In 2008, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 94 percent of teenage girls and 99 percent of teenage boys play video games. The research uncovered the following: Gaming is often a social experience for teens. The most popular game genres include those with violent and nonviolent content. There are civic dimensions to video game play.
Craig Detweiler is the editor of this collection of essays on video games and what they mean in terms of youthful identity, religious values, ethics, social interaction, educational possibilities, psychology, science, art, creativity and storytelling. A number of the essayists talk about, as Detweiler puts it, God as experienced and revealed in, around, and through video games.
There are plenty of articles around these days that expound on the dire and harmful effects of video-game playing upon children, making them self-centered, addictive, antisocial, and violent personalities. This all sounds quite similar to criticism directed by adults against youth and rock music in the 1950s. In contrast, in his substantive introduction to this collection, Detweiler salutes gaming as an opportunity for stressed and pressured kids to find a creative outlet for play. He quotes from Johann Huizinga who makes the connection between play and sacred rituals.
By the time you finish reading Halos and Avatars, you will know a little more about the medium of gaming and the many messages of this interactive entertainment. As Detweiler states at the end of the introduction, "We are concerned by the desensitizing aspects of video games. They often objectify women and glorify violence. . . . [this book] aims to demystify the gaming universe and dignify the passions of the most active gamers. We believe in the theological possibilities contained within even the most debased popular culture."
