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Video game advice?

F

FormerGodHater

Member
I have an insanely creative 11-year-old son, the type who can spend hours building elaborate Lego creations, or whose imagination runs wild by writing his own stories or comics, even making videos, after reading books like The Hobbit and also the Lord Of The Rings and Chronicles Of Narnia series. I have to admit that my heart is always praying that God will use this creativity for good in his life and that these series won't do any harm, and I think all is well (so far!).

Which brings me to video games. We are a family that enjoys our gadgets, I must admit, but we've always set limits on their screen time and carefully screened what they play. Naturally, my son loves games that allow him to create and that have strategy.

His current favorite is Clash Of Clans. However, he is now fascinated by this game called Spore. I've read up on it but don't like the evolutionary premise. He also desperately wants some sort of Pokemon game, but perhaps my inability to understand that whole phenom has me hesitant.

For those of you with a son like mine, what other creative strategy games can you recommend that won't damage his Christian character? Thanks.
 
The key is that you remain communicatively and productively engaged with him so that you can fulfill your responsibility of helping him see and understand these games in relationship to God and His world and wishes...... WITHOUT preaching at him.
 
My grandson who is 9 has been playing Pokemon for a couple of years. I haven't noticed anything bad about it. His mom plays with him sometimes.

He's also a lego man and builds all kinds of things with moving parts, catapults, vehicles at shoot rockets, and such.
He has a Wii game called Crazy Machines, that he really likes, you build things that do things. The crazy inventor is like Dr. Brain, if you remember those early PC puzzle games.

You might check out this site. They carry Crazy Machines and others.
www.thinksmartgames.com
 
FormerGodHater said:
I have an insanely creative 11-year-old son, the type who can spend hours building elaborate Lego creations, or whose imagination runs wild by writing his own stories or comics, even making videos, after reading books like The Hobbit and also the Lord Of The Rings and Chronicles Of Narnia series. I have to admit that my heart is always praying that God will use this creativity for good in his life and that these series won't do any harm, and I think all is well (so far!).

Which brings me to video games. We are a family that enjoys our gadgets, I must admit, but we've always set limits on their screen time and carefully screened what they play. Naturally, my son loves games that allow him to create and that have strategy.

His current favorite is Clash Of Clans. However, he is now fascinated by this game called Spore. I've read up on it but don't like the evolutionary premise. He also desperately wants some sort of Pokemon game, but perhaps my inability to understand that whole phenom has me hesitant.

For those of you with a son like mine, what other creative strategy games can you recommend that won't damage his Christian character? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Spore is not a healthy game for a Christian adult or child to be playing
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/196847/spore-is-an-attack-on-christian-values/
Pokemon is really bad
http://carm.org/more-stuff/features/pokemon-what-it
You can ask yourself:
1.Does this video game glorify God?
2.Does it pass the test of Philippians 4:8?Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
 
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7) Do not post opinions of another member's claim of Christian faith. (ToS 2.4)
Publicly judging someone as not being a Christian and/or not following Christ unless they themselves claim not be a Christian is disallowed. That's between them and the Lord. This includes judgments against collective beliefs or groups in general reba
 
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Lexy just read the article on Carm. She says she has watched every movies and every episode of every season and has never seen some of the things they say on there. Such as consuming people's dreams and breaking bones. There are good humans and bad humans that all use the same Pokemon to do battle.
The creatures do evolve. Ivy gets taller, gets more leaves on her, and when she grown she has many leaves and flowers. Pikachu gets bigger, and changes color. Oh and then there's the dragon, as he gets older he gets bigger, changes color to brown, and eventually grows his wings. Sounds like little frogs changing from tadpoles to eventually growing legs and developing lungs.
This is what they call teaching evolution maybe, it's the only thing Lexy could think of that is even remotely evolving.
The poison is from plant creatures, a powder they throw, nothing deadly. Nothing dies. No bleeding wounds, etc. They can teleport, they can shoot lightening bolts, etc.
Basically the Pokemon are weapons and also the warriors. The people are their trainers, they are all anime art characters.
There is nothing like poison apples and magic mirrors like Snow White. No magic spells or incantations. I'll have to check out Ghost, is he worse than Scooby Doo ghosts and monsters, don't know.
Jake's game is Poke Park, no trainers just little creatures that do battles, hide from each other and use their power to do combat, they loose energy as they battle, whoever runs out first loses.
But I am going to watch one of the movies to see what the attitude is of the quote "good guys", we will see.
 
Deborah13 said:
Lexy just read the article on Carm. She says she has watched every movies and every episode of every season and has never seen some of the things they say on there. Such as consuming people's dreams and breaking bones. There are good humans and bad humans that all use the same Pokemon to do battle.
The creatures do evolve. Ivy gets taller, gets more leaves on her, and when she grown she has many leaves and flowers. Pikachu gets bigger, and changes color. Oh and then there's the dragon, as he gets older he gets bigger, changes color to brown, and eventually grows his wings. Sounds like little frogs changing from tadpoles to eventually growing legs and developing lungs.
This is what they call teaching evolution maybe, it's the only thing Lexy could think of that is even remotely evolving.
The poison is from plant creatures, a powder they throw, nothing deadly. Nothing dies. No bleeding wounds, etc. They can teleport, they can shoot lightening bolts, etc.
Basically the Pokemon are weapons and also the warriors. The people are their trainers, they are all anime art characters.
There is nothing like poison apples and magic mirrors like Snow White. No magic spells or incantations. I'll have to check out Ghost, is he worse than Scooby Doo ghosts and monsters, don't know.
Jake's game is Poke Park, no trainers just little creatures that do battles, hide from each other and use their power to do combat, they loose energy as they battle, whoever runs out first loses.
But I am going to watch one of the movies to see what the attitude is of the quote "good guys", we will see.
Click to expand...
Life is full of choices.Satan is extremely deceiving.I have seen that he is working hard on our children now.Just read the news.
 
