By Aaron Sholders

It is my confession that I am not a gamer. To be honest, the last time I really played a video game the controller had only “a”, “b”, “select” and “start” buttons and it was far from ergonomically designed (a rectangle with very sharp edges). Many of you, of course, will recognize this as the old-school Nintendo controller that, through the hand of skilled players (the skill that maybe your common six-year-old possesses) allowed Mario and his brother to jump on the head of the enemy in an attempt to save the princess. I guess you could say that I am (to steal the expression of one of my friends) somewhat of a n00b when it comes to gaming.

Considering this confession, you will see my difficulty with the topic of this month’s issue of comanionship.com. Not only am I completely incompetent when it comes to playing the complex games designed for the latest and greatest systems, but I also possess a very limited perspective on the possible value these games have for our daily lives. Now, having said that, I am not so obtuse as to not see the community-building potential of gaming. Let’s be honest a Tecmo bowl tournament pales in comparison to a network of two or three X-boxes allowing eight to twelve participants in a game that can be played for days without exhausting its breadth. There is serious fun to be had here and of course this can be used as a connection point between Christians and non-Christians alike.

Nevertheless, my perspective was too limited to effectively write an article and as such some homework had to be done! What resulted was a few guys, a few controllers, Halo 3, a pile of pizza and a tape recorder to catalog the night's events. The conversation that ensued went something like the transcript seen below. This conversation contains both encouragement and caution to gamers and non-gamers alike especially in regards to how we approach the various activities we partake in, specifically those designed to entertain us.

Aaron: Alright guys thanks for sacrificing your time to sit down and do this with me we’ll get to playing here in a little bit.

Everyone else: No problem, not a great sacrifice for us it gives us an excuse to get together and play.

Aaron: Alright so to start off with I would like to ask you guys what potential benefit, aside from community building, can come from participating in the video game industry?

Bryce Bison: Besides hand to eye coordination?

Aaron: Yeah, let’s try to go a little deeper than that.

Brandon: I think there is more purpose to gaming than movies because it is an interactive movie.

Ryan: So you would say that games have literary merit?

Brandon: Yeah, it is the new art form, for instance John Woo directed a video game.

Ryan: To add on to this though, I would ask, why is art important, or why is entertainment important? Do you consume the video game to learn from it and become better? Can the video game teach us and say something profound about life?

Brandon: Yes, I think they can. There is a new game, Bully, ( which I haven’t actually played it but I have read a lot about it) and from what I understand it has a very artistic plot that says we have all been here, we all know what is going on.

Ryan: Is the point to exact your revenge on the Bullies?

Brandon: No, it is about socializing. The point of the game is to get in with various crowds like the cool people and the nerds etc. The point being that games are getting to the point where they are free enough that their creators can start putting messages, good and bad, into them. However, up to this point they have for the most part been just a bunch of pretty lights.

Bryce Bison: The only value I could derive from it is the recreational value of it. The sole purpose of it would be checking out for a while and recreating psychologically or whatever. I don’t really get too stressed so I can’t play that card but many can. The other thing is that it gives you something great to do while you are sick and that is a plus but other than that I think games are evil (wink).

Aaron: Well don’t get me wrong, that is not what I am trying to say nor am I trying to say that we should never play video game. I see that, much a like a movie, video games can entertain us and relieve some stress however I do have a concern, particularly in our society, that recreation holds far too much importance! Where, for instance, is our Heavenly Father’s role in relieving our stress (Phil 4:19)? I say this to myself, because often times a movie is what I turn to.

Ryan: So, as a philosopher trying to discover truth, these are the questions you ask?

Aaron: Exactly.

Bryce Bison: Well in the game (halo) you can kill truth! There is a prophet, named truth, that you can kill.

Ryan: Wow, are you kidding me?

Bryce Bison: No

Chris: I think with the advent of X-box live, it gives you the chance to interact besides just sitting in your basement playing. Still though its not the healthiest lifestyle.

Brandon: Yeah, how many girls do we know that sit in their basement talking on their cell phones?

Ryan: So you're saying, like talking on a cell-phone, it is an extension of normal social life?

Brandon: Yes

Bryce Bison: I see this too, I don’t really like the way Aaron phrased the initial question: “besides community-building, what potential do you see”. God made us for community so phrasing your question like this says “besides building an aspect of what God made us for…”!

