Andy Geers: "What is a 'Christian' video game?

Andy Geers is a Christian game developer based in London, working on a Bible adventure game.  I've asked him to join us here at Cross Platform.  I'll be reposting his most recent article below, and hopefully he can provide us with some more content in the future.  Welcome Andy, glad to have you aboard!

What is a "Christian" video game?
Andy Geers

From time to time I hear people asking "what exactly is a Christian computer game, anyway?" The logic goes like this: surely people are Christians - people who trust in the death of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. A computer game is... well... it just is. A computer game doesn't trust in anyone, and I'm pretty sure that a computer game doesn't have sins, even if it does involve stealing cars and beating up hookers.

Perhaps, then, a computer game is "Christian" if it's based on Christian content - perhaps a Bible trivia quiz or a memory verse game that gives you points for demonstrating your superior knowledge of the scriptures. The trouble with this is that it bears little resemblance to Christianity - no-one ever got saved by knowing their Bibles well, and there's no spiritual browny points for being able to recite the book of Jude from memory (although you might earn yourself a high five from me!) After all, the scribes and the Pharisees in Jesus' day knew their Old Testaments better than anyone, and all it did was make them puffed up with self-conceit and hardened their hearts against realising their desperate need for the forgiveness Jesus was offering. As James tells us, if Christianity were a competition to see who knew the most right answers, we'd all be left for dust by the demons.

Maybe, then, a Christian computer game is an evangelistic tool - a game that helps educate people about Christian things and challenges them to think about their lives and about matters of eternity. The Bible trivia quizes and their ilk tend to work on the premise that you already know the answers (either that or it's going to be a really depressing experience!), so they're not much good in this respect. I could imagine that many of the so-called "Christian" games out there see themselves in this light, and I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to assess whether they succeed or fail on this front. One of the big challenges in pulling this off is that people don't typically play games to be educated, they play games to relax and blow stuff up. There's a bit of work to be done to really make this approach succeed.

For my money, I'm not sure the label "Christian computer games" is very helpful at all, and I've done my best to avoid using it all together. The underlying conviction behind my Old Testament adventure game is that God works in his world through his word, the Bible. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit, it's sufficient for every good work, and the spiritual milk by which we grow up into mature adulthood. As God says in Isaiah 55:10-11:

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

And so, trusting that it's the teaching of God's word that changes people, my point & click adventure game, Ebenezer, is designed to explore the events of a short section of the Old Testament and tease out their significance, both in history and for today (in this case, I'm covering 1 Samuel 8-12, although if it's a success I hope to make lots more about other passages!) It's also designed to be a lot of fun in the process, and not to take itself too seriously (I take a lot of inspiration from Monkey Island on this front, as well as on many others!)

Ok, so...

Clearly it's been a while since I looked at the options available using Blogger's templates.  After some playing around, and some frantic web searching for CSS code, I think the site's got a pretty solid new look.  I've got some ideas for a few more changes/tweaks, and I'd love to get your feedback at each step along the way.  I also want to welcome Caleb as our newest contributor to Cross Platform!  Welcome, I'm looking forward to seeing what you bring to the site.

Gaming and the Great Commission

For those who aren’t aware, the “Great Commission” isn’t GameStop’s latest incentive for its employees. It’s what followers of Christ have been commanded to do. We can find it in Matthew 28:18-20:

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” (New International Version)

This all sounds well and good if you’re some kind of evangelist or a well-known Christian author. But what does it mean when you’re one of the guys making games, or even just the ones playing them? Do you gather your team to pray before you start the next round of Slayer? Most likely not.

While gaming in and of itself isn’t necessarily intended for spreading the Gospel, there are aspects of it that can work wonders (no pun intended). If we look at the Great Commission once more, we see that the first part of Jesus’ instruction is to “go and make disciples of all nations”. This has never been easier than it is today. Take a look at your friends list on your gaming console of choice. Odds are, you have people on there from different states, even different countries. My own friends list contains people from Germany and Belgium. The world-wide connectivity that gaming provides can definitely be used to help make disciples. While the conversation probably won’t start the first time you frag a guy, it’s a way to connect and build a relationship so that you will have opportunity to share your faith with him. Gaming can also bring people together offline. Most of us have had some friends over to play Rock Band or Wii Sports, and this is another great way to help establish relationship that can be used to introduce Jesus.

