Mass: We Pray: A Holy Hoax or Just a Really Bad Game?

A website has sprung up for Mass: We Pray, a new game that lets families “go to church every day without leaving their home,” and it’s surely – I mean, it just has to be – a hoax.

“A family shouldn’t have to wait until Sunday to worship the Lord. Now you can go to church every day without leaving your home,” promises the website for Mass: We Pray, a new videogame system that features a wireless motion-detecting cross controller, a “Kneeler accessory” for more interactive action and unique game software that features more than 24 “unique and exhilarating” ceremonies including Lighting Prayer Candles, Transubstantiation, Adult Baptism and Genuflecting. And no, I am not making a word of this up.

Someone must be, though. The site at masswepray.com is played straight but most gaming sites, including this one, are working from the assumption that this is some sort of elaborate hoax. Game Culture did some digging and found that while the developer credited with the game, Prayer Works Interactive, claims to have been founded in Boston in 2007, there’s no such company listed in the Boston business directory, nor does Boston directory assistance have a number listed for it. The company doesn’t seem to have a website, either; the game’s site, meanwhile, is hosted by MediaTemple but the actual owner is hidden.

I’m tempted to leave the “anything’s possible” door open but I’m not going to, because there’s just no way this can be real. It is very well done, though; along with the promotional video, the site features more than a dozen screenshots, images of the controllers and a design sensibility that’s pretty much exactly right for the product its advertising.

So what’s the point? I’ve had no luck coming up with any clues so this is a complete shot in the dark, but I’m calling it as yet another blasphemous Dante’s Inferno promotion from EA. Maybe that’s the easy, all-too-obvious answer, but that’s how I roll. We’ll hopefully find out soon enough; the site promises that it will begin taking preorders for Mass: We Pray on November 20, at which point I expect the Big Revelation to hit. In the meantime, check it out for yourself and give us your theories!