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Post by nullPointer on Oct 4, 2018 13:30:24 GMT -5
This thread rules. So I'm just going to hit and run on some of the various points found herein.
The Great Horned One (and His Influence on Fantasy Games) I think my Mom's parenting philosophy (single parent household here) probably skewed closer to Ex's comments. She was raised Methodist, perfect Sunday School attendance record, her parents (my Grandparents obv) were prominent members of the church, etc. But she was also a product of her time by which I mean she was a college student in the late 60's early-70's. So while the mysticism of Christianity held some deep personal meaning for her, she also believed in the importance of a free exchange of information and concepts (she was a career librarian). I wasn't baptized as a kid because she believed that the individual should seek out their own spiritual path and in their own time. Long story short, I grew up in a pretty permissive household in terms of what was allowed. Accordingly it wasn't a big deal at all when I discovered D&D (AD&D 2nd ed.) in my early teens. She even sat in on a game or two with a character she rolled up, lol (#AwkwardMemories). Some of my other friends were decidedly less cool with my choice in fantasy games though, one of which was a skater buddy who was raised fundamentalist Christian. We were hanging out at my house one day when he happened to notice a graph paper dungeon map that I'd been constructing. I'd put considerable work into this thing. He scoffed at it at first, but when I came back into the room after stepping out, he'd drawn '666' and pentagrams all over it with a red sharpie. "What's the matter?" he says with a huge shit-eating grin, "Am I making you mad? That shit's bad news man." Of course in a classic teen display of feigned apathy I was pretty much, "Pfft, whatever man. You're an asshole. Let's go skate." But inside I sure wanted to just haul off and punch him in the nose. In hindsight that map probably looked a hell of lot cooler with all the 'satanic' crap on it anyway. I'm sure my players had a real moment of 'WTF!?' when they caught a glimpse of it.
Megami Tensei (and Its Treatment of Theology) I played through the very first game earlier this year (a translation of the upgraded version of Digital Devil Summoner: Megami Tensei appearing on the Kyūyaku Megami Tensei compilation for SFC). When my party finally went toe to toe with Lucifer, I think we consisted of the two primary player characters, Odin, Ganesh, and Krishna if I recall correctly. If this game is blasphemous, at least it's indiscriminately blasphemous to everyone, lol. I'd be rather surprised and delighted (in a subversive sort of way) if the series managed to squeeze Allah into the mix at some point, though I somehow doubt that possibility. Megami Tensei just don't GaF.
Pokémon (and My Surprising Lack of Knowledge) I've never played a Pokémon game (gamer cred -2pt). So my introduction to Pokémon came with my kids, which is to say I was loosely aware of how Pokémon works, the characters and that sort of thing, but it wasn't until I had kids that my full on exposure began. I figured it would be fun to start watching the series together, and over the course of a year or so, I think we watched 18-ish seasons worth of Pokemon. Holy crap. That's a lot of Pokémon-ing, you guys. It was during this long form marathon that they started becoming interested in the TCG, which initially started as an interest in collecting, but this year blossomed into an interest for playing the game itself. As a long time player of MtG, I figured Pokémon couldn't be terribly complex. And while I wasn't necessarily wrong, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of depth possible in the game. Plus it was fun to introduce my kids to the concepts of deck-building. "It's awesome to pick your favorite characters, but now start thinking about how they will interact with other cards in your deck. Can you evolve them effectively?" etc. Good times. So the moral of this rather pointless tale is that I only started playing the Pokémon TCG this year, and I've still never played a Pokémon video game for more than a few minutes. It's probably something I should try to remedy in the interest of being a 'well rounded gamer' if nothing else.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 4, 2018 20:07:22 GMT -5
Jeeze nullPointer ... you kind of just sold me on wanting to play the card game now. (I was introduced to Magic a few years ago, still don't have any cards myself, but I enjoy playing some with friends that are into it with spare decks).
