Fantasy and Reality

E

ExS

New Member
Hi all - i'm a new member here, as you can probably tell. I came to this message board through the CCGR website, where I was reading some of the reviews.

Now, I am a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series - one of the things they promote most of all is love, which I believe is central to a Christian's life. I take the verse "God is love" very seriously, and anything that supports love in its pure form (not lust, or any other sexual connetation) is generally good.

However, while reading the 'appropiateness' section, for every single FF game, the reviewer slammed the game for its inclusion of 'magic'.

Now, in the sense of the occult, magic is, of course forbidden - something every Christian should avoid. However, fantasy writers have been using magic for centuries as a way to do things that would be otherwise impossible. Such flights of fancy are in no way evil - God created us with an imagination.

If Final Fantasy required you to do an incantation, or something along those lines, I would understand the hesitation - but mostly all it includes is waving a staff of somekind around. Even the most impressionable child playing the game could cause no harm by playing their favourite characters - except perhaps some cracked heads, if the staff goes awry ;)

Basically, I believe that the games should not be condemned because of a gameplay mechanic. The game itself promotes friendship, morality, courage, and above all, love - something that all Christians can learn from. I even attribute Final Fantasy VII, which helped lead me on my path to Christianity, because of the morals and lifestyle it promoted.

The reason I decided to create this thread is because I have many Christian friends who play and enjoy the Final Fantasy series, as well as those who enjoy Zelda (which employs similar gameplay mechanics), all of them who have never found any reason to condemn the games for their content. I am interested to see if there is any actual reason for this belief, or if it is merely the name 'magic' that has set off warning bells.

As and end-note, i'd like to mention that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, two great Christian fantasy writers, both used magic extensively - and these men were both wise and great in their faith. I believe Christians need to differentiate between fantasy and reality.
 
heh, you sound like you feel guilty for some reason. I play video games to out wit the enemy, slaughter the enemy, and have fun. I don't think everything you do in life nescessarily has a life lesson to be learned. There will be people that disagree with me, but I don't think that the columbine kids learned violence from thier doom games. I draw the line like anyone else when a game has nudity, sexual content, or course language. That garbage can simply be a stumbling block, but as far as playing a game, and picking up witch craft from it because it has "magic"; I don't think its likely. At the same time, I don't think love can be learned from a video game either. Honestly I just play them because thier fun, no other reason.
 
I mention things in reviews even if they don't bother me. Regarding magic, I presonally prefer warrior types but I don't mind useful magic like unlocking spells etc. I don't like summoning magic. I do tend to praise games that don't force or hinder your character if you do not use the magic. Those are my thoughts, it's a call each Christian gamer has to make on their own. I personally did not review the FF games.
 
Actually, my post wasn't intended as to feel guilty - I was just curious as to the viewpoints of other Christian gamers around the world. I just had never heard anyone who had a problem with magic in games before, and I was intriuged.

At the same time, I find it interesting that Master~Plan has no problem with 'magic' in games, yet draws the line at nudity, when one of the Lord's prophets preached naked for years.
 
Reviews are to show a person's opinion. Look at Harry Potter, many people think it's wrong, but that's their opinion. Do not feel guilty by playing it.
 
One thing regarding the 'appropriate' section in the CCGR reviews is they are not just the reviewer's feelings. They are a way for the reviewer to mention potential issues a Christian may have when playing the game. Many Christians do not want to play games with any form of magic. Some may not want lots of bad language. Who knows, maybe some are offended by skeletons. When I review, I try to point out what are possible areas a Christian may be offended. It does not necessarily reflect my own feelings. My intention for the 'appropriate' section is to simply inform.

Like CCGR, I tend to stay away from most magic use. Given the choice, I will tend to choose warriors/fighters. In some games, you can't help but have a wizard/magician, and if so, I will just be choosy about which spells I use.
 
I never heard that..O.o the only thing about anybody being naked I've read in the Bible was David dancing so much his clothes fell off..heh.
 
