Computer Games for evangelism

"Of course games can't affect young people. If they could, then the generation that grew up on Pacman would have spent the last ten years rushing around in the dark, swallowing pills to repetitive music."

Games do of course communicate many things – and very effectively. There are a range of ways that we can use games for evangelism:

1. Make sites sticky

   By offering a range of fun games to play, an evangelistic website can become more sticky - i.e. encourage return visits and enhance the perceived value of the site. In this context, the games themselves have no evangelistic content – they are purely ethical fun. There are many free sources of such games to easily add to your site. Maybe this strategy is particularly important for children's and teen sites – but hey, adults like to have fun too – see International Christian Network.

   As well as conventional games, you can also offer jigsaws or puzzles which are also available in Shockwave.

2. Games with a message

   It is not easy to create a game that communicates some level of Christian truth to non-Christians – who obviously do not usually wish to play Bible quiz games and the like. Yet this 'Covert Gaming' has enormous potential – read God in a Console.

   Essay Generator is not exactly a game, but it is a remarkable example of a creative evangelistic approach which also uses humor.

   The challenge is to make games which can achieve a high rating on the X-Spectrum of appropriate contextualization for non-Christians. Remember, the majority of people have no interest in Christian stuff. Read Jay's story.

   CD Games
   There are interactive CD games which can make participants think through issues which relate to the Gospel. Brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, developers of the very popular Myst and Riven are Christians – unlike most fantasy role-play games, these offer a Christian world-view of the struggle between good and evil, and require players to make moral judgments – see interview with Rand and Robyn. Writes 14-year-old gamer Karl: "These games are the best out ... Rand and Robyn Miller are Christians and use their games as Jesus-spreaders. That is so cool."

   Catachumen is a CD game with a strong Christian message yet accessible to non-Christians. [Story]

   Ethos Games is a Christian group (part of Damaris). Their first game President for a Day is a 'sim' game which causes users to face up to moral choices. The player is president of a fictional African country, taking it fromindependence up to the present day. They receive advice and information from officials, but have to make all the crucial decisions. The game was produced in association with UK's evangelical NGO TearFund. The Times Educational Supplement said, "The only downside of this game is that it will be difficult to drag students away from it." The product has been nominated for a BETT award for Secondary Educational Software.

   Other games are listed here.

   Games to play on a webpage
   Claymore is an online game in the Myst/Riven genre.

   There are several evangelistic children's games which you can link to.

3. Multiplayer online games

   There are a wide range of games which can be played down the Internet with one or more participants. Games such as Scrabble, chess, and golf also allow the participants to 'chat' socially during games. As a relationship builds up with the other player, it may be possible to share aspects of your life and the Gospel.

   There are also multi-user online games, where there can be thousands of people playing at the same time, often divided into groups or 'clans'. Many of these players are an obsessive internet sub-species, and may not emerge from their computer rooms for days! One Christian leader comments, "My son Stephen took us to a game he played sometimes, where there are at least fifty thousand people online playing live at any given time. He spent one whole evening last week chatting over the Web to a boy of twelve, who was preparing to commit suicide."

   MUD multi-user games allow participants to adopt a specific persona to act out. Again, this may offer the Christian games-player opportunities to demonstrate some aspect of faith.

   The Sims was the topic of a recent Newsweek magazine cover story Sims Family Values by N'Gai Croal, in which Croal explains how it works: "You create a simulated person or family and help them get through their daily lives as they try to decorate their homes, hold down jobs, make friends and win the hearts of the other computer-controlled 'sims' in the game. Because you control only your sims' actions and not the outcomes, the whole experience is filtered through (game creator Will) Wright's satiric distillation of human behavior."

   For those willing to shell out the monthly fee to play The Sims Online, the game provides tremendous opportunities for Internet evangelism. Unlike other online role-playing games (RPGs), which occur in Dungeons and Dragons-like fantasy worlds, The Sims Online will be a "real" world of sorts – a virtual mission field for an actual virtual church plant, without the distractions of wizards, orc and hill giants, and without having to learn to cast spells or engage in other occult activities often associated with multiplayer RPGs. The opportunities for e-vangelism in The Sims Online world are many.

4. Quizzes

   It is possible to make online quizzes of varying degrees of technical complexity – from relatively simple popup answers to scripts which will mark the questions and produce an overall score – here is a free Christian software solution.

5. LAN Parties

   Dean Thomas' story is exciting. He is an assistant pastor of a Baptist church in Brisbane, Australia, where he has wired up the church building with a Local Area Network (LAN), and sufficient mains power to operate 144 computers. The church hosts regular 'LAN Parties' for young people in the town. There is currently no broadband available to private residents in the area, so to play fast multi-player games, they need to hook up to a physical network.

   Many young people are desperate to play games in this environment, and there is a very high demand. By making a charge of several dollars, the church more than covers its costs. Participants bring in their own computers for the sessions. For older ones, events may continue through the night! And, shock horror, yes, they are allowed to play 'shoot-em-up' games, although there is gentle pressure to steer play towards motor-racing or role-playing.

   The amount of heat generated by over 100 computers and players is quite considerable! "When volunteers bring in pizzas by car, the car windows steam up," says Dean.

   Many young people have been drawn into the church's youth group activities as a result. It's a model that could work elsewhere.

Games offer many opportunities for evangelism, directly or indirectly. Pray for more games developers to use imaginitive and creating approaches to communicate truth. As with websites (also literature and video), sadly most Christian games are produced for Christians and not for evangelism. Please send other games and ideas for this page.

Other links

• DMoz Christian gaming lnks
• Zeal.com Christian gaming links
• Christian Gamers Guild
• Christian reviews of games: Christian Answers | Al Menconi
• Teaching computer skills – as a form of outreach

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