Public Service Preaching

Nothing has really impacted me this week so much that I feel inspired to write a lot, so I'll post on a topic that a reader brought up. For both of my regular readers, sorry that I have nothing profound or important to say on one of the hot topics of the day - but you're used to that, right?

An Answer to a Question

I don't check my guest book page very often, but last night I was just going over the site, taking a look at some old posts (and seeing a bunch of typos - how embarrassing) and reading a few comments from people that have left them. I noticed that earlier this week a reader left me a question in the guest book about Neverwinter Nights, a game that I've spent some time playing. That reader didn't leave an email address so that I could respond directly, so I'll answer here.

The question the reader asked was whether or not I had any thoughts on Neverwinter Nights being appropriate for his or her son to be playing.

Let's start with a little background on Neverwinter Nights, for those that aren't familiar with the game.

Neverwinter Nights (NWN) is a computer version of the pen-and-paper ("PnP") fantasy role playing game ("FRPG") Dungeons and Dragons. For those of you not familiar with role playing games (there are many different kinds of role playing games; FRPG's are just one of many), they are unlike most any other game you've played. In a role playing game (or "RPG"), you assume the identity of a "character." Your character has certain attributes (level of strength, intelligence, charisma, and so on), certain skills, and a "class." The character's class is, more-or-less, his or her profession. Typical classes in a FRPG include warriors of various kinds, clerics (priests, shamans, and the like), rogues (scouts, thieves and assassins), and magic-users (wizards and sorcerers). The character also has a "level," which is an indicator of how skilled and successful the character is and has been in various life pursuits. The character progresses through levels by gaining "experience points." Experience points are gained in a variety of ways, but most commonly by defeating enemies in combat. Enemies can be defeated by direct, hand-to-hand combat, sneak attacks, magic spells, and so on.

The "game" in Neverwinter Nights consists of the player's character taking part in various adventures that have been created by the game's designers. An adventure might be, for example, to rescue a fair princess from an evil knight that has kidnapped her. The rescue might require that the player's character (and thus the player) solve various puzzles, find and remove traps, defeat various henchmen of the evil knight, and finally, defeat the evil knight. Each time the player's character gets past a significant obstacle, the character gains experience points. When enough experience points have been accumulated, the character gains a level. When the character moves up to a new level, the character gains additional powers, skills and abilities.

The player's character (or PC) also has a number of "hit points," which is an indicator of how physically tough and skilled at avoiding damage the character is - how much physical damage the character can take before the character dies. In fact, that's typically the only way to "lose" a role playing game - the player's character is "killed" in battle.

The adventures that a character can take part in are as varied as the people that design the games. One of the amazing things about Neverwinter Nights versus other computer games is that it allows anyone with a copy of the original game to create game adventures that are playable by others. So, once you've played through the original game adventures that the creators of NWN shipped with the game, you can go to the Bioware NWN web site and download more game adventures to play. Some of them are excellent, rivaling the original NWN adventures in creativity and design. Others are complete junk - boring, inane, low-quality and/or disgustingly raunchy.

So, is a game like Neverwinter Nights appropriate for children?

As for nearly every question of this kind, the answer is, "it depends."

As I said, the adventures in which a character can take part can mirror essentially any human activity - good or evil. A player's character can behave in a good or evil manner within the game. Some game adventures allow player characters to visit taverns, get drunk, visit prostitutes, take drugs, steal from merchants or innocent bystanders, fight and even kill innocent "people." Nearly all NWN game adventures will involve the player character fighting and killing non-player characters or monsters of some kind.

So to start with, in my opinion, role-playing games like NWN are not appropriate for children under about 13 years of age, at a minimum. Games like this absolutely require that the individual playing have a strong sense of self and can firmly distinguish fantasy (the game) from reality and can keep the two separate. Because the player is assuming the identity of someone else (much like an actor performing a role in a play), role playing games can have a powerful draw on someone whose sense of self isn't strong or who has difficulty separating reality from fiction. The player's sense of self can become deeply enmeshed in the player's character. This is part of what makes these games fun, but it can become dangerous, in the sense that the player can neglect the real world and real-world relationships and can even develop distorted views of reality and human relationships. For those susceptible to distorted thinking about reality and relationships, getting involved with role playing games of any sort is probably not a good idea.

