Killing the infidels, damning the non-believers, cultist posturing. It hasn’t even been released yet, and the evangelical video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is already wrong on so many levels. But the game, based on Tim LaHaye’s whack-job take on Christianity, isn’t just a chance to let gamers visit a post-rapture New York City. Left Behind Games has also invited a few money changers into their temple in the form of integrated, unblockable spyware.

As part of either the “good guys” in the Tribulation Force, or among the Devil’s army in the Anti-Christ’s Global Community Peacekeepers, gamers will have their soul-saving cut out for them. They will also have their RL whereabouts, gaming habits and assorted pieces of personal information tracked and sent back to Left Behind Games’ databases. While in-game advertising has lately become a topic of much discussion, most games stop short of transmitting user data back to the parent company. So far, no advertisers have been announced as sponsors of the pixilated Armageddon.

» Scott Saxon