Tuesday, August 25, 2009

What Video Games Do Seminarians and Priests Play?

Being a seminarian myself, I'm acutely aware of the peculiar curiosity that Catholics and non-Catholics alike have regarding the "daily grind" of seminary living. While there are certainly many differences between the life of a seminarian and your average college-age young adult (more, I'd wager, than the moratorium on dating that comes with the job description), here's one similiarity that won't surprise readers of this blog: both seminarian and non-seminarian alike LOVE video games!

Here's a sampling of the video games I've played/seen people playing within the past week or so at St. Joseph College Seminary, where I live and study 9 months of the year:


Far Cry 2

Call of Duty 4

Soul Calibur IV

Mortal Combat vs. DC Universe

Rock Band 2

Tales of Vesperia

Star Ocean 4

Civilization Revolution


...and that's ONLY counting Xbox 360 games. I am one of 6 priests and/or seminarians who owns one, and living in community makes it easy for us to keep what I call a "diversified gaming portfolio" - a vast collection of video game titles of many different genres. It saves money, too; you can bet that at least of one of us is paying attention when a high-profile game is about to be released!

One of the guys here has a PS3, another has a PSP, and at least one of my brother seminarians has a Nintendo DS, as well. PC gaming, too, has something of a following here; we've got at least one Half-Life/Portal PC player in our ranks.

One thing I'm not seeing: MMO's. I can't stand the accursed genre myself; maybe the other guys steer clear of the genre to avoid the perils of online game addiction? Whatever the reason, gaming is alive and well at at least one college seminary in the country. How's that for a snapshot of seminary living?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Very interesting. I wish i had guitar hero or rockband. I remember Dance Dance and Guitar Hero were the ones I played at Joe's.

BaronPete said...

Ahh but if you all played World of Warcraft, imagine the great guild you all could organize! :)

Anonymous said...

Baron Pete you are so right. But LOTRO would be better i think.

Anonymous said...

mostly because of Tolkien being Catholic and that LOTRO story is based off the book and not the movies.

j35u5fr34k said...

You and these priests need to read what the Pope teaches about violence in video games. I also struggle with whether or not I should play video games that depict violence against humans. The Pope is outspoken against games that exhault violence.

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=22807

Kiara said...

I don't see anything wrong with playing Download Games/Video Games even if you are a seminarians. And your lists? They are interesting games. I would try playing some.

happyface said...

If a person's faith is strong enough, no need to worry that he might get affected because of playing Video Games, thanks for sharing your gaming experience.

EpikStorm said...

If your against violence in games then get a nintendo Wii/DS/WiiU. They dont have a lot of MMO or violent games.