As for those making games, I wonder if they can’t help with another part of the Great Commission: “teaching them [followers of Christ] to obey everything I have commanded you”. Games teach things all the time. They teach us how to navigate the game world and what button does what for starters. As you get further in, though, many games teach gamers the history of their specific universe,what the political and social environment is, and more. Don’t believe me? Who are the Asari? What does a blue shell do? What is Drake’s Fortune? If games can teach us to memorize and understand these fictional elements, can’t they be used to help us learn the Word of God? I’m not talking about hitting “A” for the next memory verse. I’m talking about demonstrating Biblical truths that people can apply to their lives.

While it may not be immediately evident, gamers and gaming can do a lot for the Great Commission. We just have to go out and do it.

What are your thoughts? How can you further the Great Commission through gaming?

Refocusing

In the month since my last post, I started playing the new Splinter Cell, got more involved with the StarCraft II beta, gotten super close to Admiral in Star Trek Online, and played a bit of the Halo: Reach beta.  Pile on top of that involvement at church, family stuff, and the new-found discovery of Netflix on 360 (yes, I know I'm behind the curve here), and you can see that a lot of my free time has been taken up with a lot of stuff.  To which I am now adding iPhone development.

Building an App

Ever since the debut of the App Store and the iPhone SDK, I've been wanting to program an app or two for the platform.  I've got ideas coming out of my ears for all kinds of game stuff, and occasionally (especially as I think about it more) those ideas fit the iPhone/iPod Touch platform perfectly.  The thing that's been holding me back has been the lack of a Mac to develop on - which is one of the requirements of the iPhone SDK.  It's been a large stumbling block because there's only so far you can take in idea without attempting to find out what's practical, software-wise.  This problem has been overcome, as I recently purchased a Mac Mini for development purposes.  I'm down a couple of cables, so the setup on the thing is more jerry-rigged right now than anything else, but I should be able to get things cleaned up and running the way I want over the weekend.  And then it's on to the fun part of actually learning to code for this thing.  I'll try to keep you all apprised as to my progress.

Random Ramblings on Reach

The Reach beta opened up to every ODST disc owner on May 3rd.  Of course, being the huge Halo fan that I am, I jumped in right away.  For one match.  After a couple days I played another.  I've played a handful of matches since then, but I haven't really gotten to play it as much as I wanted or intended.  Here are some of the things that I love about it though: the DMR, the Armor Abilities, the armor customization, the maps, the Covenant grenade launcher thing, assassinations, classes, and Invasion.  Invasion is, I think, my absolute favorite part of the experience so far.  For the uninitiated, it's a team-based, objective-oriented multiplayer gametype that pits Spartans vs. Elites in a race to either steal some information, or protect it.  The match gets more involved as time goes on, unlocking more and more powerful weapons, classes, and vehicles.  It's pretty random as far as who plays as Elites and who plays as Spartans, but both roles are pretty fun.

Classes are another huge addition to the standard Halo multiplayer formula, and they are quite welcome.  It'll take some time to acclimate, but once a player gets a few matches under their belt, it feels pretty natural.  It forces the player to analyze the state of a given game as well, and determine what will serve them (and their team) best.  For instance, there's been a couple of times where the Elites have gotten to the data core on Boneyard (absolutely huge, awesome map) and, instead of going with my preferred class (usually DMR based), I'll choose the Operator class for the shotgun that comes with it.  Two matches have been saved because I sat in a corner with the shotgun and blew away Elites as they walked through the door.  The feeling was fantastic, but the freedom to choose my loadout is even better. 

Expanding and Improving

My initial goal with this blog was to force myself to write on a semi-regular basis, with my personal goal being at least once a month.  I've been successful so far this year in accomplishing that goal, but it's my desire to grow this blog into something more than just my ramblings on what games I've been playing and how they might relate to my faith as a Christian.  That last bit I'm afraid I've failed on pretty regularly, as I tend to spend more time analyzing the technical and design aspects of games instead of on the spiritual.  This is my public re-commitment to the goal of providing a Christian perspective for the hardcore gamer, emphasis on Christian.  But if we stick with just my voice around here, things will get pretty boring.  So I'm looking very seriously at expanding the number of contributors to the blog, hopefully filling out the ranks with some solid Christian thinkers in the video game industry.  I've got some ideas of my own on who that might be, but if you think you fit the bill, I'd love to hear from you and get to know you better.

