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...