Balancing, Rated, Violence

The other day I was looking up something on Focus on the Family’s Plugged In Online, and I came across an article written in 2007 entitled “‘Halo’ and the Holy”. The article discusses the use of Halo 3, in churches, as an evangelistic tool. It goes on to talk about:

  1. Church vs. Pop Culture
  2. How Halo 3 is M-rated (age 17+) and not appropriate for those under the age of 17.
  3. How the church has always been a sanctuary, therefore violence and mayhem need to be kept outside its doors.

And now, a bulleted response:

  • The balancing act of being in the world but not of it is something that every Christian must deal with on a daily basis. Churches often use different genres of music to bring in non-Christians (oh no, rock-n-roll!) and the use of video games is no different.
  • I readily agree with the fact that Halo 3 is a M-rated game and not meant to be played by those under the specified age. I have no issues with that.

  • I do, however, have an issue with the article’s conclusion about the lack of violence in the church. The Bible itself is full of violence, war, rape, and general mayhem. Violence is apart of the human experience, unfortunately. I don’t see having video games within the church as inviting violence into it. If anything, one is inviting competition, team work, and communication.

In the end, I feel that the article fixated too much on Halo 3 and ultimately failed to to touch on how other games  (such as Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers) can be used instead. I see nothing wrong with using video games in an effort to bring people into church. I don’t believe that should be the reason that people attend, but I also don’t think that it is harmful in the least. Heck, most of these kids have video game consoles at home anyways.

Plugged In followed up their article with a reader response post. Some of it was quite entertaining.

Sold

This is one of those mornings where I am not too sure what to write about. Lately, I have been selling off my video game collection. So far I have managed to ebay my:

  1. Virtual Boy
  2. PS2
  3. Dreamcast

All had been sitting on various shelves, wasting their plastic lives away. So instead of letting them choke on dust, I figured that I would much rather sell them and let someone else play with them. No use keeping something if your not going to use it, right? So now I have a bunch of money saved up. What to do, what to do…

I‘ve been going back and forth between getting a PSP (to feed my handheld gaming fix) or a PS3. Either way, it looks like its going to be a Sony life for me (yo ho!). Now if only these early Black Friday deals would feature some sort of deeply discounted PS3 bundle. Here’s to dreaming huh.

Happy Tuesday!

The MMO Tourist: Alganon

I do not know about you, but I am the type of person that enjoys going places without knowing too much about them. As long as the key components are worked out (transportation, lodging, money, etc.), I am good to go. Fortunately, video games, MMO’s specifically, offer a universe of travel opportunities minus the cost of consulting a travel agent or the hassle of updating a passport.

Now, I have explored many virtual worlds over the years (check out Confessions of an MMO Tourist). Each world/ game has its own unique personality (artwork/ design) and sense of quirks (game play, community, etc.). Today, I am about to set forth into the world of Alganon. A recent Massively.com article tipped me off on this free-to-play title. So, after creating an account (no credit card information necessary) and downloading the game client (3GB), I set forth on my newest virtual adventure.

The flight into Alganon began with a bit of turbulence (ie: loading the game was choppy and rough). Being a seasoned traveler, however, I knew that some turbulence was par for the course, so I tightened my seatbelt and held on. After some time, I finally arrived at a character creation screen. So I created a character, selected a family (crafter, explorer, socializer, etc.), and proceeded to start the game. Now I should note at this point that the turbulence (game performance) had not stopped. I was beginning to get sick! Never before have I seen a released MMO behave in such a rough way.

The game performance only grew worse as the in-game intro video kicked in. Thinking that the game issues were coming from my end, I quickly decided to change some video settings to see if it would help. Below you’ll find a screen capture of the result of my simple act:

After such a bumpy flight, I decided that it was time to get off the plane…I mean game. As a seasoned traveler, I know that there are far more polished experiences out there to be had. Why should I even try and suffer through the mess that is Alganon? The world of free-to-play and pay-to-play MMO’s is vast. Until next time, may your life be free of beta-like games.

Monster

In the beginning:

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a literal monster. I remember the day it first appeared to me, looking all innocent in its shrink wrapped box. Little did I know that what dwelled inside was a digital narcotic that would end up stealing 3 months of my life. Wait. I should clarify that. I let World of Warcraft become my drug of choice; I let WoW rule my life.

Wasted summer:

So there I was, home from college for the summer. My brain fried from finals and from having to drive from East Texas to Southern California. All I can say is that it was a long trip! All I wanted to do was sit back and relax for the summer. My parents, however, had other plans in mind for me. Everyday I was asked when I was going to start looking for a job. A job? I had just slaved myself to death over school and now they wanted me to get a job? I just couldn’t understand that–I do now that I have student loan payments–. So I set up my computer on the kitchen table, and I proceeded to play WoW day and night. That summer was long, filled with nagging, and looking back, a complete waste of my time. I had let a computer game become my escape from reality. World of Warcraft had become my monster.

Fight and flight:

Today (10/22/10) marks the beginning of BlizzCon 2010. The hype train is chugging away at full steam, and Cataclysm is rapidly incoming (December 7th). At this junction, I find myself a tad conflicted. The excitement of friends clamoring for Cataclysm makes me want to go back and check out the game. However, I know that much has changed in my life.

Since that wasted summer, I have gotten married, had a little boy, and overall (hopefully!) have grown up. I no longer feel that I have the time to seriously dedicate to World of Warcraft. Sure, I could log in and dabble around some, but I would be no closer to friends who are not at the same place in life as me. I think, at this particular junction, that WoW is just not for me anymore. I need a game where I do not feel guilt if I don’t play (due to paying $15 a month). I also need a game where I can quickly exit/ press a pause button and it won’t impact anyone (in-game). So I guess that this is goodbye WoW. Don’t bother coming around anymore. I don’t like hanging out with monsters.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started