Gaming and Godliness, Part 1

Introduction

Many may ask church leaders for counsel about video games: “Should I, or those under my care, play them? If not, why not? If so, what kinds and how much?” To answer these questions knowledgably, pastors and elders must first understand what a video game is, what types of games there are, and what are their ratings.¹

Definition

A video game, according to Meriam-Webster, is “an electronic game in which players control images on a video screen.”² Video games were first made popular on arcades in the 1970s and 1980s, but since then on personal computers, home consoles, and mobile devices. Video games now can be played as a single player or multiplayer, using multiple controllers connected to one console or connecting with others over the web.

Genres

As with literature and film, there are several different genres of video games. Ten of the most common video game genres are:

1. Platform – a game where one character moves across a screen and tries to gather or avoid objects.
2. Role-Playing – a game where players take on the roles of imaginary characters in journeys often in a fantasy world.
3. Action/Adventure – a game which contains problems to solve in an overarching storyline.
4. Shooter – a game where players use virtual firearms to defeat enemies, seeing things either through their character’s eyes (first-person) or from behind or above (third-person).
5. Social Simulation – a game in which players can create and manage the lives of artificial characters, even (sometimes) in their romantic relationships.
6. Sandbox – a game in which players are free to explore a virtual world “without any predetermined goal, or with a goal that the players set for themselves.”
7. Strategy – a game which requires tactical planning and resource assessment to control multiple units. These games can be either turn-based or real-time.
8. Sports – a game which simulates real-world athletic competitions like basketball, baseball, football, soccer, hockey, golf, fishing, skateboarding, racing, or tennis.
9. Puzzle – a game which tests a player’s “problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion.”
10. Edutainment – an entertaining game designed for educational purposes, often to develop skills in spelling, reading, mathematics, and problem-solving. Sometimes such games test knowledge in science, music, history, and geography.³

Ratings

Since 1994, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has given each game a rating (similar to the Motion Picture Association’s system), using the following symbols:

• EC = Early Childhood
• E = Everyone
• E10+ = Everyone 10+
• T = Teen
• M = Mature 17+
• AO = Adults Only 18+
• RP = Rating Pending

ESRB also provides content descriptors for games, detailing elements of potential interest or concern for parents and players. Descriptors may include the following words or phrases: Alcohol Reference, Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Crude Humor, Comic Mischief, Strong Language, Gambling Themes, Nudity, or Suggestive Themes.⁴

Arguments

After reviewing video game genres and ratings, church leaders should examine the basic arguments made for and against gaming.

For

1. Several may applaud the problem-solving, critical-thinking, and tactical skills which are developed through video games, especially in the strategy, puzzle, and edutainment genres.
2. Some might even commend the creativity which sandbox, strategy, and social simulation games seem to promote.⁵
3. Edutainment is often lauded for the basic knowledge it drills into gamers.
4. Proponents love to point out that video games can improve hand-eye coordination and reaction-time (by .02 seconds), principally in shooter and sports games.⁶
5. Games are said, at times, to promote collaboration with others. They also purportedly can enhance friendships and family bonding time, whether in person or over the web.
6. Advocates may say that some games can give users a better understanding and appreciation for the work of real life heroes.
7. Some gamers also may say that by playing villains in simulations, they can better understand the criminal mind to combat against it in the real world.
8. Many note how therapeutic it feels to play a video game. Some say that games relieve stress, boredom, hopelessness, and/or loneliness, and allow people to develop self-esteem and management skills that are purported to be underdeveloped in the real world.⁷
9. Some say that playing video games enhances credibility with others.
10. A few may point out that video games can bring in income, whether through retailing, programming, or tournament play.
11. Many believe that video games can be great virtual babysitting tools. Parents can give games to their children to occupy their time with little-to-no direct supervision. Grownups then can do other activities without fear of their children getting into trouble.

