Xbox One Reveal Show and Trailer
BT Podcast 55: Suck My XBone
XBOX ONE in 5 seconds
Spring 2013 Show and Trailer!
Anamanaguchi Dreams of Chiptune Kittens
Posted By Robert G. about 10 months, 1 week ago
Obviously this is a made up depiction of Kali…
Hi-Rez Studios, the company behind the revival of Tribes and the upcoming MOBA-styled god battle game SMITE, is apparently not making friends regarding the depiction of their deities in religious circles. Of course, when it comes to religion and religious figures, someone will always be offended by a depiction or “misinterpretation” of their said gods and goddesses, so I guess it is impossible to placate everyone. However, the huge claim coming from Hindus about SMITE’s depiction of the goddess Kali is surfacing quite a lot as of late.
Rajan Zed, the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, has lashed out against Hi-Rez Studios for their interpretation of Kali, calling it a look that fits a “pornographic style” based on her depiction in the game; scantly clad without the hint of a bikini of course, and the typical, femme-fatale curves you would see on 1990′s comic book characters. A press release given by Zed also notes that he is not the only member of the religious community to be against this depiction.
Catholics, Jews and Buddhists have come out in the support of Hindus who are upset at this inappropriate usage of Kali and other Hindu deities. Well known Roman Catholic leader in Nevada Father Charles T. Durante, prominent Jewish leader in Western USA Rabbi ElizaBeth W. Beyer and distinguished Buddhist leader from Nevada Reverend Jikai’ Phil Bryan have issued separate statements backing the cause of protesting Hindus. Reverend Bryan commented: “Shame on the game-makers for denigrating these Supreme Beings.”
…video game makers should be more sensitive while handling faith related subjects and no faith, larger or smaller, should be trampled. As these games left lasting impact on the minds of highly impressionable children, teens and other young people; such inappropriate depictions would create more misunderstandings about Hinduism, which was already a highly misunderstood religion in the West, Zed argued and added that purpose of online games was to entertain and not to offend a large chunk of world population.
With so many religious groups involved, including two of the largest in the Hindu and Catholic faiths, I can’t help but be confused at the backlash on how Kali is portrayed. Normally, it would just be easy to write it off as a “well this how gaming is” type of thing, the typical, teenage fantasy that has over-sexed females that would pander to a younger, more immature audience. And lord knows, we have our share of that in the gaming industry, to the point of it being the status quo almost.
But in this case, I feel that perhaps there is more to it. Mainly because the depiction of Kali in SMITE is pretty on the mark. The image below should shed some light on the Hindu Goddess of time and change.
Oh yeah, that's not pandering at all…
From what I do know about Kali, she is a goddess that has two depictions of her. The first, posted above, is her old incarnation, as the goddess of time and change, usually, through force. She was also known as the goddess of death, and even her name, Kali, is derived from the world Kala, which can mean a myriad of things, including “black,” “death,” and “eternal one.” How she is depicted is also supposed to symbolize her place among the pantheon, and her virtues. For example, her nakedness was a symbol of purity, while what she is holding tends to symbolize aspects of human weakness, the severed head can represent ego or greed, while the sword is a symbol for divine knowledge.
However, modern depictions of Kali revere her as a “great mother” figure, shunning the more violent and often sadistic depictions of her in the past for a more subdued, matron-like veneration. In other words, Kali grew up and had a family, in a sense, as she became a subdued goddess, one that is not meant to be worshiped out of fear, like the older depictions created, but out of love.
So really, it seems like Hi-Rez Studios did some homework on Kali, or at the very least stumbled upon some ancient interpretations of the goddess for SMITE. For once, its easy to say why a female character is half-naked wielding two swords at you; it fits her ancient description. And my guess is that Hindu’s are just offended because it usurps the more modern take on the goddess, even though ancient interpretations of Kali are still worshiped today. With SMITE still in beta and Hi-Rez Studios gearing up for an eventual release of the new MOBA title, I doubt that the outcry from the religious institutions will be fully detrimental to how the gods and goddesses are drawn in-game. But hey, bad press is better than no press.
Source: Cinema Blend
When I first saw the picture, that Kali icon struck me as familiar somehow. Something in the artistic style.
And I finally figured out what it was: the art style reminds me of the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial. YouTube it if you’re not familiar.
This is just happening because people now know that developers will bend over backwards to stay out of trouble and keep their consumers happy, now people are being more “experimental” with their shitfit throwing. I know Hi-Rez has bigger balls than other developers though, and they’ll most likely write back to them about their interpretation of Kali.
