bite sized: the morality of interactivity

Hey, loggers. Welcome back to another bite sized episode of the backlog breakdown. My name is Josh, and I am here to kick around an idea with you on this bite sized episodes. Just a short little episode that I'd like to just this idea that I've been kicking around about the morality of interactivity in video games. So we all know that video games are an interactive medium, right? It's one of the distinctives that sets it apart from other forms of entertainment. There are lots of passive entertainment that you could be engaging with, and video games are interactive just by their very nature. So then the question arises, or sometimes we often just assume this. It's not even a question. But I think this question does arise, that our interactivity in digital worlds, does it correlate with our sinful desires in the real world? That is what we do as the protagonist that we inhabit in a video game. Is it an extension of our sinfulness? And when we sin in playing certain video games, or when the character that we're inhabiting sins in a video game, what does that say about us? And can we sin in simply playing a video game? I think this is something, again, it's a question we can kick around, but sometimes we just assume, oh, well, that game is way too sinful. Because the main character, or because these characters are engaging in sinful acts, because they're. There's, whatever it is, over the top violence or sexuality or things like that, just sinful practices in a video game. Maybe it's not even any of those. Maybe it's battling woodland creatures that you have made captive, that you've taken captive in Pokemon or something like that. Maybe you're killing mushroom people in Super Mario Bros. No, I'm getting off topic here, but the question, it is a serious question. And so I'm sorry for bringing in the brevity or the levity here. Do we sin when we play certain types of video games? And if it's true that by the protagonist or the person that we are controlling in a video game, committing immoral actions in the video game, if that. If it's true that we sin by doing those things in a video game, then we have to be extremely careful with how we play games, right? We always have to choose to be the lawful good character, right? To go on that route in the. In the game, we always have to seek to roll play as the best possible character. Otherwise we might be sinning. And furthermore, if it's true, it means that we should. That we shouldn't play certain games, right? We shouldn't play certain video game series, or we probably shouldn't even play certain genres of video games because of their inherent moral positions. Right? So my question is, should we really play fighting games or shooters? Right. If they don't have a strong moral reason for the violence, like protecting other people. You know, a World War Two shooter is a little different than today's modern shooters or even a battle royale game where you're simply shooting at other people just to shoot at other people. There's no element of protecting your people, protecting your family, or anything like that. Right? The question is, if we're actually sinning by our protagonists doing immoral or unethical things, should we really play games like that? Fighting games or shooters or things like that? So I would like to challenge that assumption. Okay? And I'd like to do that by thinking through a few other forms of art, entertainment and recreation, like books and movies. Okay? Do we hold these forms of media to the same standard? Obviously, we don't. Okay. We can still enjoy these forms of media even when characters in these stories, and in most cases the protagonists themselves, do objectively immoral and sinful things. So some of the examples that come to mind for me as some of these, some really good works of art that actually use the sinfulness of their characters in different ways are something like the Godfather, right? That movie or series of movies, but let's just say the first one by Francis Ford Coppola, screwtape letters by CS Lewis. It's written from the perspective of a demon, right? Or something like this. Great work of art. The count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Right? There is a lot of sin in these stories that either characters perpetrate or even the protagonists perpetrate. So when we look at these forms of art, we ask the question, what is the purpose of these actions? What is the message behind these immoral actions and these stories that are being told? That's generally what we ask when we partake in these other forms of art. And I'm saying that we should ask that same question when we're playing video games. What is the purpose behind what we're doing? What is the message behind these actions that we're taking as these characters? And in fact, we see this when we look at works of art. But we also see this throughout the Bible. If you focus on specific stories in the life of biblical characters, it's easy to get the idea that they're the hero of the story, right? We see these amazing pictures of Moses parting the Red Sea, right. Of David fighting Goliath of Esther, putting her life on the line for the jewish people. Yet we recognize that these are intentionally just vignettes. We're peering into very specific moments of each of these people's lives. If we pan out and if we take a look at the broader story of each of these characters, of David, of Esther, of Moses, we see that these characters, it's obvious that they have major character flaws, right? These people, they do immoral and sinful things, and they mess up all along the way in the story of their lives as it's being told. The overarching point is that these people provide for us a template of what it looks like to lean on God for strength in order to accomplish his