Mass: We Pray claims to be a new video game that allows you to simulate going to church, without ever leaving home. Shacknews.com reports receiving a press release from Prayer Works Interactive, the maker of this purported product. An excerpt follows:
Mass: We Pray is the first of many worship-themed games in development for Prayer Works Interactive. Just like with any videogame, families can use a television as a monitor to play. Then, they can use the CROSS, a proprietary, wireless, cross-shaped controller to participate in 24 unique and exhilarating rituals. Make the Sign of the Cross, sprinkle Holy Water, take Collection and even give Holy Communion. Every motion and nuance of a blessing or ritual is detected in three dimensions and replicated on-screen.
Can this be real? As often with claims of a religious nature, Poe's law rears its head. (The real religious stuff is often so crazy that it's indistinguishable from the spoof stuff). But let's review some of the typical signs that a website is a hoax:
The site makes a claim that seems outrageous or absurd.
It advertises a product, but doesn't actually allow you to buy it.
It's registered anonymously, and no business address is provided.
Although you can't buy the main product, you can buy a related t-shirt or mug.
Google ads (or other unrelated ads) are posted to profit from traffic to the site.
An outrageous or absurd claim? Check. You can't buy Mass: We Pray, but the company claims that on Friday, Nov. 20 you'll be able to pre-order it. (Let's wait and see if they hold true to that promise.) The website is also registered anonymously through Domain Discreet, and Prayer Works Interactive offers no business address.
That's three signs of being a hoax. So my guess is that Mass: We Pray is probably fake. But the real test, of course, will be to wait and see if they ever offer this thing for sale.
Below is a video demonstration of the game.
Update: On November 20 Mass: We Pray was revealed to be a hoax. (No surprise there!) The pre-order link, which previously had been dead, became clickable, leading to an ad for the video game Dante's Inferno.
Having seen the video it's definitely a hoax. Looks like a spoof.
Posted by Sharruma on Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Although when you get right down to it, this would really be closer to Christianity as Jesus taught it: something that you do on a personal basis, at home. I could see some Christians putting out a video-game version of church so that people would follow the more old-time religion rather than the newfangled stuff with the big churches and whatnot.
Posted by Accipiter on Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 03:53 PM
This is actually a viral advertisement for a new video game called Dante's Inferno. Just click on pretty much any link and it condemns you to hell and asks if you want to watch the trailer for the game. Lol
Looks like a fairly decent game....
Posted by Justin Paris on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 08:37 AM
They also are glomming together several different religions. It's mostly Roman Catholic/Orthodox activities, but the "expansion pack" features "the seven sacraments," which is an Anglican thing (Protestants only have two sacraments, Romans have a couple dozen, Orthodox have hundreds).
And in all those religions, only priests sprinkle Holy Water and bless communion, so lay people wouldn't be doing that. The spoof falls apart if you know much about religion at all.
Posted by Frosted Donut on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:53 PM
A word of heads up: This morning I clicked the links on the site and it asked me to confirm my age. I tried to cancel out instead and it sent me to a Facebook page. It wanted me to "allow" things, I clicked do not allow and it STILL somehow wound up in my applications menu.
Posted by Spectre on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 10:04 PM
Not to quibble, Frosted Donut, but in name Roman Catholics only have seven sacraments (baptism, first communion, confession, confirmation, marriage, priesthood, and last rites) but many more rituals.
Realistically you're right that Catholics have a number of rites that could be considered sacraments under a different classification system, so I ain't calling you a liar or nuttin.
If you ever go to a Catholic wedding, you'd swear they have dozens of sacraments and have to go through each one before it's over.
Posted by Mark on Sat Nov 21, 2009 at 06:37 PM
Hi,
It means no need to go out for church .This is a joke, right.I can read the Bible and go to church without this.My family and I laughed so hard when I showed them this. It's totally fake. It was probably used as a starter to a church service.
Posted by batterien on Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 11:16 PM
The real thing is torture enough. Why would anyone want to do it at home? Going once every Sunday is even too much!
Posted by Sakano on Wed Dec 02, 2009 at 01:15 PM
It's obviously a hoax, and a funny one too! The more you pray the more grace points you get and you can exchange those for almost anyhing!
Posted by screen printing on Sun Dec 06, 2009 at 03:37 PM
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Mass: We Pray claims to be a new video game that allows you to simulate going to church, without ever leaving home. Shacknews.com reports receiving a press release from Prayer Works Interactive, the maker of this purported product. An excerpt follows:
Comments
Looks like a fairly decent game....
And in all those religions, only priests sprinkle Holy Water and bless communion, so lay people wouldn't be doing that. The spoof falls apart if you know much about religion at all.
Realistically you're right that Catholics have a number of rites that could be considered sacraments under a different classification system, so I ain't calling you a liar or nuttin.
If you ever go to a Catholic wedding, you'd swear they have dozens of sacraments and have to go through each one before it's over.
It means no need to go out for church .This is a joke, right.I can read the Bible and go to church without this.My family and I laughed so hard when I showed them this. It's totally fake. It was probably used as a starter to a church service.