Are video games harmful?

[Frelga]

Cuz your backyard probably doesn't have cute anime characters and bouncy dance music.

We've got squirrels. Do squirrels count?

[yovargas]

You may have squirrels, but do you have this?




(Don't ask me, I don't know either.)

[Impenitent]

You may have squirrels, but do you have this?

No, I don't, thank the gods! Life is unpredictable enough as it is!

Hey, I get the games - there's novelty and all that (there's even weight loss, apparently. ) but I think the main thing that games provide is DISTRACTION! You don't have to think, contemplate, ruminate, meditate, you only have to respond reflexively to what is on the screen.

And I've discovered another thing; emotional/chemical rushes are triggered by the games - they all set a mood and one responds to it. Unfortunately most of the games my son prefers to play (if I let him) churn him up and he is quite jittery and angry when he gets off.

I steer him elsewhere, as a rule.

[baby tuckoo]

Are video games harmful?




Of course they are.


Let's become retro-Calvinists and abandon buttons and dancing and cards so that none of the devil's tools shall tempt us from truer pursuits.


Let's harm ourselves.

[Impenitent]

Let's harm ourselves.

Okay.


You first.

[Primula Baggins]

When my parents went to a small Lutheran college in 1950, dancing was FORBIDDEN. Everyone knew it. If that rule had been changed the alumni (the ones who had lived long enough to get rich) would have died of mass heart attacks, and then where would the endowments have come from?

So what they had was lectures. About modern music. On Saturday night, in the biggest room on campus, with visiting lecturers from among the finest jazz musicians (white and black) in nearby Chicago.

Mom tells me it was most edifying.

(Lutherans aren't Calvinists, but might as well have been in those days . . . but there is Calvinism and Calvinism.)

My point is that even Calvinists often figure out how to have fun anyway and probably needn't be utterly dismissed.

Why, several of my best friends are Calvinists.

[baby tuckoo]

(Lutherans aren't Calvinists, but might as well have been in those days . . . but there is Calvinism and Calvinism.)

Ummm, yeah, thanks for the, um, clarification. Things must have been different back then. In those days. Back before predestination. Back when . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[Primula Baggins]

Back when people tended to wiggle out from under their labels . . .

Which, er, actually, is still true.

[baby tuckoo]

I saw that coming.






True, Prim, those emergent Christians simply won't be categorized, and that's why I love them so.


The theological distinctions of Lutheran/Calvinist seem petty today, though they certainly weren't at the time.


A modern world view considers the distinction as even less than petty. It is irrelevant, no more important than the many flavors of Baptists in the South or Congregationalists most everywhere. Socially distinct, perhaps, but not in doctrine, and not in a way that drives lives in different directions.



So, why do Baptists object to fornication?













They're afraid it might lead to dancing.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

If you guys keep this up, you're going to make me split this discussion into a new thread.

Which wouldn't be such a bad thing, come to think of it. I think it could be a very interesting discussion in its own right.

[yovargas]

Yes. It's about time someone started a thread about squirrels.

[yovargas]

Hey, I get the games - there's novelty and all that (there's even weight loss, apparently. ) but I think the main thing that games provide is DISTRACTION! You don't have to think, contemplate, ruminate, meditate, you only have to respond reflexively to what is on the screen.

That statement actually makes me think of TV as much, if not more, then video games.

[Primula Baggins]

The distinction between Lutherans and Calvinists is only of interest to Lutherans and Calvinists, but learning what it is taught me a bit about church history and the far-reaching effects of slightly different interpretations of the Bible.

Now, of course, the distinction is so unimportant that mainstream U.S. Lutherans and mainstream U.S. Presbyterians can attend, take Communion in, and serve as pastors in each other's churches without restriction.

[yovargas]

Only on HoF could a discussion about video games morph into a discussion on theology.

[Primula Baggins]

Shocking, innit?

I have been playing a little Myst lately (one of the sequels that we never finished). It's very soothing—which I realize is not why most people play games. But the gorgeous images, the calming sounds of wind and water, the moody and unobtrusive music—I swear my blood pressure goes down.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Only on HoF could a discussion about video games morph into a discussion on theology.

[yovargas]

It's very soothing—which I realize is not why most people play games.

You're right, I'm sure, but at the same time, Myst is one of the best selling games of all time so...

[Primula Baggins]

Myst pulls in people like me, who have enough tension and aggravation in life without having virtual people shooting at us and monsters trying to devour us. We aren't looking for thrills. Myst tapped a whole market that wouldn't buy the more conventional games; hence the big numbers.

I think a "game" that was just a chance to explore a complex, beautiful environment, without even puzzles let alone bad guys to fight, would probably sell well to people like me.

[yovargas]

I think a "game" that was just a chance to explore a complex, beautiful environment, without even puzzles let alone bad guys to fight, would probably sell well to people like me.

Hmmm...there's a genre usually called the Adventure genre (Myst fell into the category) which used to be popular on the PC (see Myst) but has mostly fallen out of favor due to poor sales. Still, every year, one or two of these types of games come out to big critical acclaim. They're usually very laid back affairs, mostly concerned with telling interesting interactive stories in interesting locales then beating up anybody (most don't have any fighting at all or often even a way to die). This game from 06 got lots of acclaim and seems like it might appeal to the sci-fi lover in you (it's available on PC, too):

http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/dreamfall- ... 775p1.html

[Primula Baggins]

Wow, yov, that does look like fun. And we have an X-box.