Video Games

[tabsie3210]

First, I want to apologize for always being on the board asking the weirdest questions - I have an over-active imagination, and I flat out admit it, and that makes my head hurt.

That said, I’m having a panic attack over what I think is something stupid. I’d like rational minds to help me out with the situation because, physically, I can’t be rational. My body’s doing what my mind doesn’t want it to and is having a fit.

I love doll houses. I play “The Sims 2” because it’s a great big doll house. I love downloading Christian themed stuff, including a wall Crucifix for indoor household use, and a very large Crucifix that can go into a church, and I’ve got priests and nuns that I created, down to rough “habits,” though I admit my clothes-making skills for that game is limited.

“The Sims 2” has all kinds of goofy stuff that can happen. There are alien abductions where, if a male adult gets abducted, he can get “pregnant” with an alien baby. The solution - don’t buy a certain telescope and the aliens never show up. There are werewolves and vampires in the game. Solution - don’t hang out with certain non-player characters and your characters don’t become one. And if by accident they do become vamps/weres, you can buy a “cure” from a “gypsy woman” and get back to normal. And playing with the gypsy character isn’t even necessary. Someone extracted the “potions” and you can just buy them.

So your characters don’t have to be involved in anything occult. Occasionally I do like to muck around with some of the weird things in game, like the werewolves and vampires, if I’m playing around in a fairy-tale game. But I usually don’t because I just want to play with my dolls.

Well, I got the newest expansion pack, which has added two interesting things - witches, and apartment complex stuff.

Again, the witches are like anything else and can be just ignored, overlooked, etc. You have to actively have your characters make friends with the “witches” to get anything weird like a flying broomstick or a book of spells. Otherwise, nothing.

Meaning I can ignore all the occult references and just enjoy my dolls, without it affecting my characters at all.

So here’s my problem - I was thinking about how I was looking forward to playing with it and I had a panic attack because I feel like everything I do is bad and wrong and that I keep making major mistakes no matter what. Ironically, I’m not worried about God because I know He’ll bop me on the head until I go down the path He wants for me. I’m afraid that everyone else will hate me for playing this game, even if I never do anything with it.

I don’t get it. The kind of “magic” that’s put out by EA games in these things is of the Harry Potter variety, usually, and is funny and tame.

And now that I’m writing this out I feel a little calmer but I keep feeling like everyone on the list is going to suddenly start screaming, “How can you do that?”

I don’t know where I got this from but I think I remember someone saying something like, “There’s a big difference between trying to do your best and being outright paranoid.”

Opinions? Am I outright paranoid?

 

[The_Otaku]

I don’t think you’re being paranoid more than you are being scrupulous. I think that if you have the ability and in-game option to avoid the occult stuff, and you can accomplish things in the game without having to get into that extra stuff, then it’s fine.

I play Command & Conquer games (also made by EA). These are wargames, with tanks, fighter jets, infantry, etc. It’s basically military warfare, like Risk or chess, except alot better. One could argue games like this are evil, but they’re simulations and about tactics, problem-solving and strategy. If I were to get so consumed into the violence that I glorified the real violence armies are called to perform by duty (even they don’t want to do it) then I would most likely be committing a major sin of some kind.

I think this all depends on how deeply you allow yourself to get into something or “into character” with something, which is why RPGs and traditional games like D&D can be very dangerous spiritually as well as physically, since most of it is fantasy style, and that is usually pagan and glorifies paganism in some fashion.

If you’re just playing with your dolls and avoiding the witchcraft and such, then I say good for you. I think you’re not only NOT committing any sins, but should be given kudos for not getting into the pagan stuff and making it a point to avoid it.

There will always be the occasion of sin for games like that, though. Since you cannot remove the content in the game, only avoid it, the temptation would always be there to experiment or try it out, so you have to be careful.

 

[tabsie3210]

Now that I’m all rational I feel very silly about my panic attack yesterday. Consider this - I’m not interested in having the occult element in my games at all because they mess up playing with my doll houses, so it’s no big deal to me that witchcraft was added since I’m not going to use any of it anyway. The attack came when I thought that all my Christian friends would think I was a Satanic sort of person because I owned a game that had a reference I wasn’t going to do anything with.

I love my brain. I wish it would fire properly. Blah.

 

[mammallama]

I don’t think you’re paranoid but maybe a bit too worried about peer pressure.Play with your dolls…that other junk is optional and not necessary to play the game.Maybe invite your friends to play too so they can see for themselves.