Wowzers, time does sure by fast when you're trying to sort out a new house. Plus, blogging can be a pain when your PC is about 1400 years old and takes about twenty minutes to get to the Windows screen, let alone get online! Anyways, me and the missus managed to get hold of a half decent laptop, so now I can blog my videogaming thoughts as and when they strike me. Huzzah!
Now when I last blogged I was talking about how important games are culturally, and I'll blog again on that subject later. I have to fish out my notes and do a spot of research on that first though. So I thought I'd kick off another series of posts that I'd come up with, which deal with my 'Rules of Gaming'.
You see, the more I've been playing games over the years the more I've wondered if there is a 'moral' or 'Christian' way to play them.One of the things I've discovered is that it really depends on the game. Games like Tetris have no moral aspect to them at all. It's justa puzzle for puzzle's sake, much like a rubiks cube or sudoku or what have you. But then there are other games that have made me ask questions about my actions. Games like Call of Duty, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Borderlands.
In these games,you have guns. (Ok, Oblivion has bow and arrow but you get the point.) But more to the point, these games feature PEOPLE. In these games, most of the things you'll be shooting at and killing are people. This got me thinking. I know these folk don't exist except in a virtual contruct, and I'm not actually phisically killing them or anything, but how it it affecting me?
You see, as I was exploring the Wasteland of Fallout 3, I was wandering around shooting the psychotic raiders willy nilly, because they're the baddies. But after making a raider's head explode using a sneak attack in an abandoned building it got me thinking.
"That guy was just minding his own buisness smoking a ciggie, and I just painted the wall with his face. I mean, I know he'd probably skin me alive but is this a Christian way to go about this? Come to think of it, I just totally murdered a guy in cold blood. Hmm."
This line of thought started to continue in the games I'd play, and there was definitely a bit about killing stuff in the Old Testament....
"You shall not Murder" Dueteronomy 5:17
Ah yes, that was it. But note the word used. Murder. Murder has a different context to just killing. After all, later on in Deuteronomy you get a section about acciental killing (Dueteronomy Chapter 19). Dueteronomy 20 has an interesting note about war- offer peace first, but if they insist on fighting then you are allowed to lay siege and kill the city's warriors. But one thing is clear- murdering in cold blood is right out. Jesus of course takes it a bit further- the intent to harm or even losing your temper is pretty much murder! (I'll look at this some other time, this is a whole other post!)
So I came up with the "Han Shot First" rule, naming it after an amusing bit of Star Wars trivia. Here's the rule:
*If a human attacks you, you are allowed to defend yourself, up to the point of killing them. Only attack first if it is an animal, monster or if using a non lethal attack. If the person runs off to hide, let them.*
Using this law I've felt much better about my forays into the Borderlands, the Wastes of Fallout and the vast expanses in the Elder Scrolls games. I used it in the recent Deus Ex: Human Revolution and found the game a lot more fun, as there seemed to be more challenge in sneaking around knocking out bad guys so they could be brought to trial later. Well, the ones that didn't try to put holes in me anyway.
I was suprised to see how easy it was to impliment this little rule, since in most games the enemy wants you dead. Not quite sure how it would work in multiplayer death matches, but I don't tend to play them. So there you have it, one of my rules of gaming I've implemented over the years. Any thoughts? Leave them in the comments box.
Some Linkage
Han Shot First:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first
Can a Christian Kill another Person? Some Perspectives on this issue.
http://brevia.com/Spiritual/Pacifists.htm
http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance203.html
http://www.incommunion.org/2009/02/26/may-christians-kill/
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