It is a little known and embarrassing fact that I'm a recovering video game nerd. And, I didn't play the cool, manly games like Halo or Madden Football--I'm a fan of role play games (RPGs), particularly the Final Fantasy franchise. Fatherhood, however, has effectively killed my gaming days, as video games did not make it through the triage of parental priorities.
While I do not have time to play long RPG epics anymore, I do still appreciate them for the fascinating narratives and realities they create. As a high school teacher of theology, ethics, and worldview/philosophy, what fascinates me about RPGs is the virtual world and associated worldviews that the authors create. There are theological and philosophical questions that are basic to the human experience, and I love to see how the game creators address those questions. As a Christian, I specifically examine the creators' approach to decision making, morals, good vs. evil, the existence of God, sacrifice, salvation, and truth. The best RPGs address all these issues, and they must if they really want to connect with human players.
There is a recent and growing trend of academically integrating video games with the study of ethics, philosophy, and theology. Perhaps the reason for this is that the first generation raised on video games is now grown. Those little kids who played endless hours of video games in the 80s (at the expense of health, hygiene, sunlight, and relationships with the opposite sex) are now PhD'd philosophers and theologians. Things are only nerdy until the nerd runs the show (think, Bill Gates).
Three such works that I plan to read soon are
Zelda and Theology by Johnny Walls,
Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games With God by Craig Detweiler, and
Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough by William Irwin. The first two relate specifically to Christian theology and worldview. The third is more broadly about philosophy from all traditions. It is part of Blackwell Publishers larger "Philosophy and Pop Culture Series," which includes other titles that I'd like to read as well, such as
The Office and Philosophy: Scenes from the Unexamined Life. My son may have taken video gaming from me, but he'll have to pry my books from my cold dead fingers.
The purpose of such works is not to interpret the intended meaning of the video games' creators. Such a task would require an interview with the creators themselves. Although,
Halos and Avatars does contain an interview with the creator of the games
Myst and
Riven. The main purpose of such works is to use common pop culture images to illustrate certain theological and philosophical concepts. These may or may not be the author's intent.
I hope that such works encourage video gamers to be informed and critical consumers. Christians ought to critically examine all media and forms of entertainment that the world has to offer, and reading such works may help us to do that.
All of this makes me wonder, what will the the next generation integrate with the theology and philosophy? Social networking? Texting? Jersey Shore (please don't)?
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Note: My post is not an endorsement of any of these books, because I have not read them.
My boyfriend plays this new game skyrim that just came out. He says that it allows you to pretty much choose your own destiny, like good or evil. You might want to read into this or ask our school president because ive heard he is addicted to skyrim.
ReplyDelete-Sarah Nekonchuk
haha. I don't know anything about Skyrim. I'll have to see what it is all about.
DeleteOkay, well I've pretty much never played a video game before, and probably never will. So I don't have much to say about this, but I would really love you to do a post about Harry Potter. When it comes to nerds, I might just be the biggest Harry Potter nerd thats ever lived. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it!
ReplyDeleteKimmy Hays
This is a great thing to think about, I never played video games as a child so i would not be able to apply them. In Mrs. Medlocks art class right now we are drawing political cartoons! This has has caused me to think a lot about what i believe, and how i could illustrate that without many words. when i read this blog it made me think of our cartoons.
ReplyDeleteEmily Hill
This is interesting to think about. Many of the kids today are very addicted to various forms of technology and gaming systems. It sounds like game makers have already figured out a way to incorporate their worldviews into the games they make, resulting in these addicted kids to subconciously be exposed to these things. Parents should definitely be careful about what they let their children watch and play because you never know what theology could be in the games.
