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Christian Videogame Alternatives Explored
Thanks to the TNL forum regulars for pointing to a CBN article discussing the most suitable videogames for Christians (Google cache). The article discusses the "extreme violence, gratuitous sex, and satanic imagery found in many children's video games", and focuses instead on Christian-orientated games such as Ominous Horizons, where "the player takes on the role of a 15th-century Christian who fights demons, but without any blood or gore. The forces of evil - instead of dying - fall to their knees and pray." This N-Lightning-developed game has the player working as a medieval Paladin to return the Gutenberg Bible, which has been stolen by forces of evil, and the developer explains: "..you have a sword of the Spirit.. [that] shoots a burst of light which vaporizes any demonic opponents and the end result is that you know Christ is victorious."
There and plenty of games in the marketplace, that actually aren't violent and don't require massive killing or demons, or satanism or whatever.
I blew a significant portion of my flight (9 hours) back to the United States last week. playing simcity 3000, and frozen bubble, a classic console stle game that's more addictive than crack cocaine... http://www.frozen-bubble.org/
I would hold out both games as examples of what gaming is and should be all about, Entertaining diversions.
Games such as "Catechumen," set in ancient Rome, feature spectacular 3-D graphics and allow the player to take part in a fierce battle between good and evil.
That just sounds like it comes straight out of a press release. Of course, when you're dealing with a genre that includes Bible Adventures, maybe you have to plug it all you can...
Sono koro, bokura wa, sore ga sekai no shinjitsu da to shinjite ita.
...for `Christian' videogames. Or `Christian' movies.
I am speaking a Christian-- specifically, an evangelical, relatively conservative Christian.
A faith that cannot deal with death, violence, evil and malice is impratical-- our world is fallen. A faith that does not endeavour to accept sinners is arrogant. And a faith that is impractical and arrogant is not faith-- it is a crutch, a psychological dependence on superiority; it is not transforming, not understanding, not gentle, not strong, not uplifting-- it is not meaningful.
Is there evil in a videogame? Well, then, it is a reflection of our world. Surely there will be truth in the game as well! It is of paramount import that one knows how to recognise and dwell on good, and reject evil. Adults should know how to do this; children should be taught.
It's not about teaching people what to do, or how to act. It's about the meaning of their acts, and of the acts that they witness; though the topic of the day is religion, this is true of most things. In short: adults, behave responsibly; children, learn how to.
(You know, we could do away with a lot of legislation if people just behaved decently (or made the effort to).)
Twelve fingers or one, its how you play. ~Gattaca (Vincent)
It's not mostly about the amount of violence and sex in the game, it's about the message which the game tries to send. The situation is very much the same as with books- Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov depicts a world with plenty of violence and sex but sends a strong message of faith. As plenty of others have pointed out, the Bible is the same way. There are plenty of books with little or no violence or sex which nevertheless broadcast a message of nihilism, selfishness, and immorality.
:)
As far as I can tell, these games don't really send any message at all (unless it's that missionary work, even among demons, is ridiculously easy, just point and zap), much less one of true faith. If you're going to be playing a FPS which is designed not to send any message, you might as well enjoy it and have it be Serious Sam (with the 'hippie gore' option turned on if you prefer lower levels of blood, etc)
1. It's a First Person Shooter.
2. It has great demonic imagery to show on talk shows and sensationalist news reports.
3. It is very well known.
Doom is the game that gets the bad press. (Note: Both games are cool, I would've thought so even back when I was a practicing Catholic.) Really, if Jack Chick made a game, would it be that different than Doom. (Haw, haw!)
On the other hand, all Color Dreams has to do is find Jesus, slightly retool Menace Beach and they have a game they can sell in Christian bookstores Sunday Funday
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
The difference between the violence in the Bible and the extreme violence you see in *some* of today's video games, is that in the former, it's painfully (no pun intended) obvious that the violence is wrong and there are concequences, often very serious.
From The Bible, 2 Kings 2:23-24:
"And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them"
Yup, I would say that being torn apart by she bears because you told old baldy to 'go up' was fairly serious.
All things in moderation; including moderation
A bit of context is always important. In verse 9, Elisha (the 'old bald head') asks for all the power of another prophet who had gone before, Elijah. He gets it.
Then follows a lesson in the use of power--at least, that's how I read it. In verses 13-18, he gives in to his equivalent of peer pressure. It fails. In 19-22, he follows wise advice and a good result comes of it. Finally, 23-24 is an example of what bad comes from careless use of power. It's pretty much your own fault if you carry a drawn knife around with you, and then stab someone in a fit of anger.
Basically, the story tells a very true lesson: power is not the answer, unless it's bound by some sort of moral control. In these days that is more important than ever.
A standard commentary on this is that the 'little children' is a definite KJV mistranslation, and that the people who came to him were probably adolescent boys who had been paid to bring water to sustain Jericho while the spring there was bitter (salty; the story is recounted in the four verses immediately previous to the passage you quoted, v 19-22; Jericho is below sea level near the Dead Sea and thus it wouldn't be too strange for salt water to end up in their water table). Having been deprived of their livelihood by Elisha when he healed the spring and thus eliminated the need for bringing fresh water into the city, they were outside the city jeering Elisha as he left, waiting until he came in range that they could stone him.
I think the commentary is Talmudic and old enough that it quite possibly in some form predated the compilation of 2 Kings. I could be wrong, my memory isn't fantastic.
I hit this article hoping to see a discussion of "different drummer" type games with different and more interesting playmechanics than "obtain bigger weapon, shoot monster/other player." (Seriously, I liked Doom and Duke3D a lot, but by Quake III I was wondering if there was ANYTHING else to play anymore....)
Instead I got to relive for a moment that dark period of the 80's when born again failed record execs came around to the Catholic schools passing the hat and suggesting we all burn our "satanic" records and buy some new ones that sounded superficially the same, but with awful songwriting and a message from Jesus. Records by bands like Stryper.
Yes, that's right, these videogames are the 21st century version of Stryper. Rock on, Christian soldiers....
"Europe's glorious spiritual heritage is quickly fading into history as Christianity is replaced by Islam and atheism."
This guy obviously have no idea what he is talking about.
Most Europeans are finally getting rid of religion, be it Christianity or Muslim.
We consider this progress.
Meanwhile we see the United States seemingly being overrun by conservative christian establisment. In my perception, this makes the US a "dark place".
Religion is fine if you don't understand your world or are too afraid to face reality. But don't impose your rightwing christian visions on others. Or on Europe for that matter.
Dang, I hate religious zealots. Sorry for trolling.