Growing up we didn\u2019t play video games. My parents didn\u2019t let us get anything more hi tech than an old school Nintendo, so while peers of mine in middle and high school were playing Super Nintendo, Sega, and even PlayStation, I was playing Tecmo Bowl and Paper Boy.<\/p>\n
My brother and I didn\u2019t really think anything of it. We weren\u2019t too into video games anyways, preferring to play outside and hang out with friends. And then the unthinkable happened. My little brother, while pouring out his bowl of morning Frosted Flakes, found a brightly colored certificate in his bowl proclaiming him the winner of a brand new PlayStation. The course of our lives was changed forever. Within a few weeks (and luckily it was winter in Michigan . . . a good time to be indoors) we had a handful of games and were learning the new vernacular of the gaming culture.<\/p>\n
I then played video games through the last year of high school, college and even seminary. I would help the middle and high school members of the church\u2019s I served organize video game parties, always with non-violent games, of course, even though the rated M games would be discussed. FIFA, Madden, Mario Kart and Pokemon were favorites for church gatherings, while Metal Gear and Grand Theft Auto were more what I would spend time with. We had church wide FIFA tournaments that would last all weekend. Mario Kart rallies that were \u201cintergenerational\u201d before \u201cintergenerational\u201d was a ministry buzzword. It was a medium through which members of the church and I could truly connect.<\/p>\n
I played video games on my own time too, it wasn\u2019t just a social thing. I was living in New York City at the time and even though there are so many things to do in the city, some of those cold, wet, 36 degree February days beckon for staying in and revving up the PS3. A gaming highlight was the time I spent an entire night in Herald Square with a few thousand other people waiting for the Midnight drop of Grant Theft Auto IV. In the game I could actually visit the apartment building I was living in. It was, and still is, pretty amazing!<\/p>\n
That game was released in 2008. Ten years later, I now have two children, and my video game playing days are over. I do my best to spend my time with my children and not my video game console. Do I miss the games? Sort of, but I would much rather be a Dad than a gamer. The one thing that I do miss is that I used to be able to discuss video games with members of my church. I haven\u2019t been able to do that as much since I became a Dad, however, Pierre Bayard may have changed the way I \u201cpastorally care\u201d for my congregation moving forward.<\/p>\n
When I shift the focus from books in his classic, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read<\/em>, to video games, I can use the same strategies just with a different field. Sure my \u201cinner library\u201d of video games may not be that modern, but I can still connect with someone over game play, thematic elements, the company that created the game, or I could even \u201cpraise it without going into detail.\u201d [1]\u00a0 If we are supposed to liberate ourselves from the shame or guilt of not being as aware as someone else about books, this certainly would work with video games. \u201cTo speak without shame about books we haven\u2019t read, we would thus do well to free ourselves of the oppressive image of cultural literacy without gaps, as transmitted and imposed by family and school, for we can strive toward this image for a lifetime without ever managing to coincide with it.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n I am a pastor, blessed with the call to serve God\u2019s beautiful, yet broken people. Freeing God’s people from oppressive images seems to align well with my work. Bayard wants to do this through breaking an unrealistic cultural norm. I\u2019ll follow his lead, using the medium of video games.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1] Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read<\/em>, (New York: Bloomsbury, 2010). Kindle loc 1350<\/p>\n [2]\u00a0\u00a0Bayard, Kindle loc 1435.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Growing up we didn\u2019t play video games. My parents didn\u2019t let us get anything more hi tech than an old school Nintendo, so while peers of mine in middle and high school were playing Super Nintendo, Sega, and even PlayStation, I was playing Tecmo Bowl and Paper Boy. My brother and I didn\u2019t really think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[477,1321,1322,476,1357],"class_list":["post-19127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bayard","tag-dminlgp9","tag-lgp9","tag-pierre-bayard","tag-video-games","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19128,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19127\/revisions\/19128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}