Are Games Just For Kids?
I have long wondered what my children see in the game consoles and games they insist they have to have. We have had every gaming console known to man starting with Atari (wow, that really dates me) to the new Wii. They have all spent countless hours trying to annihilate each other, blow up planets, and generally wreak destruction and mayhem and I confess--I have never seen the attraction. Who has time to sit in front of a screen and "waste" time? There are loads of laundries to be done, kids to fetch and tote, meals to be fixed and goodness knows what else will come up.
So I was wrong! This week I found the most annoyingly addictive game on-line that I can't put down! There I was just minding my own business looking through the iPad applications-not really looking for anything in particular when a review of a game called "We Rule" caught my eye. It seemed harmless enough, it is after all a "passive" game, meaning you aren't really competing against anyone but playing with him or her and the price was right- FREE. So of course I downloaded the thing! That was my first mistake but I assure you it has not been my last when it comes to this game!
This game allows me to create a kingdom from the foundations up and out. Performing different tasks earns me gold coins that I can then spend to purchase castles, cottages, businesses and farms. I can also earn or purchase my own kingdom "Mojo" which has the mystical power to speed up the growth of plants, make my businesses an over-night success, and all but make me the most beautiful Queen in the realm (just kidding!) In the reality of the game "Mojo" provides a short cut to grow the kingdom that gives almost instant gratification. It sounds so simple as to be really boring but something about the creative process is almost addictive. Watching the little kingdom grow into a great province complete with a Fortress, moat and soon to be a dragon playing in the air somehow satisfies a deep seated need I have to create things and watch them grow.
I am not going to tell you that there is anything profound about the game "We Rule." But I am going to tell you it has given me a new understanding of God as the Creator. I always wondered why an all-powerful God, who knows everything, and can do anything would want to create such insignificant and flawed creatures as humans knowing we would betray Him and He would have to sacrifice his Son just to save us. Why would He do that?
Now I believe it is just possible that He created us for the same reason I crave to create in "We Rule"--it gives Him pleasure to see it all play out in the way He planned on the day He set the foundations of His world. God comes with His own "Mojo" and doesn't need to earn gold coins but the creative energy that can make something quite literally out of nothing needs to be expressed--not because God needs the validation but because He chooses to reveal Himself to the universe through that which He creates.