But I end with this, You give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want a glass of milk. Bioware gave the mouse the cookie with Mass Effect 3, and now nobody will ever be satisfied.
Oh, you can’t even imagine how big Hi-rez’s balls are. When this started with just Rajan and Hindus, They responded with a statement that amounts to, “Cool story bro. We’re going to add even more gods.”
Religious people acting alarmist and irrational and condemning video games? Shocked, shocked I am.
But I love to see religious groups who have historically be intolerant towards each other to the point of out and out genocide rallying together against a video game that, until today, I’ve never heard of. Let’s pray to Xenu these people never play something from the Shin Megami Tensei series. All hail our intergalactic tormentor.
Here’s hoping there’s a sexy Jesus too.
PORNO STYLE JESUS! Bow-chica. . . . yeah I’m not finishing that.
https://www.google.de/search?q=sexy+jesus&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=de&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=gNcFULeRI8zcsgah-ZySBw&biw=782&bih=1021&sei=g9cFULHAFsTOtAaZsbX7Bg
its your choice.
Amen!
I need to call BS on the “porno” part. I’ve been following this story for a while and it actually prompted me to sign up for the beta in protest against Raj, which you can do at http://www.smitegame.com
But more to the point, I’ve followed this story for a couple weeks. And in the beginning, there was ZERO MENTION OF PORNOGRAPHY. They were upset just for the fact that Kali WAS IN A VIDEO GAME and “controlling and manipulating goddess Kali and other Hindu deities… is denigration as these deities are meant to be worshiped.”
The porn part didn’t come out until the Jews and Buddhists signed. They just made up the porno argument to get more public outcry against this.
Why is Kali holding Ron Jeremy’s head in that second image?
fuck them.
It´s like the muslims and mohammed and I don´t give shit.
offend as many people as possible,fuck their stupid religions and fuck them again.
Humans are so annoying. Y U MAKE FUN OF MY IMAGINARY FRIEND? SO OFFEND!
see? i already offended 15 idiots and I´m just a idiot on the internet. Imagine how many people YOU can piss off!
Complete disregard for grammar, spelling, and punctuation? Check!
Use of multiple swear words at seemingly random intervals? Check!
Complete ignorance to the discussion and adding nothing to said discussion?
Yeah, I would say all of that would make a lot of people dislike you.
hard day of work,not my native language – shit happens
not random to me – shit happens
I don´t see a discussion. Why would I discuss someone being pissed about a VideoGame because it,as he says, mocks his belive? I´m not Dawkins. I don´t give a fuck about these people.
In my times,kid, people with gif avatars got their asses handed to them … but these times are long gone…
Thanks, my girlfriend made this gif for me. Ain’t it swanky?
Just because your right hand happens to be your mouse hand and your fap hand doesn´t mean it´s your girlfriend.
I like your disregard for the important point but I guess you´d rather entertain some more 13 year olds and retards with your lets plays.
Oh, you’re German? No excuse then, I lived in Germany half my life (living on the Mosel river, good times) and I speak and write just fine.
Living there and just learning it in school/autodidact is a huge difference but you´re still ignoring everything worth talking about so…
leck meine salzigen schokobällchen!
“still ignoring everything worth talking about so…”
Gee, I wonder how that feels like.
Hinduism is one of those religions that really tries to explain why suddenly these depictions are wrong even though they made precisely the same depictions millennia ago and those are supposed to be sacred.
Well, wouldn’t it be better instead of saying ‘we don’t like this’ say why you don’t like it? That way, you can invoke understanding of where you’re coming from.
I think Kali the way she is right now is fine, due to how the game is about gods beating each other into a fine past. Or the minotaur, depending on your perspective.
Also, Artemis is probably the only goddess that’s fully clothed. In Smite that is.
There was apparently a statue of Artemis covered with breasts in a temple that I think was one of the 7 wonders of the world. She is the Greek goddess of fertility, after all. She more than anyone should be stacked.
Ephesus. But this Artemis isn’t really the same deity as the Greek goddess; she’s more of a regional fertility deity that was given the Greek name later.
Ah. Well, I would think that the advantage of working with an outdated pantheon of gods would allow a bit more personal twists to be made while keeping in mind all the various myths. After all, Loki’s interpretation in the Marvel verse relies somewhat on Loki’s myths being contrasting on whether or not he was a god or Jotunn or both. So Marvel made their own.
Since Artemis is also the goddess of childbirth and virginity, I guess I would have liked to have seen a bit sexier version than what has been showed, but with a similar attitude. The Goddess of “look, but don’t touch” if you will.
At least it’s not the god-awful Disney’s Hercules tv show version. I hated that southern hick interpretation.