ReplyDeleteAllison Hopkins
I think that video games are okay, in proportion. But, they can take over ones life. I have never been much of a video game fanatic, not only because I am absolutely horrible at them, but also because I just find the pointless. I am not trying to slam anyone who plays them, I mean, to each his own. But when there is so much that I can be doing, and God has set me on this earth for a very limited time, I do not want to spend that time on things like video games or even movies in excess. If other people play, I am not saying that is wrong. That is just how I feel about it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said that Christians need to critically examine everything. In 1 John 4:1 it tells us as Christians to "try the spirits" because even if they claim to be Godly that doesnt mean they truly are. We just recently watched The Truman Show in our worldview class and Christian worldview would not be my first assumption for the main worldview for this movie. As i thought about it and thought into it, Christianity is one of the main worldviews in this movie. Anyway, my point in saying that was things arent always what they seem on the surface so we as Christians do need to examine everything.
ReplyDelete-- Jordan Williams
i think that if you ever get into playing video games again, you should try final fantasy ten, its storyline is based on a church which was formed to worship something called "Yevon" and sin is a physical being that causes massive loss of life, also there is a place called the farplane in which spirits go after they die, however, one of the side characters is a fallen warrior monk who did not stay in the farplane. also, machines were outlawed by the church. this whole comment points to a single question, what happens when people follow a church with mistaken leaders, and not let Jesus guide their church?
ReplyDeleteBrandon, I have played FFX, and, in fact, I have beat it twice. I loved the story line, espeically the fact that so many of the characters were undead.
DeleteAnna Cain
ReplyDeleteYou plying video games does not really suprise me. Ihave reallynever gotten into that, because I like the outside too much,but I have had good friends that I thought were obsessed. I could not relate to the books you mentioned, but they might be good gifts for my video game "obsessed" friends!!
i think that some video games are accepatble. i dont like the violent video games were poeple are killed, not only because im a girl, but because it makes killing too easy. i know that it is just a video game character but to become that used to pointing a gun at someone and then puling the trigger is very disturbing to me. i dont want to know what its like to senence someone to eternity, that is a horrible burden to carry. back on the subjects of video games, i think that video games that challenge the mind are much better!
ReplyDeleteEmily Hill
Being a AVG gamer I know a lot about games, there graphics, story line, and so on, but the thing that kinda annoys me is the FPS (first person shooters) these days, you grab a gun and shoot, the only games I've really seen that was RPG as Mr. Moone said has been games like Saints down 3rd and that is a shooter game where you are major gang, I will admit I play those games, but I don't accept how they work, when you shoot a person blood goes everywhere, kinda is a disturbing thought that mothers let children play toe kind of games. Also with the growing demand of this kind of games is very annoying, the only FPS by far that wasn't really that bad was minecraft, If the only suitable FPS I've played in my 7 year gaming life is minecraft, that shows how bad its getting, also the community is so much different, every match, or lobby I go in there is someone cussing, raging, screaming, or is a child. It isn't fun anymore on the internet. I shall remain anonymous for my safety, and my privacy.
ReplyDeleteJersey shore hahaha .... i am also intereste in RPG games myself but i find it interesting people actually wrote books about RPG game's and philosophy...
ReplyDeleteFaith long
I have played numerous games as a teenager and I think that playing games is important as it sometimes helps you socialize and have entertainment. However, I think that people should not link games with the reality. Also, some people receive negative influence on how they view the world. -Kousei Yamamoto
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure if the earlier one I wrote was published... I have never thought of viewing/ analyzing a video game with in context of? worldviews. Hope I don't become a hard critic. Do you think the modern popular video/online games have such an impact to people that the games change or constantly have conflict with one's worldview?
ReplyDeleteI like playing video games, but I didn't know there were philosophy books about video games. I was surprised that there people who think about the worldview of video games. -Juwon Park
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that you played Final Fantasy! Though I knew that one can analyze a movie film and deciding its worldview, I never thought of analyzing a game in the same way. Personally, I believe that video games should just be a part of entertainment. It should not be taken too seriously.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the post, I would want to play final fantasy 10 again haha.
- Zachery Son