Finally, on top of everything else, I will be looking into getting a professionally built website/template for this place.  The options that Blogger provides aren't bad, but anyone can use them.  I'm interested in having a more unique look and feel.  Hopefully I can talk to my favorite web designer and see if he can come up with some ideas and meld them with my own.  I'll keep you updated on that process as progress is made.

It might seem like I'm fragmenting myself further by taking on iPhone development, extra writers, and new projects, and it'd be hard to disagree with you on that.  But each of these things feeds into my over-riding goal and dream to make a difference as a Christian game developer, both in the industry and in the gamer community.  It is my hope that by refocusing here and in my personal life, this dream can become a reality, and Christ can have a greater impact in the world as a result. 

Religion and Games: What's the point?

Religion and games tend not to come together too often, except when the media makes a concerted effort to link the two.  Often this results in claims like, "Video games are evil!" or "Religious games suck!"  And these aren't just from the (often) vitriolic comments found at the bottom of the page, these are sometimes the main conclusion of the article in question!

So it was refreshing to read Kotaku's series of articles last week regarding religion in video games.  There was a bit of the standard, "Games and religion don't go together because..." but overall the articles had unique perspectives on how to two have co-existed to date, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.  Still, there seemed to be a distinct lack of personal investment in the subject.  As if the topic were decided upon, but folks didn't really want to dig too deep into it.  Understandable, given the contentious nature of the subject, but still a little disappointing.

If the point of the series were to get people thinking though, they certainly succeeded.  While many of the comments could be considered impolite at best, thoughtful discussions about the place of religion in games were also sparked.  Andy Geers, a Christian game developer based in London, compared playing God with original sin.  I can certainly see the comparison.  Maybe that's why the RTS genre is so popular?  (Also, check out this video - awesome!)

Also, take a look at this article by one of the guys at Soma (whom I've gotten to know a bit through their writings, and think are phenomenal).  This is essentially the same argument that Christian musicians have been making for a long time - that their Christian worldview is part of the music simply because of who they are.  The fact that video games are rule based by nature simply re-enforces this idea of creator influencing creation by osmosis as much as design.  Perhaps this thought process could be used in the development of Christian games?  Considering that Christ made his point quite often through parables without necessarily being "religious", it's not without precedent.

Ultimately, the question that any Christian game developer must ask themselves is, "What's the point?  Why should I combine my faith and video games?"  The answer could be as simple as, "This is what I love and who I am, how can the two not be intertwined?"  The next question is, "How can I make something good without sacrificing my values?"  A harder one to answer, but I think Andy and Soma are on the right track.

Evony: Threat or Menace?

Anyone who browses the web, especially any gaming sites, has likely been witness to ads for Evony - the supposedly free-to-play MMO that "makes you feel like a king!"  I've always found the ads highly distasteful and more than a little deceptive, but after reading an article over at Ars Technica about the game, I thought it'd be worth pointing out that the game is pretty controversial on more than just the ad level.  Go ahead and read up on it, it's interesting information.

Linked to gold farming, censorship and legal bullying, even ripping off other games' assets, Evony - or more accurately, the people and/or companies behind the game - seem like the scum of the video game industry.  I've taken issue with games over content before, and I'm not fond of some of the business practices that some developers employ, but I don't think I've ever seen a company or game that seems to misfire on so many levels.

I'm not writing this just for the sake of bashing the game, I just think it's good to know the whole story behind the game that everyone seems to love to hate.

And if anyone can guess the reference from the title of the post, you win a prize.

March Wrap-Up

Here I am, swooping in at the last second to uphold my "at least once a month" rule on posting.  Really, it should be more frequent than that, but I'll stick with my baby-steps approach for now.  Besides, it's been a busy month, and with no major releases, there hasn't been a single, significant gaming-related topic to discuss.  At least not for me.  Anyway, on with the show!

Mass Effect

For anyone following my Twitter, you'll know by now that I've completed my second playthrough of Mass Effect 2, this time with a renegade character.  Considering that I'm in love with the Mass Effect 1 character import feature, I couldn't simply create a new character and go from there.  No, I had to go back and play through the first game as a renegade character, then import that character into Mass Effect 2 and play through that once more. 

Typically I'm not a big fan of playing as the "evil" character, whatever the game may be - I'm playing the hero, after all.  My goal, no matter the game, is to perform some grand deed that saves the land/world/galaxy, or to eliminate the bad guy.  It may be cliche or archetypal, but I prefer my heroes to be good guys.  The kind of character that, minor character flaws and mistakes aside, one might look up to and admire.  Plus it just feels unnatural to me to be ruthless and cruel for the sake of being ruthless and cruel.  I tried to play as an evil guy in the first KOTOR and lasted all of 30 minutes before I wound up helping someone instead of shooting them.  Apparently I have to be very intentional when I'm trying to be evil.

