Is "Having fun" a waste of time?

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Hello. I am an old member here “Bryan77” but It’s been a while, and I can’t log in anymore, so I made a new account. Anyways…

I am trying to become a Video game developer. Video games are a serious form of entertainment in today’s culture. There is a lot of good that they can do, as a video game is quite literally a virtual experience. I think that as a developer, it is serving God to create video games that uplift the soul, even if the game doesn’t have any overtly religious themes, I think developers can craft an experience that guides the player to think about the world in a good way that can help themselves, and others for when they go back into the real world.

The question I have is… If we are supposed to “pray always” when does “play” come in? I understand that we can unite our “work” as a way to pray. Can the same be for “play”? Or does God want us to spend all our days praying Roseries, feeding the homeless, going to work, etc, and “play” is a waste of time.

Every hour spent “playing” is an hour not praying a rosery, or feeding the homeless, or what not. Is this bad?

I’m trying to “Die to myself” and be like the grain of wheat, like in today’s Gospel reading. Does dying to myself mean I have to put all my goals and 10 years of struggle to get into the games industry aside, because God wants me to die to my desires, and spend all day praying and working retail (I am not currently making games for a living, although I have been trying to make that my career)

What does it mean to “die to yourself”? Is it Okay to “Play” (not just video games, but watch movies, read fiction, draw silly pictures, etc.

If I pray a rosery, give God thanks, stay close to the sacriments, should I feel bad for wanting to play a video game for joy and inspiration? Or by playing a video game (or reading fiction, etc.) telling God " I prefer to spend time with the finite creation rather than the infinite creator"

Honestly, formal prayer is not only boring, but also frustrating. I try to discern God’s will for me, but I get silence, and then I end up thinking about different situations that may or may not be from God, and I can’t figure out if God is telling me something, or if my brain is telling me something. I still make efforts to pray, read scripture, and discern his will. Is an hour a day good enough? Can I play? Can I encourage others to play? Can I continue working towards my goal of making good video games, (which would then mean I encourage others to play, and thus spend time not praying)

Is my entire life and goals bad?

It can’t be. I must be in danger of falling into the heresy of fundamentalism right? Play is good right?

Can play be prayer? Or Does God want us to put the material world aside, and only choose holy things (I don’t mean immoral play, but rather neutral)

I mean, how can we change the culture, if we ourselves aren’t a part of the culture? How can we convert others if we don’t have shared interests with nonbelievers?

I’m having a hard time here.
 
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As Eric Liddell said, God made him fast, and he gave glory to God by competitive running.
If God made you an awesome game designer, then you give glory to him by what you do.

Doing your work well and morally is a form of prayer, giving glory to God. Just remember to always thank Him and give Him glory, rather than thinking you accomplish everything on your own.
 
I remember a thread like this years ago. One posted stated that they felt it was best to just avoid ever having fun. The sad thing is, I don’t think they were joking. I just want to see if anyone else says this.
 
BMan said:
Every hour spent “playing” is an hour not praying a rosery, or feeding the homeless, or what not. Is this bad?
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Every hour spent playing is also an hour not spent robbing banks. 🙂

You do not know what the ones playing your games would have done if the games where not available. Perhaps even they do not know.

Furthermore, all sorts of innocent pleasure give us a chance to thank God. They might help us to generate contrition for sins. I also remember some priest on EWTN saying that remembering an innocent pleasure (he gave sailing as an example) at the right time helps us to fight temptation.
BMan said:
The question I have is… If we are supposed to “pray always” when does “play” come in? I understand that we can unite our “work” as a way to pray. Can the same be for “play”? Or does God want us to spend all our days praying Roseries, feeding the homeless, going to work, etc, and “play” is a waste of time.
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Look at the commentary on that part by St. Thomas Aquinas: http://dhspriory.org/thomas/SS1Thes.htm#52. There he lists 3 ways in which “pray always” is to be understood. For example, “First, that person who does not neglect the appointed hours for prayer, prays always.”. So, it does not mean that you have to fill every single hour with “formal” prayer.

And if you develop a video game for God’s glory, isn’t it a bit like prayer too?
 
BMan said:
Is my entire life and goals bad?
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The fact that you ask that question is encouraging. It means you are leaving a window of opportunity for God to shine His light in you and through you.
Maybe your “holy” time hasn’t arrived yet. I’d say attend to your career and come back to this “holy” business. I tend to struggle with the formal prayers too. maybe you are suited to communicating with God informally.
As long as you aren’t doing anything unethical, you are on the right track I’d say. All of us have unique journeys. We are not all the same.
 
