Video Games: Positive or Negative?

What people think of video games usually falls into three categories: that all games are perfectly fine, that all games are completely bad, or that all E (everyone) rated games are absolutely safe.  In truth none of these beliefs are wholly true because, there are violent and sinful games as well as innocent and safe games.
It is written in the Bible, that the heart of man is “deceitful and desperately wicked.”  Therefore, humans, sinful by nature, enjoy sinful video games.  Henry Jenkins, the director of comparative studies at MIT says, “aggressive people like aggressive entertainment…violence has always been and remains a central interest of mankind.”  These things are both proven to be true in that violent and sinful games have always been enjoyed more than others.

One fourth of kids 11-16 have M (mature: ages 17 and up) rated games as their favorite.  First person shooter games are also popular.  One violent video game was highly enjoyed by kids, however, when parents complained it soon became well known that this game was sinful and violent.  Unexpectedly, sales from the game increased doubly!

Game designers know from cases like the above, that humans greatly enjoy sinful and violent video games.  So they continue to make them in order to make more money.

What’s so bad about people liking bad video games?  It is that the results of bad video games are normally negative. Kenneth A. Gagne says, “Bad video games effect their players.”

On April 20^th, 1999 two boys, named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School.  They killed 12 students and a teacher.  They then turned their weapons on themselves leaving no answers to anyone’s questions.  It was later found out that what they did was almost identical with a situation in their favorite video game Doom.

A violent video game called Grand Theft Auto sold over 20,000 copies.  In the game players did gruesome things to police officers.  One boy that had played the game repeated what he did in real life.  He was sent to jail.These are both examples of the possible, negative results to playing violent video games.  Even though violent video games have negative results, many violent games are still being made. Even the military makes games that teach soldiers to kill which could also teach sinners to murder.    

But, violent video games in themselves are not bad. People like Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had something else in there lives that made them do what they did. The games people play are not the roots of their sin. The games only help the people to sin. It is guaranteed that Satan will use bad video games to do evil things in the future.

The Bible says, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – reflect on these things.”  According to this, we should focus on good video games.

Good video games such as The Sims and Pikmin have positive results.  One girl that played The Sims  told a friend, “you have to have a job to buy food and things, and if you don’t go to work, you get fired, and if you spend all your money buying stuff you have to make more.”  Pikmin is a good game that teaches teamwork and how to be a good leader.  These are both examples of games that teach good principles that can be used in real life.

I have always enjoyed Sonic the Hedgehog.  My family has always trusted the Sonic games.  My parents played the old Sonic games before I was born.  After playing Sonic Adventure II Battle (the game that introduced the mystery of a new character, Shadow), I was excited when I heard about the sequel, Shadow the Hedgehog.

The article on Nintendo.com said that in the game you could choose between good and evil and your actions in the level would determine what Shadow would do in the story clips.  When I got the game, however, I discovered it was not as cool as I thought.  The graphics were not all that great, the story was not all that great, and most importantly, even though the game was rated E (everyone) Shadow used guns and said a curse word all throughout the game.

What should our response to video games be?  First we must define what games you should play and what games you should not play.  These definitions will vary slightly depending on the player’s maturity level.  Bad games are ones that promote breaking the law and killing innocent people, as in Grand Theft Auto where the player is encouraged to kill police officers.  The best games are those that teach players good morals as in Pikmin where the player is challenged to build and lead a group and to solve problems.  Part of our response should be to choose carefully and play good video games, not bad ones.  Do not just look at a game’s rating when choosing games you want to play, be sure to do a little research before deciding to begin playing a game.  If you feel that you need to do something more, like complain to the game designers, please do so.  Whatever you do, remember that it is never too late to stop, if you begin playing and discover that the game is sinful; you can quit.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:  Anderson, Brian C., “The Brain Workout: In Praise of Video Games.” Opinion Journal.  http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110008463 (February, 2007).;  Gagne, Kenneth A., “Moral Panics Over Youth Culture and Video Games.” Game Bits.  http://www.gamebits.net/other/mqp.html (February, 2007);  Jenkins, Henry., “Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked.”  PBS.  http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html (February 2007);  Dobson, James., “What Parents Need to Know About Video Games.”  Focus on the Family.  http://listen.family.org/daily/A000000166.cfm (February, 2007);  Jeremiah., The Book of Jeremiah. 
Grand Rapids Michigan; Zondervan, 2002.