Don’t worry religious folk. If this is really against the will of the gods. Then they will just smite the heathens. XD
“…no faith, larger or smaller, should be trampled.”
They do know that means all Abrahamic religions are still in the crosshair since intolerance against other faiths is a core belief, right?
I study religion and culture, it kind of goes when you write historical fiction. I have seen Kali’s tits more times than Brad Jones have had the great unfortune to see italian genital warts. If you think this is offensive than you should have covered her up back in the iron age.
“However, the huge claim coming from Hindus about SMITE’s depiction of the goddess Kali.”
This sentence is not finished.
fixed!
Well if no one else will.
“You have Betrayed Sheeva”
First Asura’s wrath, now this. They really should stop complaining over every little thing. Guess why? IT EXPOSES PEOPLE TO YOUR BELIEFS!
You wouldn’t believe how much I got into Greek Mythology after seeing Disney’s Hercules. Was it at all accurate? Not a bit. But it does make a good jumping off point to actually study the original stories, and even get a laugh out of re-watching the movie to see more subtle referrences. Mulan’s “Ping Fa”, anyone?
… Ping Fa means “Art of War”.
Now whether Asura’s wrath took extreme liberties or not, I can’t say, but this complaint about Kali is bullshit. Indiana Jones did worse.
The same here, except in my case, it was Marvel’s Thor.
Of course, I got into Thor during the Walt Simonson run, when he really started trying to make the plot and character more centered on the Norse mythos (you know, ditching that pointless Donald Blake persona, having Thor grow a beard, and all that). But still, it got me interested in the legendary figure and the ancient stories about him and the Aesir.
They’re just looking for something to complain about, it sounds. Judging by how similar the two pictures look, the “porno” style Kali, while definitely curvier, is a lot more tame. I mean, after all, at least she’s wearing a top. The actual drawing is nude ffs. They might change it to placate them but… I don’t think they need to, should, or will. I don’t think any religious group would be happy with the interpretation of their deity in any form of video game.
Also yeah, like Robert said this isn’t the first time this has happened. SMT, ’nuff said.
I may be wrong but isn’t Kali the goddess of destruction? And they are harping on her presentation? That’s as if a Catholic priest saw a painting of the devil in a Death Metal Concert and said “Your deception of the Devil is totally wrong, He is nothing like that!”
Oww, my head hurts, this is what I get from trying to make sense out of religion.
Ok, so the article says something about the new incarnation of Kali as a mother-figure; which confuses me even more, now the Gods are not what they are but what the higher ranks of a religion say they are? Are people really that dumb??
The comparison isn’t quite the same. In Roman Catholic theology (and most Christian theology for that matter), the devil is not a divine being; he is a fallen creature, who hates and despises the Divine.
In Hindu theology, however, Kali, though the goddess of destruction, is still a goddess. She is still an aspect of the Divine, and in Hindu religion, all divinity is to be revered and respected, even those aspects that represent what we in the west might consider “evil.”
This is further exacerbated by the fact that, in Hindu philosophy, there really isn’t a distinction between good and evil: good and evil are mere illusions, and those things which we apply those terms to are really just parts of one big Divine. So, in reality, death and destruction are important parts of the universe, just as important as life and order.
Just because Kali is the Goddess of death does not make her evil. I don’t think that there is an evil god in all of Hinduism. Hades and Anubis aren’t evil either. Well, not comparatively to the real gods of evil in those pantheons.
You are right about that, Midboss. Death in most religions is not portrayed as straight-up evil – scary, but not necessarily evil. Take Hela from Norse mythology: half of her face is a beautiful woman, and the other half is a rotting corpse. This portrayal signifies that both good and evil can be seen in death: death can be both a predator that devours you, or a friend that greets you at the end of the journey. (interesting that the Valkyries, the harbingers of death in battle, are always portrayed as beautiful).
But in Hindu mythology, there really isn’t a distinction between good and evil at all. It’s more like death and destruction are parts of the universe, and are just as important as life and order, just different aspects of them. I’m probably oversimplifying, but death and destruction are necessary parts of life and order.
Ok, so I may need to brush up on my Mythology; still… I make a point on having my distaste for senseless controversy heard; in the hopes that this people stop making storms in a glass of water.
You are right: the controversy is pointless. It’s not as if their own historical iconography hasn’t portrayed Kali in the same manner.
Probably goes back to something like “a beautiful death in battle” versus “dying an ugly, cowardly death”.
Well I guess it’s good Hi-Rez publishes games on their own. If they were under a big publisher the publisher would probably shut the project down because big companies seem to cave under pressure when it comes to religous group’s complaints.