Against

1. A number of video games reward risky behavior on screen. This may encourage users to practice the same kind of behavior in real life, whether it be speeding on the highway, weaving in traffic, etc.⁸
2. Critics note that video games often dehumanize people. In a game, pixelated objects do not have any intrinsic value, but are meant, rather, to be used and discarded. This includes women, who are often presented in hypersexualized ways. All of this can foster aggressive and sensual behaviors in users, whether online or offline, and a desensitization to real-life tragedies in one’s own life or others.⁹
3. Some may claim that long play can create many physical problems, such as motion sickness, eyestrain, headaches, sore necks, obesity, and sleep deprivation.
4. Video games are known for rewarding distractibility. To be successful in a video game, players must constantly scan all over a digital screen for objects to avoid or collect. This belittles sustained concentration necessary for activities such as reading, praying, preaching, meditation, classroom instruction, and lengthy conversations in the real world.¹⁰
5. Even if the graphics improve, video games, by their very nature, distort history. For the sake of simplicity and entertainment, they often ignore the clock (allowing users to pause, slow down, or speed up processes), the complexities of politics, the fog of war, and the mundane activities of real life. These alterations can cause users to have a romanticized view of the past and a misplaced empathy/antipathy for historical figures.¹¹
6. Playing criminals in video games is a voyeuristic celebration of and participation in evil, which darkens the mind. There are other means to understand and combat depravity without reveling in it.¹²
7. While many claim that video games enhance fellowship, others say that it actually promotes anti-social behavior. In public settings, people often ignore others around them by pulling out their phones to play games, engage in social media, or watch videos. Some avoid public settings altogether and hole up in their bedrooms to play games, coming out only for necessities. Critics also point out that the fellowship gamers think they have over the web is illusory. As Reagan Rose notes, online friendships seem “safer” than face-face relationships, but they are actually more harmful when detached from real life. Online gaming allows users to form virtual relationships on their own terms, letting them say as much or as little as they want to others. Gamers can create and hide behind whatever mask (avatar) they want to make, tempting many to build false profiles to look more appealing (and in some cases, to engage in illicit relationships). Furthermore, unlike the real world, no confrontation, shame, embarrassment, apologies, or forgiveness are necessary when playing online games, as users can disappear at any time.¹³
8. Unlike the real world, video games promote superficial control and easy success. Again, Rose says that “video games offer all the thrills of real life without any of the dangers.” Gamers can just hit “restart” if things do not work out on the first try, with no material consequence. By doing this multiple times, gamers easily conquer virtual worlds within a few weeks’ time, seemingly building self-esteem (and a desire to find new games and mods which will perpetuate the cycle), when in fact they have not really done anything of value. Now, when they face the trials of real life, they imagine them to be just as easy as the virtual world (or to follow the same pathway as the simulation). Hardcore gamers instead find real-world challenges to be much more difficult than they had expected, tempting many to give up quickly. If they are ever to thrive, they must come to the realization that “[s]uccess in the virtual world comes at the expense of success in the real world. They’re often in direct proportion to each other.”¹⁴
9. Critics also note that video games promote a defective form of escapism. Unlike good books which allow readers to escape the real world to come back “improved, shaped, and more rightly viewing reality,” video games allow users to escape the real world to see the “world-as-we’d-prefer-it,” flattering immaturity. Gamers come back the same as they were before, if not worse, thinking of themselves as “an adventurer, a hero, or a conqueror, while in reality, … [they’re still] lack[ing in] self-discipline, work ethic, sacrifice, and service.”¹⁵
10. As a form of popular culture, video games present a superficial understanding of human emotion. Critics may say that a mindless consumption of such culture “trains the heart to love, to grieve, [and] to be joyful in shallow, simple, and selfish ways.”¹⁶
11. Video games, like other forms of popular entertainment, tend to champion certain professions (athletes, warriors, explorers, socialites, etc.) to the exclusion of others (preachers, teachers, artisans, homemakers, etc.). Hardcore gamers may be tempted then to look down on less glamorous but important callings.
12. Critics may say that video games fuel the idea that everything must be amusing. They can thereby demean things which may not be fun but are good and necessary, such as funerals, household chores, confession of sin, going to the doctor, visiting the sick and shut-in, etc.¹⁷
13. Video game careers, many may note, “invit[e] talented young people [to step] into adolescent time warps that delay … their emotional and moral” development, all the while gaining income.¹⁸ By taking these positions and achieving great wealth, they influence others to follow in their misguided footsteps. If they become gaming programmers or retailers, critics may consider them to be facilitators to some or all of the problems listed above (nos. 1-12).

After examining the genres, ratings, and basic arguments for and against video games, church leaders should overview the Scriptures and seek to apply it to their inquirers. This will be the subject of part two.