Liel Leibovitz, fellow Columbia alumnus with the Ghostbusters, and Doctor of video games (ok, Communications, but he did his doctorate on video games), wrote about a surprising moment in the Ghostbusters video game.
A practicing Jew, Leibovitz spotted the ham on the table at the Rodriguez bar mitzvah, and unlike me – who reacted as a Gentile who’d been reading the achievement list – zapped the ham because it literally wasn’t kosher to him. Imagine his surprise when he was rewarded with an achievement for keeping things clean.
I froze in my tracks. It was time, I realized, to make a major decision about my identity. Was I a Jew first and a Ghostbuster second? Or was it the other way around? Do I catch the ghost? Or do I take care of the treyf? My heart beat fast. Then, suddenly, I knew just what I needed to do.
I love this blog post – I love that game devs thought to essentially hide an achievement that only achievement hounds like myself or the faithful like Liel would even notice. Seriously, in the mess you make in that room, who’s going to think, “hey, shoot the ham!” if they didn’t know about the achievement already or take sure things seriously?
I wish games did stuff like this more often.
That is the jewiest name i’ve ever heard in my life.
Hmm, the link gives a 404 error at Tablet Mags site. That is really neat though that the game made that connection!
http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/7168/haunted-ham/ This one works.
Bo clearly did not go to Brandeis University.
Didn’t this guy used to date Superman? Or try to kill him…? I can’t quite remember which….
Friggin sweet, now I know what I’m supposed to do to get that achievement lol.
That was a very fun read.
I knew that’s what the achievement was when I first read the achievements list.