Faith. Life. Gaming.
I have been telling Wyatt bedtime stories for years. This is one of those stories… a story about a boy named Walter and his pet alligator named Frank. We created this story in Twine. Go ahead and download the file, save it to your computer, and play it in your web browser.
Download file here: Walter and Frank Blow Up the Moon
A man comes to town and befriends a preacher. He mixes truth-spoken with drug-fueled visions. He kills in the night and then moves on to capture the hearts of men. The town is soon flooded with one man’s lies. What is this perverted faith being presented in Far Cry 5?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mshS3Y4A8iE
The use of religious imagery and language are often intertwined in video games. Faith presented as a misunderstood mystery.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. – Hebrews 11:1
2. Ken Levine’s BioShock Infinite plays around with the concept of baptism being a key turning point in a man’s life. The beginning of the game going so far as to use baptism as a point of entry into the City of Columbia. Press X to Accept Baptism.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 1:18
2. We should recognize / be aware of certain genres of media having a predisposition to use religious imagery and language just because they can.
3. We should call out / shed light on depictions of faith that are not accurate and veer into cult territory. Far Cry 5‘s baptism trailer clearly depicts an unhealthy faith and devotion to a man, who will fail them. In watching the trailer, I’m reminded that God is not oppressive; God is not about control. No, oppression and control are tools of the devil.
Unlike the tagline at the end of the Far Cry 5 trailer, God does not call Christians to trust Him blindly nor to pray and obey Him out of fear:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. – Proverbs 3:5
In the end, Far Cry 5‘s fictional Hope County, Montana is in need of a spiritual cleansing. These people need to experience the freedom that Jesus Christ offers and be freed from the cult-ish slavery they are mired in. Being a Far Cry game, violence and rivers of blood will be the only way to purity.
Will you make the trip to Big Sky Country when the game is released?
Will you embrace the violence, the distorted faith presented?
This has been one of those odd weeks. Our trip to Dallas, for Wyatt’s birthday, threw me off. Made me think that the weekend had come early, nope.
Got to hang out with my younger brother yesterday. He is in the process of moving his family from California into the wilds of Arkansas. It’s interesting what the allure of being able to live in a place with an affordable cost of living will drive a man to do. I 100% understand his thinking. I’ve watched my friends in Southern California buy $300k homes; homes that are plain, expensive, and lacking in character. Sure, the weather year round is nice but the cost of living is insane. Knowing what my dad made at his job, growing up, anywhere outside of the state we would have been considered rich. But in Southern California, we were poor… even though I thought we were middle class.
The weather here hasn’t helped this week either. We’ve had two rounds of severe weather. Thankfully nothing bad outside of high amounts of rain and 52mph winds. Nothing like being woken up at 2am due to how loud the wind is hitting the house. We’ve had a total of 9 inches of rain this month. A small pond has formed in my backyard. Just need to pick up some snapping turtles for the pond.
Haven’t been reading, watching, or playing much in the way of video games. How about you? What’s life been throwing at you?
Even though I’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, I thought this was a neat example of gamifying the classroom:
Teachers already have to purchase and create so many of their classroom supplies and materials. When gamifying the classroom, both Wells and Roman suggest getting creative and using the resources you have available. “I used an extra fire escape map of the school as a dungeon,” says Wells. “My students started at the entrance and had to get to my classroom, but there were zombies everywhere. Every time they encountered one, they had to answer a quiz question.”
Celebrating a birthday is a great excuse to take a vacation day from work. So, Tab and I decided to take Wyatt to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science for his birthday. We totally surprised him! The boy had no clue.
3 1/2 hours later, we were tired and done. Had a great time though!
JohnnyBGamer