HerInteractive.com and “All” religions policy
One of my guilty little pleasures is playing the HerInteractive Nancy Drew mystery PC games. I have played every single one, and when I’m done I pass each game down to my 10 yr old niece. Sometimes we play them together. They’re harmless fun, and I like them because the content is innocent. I’ve played my share of Dungeon Siege and Splinter Cell (fun games, I’m not going to argue) but I do get tired of the constant skeletons and demons and sniping people in the head sort of stuff. When I want to retreat to a kinder, gentler game that provides some wicked logic puzzles, Nancy Drew is fine.
The past week found me in a bit of a bind, though: there’s a part of the game I just can’t get past. It’s not a puzzle, it’s a problem with a character not being accessible when I need to talk to them to advance the plot. So I went to the HerInteractive Message Board Community and registered there in order to pose my question to the legions of 12 year olds and see who might know how to get this particular character to pick up the phone.
HerInteractive knows that its primary audience is pre teen and young teen girls, and so they have about 800,000 rules and guidelines you have to accept before you’re allowed to post. One of these caught my eye. Have a look:
Now I’m a Christian and I certainly don’t feel comfortable with “satanic” messages and things of that nature, but technically isn’t satanism considered a religion these days? HerInteractive comes off terribly hypocritical here in demanding that everyone respect and tolerate “all” religions, but they immediately follow up this noble stance with a little caveat. You’re not going to be respected or tolerated if you’re a satanist. I think a lot of satanists would argue this point.
What if a person posted a pentagram? Would that be considered satanic? Even if the pentagram is a symbol of Wicca and not of satanism? What about that “other” pentagram, the one with the top point of the star aiming downward? That’s most certainly a satanic symbol. So is that not allowed? (Of course it’s not.)
I’m not championing the rights of satanists, mind you. I am perfectly happy having them censored for my own benefit because I personally don’t want to see any kinds of pentagrams or anything of a satanic message anywhere. (And does a satanist really WANT to see crucifixes and crosses and other Christian messages and symbols everywhere? Let’s just be honest, now.) But HerInteractive’s rules are just defying logic and rational thought. They even admit that it’s a “sensitive issue.” So why are they so two-faced about it?
Maybe the real question is, how many satanists are playing Nancy Drew games, anyway?
with passion and apathy,
Momo
Topics: Gaming |
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.