Thursday, 12 November 2009
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The Bible, Coming to an XBox 360 Near You
This week's release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 broke video game sales records despite the economic downturn and the typical consumer's lighter wallet. Make no mistake about it: video games are quickly becoming the forefront of digital media. Which is why it should be no surprise to know that Christians are entering into the video game industry. The games that have been produced until now have been largely reproductions of already successful games, like Guitar Praise, the Christian alternative to Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Yet a division of LifeWay Christian Resources is coming out with a completely new kind of Xbox 360 application unlike any game currently on the market for the console: Bible Navigator X.
Sure, the name implies that one will be soaring Luke Skywalker-style through the famous stories of the Bible, but the application is no game at all; it is actually the entire Bible made available for the very first time on a major gaming console.
“Some people are just more comfortable with a controller in their hands than a book,” says Aaron Linne, executive producer of digital marketing for the B&H Publishing Group subsidiary of LifeWay Christian Resources, in a recent Christian Post article. Linne was inspired to create the application after realizing how often he uses his gaming console.
He goes on to explain that “the Xbox isn’t just secular entertainment anymore. We can use technology that other people developed to study Scriptures through a new medium.”
The application will include the entire Holman Christian Standard Bible as well as useful tools such as bookmarking and searching. It will even be able to display scripture in a presentation mode for youth ministers to use while preaching.
While I don't suspect hardcore gamers looking for combat, action, and suspense will be quick to pick up a copy of Bible Navigator X, I imagine the tool will be useful for those who find it convenient.
“...if we have the opportunity to introduce the Bible to people in a different format in a way that they're used to,” explains Linne, “then why wouldn't we take that opportunity?”
Would you use the Bible on the Xbox 360? What circumstances do you think the application will be useful for?
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Comments (11)
I think that's a great idea! I'd play it; it sounds fun! Especially since there's no winning or losing, just the adventure. I just hope the stories are accurate. Sometimes Bible stories are dumbed-down a little or edited for little kids in Sunday School. Many of the things in the Bible are pretty amazing stories!
tell them to go to biblegateway.com
@MiaJoyTheWriter@xanga - It is the entire Bible in HCSB format, so there won't be any summarizing or paraphrasing involved. It really is an actual page by page Bible. I think it will come in handy for those who are constantly using game consoles (like myself!).
I love it! It's about time.
Ugh, I really dislike having to read the Bible digitally. I lost my Bible once, and until I got a new one, I had to read it online. It killed me inside. There's something about holding it and reading it that is SO much better.
But to be honest, I'd probably install the app onto my XBox just because that's pretty nifty. :D
I had the Bible on an original Game Boy cartridge. I got a lot of stares back in the 80's when I was holding my Game Boy during a church service. I wonder if things have changed.
@interstellarmachine@xanga - I didn't know that existed, but now I want it.
I don't think I would want this. Aside for possibly if I had no other way to present scripture on a projector. I don't have much need to display scripture on a presenter though. And, I hope that if I did a computer would be nearby.
wow...really. oi.
It may be rather unfair of me to say this, but I think digital communication is one of the greatest evils of our age, right up their with automatic weapons and hard drugs. On that note, I have a paper due in eight hours and I'm going to shut this computer off and go work on it.
(Right after I check my facebook status.)