Some of the game adventures that are available are completely inappropriate for children. If they were movies, they would be R or even X rated. Some of these explicit adventures really have no redeeming value at all, and I wouldn't play them, even as an adult.

You know your child - I don't. How old is he - thirteen or seventeen? Is he doing well in school? Does he have good relationships with other kids his age - male and female? Does he have other interests and activities that he pursues? I would have deep concerns about a child that was playing computer games of any sort to the exclusion of all other activities, let alone an engrossing, powerful game like NWN. Is your child involved at church and pursuing his relationship with God? Are you, as your child's parent, monitoring what games he is playing? That is your responsibility! If you don't know that he's up to, let me be a little bold and say that you're asleep at the wheel.

I think you can check up on him without being threatening. Ask him to show you the game. Get him to talk about his character (or characters). Try to get a sense of how much he identifies with his character and what the character is like. Is the character a noble force for good, fighting evil and standing up for the rights of others? Or is the character evil, violently taking from others and looking out only for himself? I think you can get a sense of your child's inner self by seeing what type of character he plays in NWN. You might even try playing the game yourself a bit, just to get an idea of what the games are about. Also, remember that your child identifies with his character - in a sense, the character reflects who he is as a person - so a quick way to get him to clam up and be resentful toward you is to be critical of or ridicule the character. I don't think that's what you want, so try to be sensitive and gentle as you figure out what his involvement with the game is.

If your child shows a lot of ego involvement with the character, or playing the game is impacting his schoolwork, other outside activities, or (especially) his relationships with other people and with our Lord, then I would be concerned and limit his exposure to the game. If the character he plays seems to be especially dark - an occultish, evil character - then I would be very concerned about that, as well.

You know your child best. You know what he can handle and what he can't. You (hopefully!) know how he's doing in school and how he relates to other people. You know how well he is doing as a Christian. If you are satisfied that he's OK with all of that, then Neverwinter Nights is probably fine for him - but I'd still be watching what types of game adventures he's playing. As I said earlier, some are quite explicit and, in my opinion, are not appropriate for children of any age.

In summary, Neverwinter Nights, in my opinion, is an excellent game - creative, never-ending fun. However, the quality of the game adventures created by amateur game developers (as opposed to the professionally developed games, which are generally very good) is all over the map. Some are excellent, some are crap. Some are noble and virtuous, others are raunchy and degrading. Some are serious, others are hilarious (or at least try!). Pay attention to the descriptions provided by the game designers and to the ratings given by people that have played. Make sure you know what your son is up to and how he is doing. I'm probably being overly preachy here, but your son's mental, physical, social and spiritual health are your responsibility. If you are satisfied with the state of his health in those areas, then Neverwinter Nights isn't an issue. On the other hand, if you have concerns about any of those areas, then Neverwinter Nights might be an issue, and you need to take some steps to figure out the deep cause of his problems and take whatever corrective actions are necessary.

I hope that is helpful, and not overly preachy. I didn't intend it to be, but this topic tends to get me a little worked up, because I tend to see extremes. Some people are completely against any and all role playing games and think they're evil works designed to lead people into the occult. Others are utterly oblivious to the games, aren't paying attention to what their kids are doing, and don't have any idea that role playing games, in some circumstances and for some people, are nearly addictive - they can be that fascinating and engrossing (this is especially true for multi-player role playing games lead by a skilled "game master").

There is a middle ground: learn as much as you can about the games your child plays, pay attention to what he is up to as he plays, and closely (but sensitively) monitor his well-being. If you're able to do this, your son can enjoy an imaginative, creative and fun game, and your concerns about his involvement with the game will be allayed.

If you have any other questions on this, please feel free to write.

Well, that's all I have time to write about tonight. I had intended to say something about The Passion of the Christ and a few other things, but I have to get to bed. It's been a long, busy week, and next week doesn't look to be any better. I'm off to St. Louis on a business trip later this coming week, so I probably won't be able to post anything until next weekend, at the earliest. Have a great week, everyone.

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