I guess it's natural that we all have some interesting stories regarding our upbringings and hobbies, what parental rules or influences were pressed on us, for better or worse heh.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2018 7:42:53 GMT -5
So, I've been looking at some Christian gaming websites for... reasons, lately. In this review of Pokemon Emerald gets a bit bashed because 'Pokemon has for years pushed the disproven theory of evolution, Emerald continues that false dogma', but it's not too bad overall. And since Harry Potter was also mentioned, I found this review of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It's fine until it comes to the appropriateness section, then it says: 'The game is Harry Potter, if that tells you anything. That means that it's going to have good magic and bad magic. But to God, there isn't good and bad magic. It's all condemned by God. (Isaiah 44:25; Jer. 27:9, 29:8; Ezek. 13:9)' So yeah. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a Christian review for a Megami Tensei game, but this one I found for Xenogears is about as close as it gets. The reviewer seems to have pretty strong opinions about this game: 'There are two camps on Xenogears. Those that rebel against God love Xenogears. Those that honor God are offended by this retro video game.' Pretty black and white. ' Xenogears promotes lies. People who have no problem with lies, and lying also are huge supporters of Xenogears. ' Wow, getting a bit personal there. ' Xenogears contains bad language, enticement to lust, violence, sexual innuendo, blood, death, gore, suicide, and more.' Jesus. 'Numerous characters in Xenogears hate God, and want to attack him. You know Xenogears is probably the favorite game of many atheists. Players go into bars and taverns and run into drunk characters. Players also are required to steal in various plot points of Xenogears. The price of Xenogears on the market today is insanely high.' It is a very expensive game, I'll agree with that. It's particularly funny, though, when in another Christian website DMC passes the morality test with flying colors: 'Mmmm...the game falters in this, but does not fail. The main thing is that the game deals with demons. That is what you kill. But, it does not glorify them or suggest worship, just kill them. And there is one more thing about it, Dante has a devil meter, when it fills up, you turn into this thingy, fly around, kill stuff, and then go back to normal. There is little to no swearing, and the only sex-related thing is that Trish wears a somewhat revealing dress.' Agreed. I don't know about somewhat revealing, but... All in all, most of the reviews are actually well made and can be useful for parents, but some reviewers seem to take things a bit too seriously and kind of forget these are just games at the end of the day.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 8, 2018 13:11:55 GMT -5
I think you'll find that pretty much everywhere. I tend to use sites like Plugged In for movie reviews, and they also have gaming stuff. It gives me an idea if there are things I don't feel like I need to expose myself to. In other words, if I see a comedy and it's full of f-bombs and sex jokes, I pass. Gaming tends to be a bit different; there are a lot of them that revolve around demons, magic, or the occult, but the bad stuff is usually portrayed as such. And even staunch Christians have quite enjoyed fictional representations of magic and whatnot. I mean, J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and he wrote Lord of the Rings, upon which significant portions of D&D draw inspiration. C.S. Lewis did Chronicles of Narnia, and he was originally an atheist that became an absolute pillar of modern Christian thought. I don't think you can just chalk things up to "just games", though. As you rightly point out, there are certain periods in life where our morality and thoughts are much more pliable. As adults, we hopefully have learned to separate fact from fiction, good from evil, but children often don't have those mechanisms in place. So what I can handle as an adult differs wildly from what my possible future children would be allowed to watch or play. So I understand why some folks would take that responsibility very, very seriously. There's always a fine line, though, between being too restrictive and too permissive, and I certainly don't envy parents trying to walk that line in our modern-day culture.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 8, 2018 13:15:37 GMT -5
I don't have anything to add but I got a big kick out of Tsumuri's post there, since so much of that resonates with my personal upbringing in ways. As always no offense to our resident holy man Sarge, though.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 8, 2018 13:21:19 GMT -5
I don't have anything to add but I got a big kick out of Tsumuri's post there, since so much of that resonates with my personal upbringing in ways. As always no offense to our resident holy man Sarge, though. None taken. I recognize that most don't have the same perspective on faith as I do. And just so anyone knows, I'm still a very flawed person, so I'm certainly not trying to be pious with y'all. I just consider myself an ongoing work in progress.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 8, 2018 13:26:38 GMT -5
No worries Sarge! You've always handled it gracefully in my opinion. A rare thing (on both sides) across the net, heh.
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Post by Ex on Oct 8, 2018 14:21:27 GMT -5
Once upon a time I was a Christian, but I gave that up about ten years ago. The reason I'm pointing this out, is to say I do understand where the Christian mindset comes from, and why Christians would choose to view media from a more restricted perspective. That said it has always been my observation; the more you try to forbid something from someone, the more that someone will want to experience what's forbidden. Kids especially have an insatiable curiosity towards the taboo. I also think kids are much smarter than adults give them credit for. As such, I believe sometimes that over-protective parents do more harm than good, out of misplaced zealousness. Now I'm not saying parents shouldn't filter their kids' media consumption. I'm just saying there comes a point where that gets to be a bit obsessive. Perhaps detrimentally so.
Anyway, back to philosophy and Pokemon.
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Oct 8, 2018 15:25:06 GMT -5
I was raised in the communist New England churches. My Bible School teacher brought her pet ferret everyday.
I'm still Christian. Play video games and listen to black metal. Woof.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 8, 2018 16:23:42 GMT -5
I like my metal, too, although I don't care for the bands with iffier lyrics. Love stuff like DragonForce and Within Temptation, though. I dunno, there's just something about the sound of a well-played electric guitar. (My Sunday School teacher happens to play electric guitar, actually, and does so at our church.) Oh, right, Pokeymans. I still boggle at how long it's been able to carry cultural relevance.
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