Having fun is a form of praising God. Indeed, it is an expression of gratitude for being alive.
 
TheOldColonel said:
Having fun is a form of praising God. Indeed, it is an expression of gratitude for being alive.
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God appears to have created certain things for our enjoyment. Music, art, the colours of nature and the like, don’t really serve much if any practical use, so it’s difficult to see why they exist, other than pleasure. So it stands to reason that, in moderation, we can enjoy and take pleasure from them.
 
I think you are right. Such things seem to be both a sign of God’s love and a foretaste of heaven.
 
I remember hearing Rush Limbaugh once saying that he had a friend, a father of teen boys, who referred to their video game system as “the abstinence machine”. That’s a good thing, right? 🤣
 
I don’t believe that “praying always” literally means doing nothing but praying. Like, I enjoy finding spiritual things in everything but not everything in my life evolves around religion. I firmly believe that while we need to go through hardships in life, God wants us to be happy. There’s too much sadness and difficulties in life already to feel guilty about moments of fun and joy. When we can have fun and bring it to others, we should feel grateful for it and thank God for giving us this ability. Expressing joy and gratitude, and ability to make others happy, is a type of prayer - I’d like to think it is anyway.
 
BMan said:
The question I have is… If we are supposed to “pray always” when does “play” come in? I understand that we can unite our “work” as a way to pray. Can the same be for “play”? Or does God want us to spend all our days praying Roseries, feeding the homeless, going to work, etc, and “play” is a waste of time.

Every hour spent “playing” is an hour not praying a rosery, or feeding the homeless, or what not. Is this bad?
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Hi!

Wow… you are quite loaded!

…ok… pray always! This is a Directive! Christians must Obey Jesus Command and pray, always!

Can it be done? Yes and no. We witnessed Peter, James and John not being able to Stand with Jesus in prayer… but we also witnessed that they Lived a prayerful life–gathering in His Name in prayer and Breaking of the Bread. This means that we must seek Jesus out, in prayer, and that we, as St. Paul puts it, do everything in Christ. So even a game can be used to pray–how? WWJD?
BMan said:
I’m trying to “Die to myself” and be like the grain of wheat, like in today’s Gospel reading.
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It means that you must put Christ first; if you develop a game that will dishonor Christ by enticing others to become immoral (sin) then you are placing your ego (desire for power/wealth/recognition, etc.) above God; in effect, you are making a god of those things with witch we replace God in our lives.
BMan said:
Honestly, formal prayer is not only boring, but also frustrating.
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That’s because you lack understanding, patience, and creativity (yeah, we can be dopes when it comes to the Narrow and Hard Gate and Way); prayer is our communication with God; it is the means by which God is made accessible to us and by which we become intimate with God (outside of Receiving the Holy Eucharist); there are so many ways and tools that we can use… prewritten prayers are only a sample of this relationship–sometimes the easiest as we can just follow the prayer, novena or format… as I wait for the bus I do prayers… it can become so second nature that I have found myself dreaming and praying/citing Scriptures or waking up praying… Sadly, people will spend hundreds of hours gaming, drooling, overeating, yelling, boob tubing; arguing, fighting, thinking about or doing vain things and giving to God only seconds of prayers…
BMan said:
I think that as a developer, it is serving God to create video games that uplift the soul,
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…not only that but that can help people gain a measure of commonsense, enhance acuteness of intellect and human dignity by promoting excellence, generosity, self-denial, and self-sacrifice… God speed!

Maran atha!

Angel
 
I write fiction, so I hope it’s okay to enjoy stories that lead us to think of what is good, beautiful, holy and pure. But we have to have villains because one purpose of stories is to point out that evil can be defeated, as C.S. Lewis says.
What would happen if the only video games available were R rated, full of obscenity, violence, and sex? Someone needs to create games that are more uplifting.
Godspeed in your work.
 
There are some encyclicals on this. You might have to do some researching. One example is Miranda Prorsus. But I remember seeing one by Pope John Paul II.

Here’s my personal opinion. I think video games in moderation, like 45 minutes once per week, might be alright. But essentially, they are time wasters and marriage wreckers. And they are addictive. For my sister, it is a great source of tension in her marriage. Her husband and kids want to zone out. How can you have a good family life like that?

