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Question Title Posted By Question Date
question about game Linda Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Question:

Hi Brother;

Awhile back you answered a question about the online game "Runescape". I have a question about another game. It's called "Fate" which immediately makes me wary of it.

A good Catholic friend of my 13yrs old son plays the game and says that the magic in the game is minimized and you can get around it. My son doesn't think so just from reading some of the rules of the game and wants to explain it to him.

I was wondering if you could give him some points to share with his friend about the game.

This is what the game Fate is about: "Fate is a fantasy action role-playing game similar to Diablo and Diablo II. This type of game is also known as a "dungeon crawler," where the player takes his/her character through progressively difficult levels of a dungeon, fighting monsters, completing quests, collecting valuable items and gold, and improving the character's attributes and skills along the way. "

Here are a few of the troubling aspects of the game:

"If at any point in the game the character dies (Health Points driven down to zero) the death is not permanent. The personification of Fate appears, who resembles the Grim Reaper. Fate offers the player three choices: first, the character can be brought back to life at the spot where they fell, in exchange for a portion of their Experience Points and Fame Points. Second, they can be brought back to life and transported to a nearby level (one or two levels up or down) in exchange for a portion of the character's gold. This new place may be safer or more dangerous than the one where the character died. Third, the character can be brought back to life and transported three levels up in exchange for all the gold in their possession. "

" Increasing the four attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Magic) allow the character to wield stronger weapons, armor and magical spells, while Skills denote proficiency at certain things ("Sword Skill," "Charm Magic Skill," "Critical Hit Skill" etc.--there are a total of 15 different Skills."

"In addition to the various vendors and quest-givers in the town, there is also a Healer, who will bring the character's Health Points up to full capacity free of charge, and an Enchanter who, for a fee, will try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to add an enchantment or a socket to an item of the player's choosing. However, once in a while he will accidentally delete all of the item's enchantments or even put a curse on the item, reducing its usefulness."



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

I am not familiar with the game you mentioned so I cannot speak directly to it, but I can speak generally about role-play games.

Fantasy games can be a problem because of the strong dynamics of role play on the mind. There is a very good article that has a section about role-play. The article itself is about how Pokémon and Magic Cards effect children, but the section about Role-Play applies here. I have excerpted the section below:

The televised Pokémon show brings suggestions and images that set the stage for the next steps of entanglement. It beckons the young spectator to enter the manipulative realm of role-play, where fantasy simulates reality, and the buyer becomes a slave to their programmer.

Remember, in the realm of popular role-playing games - whether it's Pokémon, Magic the Gathering, or other selections -- the child becomes the master. As in contemporary witchcraft, he or she wields the power. Their arm, mind, or power-symbol (the Pokémon or other action figure) become the channel for the spiritual forces. Children from Christian homes may have learned to say, "Thy will be done," but in the role-playing world, this prayer is twisted into "My will be done!" God, parents, and pastors no longer fit into the picture fantasized by the child.

Psychologists have warned that role-playing can cause the participant to actually experience, emotionally, the role being played. Again, "the child becomes the master." Or so it seems to the player.

Actually, the programmer who writes the rules is the master. And when the game includes occultism and violence, the child-hero is trained to use "his" or "her" spiritual power to kill, poison, evolve, and destroy -- over and over. Not only does this repetitive practice blur the line between reality and fantasy, it also sears the conscience and causes the player to devalue life. The child learns to accept unthinkable behavior as "normal" .

To be a winner within this system, the committed player must know and follow the rules of the game. Obedience becomes a reflex, strengthened by instant rewards or positive reinforcement. The rules and rewards force the child to develop new habits and patterned responses to certain stimuli. Day after day, this powerful psychological process manipulates the child's thoughts, feelings, and actions, until his or her personality changes and, as many parents confirm, interest in ordinary family life begins to wither away.

You may have recognized those preceding terms as those often used by behavioral psychologists. They point to a sophisticated system of operant conditioning or behavior modification. The child must exercise his own intelligent mind to learn the complex rules. But after learning the rules, the programmed stimuli produce conditioned responses in the player. These responses become increasingly automatic, a reflex action. Naturally, this can leads to psychological addiction, a craving for ever greater (and more expensive) thrills and darker forces.

While this article speaks of the effects of role play upon children the very same dynamics threaten the adult mind too.

Rather than indulgence into questionable role-play games or any other less than excellent thoughts, we need to remember and to consider the advice of St. Paul who said in Philippians 4:8...

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.


Another primary principle of Scripture, by the way, is the warning of St. Paul in 1 Cor 6:12: "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything."

And in 1 Cor 10:23: "All things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up.

In addition, St. Paul tells us that we are not only to avoid evil itself, but to avoid even the appearance of evil: 1 Thess 5:22  "Abstain from every appearance of evil."

The use of magic, spells, the worldview of magic powers and the like is the appearance of evil.

As Christians we need to evaluate what we do and what activities we perform not only on the level of whether or not the issue is sin, or whether or not it is particularly bad for us, but also on whether or not the issue is helpful to us to build us up in the faith and in our Christian witness.

Role play games are particularly problematic because of the psychological power they impart. This psychological dynamic is why role play is done in psychotherapy. It helps to reshape the personality or to correct the behavioral pathology.

Role play is done by law enforcement and soldiers because when done often enough, such as practicing what to do in a fire-fight, when the real thing happens their training will kick in automatically.

A concert pianist "role plays" (practices) for 1000s of hour before a concert. Thus, when the time comes to perform his fingers are on automatic pilot on the keyboard.

I use role-play techniques in deliverance counseling and in training deliverance counselors. It is also an important tool especially in what is called cognitive therapy which focuses on correcting thinking errors.

When used properly role play or other techniques with a similar principle are valuable. But when this technique is used in a game or any other setting that involves improper philosophies and notions, one risks having their thinking contaminated unconsciously without really knowing it. Role play in this context can be a form of brainwashing.

I think there are some actual "Christian" role play games, and I presume some benign games that one can play. It is prudent to avoid those games with worldviews in conflict with our Faith.

While movies are less intense in the psychological power that role play has, similar principles may be applied. Given these principles of St. Paul we would also have to say, for example, that the Harry Potter movies and books should also be avoided by Christians.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary


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