the cake is a statistic

   With a few things happening in recent weeks, I have not posted on the topic of video games again yet. However, I have not forgotten this commitment! 
   Now, as Amelia is sleeping and I am awake (though I did manage to go to sleep at about 1am my first night off. That is a pretty remarkable achievement. I will probably be taking a nap whenever she gets up writes her blog post, but still it is nice to see the morning for the first time in about a week (besides the five minutes it takes from walking out of the warehouse to plopping into bed).
   Finding myself at the computer, I will proceed to tackle the beginning issue here, that of a Typical Christian's Response to the Idea of Video Games. But first: A note on that word, “typical”


   I am aware that many Christian brothers and sisters make a fair amount of a ruckus at the prospect of statistics and numbers and polls and the like. I do not usually invest myself very heavily in these things. I do not trust statistics, and I will not be making use of many throughout my life time, I expect. 
   What a statistic says is that, if a small number of people will behave in such a way, then a large number of people will behave in a basically similar way. The problem with this is that people are not at all consistent. You can interview 10% of America about their view of baseball's importance in feudal Europe (about 30 million people, which would be a much bigger test than any poll I've ever heard of... besides the census, I guess) and run your numbers, but you will not necessarily get that good a picture of what the whole 100% of Americans would think about the importance of baseball in feudal Europe. Actually, you will know what 30 million individuals who happen to be sitting around with absolutely nothing to do think about this issue. Actually, you will know only what they say they think about it. Actually, you will know only what your questionnaire allows them to say about what they say they think about it. And that is where your very data is going to be flawed. Then, just start to interpret and apply that data, and you have left the realm of science for some arcane, alchemical mysticism.
   So, all statistics are guesses at best, though they are more often lies. And so, I do not care to use them.
  Now, I am to proceed with a description of “typical” Christian responses to video games. This is based on 0% statistical analysis. I have no idea what fraction of the Christian base might lean one way or another, but that does not matter. My case rests on the fact that most one or more of these responses to the idea of video games will sound familiar to each one of us that has grown up with them around, even those who did not grow up playing them. I will try to leave aside inhuman statistics floating in ethereal nebulae (redundant though that phrase may be), and will attempt to focus on a picture of one fellow with his Christian commitment firmly placed in his affections, sitting down on the couch or at his desk, and considering whether he ought to go get a video game of some sort to occupy his attention for a while. I guess if he has time to sit and consider this, maybe he has time to fill out a questionnaire for the Barna Group.


That was on my mind as I was considering how to start this. Maybe it is good enough to post. Amelia is asleep, so I'll check with Florianus.


He said that the post was up to my usual standards. I am not sure what that means, but he also wanted me to include a picture, even a picture of my faithful dachshund. So I figured that was a good enough idea.

Video Games and the Christian

   A good deal of my thinking gets done in the car. I suppose that driving is an expression of freedom, in which I direct the car whichever way I will it to go. The environment out the windows changes drastically as the Broncito takes me from Nebraska's plains to mountains, rivers, and coastlines of the great American landmass. However, the car also forms in itself an exact, almost unchanging environment. It supplies its own white noise with the road and engine, creating a set background of sound to the conversations I have with myself or my wife. Perhaps it is because of this constancy amidst diversity that we seem always to return to the same few topics of conversation. These are:

1. Kvetching about relationship stresses
2. Baby topics
3. Rehashing old hobbies and happenings
4. Video Games, their use, abuse, and place in society and our own lives (mostly my life)

   As we drove along NE-2 East of Broken Bow, recently, Amelia and I got onto that topic of video games, once more. I think it is because I grew up playing games like Commander Keen and Jetfighter 2 on our old 486. Though I never became a very intense gamer, due primarily to the fact that I did not get a real job until I was finished with Bible school, I always enjoyed various types of virtual entertainment.
   Now I am married, and my wife Amelia is not at all a gamer. She grew up reading a lot, and doing crafty things, and generally taking care of everyone around her and being a productive individual. This, it seems, was antithetical to the acquiring and playing of video games. Thus we discuss the history and evolution of games on consoles and pcs, and my personal experiences with various games, and at times even find spiritual significance in some of the parallels which games make to real life. On this particular afternoon, we reached the topic during a discussion of guilty pleasures.
   Guilty pleasures are those activities which, while not bad of themselves, make us feel guilty when we enjoy them. Video games have often played this role in my life, softening the cry of my heart for closeness with God and my fellow man by keeping my brain occupied for a few hours. However, the annoying thing about this guilt I felt was that I really could enjoy video games in what I thought to be a perfectly righteous way. I could enjoy relationships with fellow humans, exercise my mind (and occasionally a muscle or two), and delve into a deep and involving story, all while enjoying the art and craftsmanship of an industry filled with energy and talent. So, how could we redeem the use of these pleasures from their guilt?
   The key, we felt, was in exercising our minds to prevent the wrongful use of video games. The principles of this were pretty similar to those by which we can enjoy any other media, whether it is attending live theater, strolling through a gallery, listening to music, or watching television. Essentially, we exercise our minds and attempt to understand what the artist is trying to convey (not only cerebrally, but what he wants me to feel or do, to), then we compare that with what Scripture says about reality, and we evaluate what we've seen. More often than not, in today's world, we will usually find the message of a film, game, or canvas to be very far off from the Message of the Scriptures, but we can still see glimmers of God's image in the artist's attempt to make his worldview correlate with what he knows ought to be true. This engagement with the art and the artist will be beneficial to the Christian and to society, Lord willing.
   So, as we continued to discuss things, Amelia and I hashed out a few major points, which I decided would be worth posting on for a little bit. Perhaps this will provide the sort of mission I can keep writing about. We thought about writing reviews of some of the games coming down the pike, so hopefully in the future I can do that and exemplify some of this interaction with games that I would like to promote. The following points will serve as an outline for our introduction to the topic, after which I will try to tackle some of the biggest games around nowadays, and perhaps explore the different uses of games in the various genres of gaming.

• Typical Responses of Christians to the Idea of Video Games
• The Danger of Guilty Pleasures
• Reasons to Play a Video Game or Two
• A Christian's Unique Perspective on Gaming... and Everything Else

   And with that, I will sign off for now.

Setting up a pc

There is something inherently soothing about setting up a pc, whether it is a new pc with a bunch of factory nonsense software to root out or an old one that just needs to be freshened up for continued life. I am enjoying this today, and thinking about the wonderfulness of AVG Free and trying out the excitement of Google Chrome. Good windy, cloudy day fare.