However, they also get a bad rap. They are violent, and they turn people into murderers. They make you stupid. They isolate you from the world. Books are always better than videogames in every way, shape, and form. Period.
I greatly respect evangelical preachers such as Al Mohler, Voddie Baucham, and Paul Washer, but if you took your opinion of videogames (and those who play them) exclusively from their preaching, you would have to think that only the most wicked, lazy, purposeless people in the world would come within 10 feet of an Xbox.* Certainly a Christian with a Ph.D. teaching at an evangelical Christian institution (like HLGU professor Dr. Jeff Brown) wouldn't play videogames with his family (like [gasp] Dr. Jeff Brown)!
So do videogames have any redeeming qualities whatsoever? Is there any benefit in playing them? Most importantly, what is the relationship between the Christian who desires the things of God with these newfangled contraptions? I hope to explore this in four blog posts. The first will look at the benefits of videogames as an entertainment medium. The second will look at it's limitations as media. The third will examine the most common objections to Christians playing videogames, and the fourth will look at what limits a Christian should impose upon himself or herself regarding games.
This series has been a long time coming. In fact, this series was hinted at in a post from November 18, 2013! A year and a half later, and I'm finally getting it out. Hopefully it will be of some use to you.
*A great example of this is today's (Fri, May 22, 2015) edition of The Briefing, a podcast program by Dr. Al Mohler.
Note: These blog posts were written over a long period of time. Some references to time are significantly out of date, so keep that in mind.
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