If It Happened, It Happened. Also, If It Could Have Happened, It Happened.

It doesn't matter whether or not Christians are actually protesting the release of the EA video game "Dante's Inferno;" what matters is that EA thought that people would expect it to happen. When a negative reaction to the game didn't materialize organically, EA decided it was time to manufacture some dissent:

Video game giant Electronic Arts has admitted it funded a group of fake protesters who pretended to be Christians as a publicity stunt to spur interest in its upcoming action game very loosely based on Dante’s “Inferno.”

The game company hired a group of almost 20 people to stand outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the Associated Press says. The phony protesters passed out amateurish material and held signs bearing slogans such as “Trade in Your PlayStation for a PrayStation,” “Hell is not a Game” and “EA = Electronic Anti-Christ.”

Holly Rockwood, an EA spokeswoman, said the charade was arranged by a viral marketing agency hired by the company.

A web page in the crude style of 1990s web design was also created in connection with the stunt. It depicted crosses crushing the word “sin” and placed images of the King James Bible among phony condemnations and thinly-veiled promotions of the game.

“A video game hero does not have the authority to save and damn... ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE. and he will not judge the sinners who play this game kindly,” the site said.

I tried to find the website and couldn't.

I don't know whether I'm amused, or (pardon the pun) inflamed by this stunt. But I do know that I'm amused by this little gem that the writer of the above article decided to sneak into the copy:

Dante placed the fraudulent and the sowers of discord in the penultimate Eighth Circle.

All of this raises an interesting ethical question: does unfairly representing someone you believe to be a bigot make you a bigot too? Methinks it does.