Gaming from a Christian perspective.

Seriously? Absurd? Of course. Still gonna write this blog? Yep and hopefully with a bit of "forehead slapping" humor, some ridicule...ok maybe a lot. Here's why...

The genesis for this blog came out of an article published in a Gamasutra news article on Sept. 2, 20081. It's a bit dated now (why it took me so long, is another story). The author of this article, Simon Parkin, took aim at the very notion of having games labeled Christian.

Since I have a Master of Arts in Theology, have worked in the games industry for over 16 years and have a site devoted to Christian Gaming, I was naturally interested in what Gamasutra, a respected trade publication, had to say on this subject.

His argument goes something like this (paraphrased and exaggerated)...Only humans can be Christian since Jesus died for humans...not concepts or inanimate objects. Applying Christian to describe a game is therefore invalid because adjectives = marketing = personal relationship with Jesus.

"A book or song cannot 'follow Christ'. As an adjective the word is, in essence, a term of marketing targeting a product specifically at Christian people. As a result it is an objectionable label to have applied to a music video game which self-evidently cannot be Christian."

Based on that argument, he wipes out a huge swath of such labels like a tsunami of "truth" triggered by the massive earthquake of Simon's insight.

There is now no longer such a thing as Christian music (cheap marketing ploy). You can't say an institution is a Christian ministry or a Christian charity (only people are Christian). There can't be something like Christian culture, a Christian Bible, Christian churches...etc. etc. All of that is "objectionable" to Simon.

Everyone should pack up their bags and go home and remove any references to Christian except for their personal and private use toward themselves and other living, breathing human beings.

On the face of it, it's such an absurd assertion, that it's hard to think anyone would buy into such an argument. And yet they did. This article generated a number of comments that could be characterized as something similar to amens in Church. I'd like to believe that once they actually considered the implications of this argument (Reductio ad absurdum anyone?) that some were at least slightly embarrassed they supported the argument.

Alright, you might say. If it's so obvious, why are you even bothering to mention it?

Keep in mind that this is coming from Gamasutra, a respected trade magazine that caters to bright, intelligent game developers and reaches a large audience that includes movers and shakers. That alone compels an answer. This kind of article can hurt the Christian game market, Christian game developers and Christians who want explicit Christian content in their games.

Also, keep in mind that we position ourselves as a voice for the Christian Gaming community (or should I say "gaming community that is populated by Christians who like to discuss games that contain concepts of their faith...but not their Christian faith [ooops, er faith held by Christians].") so we feel we have some obligation here to put up some sort of answer. Besides, it's kinda fun poking fun at the ridiculous, especially when those who believe it are dead serious.

As I thought about this article, I realized that someone had to pitch this idea to an editor at Gammasutra. In my twisted mind, that pitch went something completely unlike this...

Author: "Hey, I have this great idea for an article."

Editor: "Ok, let's hear it."

Author: "I want to write an article that says the so-called Christian game market doesn't actually exist because you can't use Christian as an adjective to describe games."

Editor: "Riiiight...." <nods head thoughtfully>

Author: "Furthermore, I'm going to say that the world ridicules these games because by using the word, Christian, to describe their games, they cheapen the true meaning of the word. And as we all know, the world doesn't like things that cheapen religion and we should make sure Christians don't offend the world."

Editor: "Excellent. We can simultaneously protect Christianity from ridicule and destroy this insidious attempt by marketers to destroy the true meaning of this special word.

I find it hard to believe such a conversation, (no matter how different from my bizarre, imaginary one) actually took place with sane, intelligent people. Did they keep a straight face throughout the exchange? For the sake of humanity, I hope they struggled just a tiny bit from keeping a curl forming at the corner of their lips.

Wait a minute while I boggle my mind for a minute...

oOoooOOooOOoooOOo

...OK, back to reality.

