Twice now, I’ve written blog entries regarding video games and Christianity intersecting, both featuring articles on news sites. Reference links:
- God in the Console - MSNBC posted an article in August of 2003, and my thoughts on the article
- PlayStations of the Cross - The NY Times posted an article (that’s now in the paid archives, unfortunately). As the subject fascinates me, I had to post about it again.
Well, today Wired News has posted not one, but two articles about Christian video game development.
God Games Seek Souls, Not Profit focuses on basically repeating a lot of what the prior two articles I’ve linked have said, just with some updates. There’s discussion of the Christian Game Developers Foundation, which is pretty awesome. It feels like a nice evolution in terms of how these articles go. It didn’t bring as much to the table as the prior articles I’ve linked, but it was still an interesting read, especially as it sheds more light on how much Christian game development is moving forward. It’s nice to see more people embracing video games as another valid form of entertainment, and realizing that they can use gaming as a tool to reach people without being so Bible-thumping about it. Christian pop and rock and such has taken off and gone mainstream even (like Switchfoot) so it’s nice to gaming moving that way too.
Christians Code Heavenly Games focuses really on just longer descriptions of known Christian games in development. One in particular that intrigues me:
Digital Praise demonstrated Dance Praise, an arcade game in the mold of Dance Dance Revolution, in which players follow onscreen instructions and stomp on a dance pad to the beat of music. The game will feature songs from 30 of the leading Christian music artists, according to Bill Bean, Digital Praise’s vice president of marketing and sales.
As a DDR fan and a Christian, that amuses me to no end.
As an aside, I’ll admit to feeling a tinge of guilt in proclaiming myself to be Christian, as I know I’ve not exactly been strong in my faith lately, but hey. We all have our trials, right? I still hold my faith, which is the most important part. It’s still there.
Overall, of all of the four articles I’ve now linked, I still feel like the God in the Console article presented the most interesting read. If I had to suggest one to read, that’d be it. The NY Times article was similar in content, but weaker overall, and these two Wired articles, while interesting, don’t engage me as much as the MSNBC one did. However, they’re still noteworthy.
There isn’t much else I can say about my thoughts overall on the intersection of my faith and my favorite hobby, at least that I haven’t already said in a prior blog post, so I’ll wrap this up now.
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Neat posting Bri. I had heard, very briefly, something mentioned on this on KLOVE…that national station.
I must confess, I don’t play games. I’m not a “gamer” in any stretch of the imagination. Although,
I’ve been toying with the idea of buying an XBox so I can play this pirate game that someone showed me. Anyway - I’d be really
curious to see where development of Christian gaming goes…and how the marketing of such games plays out.
Darcy,
Anthony absolutely LOVES Pirates. He plays it on the PC, but it’s basically the same game as the one on the Xbox (as the differences are pretty small). I hear it’s a fun game.
I love the concept of a Christian game, if it’s done well. I fear that sometimes the message may be too overt and turn some people off. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar, or however that saying goes. The one Christian game I’ve played was a bit too over-the-top for my tastes. Being a Christian, it didn’t really bug me, but I could see how it’d turn some people off.
Interesting. I didnt know that such a thing even existed!! I cant even imagine what a Christian video game would be like. (I would think it would be somewhat boring!!) Anyway, there is a site called associatedcontent.com that has a listing of technology articles. Take a peek. There are some insightful thoughts on the subject out there.