I have never noticed a lasting character development or benefit in a kid who has played video games. Occasionally, a youngster will express glee to me at beating a certain score, but would not this competitiveness rather be put to a fruitful end, such as achieving a high score in a sport or school exam?

Video games change kids’ minds and make those kids far more difficult to teach, and far less motivated to try things in my opinion. Kids today need to learn how to converse, how to work hard and persevere through troubles. They need to be more resilient, and far happier. I don’t think video games lead to those results.

To answer your question, I think play is good, but not in the form of video games. I think kids need to craft their own ideas and games and not have them imposed on them by a gamer. I would much rather see you construct fun science experiments for kids, which would likely require many of the skills you have. Or create a show like Mythbusters. These things help the world.
 
The virtue of temperance is a key consideration here.

For a fair number of young people, more time than is good is spent gaming. I know this personally.
 
My husband enjoyed online games his entire life. He still managed to work a full time job and be a good husband.
Anything that’s not inherently immoral and is done in moderation is fine. Anything done to an excessive amount or without consideration for another’s needs can be a “time waster and marriage wrecker”, whether it’s video games, golf, working at a job, or even prayer in some cases.

People just like to beat up on new technologies because it is new and unfamiliar and young people tend to be most affected which gets all the oldsters riled up while said oldsters ignore the planks in their own eyes.

If you’re concerned about excessive engagement in any activity, set a timer or schedule it and don’t exceed the allotted time.
 
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I do believe that God designed us to have a drive for some fun and leisure. But there’s also this: Some people whom God created have talents and temperaments that best lend themselves to the arts and entertainments. If nobody stopped to enjoy those things, these people would be out of a job. You’re not just enjoying stuff, you are helping to support your fellow man through enjoying the arts, both financially and emotionally. You’re giving people a sense of purpose and a chance to make a living who would otherwise have a much harder time finding meaningful work. For example, I sing and write songs, which I only just recently finally started sharing on YouTube. If all people ever did with their time was pray and work, and they never stopped to enjoy things that weren’t physically “productive” in some way, most of the things I really enjoy doing would have no place in the world. So I know, very well, that it’s not just yourself you’re helping when you have fun. You’re giving meaning to the lives of people who hope to bring entertainment, fun, and art to others. As an aspiring artist yourself, in the interactive art we call video games, you know this. Just apply it to other artists besides yourself, and it’ll be easier for you to see that there is something helpful and charitable in enjoying these things, because it’s giving others the sense of meaning and accomplishment you yourself hope to have. 🙂
 
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But there are vast differences in the quality of one’s recreation. Say a person just likes to read craigslist ads all day or play video games? This is far different than somebody who takes up a musical instrument and joins a community orchestra, supporting the conductor’s livelihood. But I’m not going to get much traction here if people think any hobby is equal to another.
 
Video games are not bad inherently, but do they help us grow to be saints? Probably not.

This work of St. Alphonsus De Liguori on the importance of spiritual reading not only applies to books but general entertainment as well.
Remember also that for you certain useless books, though not bad, will be pernicious; because they will make you lose the time that you can employ in occupations profitable to the soul. In a letter to his disciple Eustochium, St. Jerome stated for her instruction that in his solitude at Bethlehem he was attached to the works of Cicero, and frequently read them, and that he felt a certain disgust for pious books because their style was not polished. He was seized with a serious malady, in which he saw himself at the tribunal of Jesus Christ. The Lord said to him: “Tell me; what are you?” “I am,” replied the saint, “a Christian.” “No,” rejoined the Judge, “you are a Ciceronian, not a Christian.” He then commanded him to be instantly scourged. The saint promised to correct his fault, and having returned from the vision he found his shoulders livid and covered with wounds in consequence of the chastisement that he had received. Thenceforward he gave up the works of Cicero, and devoted himself to the reading of books of piety. It is true that in the works like those of Cicero we sometimes find useful sentiments; but the same St. Jerome wisely said in a letter to another disciple: “What need have you of seeking for a little gold in the midst of so much mire,” when you can read pious books in which you may find all gold without any mire?
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Of course it’s not a waste of time. A life without fun is a complete waste of time. If you don’t have fun, you’re gonna go crazy, and that’s no mindset for giving glory to God, which seems to be what you want to do.
 
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