"My disgust with the game ending is because is too religious for me"
First report ever, and on a thing that is not very fresh, but still juicy.
Earthbound is a nice and just awesome RPG from 1995, who in fact is the second from the (cult) Mother RPG game series. The games focus in a 90's kid with psychic powers and a red cap, and his friends (a phychic girl, a genius boy and an asian prince) figthing againts an evil alien named Gygas and the beings who are made or influenced by him. It has interesting things, like a modern ambientation, bats and frying pans as weapons, nice music, a campy graphic style and a kirky sense of humor. It's a cool game, really.
Earthbound have a somewhat small but nice fandom, where the few wanky thing are about when the 3rd game on the Saga was going out, (and, when finally caemes out, when will come to the American (or at least English-speaking) market), pseudocatfigths with fans from another series with better/nicer graphics, and small kerfulfles about censoring or translations issues. The fans are very devoted and somewhat crazy, but not so batshit inane as in, for example, FF VII.
However, there are some clueless who disturbes the waters and amazes us with it.
In the Starmen.net forums a dude called Atherz begins a thread called Upset with Game's Ending.... (SPOILERS) where s/he veltiles his frustration about her/his perceived religiosity on the game. And the fun begins!

Atherz: "I spent almost an hour launching attack upon weak attack upon the Giygas. Everyone except the main character (I called him Luigi) was gone and Luigi had used up all his PP and life revitalizing items like Life Noodles. Bored, I decided to check online to see if there was some trick I was missing to beating the big boss.

The answer stunned me. PRAY. Pray?? I can get all these cool weapons and attacks throughout the game and all that matters is one character's "faith"? Let me say now that I'm an atheist and getting very weary of how religion (especially Christianity) insists on making itself prominent in mainstream society. I thought people were free to believe in whatever they chose-- even if it's nothing at all. Anyhow, I know "pray" is a vague term and it isn't directed at any particular god or deity, but still it annoyed me that I had to appeal to a higher power to win a game that I'd dedicated HOURS to when in real life I don't believe in any such thing. I ended up hurling the control across the room and turning off the game in disgust. Such disappointment. :Mad emoticon:

Anyone else have similar feelings??

(Recites the magical words "XYZZY" and mysteriously disappears)"

Now, a little explanation for the ones who never played Earthbound. The Girl in the Party, default name Paula, has a command caled "Pray" that in most part of the game has random efects and is basically inutile. But in the end of the game, in the final stage in the figth with the Final Boss, the only way of beat this Boss is using that command determinate number of times. This invokes recursively to all the friends you have made in the game, who pray for the kids safety, until came to you, the player, who also prays for theis safety. It's one of the coolest things in the game.

Anyway, the people in the board becomes... upset.

TonySaturn: "No it means pray as in
Asking others for help

A freaking unerversal Cosmic Destroyers about to kill 4 kids in a robot suits,
OF COURSE YOU WOULD PRAY!
besides, its actually the player who prayed.
Remember what Tony asked you!

The endings better then most, it doesnt have
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 million hit points.
It is actually meaningful. :Mad emoticon:"

Ninten1: "Yes, trust us. If you get through the battle, you'll see that it's not relilgious, but it's more about having faith in your friends and family. It's about everyone uniting for the good of the planet."

Don't be so quick to judge."

...and many others in similar lines.

But then cames Saturn Storm and writes this:
"You're reading into it too Christian.

Pagans pray. Jews pray. To a certain extent a person 'prays', maybe not particularly to a deity, but more as a term to 'conjure' goodwill. In the case of the Chosen 4, they were praying for a safe return, and for hope, to defeat what was currently undefeatable. Its a way of saying "All the weapons in the World can't do what a little faith can", and again, this doesn't neccessarily have to be Christian at all.

I'll state now, I'm also Atheist. Or at the very least, I don't belong to a religion. If anyone's out there watching us, they know I'm happy with what they're doing.

When you fight certain enemies that are really hard, and really get you tense, is it not common for one to, by any description, think "don't die don't die don't die don't die..."? Certainly that is the case for me. Technically, that could count as prayer. It is aimed at nobody, and is there for the simple purpose of... I dunno. Raising the odds that you won't die. Everyone has a different method to this, and it's called under many names. But the definition is, in its most basic form, the same."

Many support this opinion, anothers add some serious reflection, and the waters become calm. The tread maintains some dignity for a while, but then appear another fan called meinsla tring to defend his/her atheism.

meinsla: "Who said anything about Christianity? He's not reading into anything too much either. Sounds like a blunt opinion to me. He just stated that it was lame you prayed a couple time to beat the game rather than actually put some effort into. He also disliked the fact that you had to rely on some sort of faith to complete the same as well. And how is that being quick to judge either?

And I agree, at least partially. I'm Athiest as well, though I don't really care too much about the religous aspect as much as I thought it really kind of sucked because all I had to do to win was select 'pray' from Paula's menu a few times (after, of course, a little beating by the team).

And another thing: "Anyway, you shouldn't think of praying as an religious activity. :\" Uh.... then WTF is it then???"

Things go downfall from there, with more atheist defending Atherz's position, more trying to calm the egos, many post on quote-and-answer, and some more who try to remind the audience about the Cleanless and Religionless polithics that Nintendo of America applied to all the games they lauched, back then in the happy 90's, with this game being so sanitizated that the red crosses in hospitals disappear because the censors considered it too religious. Ho boy!


Sadly, the thing frezzes quickly and only lasted three pages, but are the most weird reason for wank in this gaming fandom, and the answers are so indescribable...
Amusingly, some of the regulars detected inconsciously the absurd and the wank potential.
Incoherent Moron: "This topic reeks of "joke account"."
Spooky Mook: "I've seen much worse.

We've ALL seen much worse."