Catholic Response to Video Games?

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ShockleyHaynes

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I’m curious about something.

As a long-time video game player, I’m interested in various people’s reactions to video games. While cruising the Internet, I’ve noticed a number of Protestant web sites (mostly fundamentalist or evangelical) dedicated to reviewing video games, with an extra spin on their morality.

In my web-wanderings, however, I have not come across any Catholic web sites devoted to this purpose. Is there an official or lay reaction to video games, among Catholics? If not, what are your reactions?

Thanks!
 
I do have to first say that as I’m typing, dh is sitting next to me playing KOTOR2.

As with anything else, video games all involve a level of moderation. It all depends on the player’s maturity, age, circumstances, the game itself, etc. What is appropiate for one person is not appropiate for another. KOTOR2, for instance, needs to be played by someone with stronger moral development than KOTOR1, even though graphically and in many other ways they are identical.

Some games are great learning devices. I love to play Sid Meyer’s Civilization III. I have learned much from this game. I surprised one of my anthropologist faculty co-workers by knowing some obscure–for most–Aztec city names. He didn’t think anyone outside of his circle would be familiar with them.

I will grant that there are some games which go beyond the scope of decency. I have a different standard from most, though–I think that there can be times and places when a person can play a game like Leisure Suit Larry, or GTA. However, someone in an European country recently made a JFK assassin game. The point of the game was to perfectly simulate the shooting. While they have some lame justifications for the sale of the game, I have a hard time seeing any need for any sane individual to play this game.
 
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ShockleyHaynes:
I’m curious about something.

As a long-time video game player, I’m interested in various people’s reactions to video games. While cruising the Internet, I’ve noticed a number of Protestant web sites (mostly fundamentalist or evangelical) dedicated to reviewing video games, with an extra spin on their morality.

In my web-wanderings, however, I have not come across any Catholic web sites devoted to this purpose. Is there an official or lay reaction to video games, among Catholics? If not, what are your reactions?

Thanks!
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Video games are cool, and i know alot of kids do things because they think the video game is real but im more mature then that, i just think they’re cool
Podo
 
Depends on age. My husband has video games (RPG type) that won’t play in my daughters presence because of the violence. I love to annoy him with my running commentary on how rediculously unproportioned the women are designed, the general lack of a suitable amount of clothing and how no sane women would go around kicking butt in the 4 inch spiked heels.😃

Leisure Suit Larry, and even some of the later Sims games have crossed the line on decency.

What really just makes me roll my eyes is the fact that character from Blood Rayne made Playboy centerfold. :rolleyes: (Saw that story in the news.) It’s bad enough that guys are lusting after real women now their lusting after computer animated characters! Sheesh!
 
My husband is an avid player of video games:rolleyes: That’s why he bought me my laptop:D . He has a healthy balance though and that is important…after all is said and done, I really can’t complain… look at all the time I spend here:whistle:
 
I like Rome: Total War. It satisfies my drive to become Emperor and subjugate the world. And it has some neat Latin phrases.
 
I can not see anything wrong with computer games. Obviously that depends on whether the content is suitable. It is more the content that I think people have a problem with, seen as alot of the games that are ‘in’ are to do with killing people or war. If I had a child i would probably keep them away from games like GTA but stuf like LOONEY TUNES is not exactly going to harm them physically or mentally.
 
Does anyone know the game called “Half Life 2”? My 13-year-old son wants it for Christmas, but it is rated "M”, because of violence. What do you think?
 
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a_Pole_ogist:
Does anyone know the game called “Half Life 2”? My 13-year-old son wants it for Christmas, but it is rated "M”, because of violence. What do you think?
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How mature is he? That’s the real big question. I’ve got friends of mine that will let there kids under 17 play M-rated games because they can discern games and violence from reality (i.e. the games don’t have any effect on the kids).
 
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a_Pole_ogist:
Does anyone know the game called “Half Life 2”? My 13-year-old son wants it for Christmas, but it is rated "M”, because of violence. What do you think?
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I asked my husband and he said a big NO. He’s not overly conservative so I figure it’s pretty bad. He said lot’s of blood and gore.
 
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rayne89:
I asked my husband and he said a big NO. He’s not overly conservative so I figure it’s pretty bad. He said lot’s of blood and gore.
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It’s not GTA; it’s save the world from invasion from another dimension. Now, the physics engine and photorealism could quite possibly make it the best game of all time. But is photorealistic killing of aliens appropiate for an 13 year old? Depends on the child. In most cases, I’d say no.

