Jesus and Video Games, Part 2

I gave BioWare another shot at wooing me when I picked up Dragon Age II last month. Not having played the first game in the series (I've just fallen into this ridiculous habit of playing the second game first), I wasn't sure what to expect. After the first half hour of play, it was pretty clear that DA II was pretty much Mass Effect 2, only not in space. And with dragons. The game does, however, put greater emphasis on your character's interactions with other characters than Mass Effect 2 did. I've never been an RPG "purist" (those people that like to moan about Final Fantasy being too constrictive), but I did enjoy the relative freedom to control different aspects of the game. Yet, some of the most important aspects lay outside the player's control. I'll return to that more in a moment.

As I was nearing the end of the game - which is quite long, by the way - I began to feel a sort of tugging in the back of my mind. I tried to ignore it, but it was very persistent. It became worse as I continued to play. Now that I look back, it was pretty clear that my conscience - fueled by God, I believe - was trying desperately to get me to to take another look at the game I was playing. I refused. After I beat it, I did not feel triumphant. I felt guilty. While I was playing, I knew that certain elements of the game should have driven me away. To be honest, the game wasn't even a terrible amount of fun. But I finished it anyway.

So, then, what was it that sent up the initial warning signals? I'll be vague so as not to spoil anything too badly, but a whole mess of things put me on my guard. The first was the extreme violence. Remember the first Mortal Kombat? Remember punching a character and watching gallons of pixelated blood gush out of him or her? Back then, it was humorous (although not necessarily godly) because video games were not even close to looking realistic. These days, it's a lot different. Anyone who's played Uncharted 3 knows just how incredible game graphics can be. Though Dragon Age II does not compare in terms of graphics quality, it certainly isn't unrealistic. Thus, with blood gushing every which way (and even covering the characters' faces after battle, if you don't change the default settings), things can begin to get a little uncomfortable. Oftentimes, as BioWare is famous for forcing its gamers to make difficult decisions, a scene would end up unexpectedly violent. I found myself saying, "I didn't mean for this to happen," over and over.

Alright, so there's violence in a video game. People have been screaming about that for years. But that wasn't the end of my discomfort. BioWare stuck with the "romance" system of the Mass Effect series, allowing your character to sleep with all sorts of people, including prostitutes, and forcing you to choose for your character to have sex to achieve the status of "relationship" in the game. I was with some friends this past week, and we were talking about Dragon Age. One person talked about the character that he was "romancing" in the game, and his roommate shot back, "Why do they call it 'romancing'? All it means is that you're trying to f--- them." While he put it rather crudely, he was right. I felt somewhat saner after hearing that someone else shares my opinion.

Among other things, the game involves a serial killer in the main plot and does not give you the option to change the outcome of his story to something less gruesome. In fact, for all of the "freedom" that BioWare gives its gamers, the end of the game made me feel stuck. Basically, it comes down to this: you may slaughter group A, or you may slaughter group B. You can't say you won't do either (although I really believe several other options could have been presented without changing the major themes of the game). Slaughter some people, and you win! But wait, there's more! No matter whom you choose to slaughter and whom you choose to save, the same people will perish in the end. At your hand, no less.

Perhaps the part that bothered me the most was the game's major theme of demonic possession. It's not that fighting demons is a bad thing. It certainly isn't. Rather, it is the fantastic (as in, "fantasy") and unrealistic light in which demons are portrayed. Dragon Age II is a fantasy game. There are elves, dwarves, an imaginary world, and, of course, dragons. Demons co-existing in such a realm is somewhat disturbing. While the game portrays them as extremely dangerous (perhaps the most dangerous of all things), it still puts them in a fantasy world where on can assume that they, like most of the rest of the beings in the game, are make-believe. If you're a Christian, this is, of course, wishful thinking. Perhaps the most dangerous way to approach the issue of demons is assuming their non-existence because of all the lore that surrounds them. As Verbal Kint so eloquently put it, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

Jesus and Video Games, Part 1

I had a bit of a crisis of faith recently. I've been playing video games almost since I could talk, and gaming is still one of my favorite hobbies. More specifically, it's how I let go. It's simple fun (with a little frustration thrown in at times, of course). So, as I do during every break I have from school, I cranked up my Playstation 3 as soon as I got finished with finals in December. I polished off my third round of Uncharted 3 - this time on "Crushing" difficulty - and congratulated myself on once again beating the best game of the year.