To be a tad fair to Simon, and before I ratchet up my finger wagging, there is something of a good point inside the "donkuness" of it all (hope I didn't just cheapen the word, redonkulous). It has to do with lamenting the broadening of a word's meaning until the original point of the word was lost. CS Lewis wrote about this. Lewis stated that when you take a term and broaden its use to the point where it is applied to the opposite of what it originally meant, that it can no longer function as it was originally intended. It has been reduced to a meaningless, sticky goo that can be slapped onto anything and mean nothing. The word has lost its reason de etre.

But is that what's happening here?

Is putting Christian in front of a game making goo of the word? Well, no. It's completely legitimate to call something Christian if that something is, well, Christian in nature, purpose and goals...even if part of the point is to position the game in Christian minds as something they might want to check out (marketing). And even if the game is, itself, crap.

But, when you're stuck beginning from an Ivory Tower premise such as ...

"People get themselves in all manner of trouble when they turn the noun into an adjective to describe their work, community, bookshop, painting, tee shirt, video game or song.",

...then it actually makes sense to argue that calling a game Christian is wrong. Ironically, by restricting how this word can be used, he's actually causing the word to shrink the impact of what the word can describe. The question isn't whether you should or should not use the word in its adjectival form, but whether the adjective applies appropriate meaning.

Of course, in all of humanity, in all of history, NO adjective has EVER been first a noun without creating all manner of trouble. Witness the MIDEAST crisis, the lack of WORLD peace, global warming (If only they hadn't turned 'globe' into an adjective and demeaned MOTHER Earth!). Think of all the evil that we could have avoided, by avoiding the use of adjectives.

Wait a minute while I boggle my mind a second...

oOoooOOooOOoooOOo

...OK, back to reality.

He even takes a further step into the world of the ridiculous by suggesting that the world ridicules Christian games because they recognize that the use of Christian to describe a game, cheapens the word by turning it into a marketing gimmick and the world always reacts badly to soulless marketing. And everyone knows that marketing is eeeeeviiiiil and cheapens everything it touches, therefore using the word Christian to market something is wrong and so it follows that the world will let you know by ridiculing your faith. Say what?

"When religions engage in this kind of spin it always feels a little insidious and it's this, that the wider world objects to when they hear of products such as Guitar Praise and Zoo Race."

We all know that the content of something defines what it is. You can falsely label something all you want, but if the content doesn't match the marketing, people figure that out quickly. Simon might have had a point if he said that inappropriate marketing was insidious, particularly when the content and the quality doesn't match the hype, but what he really wanted to do was this...

"Indeed, the term's use infers that the real Guitar Hero and its ilk are, in turn, somehow 'Unchristian'."

Did he actually say that? How dare he imply that Christian games are implying every other games are Unchristian!  How dare he impugn the word, Christian, by adding that 'Un' in front of it! Totally uncalled for!

Now, if he'd said something more like "Indeed, the term's use infers that the real Guitar Hero and its ilk, are, in turn, somehow missing Christian content." Then he'd be right.

There is a dirth of Christian content (content that comes out of, derives from and is meant to express such) in the games market. The fact that Guitar Praise exists DOES imply that there MAY (benefit of the doubt here) be a lack of Christian content.

Unchristian? Oh please. The only thing it implies is that Christians can't find content that matches what they want to experience, so they went out and created that content in a game. Since Guitar Praise has tons of songs with explicit Chrisitan content in it...

Voila, surprise, surprise, it's a Christian game!

Now, let me dream here for a bit in Simon's world...

If only we quit labeling our games as Christian, then the world would not ridicule us! Sweet! After two thousand years, the answer was so simple!  Go figure!

Oh dear, the sarcasm in that statement is just dripping and burning holes in the floor. I'm sure he doesn't mean this would fix ALL the ridicule...he's just helping us fix this one problem. He's so nice to us Christians who don't even know how to use the word, Christian. End Sarcasm...for a bit.

The typical knee-jerk ridicule against Christian games is based entirely on two things: It's Christian and the game's crap. Simon just doesn't seem to understand that there are people who react negatively to anything Christian...not matter what. It doesn't matter how good the game is. They will ridicule it.

Of course, are there any really good Christian games out there? There are some pretty good ones that I had plenty of fun playing...but great? No, I don't know of any. I won't say anything more, but I do have some strong opinions on the quality of Christian games and what needs to be done, but that's for another blog.

