BFME, great game, lasted me for quite a long time, but eventually I got bored with it. I kept being angry that mordor and Isenguard got all the good siege equipment, but my mother didn't want me playing them because they were evil. Eventually I got tired of this, and played them anyway. I always tried to keep it a secret, reasoning that it was just a game, and it didn't matter what I did. I got to the point where it didn't matter to me who I was playing, it didn't matter if what I was doing would ethically be in question.
In retrospect, I probably would have not done this, if only to avoid that one question.
My mother finally caught me, she didn't punish me, she didn't scold me, yet she did the most punishing thing she could.
She asked me if I would have done the same things, if Jesus was sitting next to me.
If I would have butchered the elves men and dwarves, if he was beside me.
This made me realize, I let my lust overwhelm my ethics, instead of a golden calf, it was a golden console. To this day when there's a good or evil decision in a game, I always pick the good, because being evil in a game is just one wrung away from being evil in real life.
So I ask you, would you play GTA while Jesus was sitting next to you?
And is there a Golden Console in your life?
My reasoning is that a game is a game. Its NOT real; its fiction! Fiction doesn't harm a living sentient being. Thus why should it bother me to meet the requirement for the script to start the animation that would make several hundred-thousand vertices that were nicely textured drop to the terrain? However with light vs dark choices I can't bare chose the dark choice I still haven't gone with Roch in the Witcher 2 because I just can't bare killing people that clearly have a good point.
There are no good or bad choices in Witcher 2. There are some which are less bad than others lol. I personally always go with the elf guy (forgot his name, its been awhile), but he still kills innocents too. That's why i like the game, because it forces moral decisions upon you where its not just 'do you want to be good or evil' its 'if you choose the good choice more people will die, if you choose bad less people die'. Witcher is the perfect example of how video games make us think, and weigh moral choices.
Which is why I used it as an example.
Fighting in game, in my opinion, is fine, it's just that some games get a little out of hand when it comes to "Dark Side choices.
Here's my point, why? Why would some people get enjoyment from doing ill, even if its in game form?
Yes, I would have butchered the elves and dwarves still but Jesus would have probably ended up whooping my *** as Gondor!
BFME 2 was an amazing game. Isengard was my favorite faction actually and I even role-played them. As Isengard I often fought against Mordor (in the Skirmishes), I had a human custom hero and I had Gondor as my allies.
Seriously though, it's just a game. So long as you know what's right and wrong it doesn't matter if you play a game from an evil point of view. ElfFriend and you will be missing out on an amazing game next year (Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2) if you continue with this logic.
And ElfFriend, the path of Roache (aka Vernon BROche) can be role-played from a good perceptive. I saw Roache's path as the path you take to deal with the whole king slayer scenario and allegations being made against you. You don't actually fight against the elves. Roache's actually a decent guy and one with some good morals.
I did play Mordor again, but I limited myself to using men units, sort of like they rebelled against mordor. :)
True story,
I play a online fighter pilot game called War Thunder. Long story short I'm pretty good but one time I was playing and I asked God to help, and in my head I Started hearing commands, "go left" "Shoot the BF109," "Ignore the Il2"
I ended the match as the MVP and having probably my best match ever in the game. Was it God? I think so.
I think that as long as you realize it's not real and you don't go overtly cruel or vicious then I don't think God minds, Would God have minded you killing Elves, Dwarves and men? I don't think he would have minded anymore then any game where you kill anything really.
However might I suggest something, you said "She asked me if I would have done the same things, if Jesus was sitting next to me."
Might I suggest you pretend Jesus is sitting next to you, and pray and ask HIM what he thinks, what might apply to you may not apply to others, for some who may not be able to tell fiction from reality apart as well he may not want playing games where you kill others, for those who can tell it's fiction and not worry he may say it's okay.
You have a 24/7 connection with God, use it. Not to ask for things but to ask him for help and guidance. After all, your parents may be trying to guide and help you but in the end God is the ultimate authority.
Riight... I took a drive through the township nearby where I live today and there were literally too many people who live in small metal houses without food, work or warmth. Sick and diseased people with no quality of life. This in a primarily Christian-oriented country too with more churches than schools.
