Scientology Pwned

Even though the author states in the opening scenes of the game that he does not support real-life violence against Scientologists, he was forced to take the game down in May 2007. In a thread on the IGDA Forums, he explained what happened:

*So way back in 2006 I made this game called Scientology Pwned (http://www.zixiao.info/games). It was designed and created in a matter of days for a school project. Last week (May 9 or 10) I got a call from Detective Chris Kiriakopoulos from the Hamilton Central Police Station's Hate Crime Unit/Intelligence Branch.

Apparently I'd been under investigation for several weeks for my game Scientology Pwned. I just got home from my visit with the good detective and here's my account:

So the Scientologists in Toronto are afraid someone is going to play my game, lose it, and go on a Scientologist killing spree. Naturally, they contact the police.

Kiriakopoulous leads me into an 'interview' room holding a file folder thats about as thick as 1.5 calculus text books. We sit down and he starts flipping through the folder. I twiddle my thumbs looking for cameras and mics. The detective confirms we're being monitored and recorded. Spiffy.

We play Q&A for a while regarding my background. Kiriakopoulous begins by asserting my game boarders a hate crime. So I spend a while convincing him:

a) my game is not motivated by hate

b) I had neither the intention nor the capacity to carry out attacks against scientologists

c) scientology is not a religion in canada.

d) the game is not solicited and therefore I'm not actively advocating anything

A reoccuring question Kiriakopoulous kept asking was "given that your game has offended people, what do you plan to do?" To which I initially responded "nothing" since I was under the impression offending people isn't a hate crime. He didn't like that answer too much.... maybe my response needs to be in the form of a question "the answer is 'what is nothing', Chris". Anyways in the end he 'suggested' I change the name of the game to something which made no reference to scientology. He didn't mind me keeping the sprites, bullets, blood etc.

So my reason for posting my recent adventure at the police station is two fold:

1) to get some comments on the events

2) generate suggestions for the new name of Scientology Pwned.

Cheers,

Zi-Xiao*