I just beat the game Dragon Age: Origins. I got the game for Christmas in 2009 but really only started playing it five weeks ago. The game took me 58 hours to complete, five of which I had logged over a year ago. So, in five weeks, I played 53 hours of this game.
Fifty. Three. Hours.
That’s an average of over 10 hours a week.
That’s over a week’s worth of work.
That’s six percent of my life over those five weeks.
To be completely honest I didn’t know I had poured that much time into the game. And whenever I realize I’ve poured that much time into a nerdclination, it makes me wonder if I could have been doing something better or more productive with my time.
Mother Theresa never played video games.
Billy Graham probably spent six percent of any given five-week period in prayer.
C.S. Lewis most likely averaged more than 10 hours of reading and writing a week.
But here I am, having spent my time playing a video game and not really knowing if I should feel guilty about it.
I think there are a lot of areas in our lives where we feel like that. God lays down some pretty specific boundaries when it comes to our behavior. God is the ultimate source of truth so when he says that something is wrong and sinful, I believe him. While there are some specific boundaries, though, there is a lot of gray area in between those boundaries. And pouring 60 hours of my life into a video game seems to fall in that gray area.
I don’t feel like Dragon Age: Origins was pulling me away from God. It’s not like I was playing Leisure Suit Larry or the Playboy Mansion game. I was killing bad guys and trying to save the world, nothing too terrible. But just because something isn’t bad, doesn’t mean that it’s the best. In my life with God, is there room for habits and hobbies that, while not bad, aren’t the best?
I don’t know. In a sense I’m just typing out loud.
I would love to hear your thoughts, though, on if there is room in our lives with God for habits, hobbies and nerdclinations? And if so, how do you gauge what’s appropriate and what isn’t? How do you deal with the gray areas?
You’re an idiot and a time waster. Signed, the guy who watched 5.5 hours of basketball yesterday.
What if our problem IS playing the playboy mansion game too much?
I think about this topic occasionally. Not the playboy mansion game, but embracing entertainment too much.
When I excessively play video games or watch TV, I do feel guilty about it. I do feel its wrong. That it’s a waste of the life Ive been given. That it’s not gratifying for anything.
I ask myself questions like “Couldn’t I have helped someone in that time?”
or “Couldnt I have spent an hour or two volunteering instead of pwning noobs?”
I’ve decided excessive amounts of video games, tv, or entertainment, is a waste of my time, and possibly wrong of me.
But I still excessively entertain myself all the time, even when I know I shouldn’t be.
I feel like the place I should be is that It’s alright to sit back and relax, unwind watching TV or doing something else, but past the point of unwinding I should be out doing something gratifying/that amounts to something. That would be a good life to live.