Castlevania: Lords of Shadow certainly looks like a game I would enjoy. Konami’s newer “reboot” (who knows how long that’ll last) contains varied environments, lots of different enemies, crazy boss fights, and a pretty well-designed combat system with all the accouterments you’d expect. MercurySteam strives for a completely linear experience without making it feel like you’re on rails, and I appreciate that approach. Still, I found myself relatively bored with it when booting the game last time. I’m really trying here!
Category: Features
Big multi-part articles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
And saves those who are crushed in spirit.Psalm 34:18
This is my primary mode of thought regarding video games and life: you try, you get destroyed, and you get back again. God brings you back to life every day for each new challenge and circumstance. So what does this have to do with video games?
A funny thing started happening to me as I play video games: I talk to myself.
The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.
– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
In sum, then, the problem as described in the earlier entry is two things: games are closed systems, and life is an open system. A closed system is, simply put, more fun because human beings easily perceive the inner workings of something designed by fellow human beings. Open systems like life in general and Christianity often do not provide the same sort of “thrill” just by the nature of their existence. That doesn’t mean that God has no plan, but the divide between God and human makes that a difficult notion.
Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.
– G.K. Chesterton, Heretics
One of the primary reason that Christians often don’t like video games, or won’t even entertain buying one, comes down to one simple idea: God designed us to live a real life, not a fake one. An understandable goal, of course; nobody wants to see any Christian sitting in a room all day playing a video game, right? That’s not very Christian in the opinion of many. A relationship with God Himself should take precedence over all else.
I understand this opinion, and confronted it for many years, and in a way I am still haunted by it. No, not THAT question: should I play video games? Rather, this question: are video games just more exciting than real life? Does that mean real life is, gasp, boring? Maybe they just don’t want us to see it when we play video games? Not necessarily! But let’s contrast them both and see what develops.