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Halo In Church Points Out ESRB Flaws
The recent controversy over church groups making use of Halo 3 to attract young men to their services continues to be a subject of debate outside of the fan press. GamePolitics notes that the debate is indicative of flaws in the ESRB's system, and in mainstream culture's understanding of those ratings. "When you look at it like that, it's hard to blame those who criticize bringing Halo into sacred space. For the most part the critics are not gamers and have no concept of the vast difference between Halo and GTA. All they know is that the games share a common M rating, a designation assigned by the game industry itself, theoretically for the protection of impressionable youth. For the uninitiated it's only logical to assume the content must be of a similar character as well. As someone who has played both, I'd argue that there is a world of difference between Halo and GTA."
When you have to pidgeon hole all media into about 5 slots, you're going to have differences between boundary conditions. Like how 2 R rated movies aren't necessarily the same in terms of content.
"Gharbad no Hurt!" -Gharbad
A game based on parts of the Bible could get an M rating as well. The bible is full of violence and sex. People just seem to gloss over that these days. Much like the people who say drinking is a sin, and over look that water to wine section.
Think Deeply.
Actually that's not that all much different from having church sponsored paintball outings...
I submitted this to our own pastor and some of the others involved with youth and fellowship in our church. And I suppose being a gamer myself it just makes sense to me. The fellowship committee in our church is there to create activities that are not necessarily 'church' related, but help bring us together as a community, to get to know each other, and just to have fun. The youth groups do the same things. I don't see why it seems like such an alien concept that one or the other should use video games for that purpose. I mean, come on I'm a geek and 31 (and still thinking he's in college at times). Do I look like bingo or knitting are activities that I'm going to sign up for?
And I agree with the summary that it only seems strange to those who don't know about gaming, and while I can understand their initial confusion, I'd hope that after an explanation and (at most) a demonstration, that they'd see that. For the most part, I've run into very little concern about these type of things from anyone (and yes I'm going to stereotype) who was not under 65 or so in our church. But I think it's our part as gamers/geeks/fill-in-your-term-here to explain away the FUD that some people seem to spread.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
I am not trying to be sarcastic, but I believe many people feel that because it is aliens and not humans being murdered, that it is ok. I mean, the rule is simple, Thou shalt not kill, yet people kill animals all the time for food or whatever, sometimes just for sport. This is ok because they are not human, the commandment should read, thou shalt not kill thy fellow human being. The Bible has always been vague on most topics, this ensures that it can be interrupted however it is needed at the time.
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Seriously, though. There's a big difference between a game where you fight and kill other human beings to engage in criminal activities, and a game where you only fight aliens to save humanity. I'm pretty sure Halo 2 and Halo 3 are actually designed so that at no point are you fighting other humans-- even when playing as the Arbiter. Frankly, I don't necessarily agree that Halo deserves the same rating as games like the GTA series, or Rainbow Six Vegas, or other much more graphic games.
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"When you look at it like that, it's hard to blame those who criticize bringing Halo into sacred space." Well yes I would have a problem with playing video games in sacred places. I don't think it would be right to play them in chapel of a church.
I will be honest I have never played Halo. I have played Quake and Doom, and the later generations of those games. I am more into the Age of Empire type game and yes all of the above should not be played in the chapel.
For the rest of the Church well. I know that this is a radical idea but isn't that really up to the church and or the congregation of the church? My church tends to be more into the basketball and volley ball type of church activities and I don't think that I would be thrilled with video games in church but then that is my church and my opinion. Other churches have different ideas.
Seems sort of strange to even be discussing it since frankly it is none of our business.
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Wait wait wait
So it's the ESRB's fault that this church decided to attract the young to a church event using a game that is clearly about violence. Even if you don't know what the rating of the game is the cover picture has a person with a gun in a military looking outfit. What did they think the game was about? Baking cookies with Jesus?
"Kill Bill" and "The Passion of the Christ" were both rated R, weren't they?
There's a wide range of stuff that's considered "mature." Some of it is mindlessly gory, some of it seriously handles mature topics.
That's not to say I buy the premise that Halo 3 is a great fit for church life. Maybe it's "Die Hard" instead of "Grindhouse," but that doesn't make it a good fit.
I believe scholars generally accept that a more accurate translation would be "thou shalt not murder". Killing aliens bent the destruction of all sentient life in a galaxy is not murder in any legal or biblical sense.
I think the real problem here lies with the game retailers, specifically the ones who refuse to stock AO titles. The AO rating has become a big no-no for games. I think comparisons to movies here are inevitable.
When I go to the video store, they have three distinct movie sections. They have the "kids" section with movies made for children of all ages (G movies, comparable to E and E10 games), then there's the "general" section which includes many subsections but range from family films to gruesome horror movies (PG to R, comparable to E10 to M), and the aptly named "adults only" section which is actually behind a closed door.
Now, I am a father of a young son. I know what he can and can't watch and play, and I control it. He is five, and I took him to see Transformers (a PG-13 movie) in the theater last week. The rating system is meant to be a general guideline as to the content of a movie, not a be-all-end-all indicator of all of the bad things that happen in a film. The game rating system is the same way.
What I'm really trying to get at here is that retailers need to get off the AO stigma and just stock those games. Put them in another room or just keep them behind the shelf and sell them only to grown adults. Retailers already are prepared to explain the ratings to kids and whether or not the games they want to buy are appropriate for their children, AO wouldn't really complicate things any. This way, we can give the games that truly deserve it (e.g. GTA, Manhunt, etc) the AO ratings and avoid a lot of confusion.
When I read that headline, I was wondering why the halo was the problem of the ESRB, and not, say, a corpse on display, tortured to death, being worshipped by people...
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Many of which are morally reprehensible to any modern civilization.
Translating the commandment as "murder" turns it into a really impotent commandment. As long as the people already had a concept of "wrong" killing and "right" killing, then telling them "wrong" killing is wrong is pretty useless. The history of western civilization should prove that some stronger language was warranted.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
When I play a Halo game, I see a largely secular Earth fighting against a religious alliance out to wipe out intelligent life in the galaxy. The big bad guys are the prophets named things like 'Truth'. The humans are holding out because they don't want to convert and join The Covenant.
Am I the only one who sees irony in that *churches* are playing this game?
As an unbeliever, I find the irony both rich and oddly disturbing.