Wrapping Up

Whew! I can’t believe class is over except for finals. Javon and I had a lot of fun making our board game and it was great to see and play everyone else’s on Thursday. This whole class has been great. It’s probably been one of my 2 favorite classes (the other one would be Chorale, and it’s always been a fav no matter what). I think the only part I didn’t like was –I Wanna See Some of those Films Again!!!!!! Once isn’t enough! I know, time constraints. Oh well. That’s the only complaint I have. This class really taught me how to look at films in a different way, and helped me realize I need to get out of my Christian box and form some judgments about my world. I’ve never really gotten to voice my opinions until now I think I realized that I don’t have very many or that they’re not very strong. Anyway, I also KNOW now that I chose the right major. I went into this basically seeing and liking the end result and thinking I’d like to be part of that end result. Sure, I had a 1-week crash course in 3D Studio Max, but that was the ENTIRE EXTENT of my experience. One Friday night I was bored and lonely because there was practically no one on my floor, so I decided to try something. I decided to try to make an animation using vine charcoal. There’s a CSI quote from the pilot episode where Catherine is telling Holley reasons not to quit and she tells her: “Stick with it. At least until you solve your first. And after that, if you don't feel like King Kong on cocaine, then you can quit.” I don’t know what exactly THAT feels like, but I was actually really excited when I was attempting this short film. I guess I finally realized I can do this. Now there is no doubt in my mind this is where I should be.

The Micah Challenge

The Forester lecture on the Micah Challenge was very interesting. The Micah challenge is based off of the scripture found in Micah 6:8: “He has showed you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To ACT JUSTLY, LOVE MERCY, and to WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD.” So true. What problems could be solved if everyone lived by that verse! Anyway, Peter Meulen also related the Micah Challenge to a promotion of the new Narnia movie: Real World. Real Lion. Real Church. To this he added =Real Integral Missions. He talked a lot about the idea of integral missions. Integral missions are the “proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other.” Basically, we have to SHOW the message of the gospel as we present it. This is the key to ending social injustice. I think this is something a lot of churches struggle with. Yes, most churches sponsor missionaries, but a lot of them get too comfy in their rituals and traditions and then don’t work on reaching out in missions in their own community – except maybe during the holidays with various food and gift drives. We need to get out of our comfy box and really try to demonstrate what we say we believe. That would certainly have huge consequences – I mean, I know several people who will not believe the gospel because the churches and the people in the churches, the “Christians,” are not doing what we say were suppose to be doing. I need to work on that myself – I think we all do in some way or another.

Video Game Presentations

Last Thursday's class certainly was interesting. Germinal and Kaitrin did really well with their presentations. I think Germinal had a very interesting take on things. I can’t say that I’ve really had video games teach me that much, although maybe on some level I have and I haven’t realized it. I can see more eye to eye with Kaitrin’s presentation. I will admit, I definitely fit the generalization about women liking the more puzzle-type games. I’m online a lot playing all kinds of puzzle games. What can I say? My dad and I use to put jigsaw puzzles together on a card table in the living room (this drove my mom nuts by the way). I don’t mind the action-violence thing too much, although I will admit I can’t play Doom anymore ‘cause it freaks me out. I do like stuff like Unreal and Halo, even though I’ve really played them very little. I’m more of an “old-school” computer and Nintendo games fan myself. Especially computer games. Give me Lemmings and Crystal Caves any day (I know, go ahead and laugh all you hard-core gamers). I guess my take on this thing is that I prefer and wish there were more entertaining games that also made you use your mind to figure things out. I definitely think its worth it to get Christians involved in the gaming industry – there’s a way to make games that are entertaining, “intellectually stimulating” (I wish there was a less cheesy way to say that), and that have a message behind them- without beating the player over the head with a contruyed message that isn’t what you even intended in the first place – we just haven’t figured it out yet. Or have we? It kind of goes back to that thing about how even art that denies a God is actually confirming a God.

Christian Video Games

I can'’t believe that Left Behind game trailer we watched the other day. It seems to me that Christian companies are having trouble getting into the gaming industry. I mean really, it'’s ok to shoot people in this game because they're damned anyway? I understand the need of an enemy for the hero, but please! I think the Christian companies' problem is that they can'’t figure out how to have a message in the game without completely hitting the gamer upside the head with it. The problem is that in trying so hard to make a game out of a specific message is that it construed. That C.S. Lewis article on 3 ways of writing applies here too. If you'’re trying to make a genre or type of media FIT AROUND an idea it'’s never going to be as good as if that particular genre or medium was just the BEST WAY to portray your message.