Christian Morality and Video Games

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Some of you might be wondering, "Why are you putting video games on your website? I thought GodRules.NET was dedicated to just Bible study tools." It is true that this site is primarily dedicated to Bible study material, but I thought it wise to expand. I believe that I can get even more people reading my Bible materials, if I build more variety into the website. Simply put, video games will attract many non-Christians! My primary goal at GodRules.NET is to reach the lost. It is difficult to reach the lost, if all you are offering is advanced biblical study tools that speak in a language that is partially foreign to non-believers.

How many times have you heard a non-believer say, "Hey, I am going to head over to the library and read some of John Bunyan's books. I think he is a great moral influence." No, usually it is more along the lines of, "Hey, I am buying that new "Red Faction" game for the XBox 360" or "Hey, I am going to go see that new movie, '2012'. Its playing tonight at the Regal Cinema." We as Christians need to observe this. How many $50 million dollar blockbuster Christian movies have you seen? How many top-notch Christian games have you played? I would suspect that your answer is none. Are we missing something here? I think so..

Here is my proposal. We want non-believers saved, living the life, and reading the Word of God, right? Well, go to where they are at! For the most part, they are not in the church and they are not buying Christian materials. Where are they? They are in school, college, the work place, watching movies, playing video games, with their significant other, at parties, at the bar, watching TV, going to sports events, and listening to secular music. Now, how do we reach them? Evangelize to your friends in school, at work, and even at sporting events. Make Christian movies, video games, music and television shows. Offer viable alternatives to partying, the bar, and dance joints. For crying out loud, if you have to, stand on a street corner or in the mall and talk to those going by (I used to do this)! This is why Optasia Electronics, Inc. is in the process of making a Christian video game. Not just any video game either.. We plan on making a video game that is as top-notch as any of the secular games, but with a message that is right out of the Bible! Also, we plan on putting clean secular games on GodRules.NET to attract those who are not saved, hoping that they might read some of the biblical materials on the website.

Some of you might be thinking, "Yes, thats good, but aren't most if not all video games evil?" This point is taken well. Many of todays video games are evil. But does this mean we can't make good ones? To be honest, I am quite sick of standing on the side lines and complaining about all the evil video games. Yes, they are there.. now what are you going to do about it? Are you going to just sit there while the Devil takes over the video game industry (like he hasn't already done this), or are you going to do something about it? So far only a few small companies stood in the gap for Christianity in video games. The sad thing is that many of these companies simply don't have the funds to make games as good as the secular market. Notice, there ARE some Christian companies that could afford it, but they won't pick up such projects. Why? Well, it appears that many of these bigger companies don't want to risk such a venture, they might loose money. Actually, this is just my suspicion. The funny thing is that the exact same thing happened in the music industry, just before Christian music took off. Imagine some of the big Christian companies were too chicken to invest their money in the Christian music industry, just because they weren't totally sure that it would make money. Could you imagine one of them today saying that? No, of course not!

What defines a bad video game? Can we set a solid standard? I think so! Here are my thoughts:

• All games that focus on blood and gore are evil.
• All games that have a bad character in which you play are evil.
• All games that have the player killing humans, yet provide no storyline that gives the player authority from a governmental hierarchy to do so, are evil. What do I mean by this? A game that has the player's character working as an agent employed under a certain government to execute wrath on those that do evil is a good game (Don't believe me? Check out: Romans 13:1-7.). On the other hand, a game that has the player killing or fighting without any governmental sanction, is evil.
• An example for both: THE GOOD - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter video game series provides governmental sanction for various war scenerios. THE EVIL - The Mortal Kombat Series, where you fight other supernatural beings to the death, sometimes ripping body parts off your opponent.
• The easiest way to look at the topic of video games: Whatever would constitute a sin in real life, constitutes a sin in game life.