Aaron: Point taken, I absolutely agree that it is a connection point. It is a conversation starter. It would be ridiculous for me to say that video games are bad and in the same breath say did you see the Rockies play last night?

Bryce Bison: I think, besides community-building, video games can and do train your heart though, anything that you spend hours of your time investing into will train your heart.

Aaron: Absolutely! My question is whether it is the type of training Christian men need? Movies will train you, sports will train you, anything that we partake in will train us our hearts in particular. This is why we must be careful, because the training can be drawing us toward Christ allowing us to fix our eyes on Jesus or it can be an entanglement to us taking us away from Him (Hebrews 12:1-2). Let me use two examples and I’ll stick to movies because it is a medium I am more familiar with. The first one is Braveheart, now I don’t have to give this movie a Christian spin but I can see Christian truth in it. I can see sacrifice, I can see freedom, I can see love, I can see fellowship and loyalty and of course as I watch it and realize that these are Christian themes it fixes my eyes on Jesus. Of course it is very violent, and yet, it is full of His truth. Now, some Christians might caution against this movie because of the violence, but I would argue that to not watch it for these reasons would be misplaced because you miss such a great example and demonstration of God's truth. The second example is V for Vendetta. I can’t find anything of God’s truth in that movie but I can find all sorts of lies in that movie and as such it can bring me closer to God’s truth and give me an understanding of the culture in which I am a witness. Now, I won’t ever watch that movie again, because I’ve seen the lie and what is the point of seeing it over again. So these are two examples of “secular” things that can train my heart to be fixed on Jesus. Now my wonderment (if that is a word) is whether this can be done with video games?

Ryan: Something to add on to this is that you are participating in the video game and, as such, it is different from a movie. For instance in Grand Theft Auto you have the opportunity to kill a prostitute; can we then, since we participate in the video game, escape this from affecting us?

Aaron: I think the answer to that would be, no, you can’t escape that from affecting you, and in a negative way, so we need to be careful, what do you guys think?

Justin: I think the big issue is whether it causes you or your brother to sin. If it does then it needs to be avoided.

Aaron: You make an excellent point here Justin, and the interesting thing is, that not all video games will cause you to sin, much like movies. The movie industry can be used to train our hearts to love Jesus as I have shown, but there are also movies that are far too perverted for me to take any part in and remain in the light. For instance, I don’t need to see Saw IV to know what is wrong with it, nor can I participate in pornography the way I did V for Vendetta and we as Christians need to understand where to draw this line for ourselves and then as Paul encourages us (and as you brought up so eloquently Justin) we must watch out for our brother as well!

Brandon: And that is a very important point because we need to, as Christian brothers partaking in the gaming community, guard one another’s back. For instance if we are at a gaming party and a game comes up that one of us isn’t comfortable playing are we going to back that guy, or are we going to leave him?

Aaron: Again we are back to the positive aspects of community-building in gaming. Gaming affords us the opportunity to support and defend our brothers in a secular gaming environment when they take the stand that “this game will stain me and is not good for us as Christians!” What a valuable lesson.

Bryce Bison: I don’t know if I put a lot of stock in any argument for “the value” of gaming outside of community but that one issue is so large. For instance my friend and I have cataloged, who knows how many hours, playing games with my friend’s boss. This man swore at one point that he would never come to church but just recently called my friend and told him he would come next Sunday! We don’t know why but he just decided to come. Now that he is coming he will know people there because of the gaming!

Aaron: You know guys this has been really helpful and this last point that Bryce points out is huge. The Lord has been able to use your guys witness, partly through gaming to potentially lead this man to Him! Again we see the positive aspects of gaming in community and outreach possibilities. Having seen this we would be foolish as Christians to not partake in gaming simply from the aspect that the gaming community needs us to be lights unto it! To do so, some of us need to be gamers but at the same time, we need to guard our hearts and make sure that we are in the world but not a part of it as Jesus cautioned us and encouraged us to do. Thank you guys for doing all this, it has been very beneficial and has giving me a new perspective on the value of participating in games. One final thing to say though is that if these are the values then we need to ensure that they are being realized! Thanks again guys.

Everyone else: No problem, let’s game!