World of Warcraft is a game of materialism. When you play this game, you collect experience points, levels, special abilities, gold, and equipment. When you move to your next MMO, none of these things will go with you. Also, the time, money and effort you invested will be lost. There are some things which will stay with you from game-to-game. Those are things like strategies and controller skills. Even though video games themselves will not go with you into the next life, you can learn about spirituality by playing video games.
A game like Quake is one of the least materialistic, most spiritual. There are no levels or experience points. No real items, only a few things you collect for short-term use. It is very much a game of need. The game prevents greed by limiting the amount of health, armor, weapons, and ammo you can collect. When you switch to a new DM-FPS game, if you were wise enough to focus on the things that carry over, even as a beginner you are an expert. This is why some players, like myself of course 'cause i'm awesome, can pick up a game they've never played before and instantly defeat experienced players. We only need to learn a few minor things, which can be learned within a few short minutes. Other players, materialistic ones, are often good at one game of Quake (such as Quake 2), and yet poor at another (Quake 3).
If you wanted to enhance the spiritual aspects, what could be done? The simplest way would be to eliminate all possible materialistic things. Get rid of everything that will not transfer from one game to the next. A player retains their strategies, such as timing and controlling items. From there, they only must learn the difference in respawn times. Players also retain their skills, such as operating a keyboard and a mouse. Each game has a slightly different feel, but the adjustment happens quickly enough. Beyond that, there are differences in projectile speed or weapon-type, but if you are clever enough, you can realize there are only so many different ranges, and so many different speeds, and all weapons fall into those measurements and therefore, they all basically the same uses and levels of effectiveness.
So yes, video games can teach people a great deal about spirituality. Going from one game to the next is like going from one life to the next. With practice and possibly some guidance, you can figure out all the things which will help you not only in the current game, but also in the next and the one after that. Like with Muslim women, you should only be concerned with the parts you cannot see because those are the parts which will go from one game to another. When you invest your time into things which will only help you in the current game, you will begin the next game with nothing and be once again as a newborn child. Ten years of graphics>gameplay, materialism>spiritualism, and people wonder why we still play Q3.
A game like Quake is one of the least materialistic, most spiritual. There are no levels or experience points. No real items, only a few things you collect for short-term use. It is very much a game of need. The game prevents greed by limiting the amount of health, armor, weapons, and ammo you can collect. When you switch to a new DM-FPS game, if you were wise enough to focus on the things that carry over, even as a beginner you are an expert. This is why some players, like myself of course 'cause i'm awesome, can pick up a game they've never played before and instantly defeat experienced players. We only need to learn a few minor things, which can be learned within a few short minutes. Other players, materialistic ones, are often good at one game of Quake (such as Quake 2), and yet poor at another (Quake 3).
If you wanted to enhance the spiritual aspects, what could be done? The simplest way would be to eliminate all possible materialistic things. Get rid of everything that will not transfer from one game to the next. A player retains their strategies, such as timing and controlling items. From there, they only must learn the difference in respawn times. Players also retain their skills, such as operating a keyboard and a mouse. Each game has a slightly different feel, but the adjustment happens quickly enough. Beyond that, there are differences in projectile speed or weapon-type, but if you are clever enough, you can realize there are only so many different ranges, and so many different speeds, and all weapons fall into those measurements and therefore, they all basically the same uses and levels of effectiveness.
So yes, video games can teach people a great deal about spirituality. Going from one game to the next is like going from one life to the next. With practice and possibly some guidance, you can figure out all the things which will help you not only in the current game, but also in the next and the one after that. Like with Muslim women, you should only be concerned with the parts you cannot see because those are the parts which will go from one game to another. When you invest your time into things which will only help you in the current game, you will begin the next game with nothing and be once again as a newborn child. Ten years of graphics>gameplay, materialism>spiritualism, and people wonder why we still play Q3.
Edited by iNkind at 05:12 CST, 14 December 2009 - 1977 Hits