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The purpose of this essay is to address the concerns about gaming and how it has been associated with the occult and evil. This is also a personal journey because I find when things are put into writing I discover what my true feelings and thoughts about an issue are.

I will start with a little background about myself and how I got started into gaming. When I was in third grade the Dungeons and Dragons craze was beginning and my father being curious purchased the basic set with the red box. We played only once, my father was the DM and I was the player. I was a very imaginative child and had lots of fun. I can remember my first character was an elf with a bow and arrow. The game was exciting.

My father never had the interest to play again but I had so much fun that I wanted to learn how to play with my own friends. Only one problem, I could not read very well at the time. I could read only kids books at the third grade level. So I asked and pleaded with my mom to read the books to me. My mom began reading some of the rules to me, but as you can imagine it did not take her long to say,  "I’m not going to read this stuff to you." I was on my own.

So I struggled through reading it on my own with a dictionary at my side barely understanding what I was reading. I made it through with at least a vague understanding of how to be a DM and play the game. As a result on an aptitude test at school I tested   way ahead of my peers and skipped an entire grade of English finding myself in the advanced class. My parents approved of this. We knew it was because of gaming so I was never discouraged from continuing my hobby.

Gaming was how I met some of my close friends I still have today. When I was in Junior High I started a gaming club and that’s how I met one of my best friends Dave. Our group would get together now and then to play and we had lots of fun. Then one day my friend Dave announced that playing Dungeons and Dragons was evil and that because he was a Christian he was not going to play anymore. He even went on to say that he had destroyed all of his books and playing materials.

So we didn’t play anymore and the group kind of died out. It just wasn’t any fun to play with out Dave. We looked for other games like GURPS where you could Role-Play a Jungle adventure if you want and Middle Earth Role-playing because supposedly Tolkien was a Christian. We played some of these during college but not very often. Lately we have had lots of fun Playing Magic the Gathering.

 Good vs Evil

Gaming is my hobby but I do have some concerns. I do not believe that gaming in and of itself is evil or bad. In the world we live in a polarity is represented as good verses evil. Scott Jones said "In D&D and games of its kind there are no moral absolutes, nor are there any moral conclusions. Good does not have to triumph over evil in the end."

Looks like Mr. Jones is not up on the TSR, Inc. recent writer guidelines "Insofar as TSR products, marketing, and services portray the conflict between good and evil, such portrayals should encourage the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Though dramatic purposes may require that evil prevail over good for a time, the ultimate victory of good over evil is a desirable goal. Game products should assume that player characters or heros are good and should never support evil as a preferred lifestyle." Gaming like a lot of things is not itself good or bad, it’s how people choose to use it or perceive it that you could put a judgment down and say that result is bad or good.

I have had lots of good results from gaming. My ability to learn was increased along with meeting some life long friends. I will not deny that some people have had bad results though. Gary Gygax said: "when you start playing out a fantasy, it can really eat up time and capture you totally. Most people can handle it, but there are probably exceptions." And Dr. Douglas Brown said: "If a person isn't too well put together to begin with, it's not going to be good for him." The word is out that some people become so consumed with gaming they confuse their character with real life. I would say there is something wrong with this person and their sense of identity even before they got into gaming. Life needs balance and being obsessed about anything to the point that it effects other areas of your life is unhealthy. Being a parent I wouldn’t want my child to game, read, watch TV, play sports or anything so much that their schoolwork suffers. And the reason would be because of our values. You have to decide what your values are.

The Violence of Gaming

So I said I was concerned but what about. Very simply it’s the Imagery of Violence. Often in gaming players image themselves slashing and destroying hideous monsters. This imagery is not healthy because what ever we focus on in our minds does eventually become a part of our reality. Scenes of violence are everywhere and are a main part of human drama. We watch murder after murder on TV, in our movies and in our games. As humans we have decided that it is entertainment. So be it.

So it does bother me, but what am I going to do about it. Not go to anymore movies, quit gaming. I probably should not read anymore books as well. We, all of us have decided that the drama of violence is entertaining. I myself enjoyed the last James Bond movie where several murders took place. So I have decided to focus on the positive. Gaming and entertainment is what we make of it and we all have the ultimate choice of what is entertaining and what is not.

 The Positives

Gaming is a fun, imaginative and creative part of entertainment with lots of possibilities. I hope as humans we will one day decide that violence no longer is entertaining. Here are some possible gaming campaigns that could be fun:

Your band of adventures must enter a town and put an end to the violence that is happening in a large city. Once peace is restored it lasts for eternity.

You are explorers in space who operate under a Star Trek like Prime Directive. You may not effect the evolution of other life forms. You are there only to observe. Would you use your technology anyway to help an alien race that is dying out? Would you result to violence when an alien race unknowingly threatens the lives of your team when simply looking for food?

Would your group of adventures let a primitive race of aliens destroy themselves in their own war with out helping or showing them a better way? If you where going to interfere how would you go about it?

So you see gaming is what we make it and some campaigns might have the players imagining stopping violence instead of creating it. Games can also be a great use for educational means and encourages math and reading skills. It is also a fun social activity with friends. So go ahead, choose a Role-Playing setting your comfortable with, just keep it in perspective with the rest of your life and be aware of your values.

Game On!

May be reproduced with this notice and link included:
Ó 1998 Clayton Capra. http://www.rpg.net/mirkwood

Links of Interest:

Gaming and Eduacation Newsletter
http://www.rpg.net/realm/edu/edu.html

Christian Gamers Association
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/2964/

Concerns Christians Should Have About Dungeons & Dragons
"Researchers discovered that gamers as a group have fewer criminal tendencies than average, no psychological abnormalities, a slight increase in creativity"
http://www.spectre.com/dgray/satan/notsatanic1.htm

Opposing Viewpoints
http://www.execpc.com/~dlbrown/logos/