Regarding WUSS, I got a fairly decent presentation at Mass on Sunday. It was quite flash and used powerpoint slides. Unfortunately, I fell asleep was reflecting during the presentation and missed most of it. Hopefully the don’t feel the need to make unnecessary changes. Are we the only place in the world that says the new version of the ‘Our Father’?
I watched ‘Nightline’ on TV3 last night and there was an item on ‘World of Warcraft’ or ‘WoW’, which is a multiplayer online game. It’s played by around 7 million people worldwide. From my understanding of the game, basically you create a character, give yourself personality traits, skills etc and away you go. You can even form little groups and adventure toghether. If you always wanted to be a beared half-elf woman who can shoot fireballs and travel round the virtual world with fellow half-elf bearded women, this is the game for you.
But that got me thinking. 7 million people play this game? Why can’t we Catholics use this to our advantage? What a great way to reach people and evangelise! Get a bunch of game savvy Catholics together and travel the world (sorry, virtual world) as Catholic orcs or elves or even a normal everyday human. Your group could be well known for acting decently in your dealings with other bearded half-elf women, or taking a non-violent approach to slayerage of monsters.
Even better, why doesn’t someone out there come out with some kind of game that has a Catholic spin to it? You could be a virutal St. Paul or Methuselah. Instead of roaming round the countryside (sorry, virtual countryside) vanquishing monsters and looting loot, you could travel round preaching and converting! It’ll have to be a little more exciting than that perhaps, but the potential is there I’m sure…
Can you tell it’s Friday? A long weekend Friday even. Enjoy it everyone. if you’re ever on WoW, look out for the gnorc (half gnome / half orc) character called ‘Gnorc the Slightly Virtuous’.*
*Just kidding. I don’t play. I prefer my games with lots of spreadsheets and stats. Ah sports games.
Beardy, you rock! Good call!
This is the kind of thing I’ve been calling for for a while! Sure, it might be a bit hard to fit it in to WoW (brilliant South Park episode on that out there BTW), but there’s nothing to stop us coming up with our own version.
Granted, it may be big-picture stuff. But we need to get some thoughts happening in this space otherwise we’re going to be left behind.
Great stuff for a Friday.
Probably completely off topic, but a few days ago slashdot features an article about an ex-gamer’s view on why he left the game (and today the rebuttal on how it doesn’t have to wreck lives). It’s very interesting indeed.
I guess there’s some sense in trying to preach on WoW, although I’m just not too sure whether people on those game are in the mental frame of mind to be listening to reasons.
What I think is one of the main obstacle is possibly the image the general public has for us. Maybe through some pop culture like WoW might at least show we’re everyday people, just with a love for God.
As for online gaming, there’s also things like Second Life and Sims. Alas, I’m too broke to go for a monthly subscription game.
What I do is actaully be very open about my faith and the fact I’m a Catholic on other forum communities. Granted there are always the few atheists on site, but sometimes (actually very often, if you approach the matter correctly) what evolve would be a genuine discussion and I think at least that gets people thinking.
I got a feeling there are indeed a few christian gaming companies out there… but I haven’t really heard much of them.
Just a thought: there’s actually a pretty decent group of people out there who likes internet flash games, myself I’m into point-and-click escape the room type and HTML puzzles (like god tower)… it’d be interesting to see if people can actually come up with a Catholic based puzzle games that. People do get together to solve this sort of puzzle and there are various communities out there with puzzle fans too (granted, nothing like WoW, not even in the same scale). Not too sure HOW that could work though
Enough for my Friday rambling… better get back to work.
(PS: I’m still in the States, much be Saturday morning in NZ by now 
)
I made the fatal mistake of making a long reply, and putting 2 links out there. I think the comment’s lost in the realm of spam now…
Anyway, http://soulkerfuffle.blogspot.com/ has a few article on people’s view on WoW. Off topic, I know, but interesting none the less.
If my previous message can’t be rescued: I’m thinking maybe a catholic themed HTML puzzles for the numerous HTML puzzle fans (enigma and god tower and some of the big ones out there…) People actually come together to collect clues and solve puzzles, with the sort of people involvement already going there, mayeb we can fit in the Catholic theme there?
I don’t preach when I’m posting in some other online communities, but I’m open about my faith and the fact that I’m Catholic, and most of the time people actually do have civilised discussion when the matter is approached properly and peopel are actually mature about it. It’s quite amazing to see ideas exchanged that way.