"But there was something else about it, something I really didn't want to admit. I asked Paul Sams, the Blizzard COO, why people played WoW and his answer was simple, if a bit depressing: "How often in your everyday world do you get to feel heroic?" he said. "How often do you get to step into a world and do something big and meaningful? People need an escape from ordinary life. It's just something people need." "Modern life doesn't provide many opportunities to be heroic. There's no adventure. Our culture doesn't give us a purpose, a telos, a summum bonum. In fact, it's actively hostile to the idea (see Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, et al.). Human nature abhors a vacuum, and video games are one way to fill the void.
Christians must contend that human life does have a purpose: to serve God. This is life's great adventure, this is the challenge of every human life (whether we know it or not). And this adventure calls for heroes - moral heroes. John Paul II used to remind young Catholics that God calls everyone to moral and spiritual greatness. And hey, he knew what he was talking about.
5 comments:
I like 'em for their literary qualities. I intend to do a post on this in the near future.
Are you a fan of the Final Fantasy series of games?
Very much so.
Your favorite?
For my part I have to say FFVI (III in the US). FFX and FFXII come close though!
Probably XII, if I had to pick, and depending on my mood. VI was just as good, and I've come to appreciate VII more since first playing it. In college, I earned the name Squall by friends in the dorm because I played FFVIII in the dorm seemingly non-stop.
My two favorite videogames are made by Square - and actually the same team behind FFXII. They are Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics.
I liked X as well, especially the character Auron. X-2 was okay, but it lost me at the start by turning Yuna into a pop singer.
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