I took a quick look, and Gamespot doesn’t have a demo, but they do have a trailer for it, as well as many user-made videos of gameplay. You can take a look and see if it is something you’d want him playing.

dlx.gamespot.com/pc/halflife2/index.html
 
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a_Pole_ogist:
Does anyone know the game called “Half Life 2”? My 13-year-old son wants it for Christmas, but it is rated "M”, because of violence. What do you think?
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I am 16 and play games because I love the challenge and competition, and the answer would be what you think of violent video games.

If you think they are okay for somebody that is mature enough to “handle” it, you’d better have a pretty good computer that can handle advanced graphics.
 
Thank you for your replies. I guess. I was uniformed, now I am just confused. 😦 Probably everyone has opinion and since Bible does not say anything about video games 😉 , all the opinions are equal. Can someone give me any links to those :rolleyes:
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ShockleyHaynes:
While cruising the Internet, I’ve noticed a number of Protestant web sites (mostly fundamentalist or evangelical) dedicated to reviewing video games, with an extra spin on their morality.
Click to expand...
protestant’s web sites rating video games? Thank you. 👍
 
The protestant web sites to me really are not that accurate, though there is one that actually had a major part based on gameplay, but the bottom line is basically the only games you should worry about are the Grand Theft Auto series and Lesiure Suit Larry, for extreme sexual themes.
 
The biggest weakness that I’ve seen in the Protestant websites, especially evident in the “Xenogears” review on Christian Spotlight, is a sort of zombie-like devotion to interpreting video games literally. They’re so afraid of raising God’s ire, they miss the stories in the games. For example, in “Xenogears,” there is reference to “killing God,” and in the context of the game (spoilers!) “God” is a gigantic machine that will consume humanity. This distinction is lost on the reviewers, naturally, so a good sci-fi story is turned into a blasphemous dirge of Satan.

I think games are great. Video game players could learn something from Christians; basically, the argument that video games makes kids more violent can be viewed from the perspective that people call the Bible an evil book. Yes, there are unsociable elements of video games and the Bible; it depends on whether or not the person is unstable enough to select those unsociable elements and live them in real life.
 
Well now, I must admit that computer games are a past-time of mine, though the ones I play are basically innocuous - Chess, Super Collapse 2, Solitaire, etc. I couldn’t imagine playing one of the riskier ones at all. You know the saying “garbage in garbage out,” so I limit my indulgence in this past time to games that won’t fill my head with horrible stuff. I’m disabled and sometimes sitting and playing at the computer takes my mind off the pain I’m in, although I must also admit there are times when my time might be better spent elsewhere = doing dishes etc… But we all have faults. Pray for me. I can be very lazy. I guess the watchword for this would be moderation.

Peace and all good,

Thomas2
 
I am a past video game enthusiast myself, but I take issue with several points:
  1. Many of these games derive the majority of their enjoyment from Avarice: the carnal sin of desiring after power,
  2. Many of these games change the rules of reality, to achieve the desired results or storyline: GTA, I can sin and so long as I don’t get caught I can profit (in reality we KNOW that there will be trial)
  3. We tend to move towards what we focus our attention on. Which is why adoration and meditative prayer are so important. I may be strong enough to know these are fictitious, but there are subtle and persistent themes and practices within them that accomplish no good, but can have a negative formation on me.
As with most modern media, I find that some have some good lessons on virtue, but as a whole, and used without moderation it is a poor diet.
 
filled2bursting said:
  1. Many of these games derive the majority of their enjoyment from Avarice: the carnal sin of desiring after power,
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I don’t see anything wrong with power. With more power, there is more good you can accomplish with it. 🤷
filled2bursting said:
  1. Many of these games change the rules of reality, to achieve the desired results or storyline: GTA, I can sin and so long as I don’t get caught I can profit (in reality we KNOW that there will be trial)
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I agree that games like GTA are the worst examples of that kind of reality bending but sticking too close to reality can be an offense in of itself. For instance, in MMORPGs, I can go anywhere without really a need for a passport, account the time I take to travel, or be obliged to settle down. In real life though, people do not have the luxury to travel so freely. Obviously the former sounds more fun than the latter.
 
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