I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long time. I’m an old gamer since the days of the Arcade and Atari. I’ve seen games become into what they are today. There used to be a time when I was never concerned about what the game says or if the game carries any political, religious or educational value. But that has changed. I can tell you that games have the least to do with politics, so we can leave that aside. The games used to be educational and that number has decreased to such an extent that I have to put down 6 out of every 10 games that come out in a season. The FPS genre is mostly a waste but I am not going to start a rant about that here.
This brings me to my point. Games should have the least to do with religion. I’m not advocating the use of Cultures or anything else. Russians, Africans, Americans, Italians, Afghanis, Israelis and cultures and phenomena from all over the world have been taken into the gaming worlds. The use of history and facts is good. But I stand against the use of religions in gaming. Not many game developers dare to mess around with religious cults. That is mostly because they are either going to destroy their market or get bad reviews for it. It was once that Microsoft Game Studios did something similar when Koranic verses could be heard in a Fighter game called Kakuto Chojin for the Xbox. Sony recalled LittleBigPlanet from the shelves when a song that had Koranic Verses in it was highly criticized. Now, Capcom has been meddling with this sensitive subject for a long time.
When Resident Evil 5 first debuted, people and organizations criticized Capcom for depicting the poverty and killing of Black people or specifically African people. I wasn’t against it mostly because games have used other cultures equally to depict their stories and the stories are fictional or either based on historical facts, which people or cultures do not have issues with being used in games. So, let’s come to the point. Capcom rolled out Zack and Wiki a long time ago for the Wii. The game had a debut trailer in which a group of characters used the Islamic phrase “Allah o Akbar” and performed a ritualistic dance. The trailer was not taken lightly and Capcom was bombarded with criticism from Islamic faith and organizations. There was also a court filing against Capcom from Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The filed case asked Capcom to remove the Islamic phrase from the game. Capcom quickly recognized the severity of the issue and removed the phrase from the release version of the game and issued a press release with their response. If you haven’t seen the video, you can watch it below:
So, that’s a case of Capcom messing around that people are aware of. I searched around the internet for a long time and could not find a single result where people noticed that Capcom has been depicting Islamic artifacts in its “Devil May Cry” Series. What’s more infuriating is the fact that the artifacts used are of grave importance and respect in the Muslim faith. First, it’s Devil may Cry 3. Linked below is a video from Devil may Cry 3, where Virgil, Dante’s brother, enters the Demon’s domain through a door. Hint: At the end of the video. 2:17-2:19.
Vergil entering the Demon Gate
The texture used to make that door is taken from the Entrance of the Holy Kabah. Also called the Baba’ e Kabah. The use of the texture is completely outrageous. The concept of the game revolves around Demons and Evil Powers. The depiction of demons or evil people entering it justifies the fact that someone at Capcom is messing around. I wouldn’t call them names but it is obvious that the use is taken into account with knowledge of the importance of that artifact.
Here’s another evidence why I call it “someone” acting fishy at Capcom. The next image is from “Devil May Cry 4“, which was recently released to every major platform in the market. The concept of the game revolves around demons like I said earlier and this time they have a so called “prophet” or “holiness” in the game. Linked below is an image taken from the game where “his holiness” is lying on a bed and awakens as a “Demon” or an evil power. The video was large, so I did not link it. However, once can view the video in Mission 5 named “Return of the King”. Click the image to get a larger version.
Notice the texture on the bed. That seems like Arabic writing. I agree that it’s been blurred a bit to lower the chances of it being noticed but if you look closely enough, you’ll notice the glyphs easily.
Now, being a Muslim myself, I condemn Capcom’s act and protest against the use of Islamic artifacts in such defamed manners. Capcom is a very old Game development company and I am a fan but this is not acceptable at all. I do not hold the whole company responsible for the act but some individuals who are actively passing these ideas into their Video Games. I’d appreciate it if the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) take notice of these acts and caution Capcom with the use of these artifacts in their games and in the future.
