Yes of course! Tell me where did I rank?’

MANAGER, ‘Forty fourth.’

STAR, ‘Forty four?’

MANAGER, ‘Yeah it’s great!’

STAR, ‘No it’s not.’

MANAGER, ‘Of course it is! It’s better than forty five. Imagine how crap they must feel.’

STAR, ‘Who was number one?’

MANAGER, ‘Maybe we’ll talk about that on another day. Let’s just get through this first.’]

If you’ve produced squirming offspring in the last ten years, you’ve spent a night or two in a dimly lit child’s bedroom hearing all about Five Nights at Freddy’s. A video game about child murder and demonic possession. But the most painful part of this experience for many 21st century parents is the child explaining the horrifying images keeping them awake has never actually played or even seen the game itself. Such is the nightmarish reach of FNaF. 

[SPAWN 2, ‘Well we’ve got up at three A.M.’

SPAWN 3, ‘And nothing happened.’

SPAWN 2, ‘We stood in front of the mirror and said Bloody Mary three times.’

SPAWN 3, ‘And nothing happened.’

SPAWN 2, ‘I did wet myself a bit.’

SPAWN 3, ‘Yeah me too but nothing actually happened.’

SPAWN 2, ‘Agreed.’

SPAWN 3, ‘So what next?’

SPAWN 2, ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s?’

SPAWN 3, ‘Are you insane?!’]

This game has had such an impact on children around the world, experts in the field have had to weigh in.

Child and family therapist Jennifer Taylor said,

[JEN, ‘I would not allow my children, at any age to play it.’]

The success of this franchise has evolved into novels, a Hollywood feature film in the works as well as all the usual cosplay, toys and merch.

This game has also spawned an entire industry of fan art. There’s so many fan songs you can find top 40 lists dedicated solely to FNaF. There are fan made animated YouTube videos featuring the characters from the game in an ever expanding universe of fan fiction. 

What some people find most interesting about this phenomena is that its creator Scott Cawthon had dedicated his life up until that point to producing Christian video games and movies.

Apparently an animatronic beaver in one of these games copped such a slagging from critics for being too scary that Scott went into a depression. His health insurance was cancelled because he had suicidal thoughts.

Scott has said at this time in his life he felt like,

[SCOTT, ‘Either God didn’t exist, or God hated me. I didn’t know which was worse.’]

But Scott picked himself up, regained his faith in the man upstairs, took onboard the criticism that his animatronic beaver was too scary and turned it to his advantage.

[SATAN, ‘The good lord helps those who help themselves. Which is a polite way of saying YHWH doesn’t do anything for you primates.’]

Christian Today .com asked, 

[TTS, ‘was the pull of the dollar driving Scott's creation of Five Nights at Freddy's or was it the desire to glorify God? Had he given up on God because God wasn't making him rich?’]

There are a few Christian entrepreneurs hoping their God will make them rich.

The Rev. Ralph Bagley founded the Christian themed games studio N'Lightning Software. He told the New York Times,

[BAGLEY, ‘We're going to hold the word of God up and illuminate the place. We're taking the land back from Satan.’]

The company released a pretty successful Christian first person shooter in 2000 and a flop in 2001 and have not taken any land back from Satan since.

Founder of the company, Digital Praise, Peter Fokos said, 

[PETER, ‘Satan is our only competition. He's out to seduce the world. He's out to seduce our children.’]

Digital Praise released a number of Christian themed video games up until they were absorbed by another Christian themed company Left Behind Games, who then went on to be suspended from trading by the US Securities and Exchange Commission under major fraud allegations. The company closed up shop in 2011 having failed to seduce enough children.

[CHAOS MACHINE AD]

One time astronaut and creator of the Ultima series of fantasy games Richard Garriott once received some hate mail stating,

[NUT, ‘You are the satanic perverter of America's youth.’]

Richard put that on a T-shirt.

[SATAN, ‘Who wouldn’t?’]

In 2010 The Bulletin in Philadelphia published a piece, 

[TTS, ‘sounding the alarm about the rise in the number of satanically-themed video games that target God and Christianity, invite players to make pacts with the devil, and elevate Satan to hero status.’]

[SATAN, Hero status. I like it!’]

BibleReasons.com posted this statement about video games,

[TTS, ‘We need more biblical men in Christianity. We need more men that will go out, preach the gospel, save lives, and die to self. We need more manly young men who will stop wasting their life and do the things that older Christians can’t do.’]

What is it these older Christians need these manly young men to do for them?

[OLD LADY, ‘Ooh you look like a manly young man.’

MANLY, ‘Excuse me?’

OLD LADY, ‘Ooh I could think of a thing or two a manly young man like you could do for me.’

MANLY, ‘What?’

OLD LADY, ‘You couldn’t reach up there and grab me a can of beans could you. I don’t know why they put them up so high.’

MANLY, ‘Oh of course.’

OLD LADY, ‘Ooh yeah reach for those beans you manly young man.’]

Game designer and Christian Jeff Wofford said in his blog post titled, Can a Christian Play Video Games? 

[JEFF’ ‘A game dishonors God when it leads you or others into temptation, sin, or unbelief. A game that features nudity or sexual content obviously offers temptation and promotes sin.’]

Jeff has mostly worked on war games throughout his career and I already know the question you have pursed on your lips right now but Jeff answered that one in the same post,

[JEFF, ‘Questions of violence are more subtle. Much—though not all—video game violence is cartoonish, even silly, rather than realistic or believable.’]

So violence onscreen, cartoonish, boobs, VERY REAL.

I can’t help myself, I have to give Jeff the floor one more time, from the same post, 

[JEFF, ‘A Christian fills HIS life with games in order to avoid the difficulty of life; and once HE has begun, because the games compel HIM to.’]

Are there just no females in Christianity? I don’t think I’m being a snowflake. That post was in 2018. 

Speaking of hip and with it people, evangelist Pat Robertson said, 

[PAT, ‘if you murder someone in cyber-space, in a sense you're performing the act whether you like it or not.’]

[SATAN, ‘They don’t just like it Pat. They love it!’]

[COP, ‘Alright mate, hands behind your back, you’re under arrest.’

GAMER, ‘What? Why?’

COP, ‘I just witnessed you swallow at least 50 pills.’

GAMER, ‘I was just playing Pac Man!’]

Author of Frumpy Middle-Aged Mom: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Motherhood, Marla Jo Fisher posted on the Orange County Register,

[MARLA, ‘I truly believe that video games were created by Satan to turn otherwise normal children into his drooling, glassy-eyed stooges.’] 

[SATAN, ‘Oh you’ve finally let a woman speak! What next?’]

I thought it might be nice on this show about Satan that we might hear from actual Satanists for a change.

[SATAN, ‘Oh.’]

Church of Satan Reverend John H. Shaw has said of Grand Theft Auto,

[JOHN, ‘You get better cars, more money, you’re more successful, you buy houses. That’s Satanic.’]

Reverend Raul Antony from the Church of Satan said, 

[RAUL, ‘Satanists tend to be very competitive and wish to excel at what gives them pleasure and satisfaction, so video games with a rich multiplayer component will attract Satanists.’]

Do keep that in mind the next time you’re online you may be giving massively multiplayer online pleasure and satisfaction to anonymous Satanists without even knowing it.

[INDIA, ‘Gross.’]

We could talk cartoonish violence, realistic boobs and Satan all day but we wrap it up somewhere. I’m going to leave the last word to the Reverend John H. Shaw.

[JOHN, ‘I love the fact that, when you put on a pair of pants in GTA, they fit correctly.’]

I also love a pair of correctly fitting pants! 

And that’s why Satan is my superhero.