I get a thrill from killing people on video games - am I going to hell?

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Benjani.Jesus

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Hi,

First time poster here. I am in a bit of a conflict and don’t really know where to turn.

I am a traditional Catholic attending church weekly and always strive to abide by the bible. However recently, I have got into playing video games in particular first person shooters. Also, I tend to dabble in Grand Theft Auto on weekends (after Church).

I have find myself enjoying the darker sides of these games, especially the elements that conflict the ten commandments.

Am I going to hell for this?

Thanks

Benj
 
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You have choices to make in life. You are created in Gods image. Your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit. If I served you 2 dishes, one was great stuff & one was poison. Which would you take? It’s the same w music, movies & games. There are non-violent games. There are building civilizations games. Grand Theft Auto, you are the criminal. NOT GOOD! These games do desensitize us to violence. Teens kill each other now. They are gamers. Their moral compass is destroyed. The Air Force has jobs for gamers.  Drone flyers. W real bombs. It doesn’t bother them. 
 You must take care of your soul & spirit & body in life. If you can’t play it w Jesus, should you play it?? If you died right now & you were doing X?? Would you go to heaven. Girls wearing string bikinis standing before Jesus???  Being in a romantic compromised position & you’re standing before Jesus.  OOPS! Remember you are temporarily in this world. Our purpose is to save souls & keep ours safe. If I do this X, will I go to heaven??
Jeremiah 29/11. I have a plan for you…
if you love Me, you will keep my commandments.
Join a youth Bible Study. Play Trivia Pursuit w your parents . Volunteer! Have a life
In Jesus name. . Amen
 
Benjani.Jesus said:
I am a traditional Catholic attending church weekly and always strive to abide by the bible. However recently, I have got into playing video games in particular first person shooters. Also, I tend to dabble in Grand Theft Auto on weekends (after Church).

I have find myself enjoying the darker sides of these games, especially the elements that conflict the ten commandments.

Am I going to hell for this?
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It’s impossible to sin in a video game, because it’s not real. Like, if you “kill” someone in GTA, you are not committing a murder. It’s just animated computer pixels, not a person. It’s no more a murder than if you wrote a novel in which someone was killed. Not real=no sin. If you aren’t distinguishing between video games and reality, you’re way too into video games.

That said, if you feel like the game is affecting you negatively in the real world, you maybe need to put it down.
 
Benjani.Jesus said:
I have find myself enjoying the darker sides of these games, especially the elements that conflict the ten commandments.
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Some people are more inclined towards some sins… and that is normal. If you are having fun in some GTA game killing civilians but are not doing it out of anger, sadism and you do not have inclinations to do so in real life, it seems fine to me. However, if this is also something that is present in real life, or you are venting your anger/sadism on those games, you should fight with those feelings. You do not need to stop playing essentially, just play for right reasons 🙂

When I play historical games I often declare unjust wars… heck I once even installed and anti-Pope in CK2 just to see what exactly does it do. I don’t think it is a right thing to do in real life and just did it for sake of gameplay, so I guess that’s all fine and similar to your situation.
 
I have moved your thread to Moral Theology as it is more of a moral/ethical dilemma than a question about traditional Catholicism (unless you think that traditional Catholicism has a specific view on video games!) It could also have gone in Catholic Living…

As for your question, I’m not God, but I very much doubt that people to to hell for playing video games. Some people get a thrill from playing Monopoly. The game of Monopoly also involves morally dubious behavior, e.g. buying up land in poorer neighborhoods and converting housing to hotels to reap greater profits. So, I’m sure there’s nothing inherently evil about playing this video game.

I guess the question is, does it trouble you that you enjoy killing people in a video game? If it distresses you, or if you worry that it could be encouraging some underlying violent tendencies, perhaps you shouldn’t be playing it. But if it’s just fun, and you know the difference between a video game and real life, well, it’s just that, a game.

Personally, I’ve been enjoying the BBC America series Killing Eve. I find the murders very entertaining. If you’ve not seen it, I should explain that that’s the point of it: it’s about a professional assassin who kills people in imaginative and unusual ways. It doesn’t concern me that I watch this, as I know that it’s just entertainment.
 
do_justly_love_mercy said:
Personally, I’ve been enjoying the BBC America series Killing Eve . I find the murders very entertaining. If you’ve not seen it, I should explain that that’s the point of it: it’s about a professional assassin who kills people in imaginative and unusual ways. It doesn’t concern me that I watch this, as I know that it’s just entertainment.
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Exactly. Provided you’re an adult who realizes that it’s just a television show, it’s fine. The people who are “killed” on Killing Eve are actors who, after they yell cut, probably have coffee and chat with the person who just murdered them.
 
From what I’ve read about her, Jodie Comer sounds like a particularly nice person in fact. Maybe that’s why she plays a psychopath so well. I think she is quite sympathetic toward the character of Villanelle. It’s also funny if you hear her speaking in her real accent (she’s from Liverpool). Whenever she speaks in an English accent as Villanelle, it’s a very upper-class accent.
 
Also…she ain’t hard to look at. Just saying.
 
No it’s fine. I myself love those old John Woo - Chow Yun Fat action movies with lots of gunplay. It’s like ballet.
 
I suggest paying close attention to your conscience, and even consider whether the Holy Spirit could be guiding you toward something better.

The Lord does care about emotions even if they are driven by something that’s “not real” or in our imagination.

IMO one could decide about a video game by asking whether a saint or even the Lord would find pleasure in it.
 
I’ve never been much of a gamer except 80s old school. But if I were using GTA I’d use those hacks where a horse or a pigeon ends up driving the car or the motorcycle, instead of a person. I find that highly amusing and as a bonus, greater separation from reality.
 
I sometimes play first-person shooters, but I don’t think about it like killing someone for fun, a lot of those games have to do with fighting For a Cause, like fighting to save your country or the world. Grand Theft Auto, which I know is a third-person game, yeah, that’s just violent for the sake of being violent. I’m not sure what you mean, because I can’t read your mind, but you might want to see a therapist. And before someone jumps in here and takes offense at what I said about Grand Theft Auto, keep in mind that I’ve logged in many hours on both San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto 3.
 
I personally (again, one mans opinion) think the problem with video games isn’t so much the content as the degree to which people, young men especially, get obsessed with them and it consumes all of their free time.

Video games are fine as the occasional rainy day pastime, but if you’re logging hours and hours in front of a screen you probably need to get out into the real world more.
 
That’s between you and the Lord. I believe that God will reward you if you give up violent video games because that’s what He did to me. I used to play Gears of War, which lets you kill your enemies with a chainsaw. I don’t believe that we can dogmatically say that playing violent games is wrong, but I do believe that we can say that games with nudity and sexuality are prohibited. Psalm 101:3 says “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless”. We should imitate the Psalmist.

Ask the Lord what He thinks (in prayer). 🙂
 
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