In Conclusion:

It's very easy to jump on first-person shooters like Quake and Doom and Duke Nukem and Unreal from a spiritual standpoint. With the blood and gore and wicked imagery and Satanist trappings, they present a target as inviting as a battle-worn opponent from those very games who has been reduced to his least powerful weapon. The arguments are indeed very valid. But there are some good spiritual arguments that don't get made.

Perhaps that 's due to the fact that we live in days of a Christianity that will preach against "worldly" rock music, but will advocate "Christian" rock music, since "it's got a good message". The musical theme is a big ball of wax unto itself, so I won't dive deeper into it. It was presented to make a point.:

We preach against violent video games, and that's fine! But what about the principle of video gaming? Not too much there, is it? Well there should be!

If there's one thing about video gaming, it's this:

Every hour spent at an N64 System, PlayStation, or PC playing games (and it makes no difference whether you're plundering what's left of planet Earth in Forsaken, working on your status as "Frag King" of Unreal Tournament, or racing at impossible speeds in Jeff Gordon's XS Racing) is an hour you DIDN'T spend…
    1. Reading and studying your Bible, just as God ordered you to do (2Timothy 2:15)
    2. Praying (I Thessalonians 5:17, 25) just as God ordered you to do
    3. Witnessing ( Acts 20:20, 26:22) just as God ordered you to do
    4. And a host of other things that are holy and just!

In essence, what we do when we play video games, along with defiling our minds, searing our consciences, and just hardening ourselves to death and violence, is disobeying the Word of God in Ephesians 5:16:

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

I guess that covers it! I hope you got something good out of this!

In Christian love,

Aaron Smith