If you buy into his argument, then you'll certainly not trivialize the word. Wait...actually you will. You've just removed a vital usage of the word, Christian, from your speaking repertoire. Suddenly, all kinds of things that once were identified with Christians and all Christian content are removed from visibility to the world in general. It's now even harder to express our faith and obey the Great Commission given by Jesus himself. Thus, he concludes...

"Christians should not be demanding video games prefixed with a faith label, as if that cheap and easy classification provides some kind of invisible moral safety net for their and their children's media consumption. Rather, believers should simply be demanding good and beautiful games that delight in creativity, make people happy, present or explore the world in interesting ways and maybe, just maybe enable us to catch a glimpse of their God [emphasis mine], from whom all good things are claimed to flow."

Here's the key. He wants Christians to make sure their God is only caught in glimpses. Riiight. That fits the scriptures, "Go into all the world and preach..." ahh well, quote a theologian but don't quote scripture. That's probably too "in your face, dude".

I didn't catch a glimpse of God in his article. I only got the clear message that the only appropriate way for Christianity to interact with culture is through glimpses devoid of explicit Christian content. Yeah, that'll work. Maybe that's his god.  Weird god, but we live in a free society. Whatever.

No thanks. I don't want to obscure my faith. If I create a game that has explicit Christian content, that game gets labeled, Christian. If I want to create a game with content that just might make someone think something that might remind them of God, then I'll do that and won't label it Christian (or maybe I will...but that's for another article).

I remember someone who, as a child, loved CS Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" books. They said to me (paraphrased), "Once I realized it was an allegory for Jesus Christ, I hated the books." That is just the way of it. The world hates Jesus and they hate Christians and they hate what Christians do and they'll hate us no matter how good the content.

Subtlety has its own coolness factor, but get over it. We should never dim our light just to please people who find offense from that light.

Simon's position is not living in reality. But ivory tower thinking doesn't have to live in reality. It lives in theory and in the constructs of its own making. But try to apply it to the real, living world and it gets messy fast. In fact, bad things start to happen...like maybe painting Christians as the bad guys, limiting Christian expression and assigning good motives to the world for ridiculing Christian games and those that make them?

Consider that if Jesus thought this way, he wouldn't have gone to the lepers or the prostitutes or tax collectors. He would never have condoned picking corn and healing on the Sabbath...etc. etc. He'd have walled himself up in the ivory towers of his day.

Applying Simons logic, Jesus should have concentrated on saying beautiful things and making people happy so that they might, just might catch a glimpse of God. Anything more and he'd cheapen himself, no? Blech!

Well, of course, Jesus railed against this kind of mental, spiritual and emotional disconnect from reality. Christians are meant to be far more aggressive than this. To do less is to ignore the Great Commission.

Alright, Alright, I doubt anyone who's a regular visitor to ChristianGaming.com would hesitate to accept the use of the term Christian as an adjective to describe games, but it's my pontificating and I'm going to drive this one into the ground, bury it and then watch as the corpse rises up as a Zombie, then put a bullet to its head, watch it come back alive, then cut it into bits, stuff it into a radio-active barrel only to have it re-re-emerge and turn some new, unsuspecting intellectuals into Zombies of the 'Knights who never say Christian as an adjective'....whew...this is actually exhausting. No, actually, it's too easy.

Enough of the ridiculing already!

What's the take-away here?

Easy. You can say the words, "Christian game." But make sure your content matches the label.

However, I will concede that you can't say this, "That game is a Christian. It gave its heart to Jesus about six months ago. Before that it was into the FPS scene and ... well...I can't describe the number of bodies that it was responsible for pilling up. You'll have to come to his testimony tonight and hear with your own ears. Wait till you see the screen shots and the videos. Man, if that doesn't shake you up, you're hard core."

Eric

1 http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20055 No one wants to cheapen the Faith, but this article does what it says it's trying to avoid...it blames Christians, absolves the world and cheapens the Faith by reducing it to neutered glimpses of God.