Until this past year, the games in the Uncharted series were the most violent that I had played. Since I traded in my Super Nintendo for a Playstation, I've been an RPG girl. Okay, so I didn't actually trade in my SNES; that would be ludicrous. But I did become an avid fan of the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy is pretty much good, clean fun, hardly more violent or graphic than Super Mario World. The stories are always fantastic, emotionally-charged, and elaborate. Questions of morality and religion in relation to government are major themes in several of the games, and, despite the sometimes cringe-worthy J-RPG dialogue, the games come across as well-thought-out and elegant. That is not to say that I agree with all of the ideas put forward in the games, but they offer food for thought where most games do not.

Thus, with a Final Fantasy-focused gaming career, I've never really had to question the content that I was consuming by playing video games. Sure, you battle people; but there is no blood involved. Indeed, your foes do not even 'die'; rather, they are 'felled'. Romance is a part of the series, but sex is not. Cursing is minimal, and relationships are built on characters sharing difficult experiences rather than lust. I never realized how much I valued all of this until I began expanding my gaming horizons this past summer.

I have a great many friends who recommended Mass Effect to me, so I rented it. Actually, it was Mass Effect 2, as the first game is unavailable on my console. I first noted that the game was rated M: Mature for Blood, Drug Reference, Sexual Content, Strong Language, and Violence. Quite a list, I thought, but I shrugged it off. Ratings tend to be somewhat exaggerated. I played the game and enjoyed it, but I did find certain parts rather unsavory and disturbing. BioWare, the company that makes the series, is known for the relationship aspect of their RPGs. You earn a trophy for 'completing a romance' with a crew member, which I did. I was disappointed, though. In Mass Effect, a 'romance' means some meaningless flirting - generally involving commenting on a character's physical attractiveness - and then sex. And then you got a trophy. Yay!

Wait...what? It seemed ridiculous to me, but I went along with it. I wanted that trophy. In all honesty, I wanted to see what would happen, too. How was BioWare going to present this? Surely they wouldn't actually show two video game characters having sex? Let me satisfy your curiosity: they presented it awkwardly, and no, they didn't show the act itself. Still, after that trophy popped up on my screen, I felt more ashamed than satisfied. I went along with something that I knew to be wrong. Sure, it's only a video game. That's what I kept trying to tell myself. In the end, though, I had decided to make my character pursue a sexual relationship so that I could get a virtual trophy:

Harmless? Maybe. I didn't have sex myself, but I was party to 'writing a story', if you will, that included immoral actions. Worse, I did it because of the trophy.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I'll be jumping to have premarital sex if someone offers me something in the real world. I'm not a prostitute. Nonetheless, playing Mass Effect 2 got me thinking about just how much the things we do in the virtual world affect our lives. Is it simply a game? Or is it deliberate disobedience of God?

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Philippians 4:8 (ESV) basically tells us that our thoughts should be good. If God likes it, we should like it. If God doesn't, we should spurn it. Situations like the romance in Mass Effect 2 cause us to think about dishonorable, impure, ugly things. If we really believe that Paul's words are God-inspired, then pursuing things like premarital sex in video games is turning our backs on God's commands.

Interestingly, the consensus from the Christian gaming community seems to be a little different. The issue calls for more exploration.

To be continued...

The Very Tiny Tube

I did it. I broke down and made a blog. Alright, another blog. I've got a Tumblr - because everyone likes to see Disney screencaps on his or her computer in the morning - and a costume blog. I've begun a personal blog a million times in the past. Ever since I started figuring out HTML at the tender age of 11, I've been blogging. And here's the kicker: I can't stand bloggers.

I don't mean the people who post costume or prop creations, or artwork, or good professional bloggers like some of the folks over at Relevant. I'm talking about your average person - like myself - who decides that it's time to pour out their feelings, political, religious, and emotional, for the entire internet in a bid for internet fame. If someone can get a TV show from a Twitter account, why not a book deal from a blog? In fact, the only thing worse than a haughty blogger is a haughty blog-commentator.

So, I suppose going in to this I have to say that, if you've found me somehow, I didn't plan it. If you've stumbled upon this place, it was quite by accident, at least on my part. In fact, at the moment, this very tiny tube in the greater series of tubes is a rather private tube. Not that you're intruding by having a look around; just know that what I've written here was written, in the end, for me.