I like how the severed head looks just kind of confused to be there in the drawing.
But I can see their point, the style she is drawn in and the way she appears does have allot more to do with our comic books rather than source material or actually depicting a Goddess from that part of the world.
I can also see your point, the source material isn’t much better in how their goddess is depicted. But I think the main problem comes from the game itself. Taking cultural icons and heavily worshiped and believed deities and turns them into a cartoon-ish outlandish game that pays no respect to the original myths, legends, or culture. Which is offensive.
However I am an atheist and though I understand this outrage I think it’s overblown and people should calm down and let the gamers have their fun. It most certainly won’t hurt their religion to have this game published.
P.S. Don’t let them see a copy of an SMT game! I have a feeling the Buddhists will be up in arms over the depiction of Mara!
I was going to say, SMT does that already too. As well as other games like Dantes Inferno, God of War, Castlevania, Xenosaga, and countless others bring religious iconography and gods and goddesses into the forefront as heroes, villains, and often depicted differently from their source material.
Is it really offensive, or is it just an interpretation of myth, like what a myth is supposed to be.
Heck, allot of Japanese anime and games borrow heavily from other myths in many ways, which I always liked.
“Is it really offensive, or is it just an interpretation of myth, like what a myth is supposed to be.”
Well, I would have agreed with you about a year ago but since then I’ve had a few people change my idea about that. Yes, it is offensive to the people who actually believe it.
They put their lives into this myth, they center their lives around it and if someone from their community who understood the myths and legends and their significance made a different interpretation (Like how you said the Hindu’s did of this very God) that is acceptable.
But for someone to just blatantly disregard said myths and depict said god or myth in a way such as this and all for the pretense of making a video game, I would understand their anger.
It is not a different interpretation in the way that promotes discussion of the religion. It’s skin deep, it doesn’t mean anything.
But again, despite my knowledge of that, and understanding of why this sort of thing would be controversial to the religious, I’m all for it! ;P
But I think the game is kind of lame for not including some Judeo Christian figures in there. If your going to offend some religious people at least go all out and offend the number one religion in the area your in!
Do it people! I wanna play as Yahweh!
About the judeo christian figures, that won’t happen. I can’t really find the source and I’m too lazy to google it, so either believe it at your own discretion. (I hope that didn’t come off worse than I thought)
Hi-Rez stated they won’t add JC figures because they only believe in one supreme being. The gods that are going to be added are from polytheistic religions.
That’s very… it’s not racist… close-minded? No…
… Well, it’s just not right. If it was just going to have gods from ancient religions, that would be fine, but if you put gods in from religions that are still being practiced to this day, then their reasoning should not be allowed to fly. “But ours is special!” Fuck you. So is theirs. If you want to make this game, fine, but Iehova should go on the chopping block all the same. Fair is fair.
Really? That’s just so stupid I can’t help but laugh!
Oh man, then that TOTALLY negates this: “Zed argued and added that purpose of online games was to entertain and not to offend a large chunk of world population.”
This game just got offensive to me. Good going developers. You suck!
Part of the problem here is that, in Jewish and Christian theology, YHWH is the only God. It’d be hard to portray such a character within a fighting game; to even try would present something of a logical contradiction. To include YHWH, he would have to be removed from his own theological framework in which he is the only god; but if you did that, he wouldn’t really be YHWH anymore.
Oh SMT takes that to a HOLE new level. I wonder how didn’t this happen before with the MegaTen series
The smaller heads on her sash remind me of Mario.
In response to the comments on YHWH:
Not if you apply gnosticism.
As a little aside on something I was thinking (not really applicable, but it seemed like a cool idea to me), maybe the Christian god and the Jewish god should be separate characters. The jewish version would be more mage-ish, the christian version more a healer.
“YHWH is the only God” Ehh, allegedly. Numerous passages from the bible hint at other gods and beings. Part of the problem is that the parts of the bible have been just left out. So yeah.
Also, don’t talk about theological framework, we got Hindu gods fighting Norse gods, it doesn’t get any more nonsensical! JUST PUT YAHWEH IN THERE!
And I actually looked it up, the develops stated they couldn’t come up with any attacks since the beings in the Abrahamic religions never really fought other gods or goddesses.
That is a cop out excuse and I will tell you why.
Attacks for Yahweh? Well one could be a flood, another turns smaller foes into piles of ash or salt when hit enough times, another sets the locusts on them slowly draining health.
There, I just did your work developers, I did it in 10 freakin’ seconds.
bikini or cutoff-heads for covering boobs? I think bikini works best
But she is missing the long KISS tongue.
Also her super move should be called “Porno-Style” now. ;D