The Mass Effect series approaches morality a little differently than most games, however.  Instead of good/evil you have paragon/renegade.  While this might seem to be just different labels on the same concepts, the way the story is written and choices made, it's a bit more than that.  Paragon essentially means that you are aware of the perception of others, striving to be as "good" as possible, recognizing that you're in the spotlight and need to be a good example for others.  Yes, it means going out of your way to save the kitty stuck in the tree, but it also means being kind to the reporter who's trying to distort the truth of what happened, rather than punch her out.  Renegades are not quite so pigeonholed - after all, Shepard is still trying to save the galaxy from the Reapers, not conquer it for himself.  But a renegade character is much more direct about it.  To quote Tony Stark, "There's the next mission and nothing else."  A renegade Shepard is brusque with people (totally knocking out that reporter I mentioned) and totally focused on the goal of defeating the enemy.  I wouldn't say a renegade is always uncaring (though sometimes, yeah), there is just no time for side quests.  On more than one occasion my renegade character said something along the lines of, "I'm sorry, I can't help you, I just don't have the time."  I would say this characterizes the renegade more than anything else.  Though there are bouts of cruelty and viciousness, the renegade is simply terribly focused.  The difference from the standard good/evil morality mechanic is fascinating.


Rise of the Argonauts

This is one of those games that I'd kept my eye on for a while, intrigued by the premise, but never found the time to pick it up before now.  With a little extra money, I went to glyde.com (seems to be an excellent idea, with great customer service) and found it for cheap, in great condition.  Popping it in after beating Mass Effect 2 may not have been the best way to judge the game, considering that Bioware is at the top of their game while Liquid Entertainment has only a handful of titles to their name.  There are several things about Argonauts that seem glaringly unpolished in comparison, from the menu layout to the battle system to the cutscenes.  In a vacuum, the design decisions could be perfectly fine, and I do find the story to be intriguing so far.  But the game doesn't exist in a vacuum, which is probably why the game struggles to break 50 on Metacritic.

StarCraft II Beta

I've been a fan of real time strategy games for a very long time.  Never terribly good at them, but I like them anyway.  So I was really excited when a friend gave me his buddy key for the beta for StarCraft II.  StarCraft was always one of the coolest RTS games around, if only for the unique and original fiction the universe contained.  Being set in the far-flung future with robots and such didn't hurt either.  And of course, being a Blizzard product, the game is polished to a high sheen and pretty solidly balanced.  I've played half a dozen matches of the beta now and I can confidently say that StarCraft II blows the first one completely out of the water in every respect.

The visual upgrade will be the first thing everyone notices, and it is major.  Of course, moving from sprites to polygons after more than a decade is to be expected, but the visuals pop with an energy and freshness that seem to be absent from some of the more recent RTS games.  Maybe it's just because I'm a fanboy, maybe not.  Either way, it's clear the folks at Blizzard are as obsessed as ever with attention to detail in textures and animation.  Screenshots can give you an idea of this, but you really need to see it in motion to truly appreciate it.  I'm really, really looking forward to the full release of this game.

Odds and Ends

Because I've been spending all my time with the Mass Effect games, StarCraft II, and Rise of the Argonauts, I haven't had much time for Star Trek Online over the past few weeks.  Now that I'm past ME2 again, I should have some more time with it.  I'm looking forward to becoming an Admiral there soon, and getting the Sovereign class ship upgrade that goes with it.  And they did just release the "Season One" content, so that'll be another thing to look forward to.

Also, there was a demo released for the new Splinter Cell Conviction a week or two back.  Fantastic game.  And this is coming from a guy who sucks terribly at stealth games.  Conviction's been switched up enough that, for the purists you can still go completely stealth, but for those of us who tend towards the action side of gaming, there's a way to play through the game that way as well.  I'm curious to see if there are any consequences to your choice of playstyle, or if it'll simply be one of those "play however you like it" kind of games.  Either way, I'm sold on the game far more than I was before.

Finally, I'm going through the SG1 series again and really wishing that someone would take the idea and turn it over to a developer that doesn't go bankrupt within months.  Oh, and a quality game would also be nice.