What is the J.W. position on video games? (page 2)

WuzLovesDubs

Electronic games?

WTF are those?? What idiots. Its like talking to people who just found out there are cell phones...oh my bad... cellular telephones.

crownboy

Generally my parents were OK with non violent games like sports games, etc. Games that explicitly had shooting, or killing were not really acceptable.

teel

Games that explicitly had shooting, or killing were not really acceptable.

Add into that spiritism, and basically all you're left with is sports games (and even they could be bad! Anyone remembers Carmageddon?) Spiritism is really widely defined as anything that can't be done in real life - and almost every video game has such component. Some form of magic is almost always present. Video games are made on purpose to be different from our life, and that purpose is not to have us practicing spiritism.

Outlander, your experience is perfectly in line with JW reactions. I was counseled against playing video games in general, and the elders talk about them as filth. They quoted incessantly that "Jehovah hates those who love violence". You are perfectly right, they can't wrap their head around the idea, that someone can play for example a shooter, but in real life he wouldn't kill a fly.

The elders told me: "Do you think if you fall into water, you could really come out of it dry? In the same way, do you think that you can act out violence in games and don't have them affect you?" They also loved to quote cases where some kid with psychological problems killed someone and said he learned it from video games.

Edit: I just re-read the tripe from the YPA article. It says:

What moral lessons is this game teaching me?

Well... here's the thing. The vast majority of the games focus on good winning over bad, to not give up no matter howbad things get, just keep walking the right road, even if the whole world is against you. I don't feel that any game has the message, that killing is ok, it's just a game mechanic.

Caedes

I remember that chess was frowned upon because it was a 'war' game and cards were discouraged because they were used for gambling.

As ever though it depends on how crazy a particular witness is, some would be relatively liberal and some would see all computer games as evil.

Personally, I would imagine most JWs would publicly say certificate 18 games are not suitable, even if they play such games in private.

So no GTA or Left for Dead.

Interesting that the quoted article was saying that not all computer games are bad, obviously too many people in the writing dept like a quick game of minesweeper.

Think About It

You think their controlling actions in your Living Room were weird.......wait till you let them into your Bed Room.

Think About It

nugget

If the game contains magic then bad because it is demonic

If the game has battles and fighting then bad because it encourages violence

If the game is to do with racing or sports then bad because it encourages a competitive spirit

If the game has none of those elements then bad because you should be using the time for study and service.

No video game is good all bad. I've just discovered games on facebook and they are addictive. I'm am now doing camelot and got destroyed yesterday because I mistakenly attacked a player with twice my strength. I was tired and hadn't had my tea so misplaced a decimal point. It felt good to be at war and noone really died. Sorry to all my facebook friends who get gift requests and who I made knights even though I suspected they weren't really interested.

The trouble with JWs is that their world is totally restricted and this means they have a distorted viewpoint.

keyser soze

Write the name of an electronic game that you know would not be good for you to play.

Are they speaking to a 6-year-old?

rockmehardplace

tell a jw that they cannot play Madden football or MLB baseball on their PS3 or xbox. good luck with that arguement. most jws that are computer and sports literate play those two all the time.

ColdRedRain

Damn. They don't even put the "fun" in fundamentalism anymore.

WTWizard

I can remember when I was going into the cancer. They had articles in the rags about this same issue. The summary was "There is nothing wrong with video games in of themselves. (Get the puke buckets ready) But, our time is for field circus." I believe that rag was dated around 1983, when the video arcades were the hip place to be. They also had their arguments of violent video games (Defender, Missile Command, and those shoot-out type games where you shoot at other airplanes). Also, many arcades had their share of players swearing, smoking, drinking, and gambling. What they omit is that there are arcades where foul language and smoking are banned, and those rules are enforced.

However, the scumbag that I studied with did not make me get rid of Centipede. That was my favorite game, and it was viewed as acceptable (assuming you don't let it get in the way of field circus). Also, I believe he would have changed that viewpoint because (1) I was going into the cancer at that time and may have blown out totally had I had to get rid of that game, and (2) field circus is "even more so important now than it was in the 1980s". He never saw any of the games I had for my Commodore 64, though--they were on floppies that were not properly labelled. I am sure he would have had something to say about at least some of them, though.

These days, it is more complicated. You don't have the "bad associations" of the video arcades where people swear at their games and bang on them. You only have swearing in the game itself, sex, drug use, and more graphic violence. You also have online games (viruses and all), where you can play against real people. However, there is nothing actually any more wrong with playing a shooting-out type game online now than playing Tanks at your video arcade during the 1970s and early 1980s. And, I challenge anyone to prove that having your character taking drugs actually ruins your brain and your liver--even on screen, taking drugs on the game does not permanently damage the character.

Still, playing any video games does take time away from field circus. Whether it's a game like 50 Cent's Bulletproof (I didn't like it because it is too hard to see what in hell you are supposed to be shooting at) or Pong, a minute on your Nintendo or PS3 is a minute you are not out in field circus. This goes for games like Pokemon that you can take out--you are not "dignified" for field circus if you bring out your Nintendo DS or GameBoy.

What is the J.W. position on video games?

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