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God and Gaming

Badger73

Badger73

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Men dropping out of life... prompts me to raise this topic.

The attached video conversation occurs within a religious context. It is likely not every FGMer's cup of tea andI don't want it to provoke contentious discussion. However, I post it here because I think it raises worthwhile points of interest to the FGM membership. I hope that the observations regarding gaming philosophies and defining masculinity provide worthy food for personal thought. If you find this an inappropriate thread, please post so below so that @Bootie can weigh in and decide whether to keep or delete. Good luck and good gaming!

 
Mark, you're retired, so you have a lot of time to think about life and stuff. You are also a gamer, and a Catholic, and I suppose you are trying to reconcile the two? A priest/gamer certainly fits the bill. ;-)

Good post. Gives us all something to think about. There is a work/life/entertainment balance that we all need to find. Modern society has mostly assured those of us in the west that we will be fed and sheltered. This has led us down a very weak path, IMO, but that's a topic for another thread.
 
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Meat Grinder said:
Mark, you're retired, so you have a lot of time to think about life and stuff. You are also a gamer, and a Catholic, and I suppose you are trying to reconcile the two? A priest/gamer certainly fits the bill. ;-)
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Not so much. I'm pretty comfortable being a person of faith whose hobby is military history and wargaming.
What jumped out at me in the video that I wanted to share were the observations regarding video games as a place to find a healthy sense of masculinity in western societies which harshly denigrate masculine values. I was particularly touched by the story about how gaming changed the mind of someone contemplating suicide. Heavy stuff to consider but I thought this was the audience for it.
 
Badger73 said:
Not so much. I'm pretty comfortable being a person of faith whose hobby is military history and wargaming.
What jumped out at me in the video that I wanted to share were the observations regarding video games as a place to find a healthy sense of masculinity in western societies which harshly denigrate masculine values. I was particularly touched by the story about how gaming changed the mind of someone contemplating suicide. Heavy stuff to consider but I thought this was the audience for it.
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Damn. I didn't pick up on all that.
 
I think the development of "video games" in the last two decades has been so fast that some people are still caught up in this idea that they are just mindless games, that they are for entertainment only, and that they are for children.

Many computer games these days are more like interactive movies which tell stories that raise deep moral and philosophical questions - and those stories are very relatable and often touching, even though they might be set in fantastical worlds full of magic, monsters, etc.

Also, I agree with the priest that the reason so many people, especially young people, get so deep into gaming is probably not because they are "bored", but that the games give them something they are missing out in the real world.
 
You might be surprised to hear that I have a pretty dim view of gaming. It is fantasy. If taken to extreme, it can upend lives.

Your average young man would probably like to have:

1) A beautiful and adoring girlfriend.

2) Lots of interesting friends who are intensely interested in him.

3) Lots of interesting and potentially lucrative career options.

4) The body of an athlete and the mind of a scholar.

5) Lots of fun hobbies where they can display skill and excellence and be recognized for it.

In the real world, many people (because of circumstance or self imposed limitations) cannot achieve all of this. In some cases, young men cannot achieve ANY of these things and instead lead lives where they are invisible to others and don't really have any skills or other things that build self esteem.

So these young men find fun alternatives. A woman might turn you down at the bar, but EA isn't going to bar you from playing their video games. So they become 8 hours + a day gamers.

However, doing this makes it more unlikely that they can achieve numbers 1 to 5 above.

I personally am always intrigued by video games. But I don't buy them or play. Because I know that they will suck time that I would put to better use shooting, being a Dad, working out, etc..

Oddly enough, I will WATCH people play games that I like on You Tube. This keeps me from buying the damn game and sinking valuable time into it.
 
Nemesis said:
I personally am always intrigued by video games. But I don't buy them or play. ...
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Um... you do play Combat Mission right? So you play Computer Games? Same thing right? :p Or does Combat Mission feel like work? :p

I haven't got a religious bone in my body but the discussion is interesting. Humans will always seek pleasure and that definition will vary by the individual. A big part of that has been media and over the last four decades the consumption of media for entertainment has become far more interactive. Even regular TV shows now feel interactive in part because of the ease to join communities all likeing the same content. Thankyou internet! I think media is allowed to take up more of our time than it has historically because we spend less time doing other activities. Household chores take less time today than say the 1950's with all the fancy tech in our houses. Go back to not having washing machines and see how much of your gaming time you lose.

Gaming is now an enormous industry with lots of dollars involved. It's going to be in the firing line for criticism like all forms of entertainment has been somewhere in the past. TV's were "idiot boxes", books have been sacrilegious while go back long enough a gladiatorial blood sports were seen as acceptable. Wait... MMA... well I guess that is coming back. :p
 
Ithikial said:
Um... you do play Combat Mission right? So you play Computer Games? Same thing right? :p Or does Combat Mission feel like work? :p
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My 9 games of ladder Combat Mission and 1 non-ladder game were the sum total of my gaming last year. Still too much.
 
I have been playing games since I was a wee laddie, starting back in the 60's. I think my first "wargame" was "Dogfight". I see games as entertainment, a way to blow off steam, and yes, to escape. What has attracted me to games is that it offers up an avenue for social interaction. When you play a board game with another person you are interacting, sharing an experience, and the same can be said when you are playing multiplayer or PBEM. Even if you play solo, you can still share the experience with others who are similarly engaged. I mean, look at this website, case in point.

Gaming makes you think, you have to recognize strategies for success. Games are really just elaborate puzzles, even "Angry Birds". So I see gaming as a mental exercise.


However, I do think the younger generations are addicted to gaming and that we are raising very stunted, dehumanized people. I think video games are dehumanizing the younger generations somewhat. I am sorry to say this but I believe that there are a lot of people that blur the lines between the fantasy of gaming and reality. I also think there are other issues that contribute, like the prevalence of cell phones and social networking that contribute to the problem. I don't see people interacting with each other, but I see people interacting with others through a phone. I mean, I see young people all the time that are literally sitting next to one another not talking, but texting each other. Tell me that isn't stunted social development, I dare you.
 
Ithikial said:
Didn't know I was trying... I'm also play virtually no PBEM in CM so probably the reason we've never crossed swords. :p
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Yea, no worries, Mate. I consider myself "retired" from the Combat Mission franchise, until and unless BFC develops a new game engine, and then I might have a look. :) Sorry about my comment. I'm sometimes a bit of an arse. :)

Still plenty of games to play though. I haven't even started half the games in my Steam libarary.
 
Meat Grinder said:
Yea, no worries, Mate. I consider myself "retired" from the Combat Mission franchise, until and unless BFC develops a new game engine, and then I might have a look. :) Sorry about my comment. I'm sometimes a bit of an arse. :)

Still plenty of games to play though. I haven't even started half the games in my Steam libarary.
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Conveniently this retirement started after I called him out on his 'greatest challenge ever' :ROFLMAO: :D
 
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