FormerGodHater said:
His current favorite is Clash Of Clans.
Click to expand...

I like playing video games. I also like the strategy and creative ones, but be careful with games like Clash of Clans. Clash of Clans is a world wide online multiplayer strategy game in real time. In the game players build a city and place different types of defense weapons like cannons to defend their city from attacks by other players. The problem with this game is that it is in "real time". This means that even when your not on your device playing the game other players can come attack you. You must then go online every few hours to rebuild any damage that was done to your city. Also you must continually go online to upgrade buildings since they take a certain amount of time to build. For example an archer tower might take 1 day of "real time".

I hope this isn't confusing. The main point is that this game is requires people to devote a lot of their time to it in order to be good at it. You can't just play it every few days. You also can't sit and play it for hours in a row because there is only so much that you can do in one sitting. In order to be any good at it you will have to devote 10 to 15 minutes of your time spread through the day. Does this make sense? I know first hand because I played this game and had to delete it off my phone.
 
Claudya said:
How about Minecraft? It's pretty much free of ideology, mythology, politics, religion and stuff, and it's awesome for creativity.
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Minecraft is great for creativity, but it does have mythology type stuff. Enchantment tables, potions and monsters.
 
I recently got Pokemon X. Completely child-friendly, and though the pokemon's upgrades/change in form are called evolutions I don't believe it holds any real similarity to the theory of evolution. I honestly don't get why the franchise got such a bad rap in the Christian community when I was a kid. There's less to worry about all-in-all than even some old much loved cartoons.
If you want to look into it more, I'd recommend watching a play through or Let's Pay of the game on YouTube. People go through the story modes and stuff. Or even just looking up some battle videos to get a basic idea of how the game works.
(P.S. Do exercise caution and use headphones in looking these videos up. YouTubers can have potty mouths. This doesn't reflect on the game itself, however. I played through the entire story mode on Pokemon X, and it's something young children could safely play.)
 
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there's a movie called "Amish: A Secret Life" posted on youtube by Weltkirche.
this family the bbc photographed over time were (previously) re-baptized (immersed in Yeshua) Amish (still Amish) and for that and for letting the photography/movie/documentary be made risked being shunned.
their testimony is wonderful, and they address very simply and clearly about video games and other concerns Christians often overlook or never even think about (but probably should).
 
Kathi said:
Spore is not a healthy game for a Christian adult or child to be playing
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/196847/spore-is-an-attack-on-christian-values/
Pokemon is really bad
http://carm.org/more-stuff/features/pokemon-what-it
You can ask yourself:
1.Does this video game glorify God?
2.Does it pass the test of Philippians 4:8?Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Click to expand...
To be fair, Pokemon is a franchise coming from Japan, so it's understandable that some Japanese myths and legends may make appearances. There are very few Christians in Japan. The American version IS somewhat edited for the Western audience, and cultural differences. The cartoon especially, to the point where Pokemon and Pocket Monster are considered separate shows.

I don't see the difference between this and Greek mythology with it's false gods personally (which I was exposed to as a child, even as part of reading in being homeschooled with a Christian curriculum), but it's up to the parents if they're comfortable with that or not.
 
Yhwh gives the parents the right to choose, but if they choose for Yeshua to be Savior , Master and Lord then that changes the whole ball game. (as many have rejoicingly and eternally joyfully found out, and others have sorrowfully not been able to recover (their family) from. )
 
A little while ago I went to Fred Meyer(that is a department store we have here) and I was in the entertainment section.I was examining the video games.99% of them I would not let a child of mine play or bring in the house.
 
jeff77 said:
Minecraft is great for creativity, but it does have mythology type stuff. Enchantment tables, potions and monsters.
Click to expand...
Hm I thought you can switch off the monsters? As for the magical stuff, since the OP's child was into LotR and Narnia I guess some magic content shouldn't be a problem with the parents.
 
I guess I think about what I grew up with. Disney fairytale movies. Poison apples to kill people, magic mirrors (vanity), poisoned spinning wheels, Prince Charming's kiss, etc. Shoot'em up westerns, Flash Gordon, Lost in Space (weird creatures), Ken and Barbie dating, etc.
Shooting the other kid with a stick, indian, calvary, or modern army.
 
Claudya said:
Hm I thought you can switch off the monsters? As for the magical stuff, since the OP's child was into LotR and Narnia I guess some magic content shouldn't be a problem with the parents.
Click to expand...

Some of my favorites as a child were The Sword in the Stone, King Arthur's Court would not have been the same without Merlin or the Lady in the Lake.

Some Christians have criticized Narnia. Instead of teaching the underlying story all they can see is the surface things not the symbolism. :shrug
 
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