Any Christians?

your beliefs affect every part of your life, willingly or not. Games are affected by this as well. How could they not? Most games have a hero/heroine(s) fighting for something. If there was no right and wrong, then the fight would be meaningless. You have to believe in right/wrong, good/evil before you can buy into a game. Otherwise, why would the hero fight? What makes the villain bad?
 
Deep.

As to that "disrespectful" statement I made - it sounds different than the way I intended.

I'm still not going to tell you whether or not you're going to hell - that's a conclusion you have to come to yourself. A decision only YOU can make.

A lot of Christian gamers tend to cover themselves too. It takes threads like these to find out who is and who isn't. I'm even guilty of this.
 
I have to admit, Hardcore, that no matter what you believe, it is very difficult to stand for something without offending someone else. The George Carlin quote by Kurruption can be considered offensive and even aggressive and it's saying to NOT say anything at all.

It's also difficult to be a Christian and display the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control that we're supposed to have. Personally, I struggle with humility. Just ask Asylum (although he's got my ego beat!)
 
This discussion has been calm so far, guys... Please keep it that way, mmmmmkay?

Hardcore, it's perfectly fine for you to ask about things like this, but keep in mind that if you have some ulterior motive for asking- like that you plan to start preaching about hell or who's going there based on beliefs that disagree with a particular reading of Christian mythology, then you'll be crossing a line. I accept that you believe that and maybe even feel strongly about it, but this isn't a religion forum- we're all about games and hardware. If you want to discuss religion there are tons and tons of other sites elsweyhere on the web.

Hopefully I've not offended you with any of the above, but as a very long time forum moderator (I've been on the web since before it had a GUI, back in the old Telnet newsgroups days), I just know that discussions of religion on non-religious sites tend to degrade into attacks on people's beliefs, and we're just not that kind of site. Respect the fact that others might not necessarily believe the way you do, and stick to topic (games and gaming) and you'll be fine. I CAN and WILL nuke any thread that starts to get into dangerous waters, however.

Thanks! :cookiemon
 
Darth_Jonas said:
your beliefs affect every part of your life, willingly or not. Games are affected by this as well. How could they not? Most games have a hero/heroine(s) fighting for something. If there was no right and wrong, then the fight would be meaningless. You have to believe in right/wrong, good/evil before you can buy into a game. Otherwise, why would the hero fight? What makes the villain bad?

Heroes, villians. Good and evil. Right and wrong. Maybe those are a few things that are ultimately holding back games at the moment as something more than entertainment. Everything comes down to black and white issues: A game is either this, or it's that. Perhaps everything is too dependent on morality as well. Anyway, a game can take an amoral stance and still be fun and worthy. Shadow of the Colossus and Ico for example. In fact, these games force you to confront morality in subtle and strong ways in the actual gameplay, not within pre-scripted, pre-rendered story sequences like in a lot of games.

This is a bit off-topic, but it is relevant.
 
Even games that put you in place of an ammoral individual, like San Andreas or Godfather, still hit on subjects of justice in the form of vengeance.

Personally, we already live in a world that bombards us with multiple interpretations of right and wrong. When gaming I want a definite villian with a definite reason he's my enemy. (Wow, we can turn anything back into gaming!)
 
I want a game to show me in subtle ways, interactively, that my actions, guided by my decisions, may result in conclusions I had not foreseen, and the rammifications that go with those consequences. I want to know that my beliefs/knowledge can be challenged. How else can I grow?
 
kurruption said:
I actually I tend to follow George Carlins 11th commandment, "Though shall keep thy religion to thyself"


amen brotha


i am catholic but am serously thinking od shaving my head and eyebrows and becoming a buddist monk, but every time i start to WoW deverts my atention.
 
And that's fine- hooking up with gamers that share your interests and tastes is one of the services that we strive to provide to the community. Just please try to respect others' right to believe in things other than what you do, and we'll all be peachy.

Enjoy your stay! :cookiemon
 
I'm a Christian. A while back I used to post on the Gameshark boards and we were having a real discussion about Christianity and the mods erased the topic for no reason. For whatever reason this is a very touchy subject. Race and sexuality can be discussed most of the time, but faith and religion are almost always taboo. I understand that coversations (especially on the web) can get heated quickly, but I feel almost all of us are mature enough to have real dialogue without it turning ugly (granted we do have new members so I guess it is best to be cautious).
 
As long as it's focused in this thread, it should be just fine. I don't think I'd appreciate it if someone turned a discussion of Halo into a Post-modernist theory. And I'll try to have the same courtesy.
 
I think some forums are afraid of religion topics because religious debate sometimes can turn nasty and incredibly cruel (unlike this thread, I might add). Personally, I'm not a Christian, but I certainly don't have a problem with people expressing and exploring their faith with calm and rational discourse.

The Internet, unfortunately, is more than just a home for hedonism. Though I'd like to think of it as a gathering place for interesting people and ideas, a lot of time there's a lot of hate and anger expressed online. Religion being so important and intrinsic to a person's sense of self, well, it's tough to keep undue passion out of a discussion if one poster or all of them become discourteous or outright hateful.

Thankfully, it seems like people are all pretty cool on Mygamer.

And Halo is more post-Human rather than post-Modern, don't ya think? teehee :goodvibes
 
It's funny. The Internet allows us to be totally anonymous -- totally removed from "self" and yet Scribe's comment rings true. We are more protective of the things we associate with "self" here than in person it seems.
 
That might be because on the internet, especially through text-based communications, you aren't a corporeal person as much as you are a collection of ideas. More of your abstract 'ideal' self comes through. In real life, you can express things with body language, tone of voice, etc. There's more range in expression, a different dynamic. With the internet, you have more time and fewer ways to communicate, so it's mostly an engagement of minds and ideas.

Anonymity probably plays a role in allowing more easily the projection of ideal self. Society tends to have a way of placing one inside a moving box, shunning aspects or displays that aren't the norm. That's why you got such a wide variety of hedonism as it were on the internet. I see the potential for my ownself being disregarded in real life for talking like I do on these boards and being basically too introspective or philosophical about things.