will. So we do want to honor them for the ways in which they follow after the Lord and how that provides us this encouragement to do the same. But ultimately, we have no hope of saving ourselves. We see their sinfulness, and we recognize that same sinfulness in ourselves. We can't save ourselves, just as these people could not save themselves. In fact, they pointed ahead to Jesus, right? We can only find our salvation in Jesus, who never sinned, who was perfect. And we see again, all throughout scripture some devastating moments of sin and even how it affects generations of people throughout the Bible. I mean, I mentioned King David, or David and Goliath, and you see his reign as king. While he does some amazing things, you also see his sinfulness on display, and you see how that affects even his sons, right, his family lineage and the rest of the kings of Israel. From there, in fact, we have an entire book that seems to not glory in these things, but show us the sinfulness of mankind in the book of judges, it gives us all kinds of horrible stories of abuse and sensuality. Yet it's ultimately redemptive. When you stand back and you look at it in light of the rest of scripture, in a God's grand story for mankind. So these stories, or stories in general, can often use sinful things for a variety of different reasons. Whether it's providing a moral dilemma for you to sit back and think about or whether it's a cautionary tale, don't go down the road that this character just did. Or sometimes it's just building the characters of the story through redemptive themes, right. They fail and they get back up, and then they progress, right. And they're able to recognize the immoral things that they've done in the past, the sin that they've committed, and they're able to not commit those sins in the future. So if this is the case with books, with movies, with the scripture itself, then what makes video games different? Well, I started out this bite sized episode by talking about interactivity, and that's how we engage with video games differently than we engage with a passive medium. We are actually active in our participation of these video games. So does the shift from watching and sympathizing with a character in a movie or getting into the thoughts and feelings of a character in a book? Does that shift to actually controlling a character who might be doing unethical things cause us to be culpable in their pseudo version of Sin in a digital world? I don't think it does. But I do want to encourage you to exercise caution. Okay. Digital worlds are distinctly different from the real world that we inhabit in one major way. They're imaginary, right? There's no other person in the digital realm unless you're playing online, of course. But then what you do to others only affects their avatar. You're not actually doing the things that doing in the game to other people. Right? So. But when it comes to single player games, I don't think that pressing a button to draw a weapon and shoot an arrow at an enemy's torso carries with it the same moral weight of doing something similar to a real person. I think there's a wide gulf between those two actions, and I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who engages a medium or who even just a spectator. However, I'd like to end. I'd like to land the plane here and end this bite sized episode with a word of warning, okay? While there is no other person in that now seemingly lifeless NPC that you just shot, there is still you. You're not the avatar that you inhabit in the game world. Just like I'm not actually the protagonist of a Shin Megami tensei game summoning folkloric entities to do battle with my opponents in order to gain power over the universe. But you, as the person who interacts with the game, still remains when the console is switched into sleep mode. And what I mean is that you are impacted by the things that you do in the digital space. While it might not be sinful to put in the grand Theft auto disc and play the game, what does it say about you that you begin to revel in the types of things the game has you do throughout the story, even if it's just to other pixelated avatars? Do you treat the game as a cautionary tale more akin to something like the tv show breaking bad? Or is it an outlet to inhabit the antagonist of a horror movie like the strangers and fulfill some devilish fantasy. What is the purpose of these actions within the game, and what have you purposed within your heart while you play it? That's the caution that I'd like to give. Because everything that you do matters. Not in the same way as those digital avatars. No, but it does matter. And I would say watch after your soul as you engage in video games. Sometimes it might not be sinful to play a hyper violent video game, but what does it actually do to you? And as a mature Christian, ought you to be engaging with these games in the way that you are? That's my question, and I hope that it's encouraging. Hopefully I've gotten my point across. And hey, if you think that I'm wrong, I'd love to hear how you think through these things as well. I'd love to hear your take and maybe we'll tackle this subject again in the future. But until then, take care. This is Josh signing off. I'll talk to you later. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the backlog breakdown. If you want to join in the conversation, you can email [email protected] or join our Facebook group, thebacklog Bookclub on Facebook and on Twitter. Our handle is bbdowncast. Of course, you can also catch Nate and I on our social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and the GG app. I go by brockalope, that's spelled broccolope, and Nate goes by Nate mcKeever. Till next time, loggers. You keep beating down those backlogs and we'll keep breaking down the benefits.