Greatness Awaits: Saint’s Row IV – What video games now offer

By: American Decency Staff

Consider the tagline for the latest video game in the "Saints' Row" video game franchise: "Saint's Row IV – Better than real life."

This is what video games now portend to offer. Here is the transcript of a commercial for Sony's new PS4 gaming console:

"Whoare you not to be great -you, with the imagination of a brilliant child and the powers of an ancient god – who are you to be ordinary?
You, who can rescind life or raise the dead?
Who are you to be afraid – you, who can serve as judge and jury while hoarding infinite lives?
Who are you to be a slave to the past – you, who can travel time like the oceans and rewrite history with a single word?
Who are you to be anonymous – you, whose name should be spoken in reverent tones or in terrified whispers?
And who are you to deny greatness? If you would deny it to yourself, you deny it to the entire world.
And we will not be denied."

Deep question, right?

Why should you or I allow ourselves to be mediocre? Who are we to abandon the paths of our heroes and settle for a life of boredom? Who are we to simply work a 9 to 5 to provide a mediocre life for our family? Who are we to not own a PlayStation 4?

All a man needs to be great in 2013 is the latest gaming console. 

A couple of weeks ago, the latest of the notorious Grand Theft Auto video games was released and racked up over $1 billion in sales in its first week. If you haven't heard of GTA, it is known for being the game that drops a player in a wide open world where he can beat up any random person on the street, kill cops, hire prostitutes, steal cars, and generally just be a horrible person.

Unfortunately, it is also known for being very well made – hence the billion dollar opening.

As Charles Yu states in his piece theorizing that video games pose a threat to Hollywood, "It’s tempting to think of it as an open-ended movie: it’s written and directed by storytellers skilled in the cinematic form and produced by an expert group of visual designers. In that sense it feels like a big movie production. As the scale and complexity of these games increase — and as our ability to simulate and render nuance and emotion and ambiguity increases – – these games are starting to verge on something entirely new. Whatever one might feel about the storyline of 'Grand Theft Auto V,' it is hard to deny that it is pushing the boundary of the form."

Now, while I have no fears that video games will ever pose a threat to the movie industry, it is doubtless that they will continue to grow in popularity.

The important question is what kind of effect that will have on guys – the target audience for most games.

According to psychologist Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the consequences of cyber stimulants like video games and porn are deadly, "The excessive use of video games and online porn in pursuit of the next thing is creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment..

Similarly, video games also go wrong when the person playing them is desensitized to reality and real-life interactions with others.

Indeed, just last week an Auburn University student "reenacted" GTA, "after he stole a woman's truck – with her inside – and slammed it into nine parked vehicles. The Auburn University lacrosse player wanted to play the video game 'in real life.'"

Zimbardo continues, "Young men — who play video games and use porn the most — are being digitally rewired in a totally new way that demands constant stimulation. And those delicate, developing brains are being catered to by video games and porn-on-demand, with a click of the mouse, in endless variety."

In essence, the male need for respect is being met by lines of code, the desire to accomplish things and be great is being satiated by remote controlled cartoon characters, and the hunger for intimacy and love is being fed by exploited women on the wrong side of a camera.

Man was made to be great. We were commissioned to be great – to reflect the glory of God to a watching world.

Indeed, who are we to not be great? We, who are made in the image of God himself and with His creativity? We, who have been promised eternal life – who are we to be afraid? Who are we to be a slave to the past – we, who have no shame in Christ? Who are we to deny true greatness for an illusion of grandeur on a plasma screen?

We were made to be great – not at Grand Theft Auto or Modern Warfare, but at life.
 

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