The church has had some varying responses to the ever-growing impact of video games on American culture. Many churches have condemned video games, demonizing them as a waste of time, stereotyping them as being only for kids or lazy young adult men, or sometimes worse: declaring them as sinful distractions from God.
Some have taken the approach that Christians should make their own games. They do not reject the medium as a whole, but they instead want to make games with explicitly Christian content so that they can be enjoyed without the influence of the “secular.” In most cases, these games are low-quality versions of larger titles already available on the market with some kind of forced Bible message.
Those that do not fall into the above categories are often rather apathetic to it all. They do not play video games, so why should they care? This applies to Christians as well as those in other religious traditions. What I hope to communicate here is that video games are important for everyone to talk about, not just those who frequent gaming websites like IGN.
Games are offering a new form of interactive art, narrative, and entertainment. Video game visuals are no longer limited to the 8-bit images of the original Super Mario Bros; they now showcase a vast array of art styles from the photo-realistic to the hand-drawn. The sound has expanded from the beeps of arcade titles like Pac-Man to fully-orchestrated soundtracks. Some of the most powerful narrative and characters today come from games. Games have grown, and so have many of the early gamers who continue to enjoy the medium.
Beyond the Tacky
Let’s be honest with ourselves: it can be challenging talking seriously about modern media in the context of the Christian life. Our desire to make “Christian” versions of everything from movies to books to music is probably at least partly, to blame for this. Please do not misunderstand: I am not saying these things are bad, just that we spend way too much time and effort being exclusionary and trying to create our own “Christian culture” when we should really just be intentionally engaging the world around us.
Even creating a name for this blog was challenging. Most of the titles I came up with sounded somehow cheesy, or as if I was simply trying too hard. My wife thought it was quite hilarious to come up with ridiculous names.
“I know!” she shouted. “Master Sword, Master Lord!”
“Wait, I have another! The Triforce and the Trinity!”
She was quite amused with herself.
All joking aside, it was not easy to choose a name. It should not be challenging to talk about games without sounding cheesy. We do not need to make forced “Christian” games, nor do we need to reject the medium altogether. Instead, the many fantastic games out there can provide great opportunities to talk about and experience God. That’s what this blog will seek to accomplish.
This blog is about starting a conversation among all people, particularly Christians. I will strive to write posts that are understandable to everyone, both gamers and people that are not as familiar with gaming culture. If you would like to join me in this endeavor, feel free to bookmark this page, like God. Life. Games. on Facebook, and share it with friends. If there’s a particular topic you’d like to read about in a future blog post, feel free to comment below!