–– David de Bruyn
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Amidst much economic downturn, one industry that is thriving in South Africa is gaming and e-sports. The Price-Waterhouse-Cooper Africa Entertainment and Media Outlook reported that South Africa’s gaming and e-sports increased its revenue by 30% in 2022, and leads both Kenyan and Nigerian markets. Although power cuts, slow rollout of 5G, and poor quality networks have hampered growth, Africa’s mobile-first landscape has allowed for quicker adoption of digital currencies. E-sports and gaming often use digital currencies for betting and in-game purchases.
Worldwide, the gaming industry makes more money than the film and music industries combined. In 2021, the gaming world brought in over $180 billion. Companies such as Facebook and Google have invested billions of dollars into Virtual Reality, which is certain to become a major part of gaming in the next 5-10 years.
Although using games for harmless diversion and amusement may be a lawful use of leisure for Christians, there are some real spiritual dangers associated with gaming.
The first danger is immaturity. Dr. Leonard Sax, in his book Boys Adrift, states,
“The proportion of young men (age eighteen to thirty-five) living at home with parents or relatives has surged over the [last] thirty years… Young women and young men are now following different life scripts. Young women are getting jobs, establishing themselves in the workplace, then (in many cases) thinking about having children. But a growing number of young men are just not on the same page.”
Instead, many young men are shunning adult responsibilities, including financial independence, a career path, marriage and family–although not shunning sexual intimacy–and doing all this for the pursuit of gaming. A juvenile infatuation with fun and selfish pursuits by men in their twenties and thirties is no longer frowned upon.
The second danger associated with gaming is substitute reality. Stories and fantasy are helpful to the degree that they return us to the real world; improved, shaped, and more rightly viewing reality. To the degree that stories (whether in books, films, or games) simply show us the world-as-we’d-prefer-it, or some non-existent heroic form of ourselves, it is an exercise in flattery and self-deception. A near addiction to gaming allows an immature person to wallow in substitute reality and responsibility: pretending one is an adventurer, a hero, or a conqueror, while in reality, the person lacks self-discipline, work ethic, sacrifice, and service.
A third danger of gaming is a bad stewardship of time. Due to their computerized complexity, today’s video games often require days to master and weeks to beat. A game that costs only $20 or R400 to purchase may actually cost hundreds of hours in time. Time invested in such pursuits is forever lost and cannot be reused for things that matter. Hours that could be spent working, praying, reading, serving, fellowshipping, evangelizing, or just thinking are instead spent on activities that have no lasting value. God’s Word teaches us that time is precious (Psalm 90:12; cf. 39:4-5). Using time wisely is an issue of good stewardship.
A fourth spiritual danger of gaming is impurity. Games that glorify violence, denigrate the value of human life, promote greed, reward deceit, contain profanity, or flirt with sexual immorality should be avoided by believers (Proverbs 6:17; Ephesians 5:3). Our entertainment must honour the Lord and reflect His character. Our amusements should not reinforce values that are diametrically opposed to how we ought to think (Philippians 4:8) and what we are to do (Mark 12:30-31; 1 Corinthians 10:31).
While playing the occasional game is harmless, a near-devotion to gaming can warp a Christian’s view of reality. At the very least, it can dull him to the realities that are pressing on us: Heaven, Hell, the Gospel, prayer, and our needy neighbours. At worst, it can immerse him in substitute reality, keep him immature, defile his mind and render him far less useful to Christ. Christians should be discerning and wise in how much they involve themselves or their children in the world of gaming.
It would seem these 4 dangers apply to the movie and TV industry as well.
262h24m For entire NHL Season
24h53m to read LOTR
68h20m to watch every Marvel Movie
78h39m to watch every episode of Friends
20h00m to build a 1000 piece puzzel
75h00m to read the Bible
Average video game story
34h54m to beat main story.
Chess tournaments can last up to 6 hours or more at a single time.
Let’s not even begin with how long it would take you to allow your children to play competitive sports, the driving to and from practice, the watching them play, the time and money spent shopping for new equipment and paying club fees.
If videogames = bad, then everything = bad.
This blanket “warning” about video games is silly.
Simply saying we should “be discerning and wise” without saying how one would go about doing so in comparison to other vices isn’t very helpful.
This article comes off as written by someone who doesn’t play videos games.
Duan, you effort to show warnings against video games are “silly” actually made our point stronger. Thank you. The author of “Amusing Ourselves to Death” wrote a whole book about this. Giving 75 hours to read the whole Bible will make a Christian mature, strong and deep. Giving that same amount of time to watching every episode of Friends or defeating each level of Grand Theft Auto will make that same Christian immature, shallow and insecure.
“Duan, you effort to show warnings against video games are “silly” actually made our point stronger. Thank you. The author of “Amusing Ourselves to Death” wrote a whole book about this. Giving 75 hours to read the whole Bible will make a Christian mature, strong and deep. Giving that same amount of time to watching every episode of Friends or defeating each level of Grand Theft Auto will make that same Christian immature, shallow and insecure.”
Not the point I was making. The point I was making is that every single form of leisure activity takes time. Whether it’s reading a book, watching your kids play sport, etc, etc.
“Spending 75 hours on anything else besides reading the Bible will make a Christian immature, shallow and insecure” – No not really. One can spend time on both reading the Bible and enjoying different mediums of art without becoming immature, shallow and insecure.
Again:
“Simply saying we should “be discerning and wise” without saying how one would go about doing so in comparison to other vices isn’t very helpful.”
Please address the above.
Other games exist outside of Grand Theft Auto just like other books exist outside of The Pilgrim’s Progress, just like other genres of music exist outside of Hymns and Psalms.
Could we be given a comprehensive list of every single piece of art and media that is deemed to be acceptable and not acceptable?
Would this warning against “a near-devotion to gaming” apply to individuals who play games competitavely, much like a rugby player or a olympic athelete? What about all the Christians who work in video game development?
“While playing the occasional game is harmless” – What is considered to be occasional? 10 minutes? 1 hour? 3 hours? Compared to the average Football game that can last up to 3 hours, we should see nothing wrong with someone watching 3 hours of football or playing 3 hours of games right? (As long as the games played is pre-approved)
Who gets to be the arbiter of which forms of art Christians are allowed to enjoy and which not?
I am curious how many Christian gamers were consulted before publishing this article…
I am also curious, which is the last video game you personally played Paul and how long did you play it for?
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