God Minded Gaming's Mission
Back when I started playing video games, it was just an obscure and harmless hobby that nobody thought much about. Over time, video games became more commonplace, and the nature of games themselves changed. As the quality of the graphics and processing power improved, games could tell more vivid and interesting stories.
But, this progress to new and better entertainment brought with it new problems. Better graphics meant that violence and sex could be depicted with more detail, and more complex stories meant that games could now explore concepts that children shouldn't be thinking about. On top of that, games now had the freedom to delve into subjects that Christians find offensive or especially dangerous, such as the occult and offensive depictions of religion.
Perhaps the saddest change that video games have had on society is the most subtle one. There is a growing gap between those that play games and those that do not. People have become so used to hearing jargon in their everyday lives that they don't recognize it as jargon anymore, and children often have trouble understanding that other people don't know the same things they do. This makes it difficult for them to talk about things with non-gamers, and sometimes people respond to innocuous things very inappropriately. When this happens, it can be impossible for children to explain their side of a situation, which makes things worse.
Now, that's not to say everything is going down the drain. Many people are aware of this problem and look for ways to fix it. For example, to help parents make informed choices about their children's entertainment, ratings boards have been established to evaluate and report on the types of content can be found in newer games. These services are very useful - and should definitely be applauded - but publishers aren't required to use them.
Christian gamers (and their parents) have an additional problem: many popular games contain material that conflicts with their Faith. Ratings boards can help identify which games are more likely to be an issue, but since they look at things through a secular lens, there's a lot of stuff that they don't notice or warn people about. Worse still is the fact that computer games are less likely to be rated than their console game counterparts.
So what are Christians to do about this?
My response was to create God Minded Gaming; a website where I could provide reviews of computer games, a useful glossary of common gaming and internet jargon, and other educational materials to help bridge the gap between gamers and their non-gaming friends and family. Hopefully the information found here will help you and others find some quality entertainment and understand more about how your hobby and faith can work together.
But, this progress to new and better entertainment brought with it new problems. Better graphics meant that violence and sex could be depicted with more detail, and more complex stories meant that games could now explore concepts that children shouldn't be thinking about. On top of that, games now had the freedom to delve into subjects that Christians find offensive or especially dangerous, such as the occult and offensive depictions of religion.
Perhaps the saddest change that video games have had on society is the most subtle one. There is a growing gap between those that play games and those that do not. People have become so used to hearing jargon in their everyday lives that they don't recognize it as jargon anymore, and children often have trouble understanding that other people don't know the same things they do. This makes it difficult for them to talk about things with non-gamers, and sometimes people respond to innocuous things very inappropriately. When this happens, it can be impossible for children to explain their side of a situation, which makes things worse.
Now, that's not to say everything is going down the drain. Many people are aware of this problem and look for ways to fix it. For example, to help parents make informed choices about their children's entertainment, ratings boards have been established to evaluate and report on the types of content can be found in newer games. These services are very useful - and should definitely be applauded - but publishers aren't required to use them.
Christian gamers (and their parents) have an additional problem: many popular games contain material that conflicts with their Faith. Ratings boards can help identify which games are more likely to be an issue, but since they look at things through a secular lens, there's a lot of stuff that they don't notice or warn people about. Worse still is the fact that computer games are less likely to be rated than their console game counterparts.
So what are Christians to do about this?
My response was to create God Minded Gaming; a website where I could provide reviews of computer games, a useful glossary of common gaming and internet jargon, and other educational materials to help bridge the gap between gamers and their non-gaming friends and family. Hopefully the information found here will help you and others find some quality entertainment and understand more about how your hobby and faith can work together.