If your worried about magic n crap thats not the major consern in Final Fantasy,

Almost every major summon is mentioned in the bible as som sort of bad guy, Bahamuth (not behemoth) the dragon, cant remember + cant remember, Shiva is the Devil in Indian religion, Efreeit is a major bad guy in Turkish folelore, Leviathan, a symbol of the pharao in ancient egypt, god says he's gonna pull him up from the nile for not listening to him, but then again he also sayis in Jobs book, "and who deares to put a hook in the mighty leviathan with his fiery breath" and the list goes on, and how you summon the Gods of other religions, etc. etc.

But, the question really is how much weight do you wanna put in this, I could really accuse someone of beeing a buddist if they refuse to kill a fly on the wall... I love playing a sorceror in the dungeon and dragons world, to many christion just the mentiong of d&d is a mere sin in it self, and never the less using magic
wow.gif
kind a makes me maaaad
mad.gif
ph47 smily... so the bottom line is : Do you embrace the belive of magic, will you start incarnating riutals on your living room floor, or do you simply stop to care when you turn of your console ?

B.T.W. according to the Pope Harry Potter is the Devil! or he's a mockery of Jesus, because he creates "miracles" without the allmighty... now whos the screwball? maybe I should invite him to my rp groop... show him a real devil...
 
A few months ago... I went to EB... bought some games after trading in about 200 dollars worth of stuff.

After picking up a few cool games like Metroid Prime and F-Zero GX, I had some store credit left, and the clerk said I should try Eternal Darkness... I was drunk with excitement from all the new games so I agreed.

That game uses incantations, and forces you to create new spells by reading spellbooks and putting magic symbols together.

I kid you not, after playing that game for three days I felt such a large evil precense in my house that I had to trade it back in. Evil precense was gone the moment the game was out of my house.

So I think games can definately affect the player for good or evil.
 
Hmmm... It's kind of the feeling I got when I realised what I was doing when I played an Necromancer in D&D, but still.. I just quit the char, and no scars or feelings towards it... but your right.. there is something tempting.. but still I don't think I would had a problen ignoring it
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I believe Christians need to differentiate between fantasy and reality.
Click to expand...

Donuts = reality
Everything else = fantasy

But seriously.. please check my site for something i wrote about christians playing CS which can be adapted to your questions on magic in games and whether christians should play games.
 
lol didt feel like reading entire thing so forgive me if ive missed something. in my reviews that i did, magic in the games is complex in the ways its used, i try and stay neutral with it since it does not bother me (except like morrowind or other games that are extremely heavy in magic) yet some people do so i give a fair warning to them. and the thing bout love, there are 4 different kinds of love and i cant recall all of them since im sick, but the ones there are, are: Infinite love (the kind of love God is), brotherly love, friend love and some other one i think.
 
I'v read your paper on cs gaming for † but the one thig you don't do in cs that you do in f.eks. Ultima is sacrifice blood to summon guardian of past time. You don't draw your powers from some other God, you don't Praise another God in Cs.

You don't go like:
"I draw my awp p0w4h from the spell pool of _divine entity"
But in Forgotten realms games you go like " PELOR(read some God) GUDIE MY BLADE ! " or something, thats quite a difference. And in D&D you draw power from something refered as the Serpent if your an arcane spellcaster
(read mage)
So the question in mind is not wheter its unethical as in cs, To kill or Not to kill, in Nevewinter nights, Dark age of Camelot its more I accsept theese spirutal powers that come from where now?... to summon or not to summon, I mean you can even attain ranks as Warlocks.

Then should you accsept to play a warlock, wich means satanist where I come from atleast, or should you stay away from it and accept so many others use it? I don't think there is a right or wrong here, its more of a "follow your conciense".
 
Aretak, Tier, Chatur'gha, 5-point Circle of Pargon This is how you summon a Zombie!
I just summoned a few zombies. This game has the ambiance of evil, and it toys with you at every moment of the game, when you are not being killed, you are being driven to insanity, seeing more and more as you plunge deeper and deeper into dispair, with only your magic to help you! magic rules!
 
1. what game is that?
2. why would you wanna summon a zombie?
3. use harcore lightening, fireballs or anything else to blast that foul beeing out of place
4. if your gonna summon someting summon a dragon
5. use bhaal fire its good for your soul
6. why not summon a balor I heard theyr just miss understood
 
1. no clue
2. good point
3. either that or final fantasy tactics priest attack magic Holy.
4. good point
5. bhaal?
5. balor?
 
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