https://www.equip.org/article/the-et...nd-card-games/
I don't know how many other people are interested in this sort of thing, but I'm really into modern board/card games. Some Christians have asked about the ethics of performing "actions" that might be sinful if done in the real world within these games (one example might be playing a Witch card in Dominion that essentially places a "spell" on one's opponent, but all it actually does is forces them to draw two cards). This article does a good job of navigating the waters between what is and isn't acceptable for Christians, as there is grey area. It's not unique to modern board games, of course. The goal of Monopoly is trying to drive other people into bankruptcy, which isn't something Christians should be doing, but nobody would think that Monopoly is sinful, for instance. One distinction I appreciated from the article was differentiating between a World War II simulation game where one person plays Germany (acceptable) and a nonexistent game where somebody roleplays as a concentration camp guard (unacceptable) based on "distance" from the immoral actions in mind.
The article actually has a very positive view of these sorts of games (which I obviously do too). They provide opportunities for creative thinking and are a good, clean social activity that usually don't take too long.
(I read this article awhile back, but Nick's blog post about video games and violence got me thinking about it tangentially.)
I don't know how many other people are interested in this sort of thing, but I'm really into modern board/card games. Some Christians have asked about the ethics of performing "actions" that might be sinful if done in the real world within these games (one example might be playing a Witch card in Dominion that essentially places a "spell" on one's opponent, but all it actually does is forces them to draw two cards). This article does a good job of navigating the waters between what is and isn't acceptable for Christians, as there is grey area. It's not unique to modern board games, of course. The goal of Monopoly is trying to drive other people into bankruptcy, which isn't something Christians should be doing, but nobody would think that Monopoly is sinful, for instance. One distinction I appreciated from the article was differentiating between a World War II simulation game where one person plays Germany (acceptable) and a nonexistent game where somebody roleplays as a concentration camp guard (unacceptable) based on "distance" from the immoral actions in mind.
The article actually has a very positive view of these sorts of games (which I obviously do too). They provide opportunities for creative thinking and are a good, clean social activity that usually don't take too long.
(I read this article awhile back, but Nick's blog post about video games and violence got me thinking about it tangentially.)
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