I tried this game. I'll agree that it *is* fun.

Along with some of your "here's what this group is about" posts, I also believe that God meant it when he inspired the ancient prophet to write Ezekiel chapter 33, about the Watchman on the Wall.

I encountered a few things that I thought were not so family-friendly. Please consider my concerns, so that you may decide what - if anything - may need editing in the review. :)

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The review mentioned toxic parties in the forum, but not toxic parties in the in-game chat. I did not visit the forum, but I did visit the in-game chat.

Some people in that in-game chat made comments suggesting it was a common theme to "bash Catholics." I discouraged that, twice, by gently attempting to steer the conversation away from religion and hate. However, the parties in the chat at that time immediately began verbal attacks and hate-mongering after other groups (Jews, various nationalities, women, etc.).

Even if I chanced to catch them on a bad day, it didn't seem like a healthy environment for a young Christian or a Christian family's child.

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I stumbled into some other stuff that I also found troublesome.

My best understanding of "Christian morals" is that we follow the Bible, even when it hurts. One thing the Bible is pretty severely uncompromising about is other religions.

I briefly studied various encyclopedia entries about voodoo, barely enough to know what I will say below, when I was attempting to witness to someone caught in it.

Voodoo is a pretty strongly anti-Christian religion. It is one of the few that doesn't really try to hide that they are dealing with evil spirits. It encourages the idea that the only hope of protection from those evil spirits would be to serve them well, and keep them happy. Practitioners of voodoo think Christians are a joke. They see us as a bunch of gullible and unprotected people who will be easy prey for the "more powerful" spirits they serve. From a Scriptural perspective, that's idolatry (worshiping other than God).

Clearly an anti-Scriptural message in that particular real-world religion. Yet, in the game, voodoo was presented as a positive thing. Just the one "voodoo lord" was a problem, apparently because he was too picky about what type of mushroom he wanted? The real ones do use mushrooms, sometimes when making poisons.

The game has a witch-doctor as one of the recruitable party members. That character's face is painted pretty close to how real voodoo practitioners paint their faces for ritual purposes. The game also has a golden sacrificial dagger, and references to blood rituals, as if these are good things. The reality is that they are not.

As an adult, I am not going to be swayed from Christianity by anything in a game. However, a young child will not have an equally strong foundation.

It's likely the game developers simply thought they were putting something weird and funky into their game. Unfortunately, it happens to be a false religion that real human souls are deceived by and trapped within. Many of them die, too afraid to try Jesus. Since I know that, it's not "cool and quirky" to me. Instead, to me, it's an appalling tragedy that souls are lost because of this false religion.

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My main measuring stick for games is Philippians 4:8 -- "Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things."

Since voodoo doesn't qualify under any of the praiseworthy items listed in Philippians 4:8, and voodoo appears in the game as if it were something positive, I have deleted this game from my computer.

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I realize that each person must prayerfully make their own decision about what is acceptable, and what is not. I might not have said anything, except that you recommend it as a family-friendly game and many people will interpret that as "I can let my little kids play it unsupervised."

So ... I'm saying something. Please, take a little time to pray about this. We're not discussing an imagined, fictional religion for a fantasy game. We're dealing with someone adapting an assortment of things from a real-world false religion into a game that's encouraged to be played repeatedly.

I don't like the idea of the voodoo stuff being encountered, repeatedly, by young Christian kids. I think it might be spiritually unhealthy to de-sensitize one's self from recognizing any real-world false religion as a problem.

That's my version of Ezekiel 33's "Watchman on the Wall" passage, specific to this game. I'm expressing concerns, and hoping that warning will be taken.

God bless. :)