BioShock Infinite's religious themes led dev to consider quitting

nothing is more offensive than murder, basically 70% of the game...and the fact that it took him to see the ending to draft his resignation shows that his religious view is selective.

A Christian, a Jew and a Muslim walk in to a pub...

...they have a good evening and finish with a greater understanding of each other's religions.

So in other words a religious idiot threatened to quit because he "was offended and his feelings were hurt" so you pussed out, caved and changed it to make the poor hypocritical stupid redneck Christians feel better?

Hang your head in shame Ken Levine you're no artiest.

The bible is a complete myth... It was created by man to be the words of god....fools.

I'm afraid to see what kind of idiotic comments are down here so I won't read them. Just wanted to say that I'm religious and loved Bioshock. Sure, there are always radicals in whatever belief system you have, atheism and agnosticism too. There are also modern "religions" that are completely bogus like Scientology. Even if you believe all of the old religions are false too, at least they have some kind of historical credibility whereas a cult like Scientology was created by a man who once said that the most profitable enterprise was religion. Guess what? He later went and made his own "religion". Talk about transparent. =P So yea, those charismatic guys that pop up in today's world and pretend they are some kind of Messiah or prophet without any way to back it up? Please don't believe that drivel. They just want power, money, and/or fame. Just wanted to share my 2 cents. Not worth arguing about religion on the internet so I won't be revisiting this. Instead... back to my second playthrough of Bioshock! =)

in the original concept,Jesus was the final boss

Let that idiot leave then.

Video games are canvases for imagination, storytelling, and fantasy... actually, just like the Bible, honestly. But still, if someone's imaginary friends and superstitions (whatever his myth was) are going to hold him back from making original, compelling (and sometimes offensive and mentally challenging) games, then I say kick rocks and good riddance.

Let someone unburdened by religion hold a creative position.

Heh.. well after all they're Irrational.. but really, how does this offended dev live with himself because unless he has the largest Viva Pinata or Petz video game collection, he's condoning a lot of violence in its creation. The box art itself has a guy toting a shotgun..

I think maybe he should look for a new line of work... like in the comics section. Because this won't be the only time a development roadblock will occur with the way games are designed with mature audience in mind. Makes you wonder how many games he actually played through

The only thing we can do at the moment is speculate. The main question is, why was he offended? And then again, Levine solved the problem, he is happy, the religous guy is happy so I don' t know what the fuzz is all about. because at the end we play the final product without that " deleted" scene.

I'll say it again... so many people, ON BOTH SIDES, quick to judge an involved party based on an article that outlines the issue but provides little detail. If you weren't party to the discussion Levine had with the artist then don't call one thin skinned or the other ignorant. That's jumping to conclusions, a knee jerk reaction.

What is it with our culture and getting offended over every little thing?

So much ignorance.

Are there bad religious people? Yes. Are there bad atheists? Yes. Are there good religious people? Yes. Are there good atheists? Yes.

The end.

Bioshock was the first game I felt really bad about playing through as "Evil" I can believe some people would get offended or upset. The point is not that the guy nearly quit, the point is the game is causing people to feel real emotion, a mark of a great game...hopefully...

So a religious guy didn't like the fact there was an anti-religious character in the game? Maybe the character desecrated a religious symbol (that's the only thing I can think of that would be offensive enough). Even then, I find it to be irrational to be so offended, when religions are renowned for forcing their beliefs on people and torturing/killing the "infidel" non-believers.

It can be argued that this one guy might not force his beliefs upon others, but considering they are knowns to be "extremely" religious by their co-workers, and they were willing to quit over a work of fiction, it gives the impression they would be offended by even the mildest things. By being offended, they are taking it personally, which is just ridiculous and irrational.

People need to learn to live-and-let-live. To understand others are going to have different ideals and beliefs. To get over the fact you, or anyone else, are not going to be able to change that. And most importantly, to realise that fiction is fiction - even if it is based on reality. The games industry needs to grow up, and we need to start embracing maturity in both fiction and non-fiction.

This is why i love Ken Levine so much. He takes situations and uses them to better benefit game development. The fact that through all this, he was able to keep an employee AND further improve the narrative in his game is a sign of his genius

dont care if he resign this game better not be changed.,.3-26-13 i will be taking that day off

Still blows my mind people are so bent out of shape about historical fiction. And I'm not talking about the videogame.

@GICobraBlack The heck is this?!?

Almost quitting over video game content? Lighten up.