Christianity & Gaming

I am a Christian. I am also a fan of modern videogames. If I was to die at this very moment and give an account of my life to God, I would be ashamed of the gaming choices I have made. I’ve played games that depict violence against women, games that glorify crime and murder, and games that have outright demonic themes all in the name of exploring the medium. If I believe the things that are written in the Bible and want to be a true follower of God, then my choices in videogames should reflect that. In the Bible, one of Jesus’ followers cautioned a group of believers by writing this in 1^st Corinthinians 10:23-24:

Everything is permissible—but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

In the context of this verse, Paul is talking about eating meat that was used as a sacrifice in pagan temples. In Paul’s day, some of the believers thought that eating meat that was offered to a pagan god was inhabited by demons. He says that as a Christian, one can exercise the freedom of eating the sacrificed meat because there are no demons in that meat that would enter in and control you if you consumed it. However, if the act of consuming meat offends someone, you should not do it. In the same way, you may find it ok to drink wine with a meal, but you would never serve wine if an alcoholic visited your house. These thoughts can also apply to modern day videogames. There are no demons that would come out of the screen and possess you if you played certain types of games, but you can give the wrong impression to people if you play these games while professing to be a Christian. So being a Christian and a gamer starts with making the decision to be cautious about the games that I play.

Secondly, I must be wise about my thoughts when playing games. A game does not have to be violent for it to stir up strong hateful emotions. Recently, an Italian teen stabbed his father in the neck over an argument about FIFA tactics. The mother told reporters that they bought him FIFA because they didn’t want him playing violent videogames (http://technology.canoe.ca/2010/01/25/12601606-reuters.html). I recently played a game of called Words with Friends on the iPhone and I remember getting so competitive that I actually used a website to help me cheat in the game. As a result of not keeping my thoughts in check, I lied and cheated to try and win a game against a friend. I am responsible to God for the thoughts and actions that result as a product of gaming.

Finally, I should be aware of how much time is spent playing videogames. In a short live quest to find out how many people have lost their lives to videogames, I googled “gamer dies” and was shocked to discover there are numerous articles about marathon gamers who have lost their lives while playing the games they love. I don’t think I am at the point where I would play a game for several days straight, but I have definitely spend a lot of time chasing after, collecting,  and playing games which might not be too different. I am still alive, but I have lost the parts of my life I spent dedicated to the pursuit of games. The Bible says this about managing your time here on earth:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15, 16

If games and gamers are like this today, what will be the state of things in 5 to 10 years? Previous generations have been dealing with these violent, demonic, and evil themes in music, movies, art, and other forms of entertainment and look how these industries have declined in moral value. Videogames are dangerously different in that they ask the entertainment seeker to participate in socially and biblically unsound acts in a virtual world. Soon, these acts become a required feature in the games that they choose and the participant needs a stronger form of stimulation to feel entertained. This must be true if we are seeing sequel after sequel in the Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto, and God of War franchises. To avoid a further degradation the videogaming market, one must make a stand against these morally corrupt forms of entertainment by choosing not to purchase or play them

As a Christian, I think it is important to not only read about what is taught in the Bible about living on earth, but to also practice it. A Christian Gamers Code can be best defined on the guide2games.org website:

The Christian Gamer is a believer in Jesus Christ as the way to eternal salvation (John 3:16). As a Christian, responsible to God for my actions and thoughts, I promise to choose my games carefully. My goal is to be a good witness in my purchasing decisions, in my game play with others, and in the use of my time.

A final thought about the place of videogames in a Christian’s life comes from the prolific Christian writer, A.W. Tozer:

Then there are some among us these days who have to depend upon truckloads of gadgets to get their religion going, and I am tempted to ask: What will they do when they don’t have the help of the trappings and gadgets? The truck can’t come along where they are going!

