Gamespot respectively dives into religious discussion

Just read a very thoughtful piece from Gamespot entitled "Having Faith in Your Games." What I really enjoyed about the piece is that it didn't spend too much time goofing on Christianity-based video games like Super Noah's Ark 3D, and instead spent the majority of it's time exploring how video games can explore faith.

With games becoming more sophisticated when it comes to story lines, exploring the topic of religion in a tasteful way should be easy to do. The article cites recently-released Catherine as an example of how to implement a struggle with faith, stating:

Each night Vincent confronts his burdens in the form nightmarish puzzles rife with gothic iconography, and you, the player, are prompted to bare your soul in a Catholic-style confessional booth with questions such as "Do you buy too much food when you're hungry?" "What do you think of actors in sex scenes?" and "Is popping bubble wrap fun?" Vincent's fate rests on your answers, and some of the endings are as entertaining as they are hellishly disturbing.

Catherine, a game that may just inspire me to purchase a PS3, has a theme that would be worth exploring: choosing to live your life by your own rules, or submit to a higher power (although I do caution parents to be aware of the M-rating, as the game has a lot of sexual content). That's life in a nutshell, and the temptation we as people of faith (all faiths) struggle with.

It's a reminder that we Christians can expect more from our games than "answer a bible trivia verse and get this guy to repent." (Best quote from the article is "But Christian games should be biblically accurate and family-friendly if they are to share the message of God's love." But isn't that what the Bible is for?")

Just like there can be films with powerful messages that aren't explicitly Christian (think Schindler's List or Metropolis), there should be more games with a great exploration of faith that inspires you to ponder your own moral convictions.

Catholic News Service video games article tells us things we already knew

The Catholic News Agency did a story on video games, which you can read about here.

If it wasn't a Catholic news agency writing the story, I probably wouldn't waste time posting it, as the story could easily be filed under the "Does this article even have a point" category. Most of the info is stuff we already knew, and some of it makes me wince.

C'mon Catholics, we can do MUCH better than this.

The article starts strong, giving me a decent history of gaming. Things I mostly knew, but I'm not going to fault them for setting up the fact that gaming started with Pong and "evolved into a complex creative form whose impact now ranks with that of movies, TV and popular music."

 (FYI, you can tell how much the author of any story DOESN'T play games by how quickly they throw Pong into the equation. Pong was great and all, but if you really wanna show your old-school knowledge, drop a Demon Attack reference on me instead).

 Anyways, the article cites stats, gives way to the widespread penetration of games into homes, then segues into how violent games are. Nintendo's Wii is cited as the most family-friendly option due to the motion-based controller matching up with inoffensive content (the ultra-violent Madworld escapes mention), while mentioning that the X-Box 360 and PS3 are trying to capture the family-friendly market.

Surprisingly, the author never mentions the fact that those systems have their own motion-based controls. The two bright spots in this article is an explanation of Bioshock's exploration of morality and the limits of personal freedom, and a quote from "Grand Theft Childhood" author Cheryl K. Olson, who says, "I remember watching my son play games such as 'Legend of Zelda' when he was a young teen. He had to search, plan, and try different approaches to advance. You don't get those kinds of benefits from watching cartoons or sitcoms on TV."

 That's a solid defense of gaming. Too bad it was buried at the end of the article.

 My point in this post isn't to bash Catholic News Service for trying to do a gaming article. The author, a cathecist, supposedly has written about games for 20 years. The point I'm trying to make in highlighting this article's shortcomings is that when Catholics write about things like video games, it shouldn't be the same rehashed things that mainstream media has done to death.

We should be trying to find our own unique angle to bring to the story. Too often Catholic media tends to be like sheep, just following trends. We need to stand out, become unique, and lead the charge instead of just following old trends.

Hopefully CNS will put together better gaming articles in the future.

Mario Paint + Christian Music = Youtube Gold

If you are my age, you probably remember Mario Paint. While it may seem outdated nowadays, given the powerful art and music programs that many people have on their computer, it was a blast when I was kid. Draw your own pictures and make your own songs on the TV? Simply amazing.

And while Mario Paint may have faded away for many people, it seems that the music portion of it is alive and well. Do a search on Youtube and you'll find people still using Mario Paint (or the PC program Mario Paint Composer, which technically is a PC program, but it's a near replica of the SNES Mario Paint) to create covers of popular songs.