So, my question is this: do you really think that this "God" character is so evil as to help in in an online GAME but neglects to feed his children?
If I did believe in your Christian God, I certainly wouldn't be so narcissistic to think that he is so discontent with his creation to help me in a virtual creation while the rest of the people in the real world die of starvation and disease.
No, that's what you think by reading Foxhounde's experience but it's nothing Jesus taught.
BTW since you live in such an area why don't you go and do something about it instead of taking out your anger on Fox? You Clearly have enough money to do something since you own a car.
I never said its anything Jesus taught. i'm saying that he's certainly not worth loving or trusting if he is so narcissistic to help people win computer games but not feed the people who believe and trust in him to get them through the day.
i can't help them simply because I'm a student. I barely earn enough to support my studies and rent and food. The car is my father's(I don't pay for it). Quite hopefully once I'm done with my degree I can start a charity and do something about this pestering problem of joblessnes in my country.
the difference is, knight, i did not make any promises to care or feed or heal my children or such. I am not immortal or all-powerfull. I am not some supernatural being with endless capabilities who is too lazy to use them.
What anger? I'm stating a simple opinion on morality. Not all of us are ragers Knight ;)
p.s. Knight, just out of interest: what kind of God/Messiah do you believe in? I just want to be clear on exactly what you believe so i don't misrepresent your beliefs.
Knight is non-Trinitarian, a minority that has been heavily persecuted by the Trinitarian majority
But that's what Foxhounde believes sergeant. Every individual Christian has a personal belief on God. This belief doesn't necessarily come from The Bible or even reflect on what God is really like.
I don't think he would be so concerned with something as irrelevant as this and as for all the starvation and suffering in the world: I believe that's more important to God but that God doesn't act for good reason.
I'm a deist Christian and my personal philosophy is that God no longer interacts so we, by free-will, can build a better society and learn from our mistakes.
Another Christian might say that God tackles starvation by working through people. You might say, "well why doesn't God just clap his hands and deal with every problem" but my response would be that this allows people to be tested and that's what life falls down to in the end. A test. It also allows people to do good things because they want to help others. This in turn inspires other people.
Jesus made no promises about physically saving. He even said people will continue to die and starve. The promise he made was about being with people to the end of the age but that doesn't mean that those people won't still suffer or perish. Jesus even told his own disciples that they will die for following him (and they did).
"What type of god allows for this though?!"
Not an evil one. One could argue for him being neutral, unaffectionate but not evil. Starvation and suffering exist because of society's ways not because of God's non-intervention.
God set down his path through Jesus. A path of love and forgiveness. It's only our fault if we do not follow it but God not interacting anymore doesn't mean he longer cares or no longer loves.
You're an atheist so you believe in no spirit or life after death so naturally you see the death of a child in Africa as horrible. It is, as humans, death is horrible. To God though, the life of a human is brief, and even briefer is their death. God (being God) knows that there's an eternal spirit and that the peace of heaven will make the years of suffering on earth seem like a few seconds if not something that will be forgotten entirely.
To us, death is really death but to God it's not. To God, the death of a physical body (their shell) would be just the beginning of their real life. This belief exists in other religions to such as Buddhism.
If anything, our bodies are but sims, NPC's or avatars which are really willed by our spirits. The death of our characters in video games do not impact us so why should it be any different to God?
It's hard to believe God can love everyone (including ourselves) but apparently he does if we go by what The Bible says. If a murderer and pedophile can beg for forgiveness, turn away from their sin and be forgiven by God (something not many humans will echo) then he's not that bad after all.
It's fantasy.
In reality, the defining moral choices are never black and white. Those choices are often irrelevant compared to the implications behind them. There are no satanic legions filing out of Morder just as there are no pure armies of elves.
Don't worry about video games interfering in your religion. People made them as entertainment, and if they feel like anything more than that, you should probably take a break from gaming for a while- chances are you're taking games far more seriously than your beliefs.
Well said article my friend, I used to feel the same way about choosing the good side over the bad. However there came a point when I realized that I was only playing a video game. I know that I would never kill or murder innocents in real life. If you are mature enough to realize the fact that you are only playing a video game, then I believe God will understand that you want to play as both sides. :P
Stay close to Jesus and always think this way about every situation in your life :)