Uncharted 2: Among Theives vs Abby

My wife Abby loves relaxing in a tropical location with me at her side. My wife does not love watching me play video games based in tropical locations for hours and hours.  She loves being a positive influence in her friend’s lives. She does not love the way that Burnout and Gran Turismo influence my real life driving habits. Abby didn’t grow up playing videogames as a child and I have been gaming since the days of the Atari 2600. Perhaps she sees videogames as an outlet for grown men to relive their childhood memories. If she could see that modern videogames provide a realistic escape from life’s routines, maybe she would be interested in playing. She probably believes that most of today’s games offer a shallow experience with very little character or story development.

After watching a recent PS3 commercial for Uncharted 2, I wished that my wife shared the same enthusiasm for watching me play games as the girl in the commercial (even though she thought Uncharted 2 was a long movie). The PS3 ad campaign claimed that “It only does everything”. Does everything include winning my wife over to videogames?  I thought Metal Gear Solid 4 would be a great game to watch…err… play through while my wife sat on the couch but instead she would just get up and go to the computer room to browse facebook. Infamous and its comic book styled hero, Cole, drove her to a stack of the latest fashion magazines. After two unsuccessful attempts to convince my wife of the value of videogames, I was ready to give up. I decided to pick up Uncharted 2 after hearing about its fantastic story and immersive gameplay, but in the back of my mind I hoped that the commercial’s promise of the PS3 “doing everything” would be fulfilled.

It has been a tradition for me to wake up early on Saturday mornings to play games so that I don’t feel the guilt that my wife is waiting for me to finish. She would usually sleep until noon, but the morning I decided to start playing Uncharted 2 was different. Shortly after the loading screen was finished, she sat down behind me and watched Nathan Drake fall out of a train while it hung over the edge of a cliff. She was on the edge of her seat. My wounded avatar dashed out of the second train car as it slowly slipped into the mountainous abyss. She was relieved that Nate was able to grab the edge of the cliff as he leapt from the cold steel of the locomotive. I knew that many of these events in the game were scripted and that it was a team of creative level designers that made the experience so intense, but to my wife this game had become a full fledged action movie. She didn’t sit though my entire gaming session, but I had never seen her so interested in a videogame.

A few days later, I picked up a controller to play through more of the movie and Abby was on the same couch watching the cut scenes along with me. What was so different about this game that brought Abby to my side? Maybe it is the fact that Naughty Dog used real actors to do the motion capture and the voiceovers that made the game more like a real movie. Or maybe it was the witty banter between the characters in the game. Could it have been that the game’s creative director Amy Hennig created a secret formula that appealed to both men and women? Whatever it was, I was thankful for it because the game allowed us to gasp, laugh, and scream together as we joined Nathan on his action packed journey.

10 hours after finishing the game and unlocking all the cinematics, Abby picked up the controller to watch the cut scenes she missed. I was amazed. She really wanted to know the full story. She wanted to know every little detail about Nathan Drake’s journey to Shambhala. Further evidence of her passion for this game came when two of her girlfriends came over. One of her friends casually asked if I had played any good “Shooter” games lately. By shooter games, I think she meant the on-rails experience of Time Crisis or Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles. I instead decided to show her a bit of Uncharted 2. Abby praised the virtues of the Uncharted 2 experience to her friends. Fourty minutes later, the girlfriends were still watching me play though the game while my wife though in the occasional positive comment. They wanted to see more! Wow. The magic that Amy and the Naughty Dog team put into this game was revealing itself to a new audience. Amy, an SFSU film school grad, is known for concentrating on the story and actors and it shows. It seemed like Uncharted 2 had captured the new viewers by using the best voice acting of any game currently available. I believe it is the seamless blend of player action sequences and cut scenes (that use the game’s engine) that make it such a universally powerful experience.

After the Uncharted 2 incident, I started playing though the first Uncharted game with hopes that it would rekindle the videogame flame Abby experienced. She seemed interested during the opening cinematic, but she slowly left the room to login to facebook. The flame fizzled. I don’t think I will ever see Abby play though Uncharted 2 or any other videogame, but the weeks spent playing Uncharted 2 have given me hope that we will one day experience the excitement and escape that only videogames can offer… together.