Which got me thinking, how many Christian songs have been "covered" using Mario Paint? Here are a few that I found on Youtube, along with a short description and what game SNES game they'd match up with best. I'll admit, I'm tempted to copy some of them to my iPhone: the quality is just that good. And while many of these songs aren't explicitly "Catholic," they still glorify God, and that's something we can all get behind.



My favorite part of Jars of Clay's Liquid is the drums. And I think they are faithfully converted in this song.
Game match: Mega Man X.




Red is a great Catholic rock band. Kayla from Sirius XM's The Message introduced me to the band when she appeared on Lino Rulli's The Catholic Guy Show a few years ago.
Game match: Any fight scene from a Japanese RPG.



Kudos to this composer for getting the guitars to sound great in Switchfoot's Meant to Live. Game match: For some reason, I keep thinking this would sound great in Killer Instinct.



I wanted to feature something from Matt Maher, who might be the most well-known Catholic musician in Christian music circles, but all I could find was this medley. He pops up at 1:23. Game match: Background music to standard RPG towns and maps.



And what feature on Catholic music would be complete without Ave Maria? If I could, I'd sub in this song for the Opera scene in Final Fantasy VI. Actually, finding Christian music that had been redone in Mario Paint was a little difficult. I have the sheet music to Matt Maher's "Your Grace is Enough" and when my new copy of Mario Paint arrives in the mail sometime in the next few days, I know how I'm spending my free time!

Another Catholic Gamer!

Thank you Ashley Collins for throwing this in my direction! Looks like a new Catholic-oriented gaming website has emerged during the past summer. Readers, head over to http://catholicgamer.com/ to see what's happenin'!

About that SCOTUS ruling...

All the juicy info is over at http://gamepolitics.com/2011/06/27/esrb039s-reaction-statement-scotus-decision. I like the ESRB's take: empowering parents is the best way to go. I think that is a position that Magisterial-minded Catholics could agree with.

We've had plenty of discussions about video game violence and the like on this blog in the past. Now might be a good time to revisit them; in any case, a good Catholic approach to the issue can be found here:

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/concupiscence-is-not-a-sin

Don't let the mask of "prudence" and "protecting children" lead you into rejecting Christ.

E3 recap

Readers,

Due to my lack of internet access in my current "sitz in leben," I'm completely unaware of any news from this year's e3 conference. Anyone wanna give this Catholic gamer the details?

Thanks in advance,
Andy Kirchoff

Link's Christlike example

Lately I've been playing a ton of Legend of Zelda, splitting my time between Link's Awakening (on the classic brick Game Boy) and Ocarina of Time downloaded from the Virtual Console.

Playing through both of these games, the thought occurred to me: Link really is, out of all the gaming characters, the most selfless hero out there.

Video games are filled with characters who exude good virtues. Locke from Final Fantasy VI might have been a thief, but he goes out of his way to rescue Terra and Celes. Halo's Master Chief destroys a race of aliens hell-bent on destroying the universe. And Pac-Man might be the Vatican's first virtual exorcist.

But Link's adventures have mostly consisted of his going from town to town, helping people without ever complaining or thinking twice about it. Rescuing Princess Ruto from Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly. Delivering love letters (in my mind at least) from old men to old women, and fetching masks for people all while saving a planet from being destroyed by the Moon.

After he does that, a huge carnival is thrown. But is Link honored? Heck and no. He leaves town presumably to go help someone else.

In each game, you're always tasked with these great missions, and while Link receives tokens of appreciation along the way that aid him in his quest, it seems like he's never truly thanked for the hard work he's done in saving everyone's lives.

He reminds me of Christ in this aspect (yes I realize that I compared a digital character to our Lord and Saviour, and I realize that Link isn't going to save my soul from Hell, but hear me out). When Jesus healed the ten lepers, only one of them returned to thank him. And while it certainly could have happened, when Jesus turns five loaves of bread and two fishes into food for 5,000, none of those people are mentioned as thanking him before he goes off into his boat, as tired as can be.

We see Christ do so many wonderful things for people, that it seems like The Bible should be filled with more of those people thanking him.

Even today, not many people (myself included so many times) really stop and thank Christ for what he does for us, instead just going on about their merry lives.

Of course, maybe we should all be like Link. Tirelessly helping others without expecting anything in return. I think Link follows Christ's words very well in Matthew 5: "But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles."


Link definitely goes the two miles.

Any other video game characters exemplify a Christ-like attitude? Leave a comment!