Morality & Video Games – Part 1: The Problem

today03/18/2021 27

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Morality & Video Games – Part 1: The Problem

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It is possible that today in your home any number of robberies, shootings, stabbings, incidents of car theft, arson, fornication, civil anarchy and murder have taken place. Or have they? If your household contains any of the number of currently available video game consoles, a PC capable of playing games, or even a mobile device, then it is possible that someone chose to engage in at least the appearance of these activities. What is the moral culpability for virtual violence? What might it indicate if a mind chooses to engage in simulated thievery? What does it mean when a game gives the option for nuanced moral choices, and you pick the one which is evil?

The part which video games play in influencing a person’s temperament and behavior and desensitizing them to violence is an oft-debated subject. Every sensible person would admit that children are likely more influenced by outside stimuli than adults, as they are still being formed and are therefore highly impressionable. These same people would also likely agree that after adolescence a person’s susceptibility to outside influence on their behavior will have dropped off dramatically.

However, new studies have revealed that the human brain continues to develop well into a person’s mid-twenties to early thirties. Therefore, maturity and judgment are still malleable and susceptible to significant influence until much later in life than may have been previously assumed. 

A 2017 article in the Washington Post states that “The typical American now spends more time playing games than volunteering, going to social events or going to church.” And according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics cited in the same article, the time Americans spend playing video games has risen by 50 percent since 2003. This is quite a significant increase. 

There is an inherent problem with any studies done more than a few years ago, however, and the problem becomes worse the further back the studies were conducted. The issue is that as video games become more realistic, their effect on the human brain is likely much more significant. Games today, whose graphics are near photo-realistic, and which are more often then not fully voice-acted by professional performers, are much more persuasive than the blocky pixel graphics and “bleeps & boops” of earlier eras. Further, unlike TV or film where the consumer’s role is as pure spectator, video games make one an active participant in simulated immoral activity.

Where does the distinction lie between stealing an item in real life, and stealing an item in a video game? Obviously, the real life action has an effect on the proper owner of the stolen goods, in regards to justice, whereas it can be said the theft of virtual, in-game, items has no real consequences. However, is the choice to steal in a (likely highly realistic) simulation enough to constitute a sin? In Matthew 5:28 Our Lord says,

[T]hat whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If the intent in the mind to lust is enough to constitute sin here, is it the same for the mental choice to do such things in a simulation? An argument could be made that part of what makes lustful thoughts a sin is that it minimizes the dignity of another. But if one were to imagine a vague, non-specific woman in order to entertain lustful thoughts, he may also be guilty of sin. Not all cases of justice require a victim. We make ourselves the victim when we defy God’s law.

I am not a believer in the “video games bad” argument. After all, I am a gamer myself, and have been for much of my life. I don’t believe I’ve ever been led to sinful actions by playing a game. But, setting subjectivity aside for a moment, is it possible others have? Certainly. What I’m interested in are the nuances of this discussion: what makes video games register as an inferior form or recreation in the minds of some when compared to watching film, which is an ever more passive form of entertainment? Where are the lines between inertly enjoying entertainment and actively walking a moral razor’s edge, on one side of which is sinful culpability? These and similar questions are what I hope to explore thoroughly and thoughtfully and (God willing), find some answers to as we delve into this series.


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Written by: Christopher L

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