The Game of Life - What's Really Going On (Part 3)

C.S. Lewis in the final book in his brilliant book series, The Chronicles of Narnia, describes the Narnian heaven as "The Real Narnia".  Lewis called Earth as it is (what we think of as the 'Real World'), the Shadowlands.  Lewis, from his Christian perspective, believed that Earth is a kind of crucible in which we are all tested, tried and perfected for eternity.  Rather like a video game.

And like a video game, the ending for Christians is assured.  No matter whether we succeed or fail in our efforts to accomplish the goals set before us as we traverse the Shadowlands, we are assured eternal life in the Real Earth or what the Bible calls the New Earth.  Like a video game, we try to follow the rules of the game and figure out how things work.  But we must not forget we are playing in the shadows. God has promised to take us to the real thing when the game of life is over.  Whatever happens, that is assured if you want it.

If you choose to stay with the game, to challenge the rules, give yourself over to the dark side, you get to do that too. The only difference is when the game is over, the game is over.  Scripture is pretty clear on that point. We aren't by nature immortal. An eternal ever-burning hell (borrowed from the Greeks by the way) is one of those add-on ideas like reincarnation; interesting, but not really a good way to organize a universe if you are a merciful God.  Ultimately the eternal wiener roast is a lie about the character of God. The idea that He would condone that makes him a torturer, not a father.  Just my opinion from my own study.

God evidently decided the universe needed creatures with free will.  What this says about angels, I am not sure, but people are created in the image of God. That's clear. We are like God in that we may choose in all things. That ability to choose makes us creative and energetic and purpose driven. It also makes us dangerous. I think God made the Earth as a kind of game, if you will. We are born into it, we try out our choice-making ability and we die. We meet challenges, solve puzzles, build things and face enemies all leading up to what Ms. McGonagal calls the "Epic Event" in gaming and what I think of as the fork in the road.  It's at that moment I think we all experience the decision that led Joshua to say, "As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord."  I think no matter what culture, religion or society we come from, we all meet that epic moment where we choose to serve ourselves or something greater than ourselves.  Like McGonagal's 4 elements you get from gaming, the Christian gets the same effect.

1.  Urgent optimism:  The Christian believes his choices can effect the world for good, no matter it appears while it's happening. He believes that what he is doing, he is doing with God and that God will make it turn out right - hence the optimism.

2. Ability to weave a tight social fabric:  Christians collectively believe the same things and gather together around that shared belief. A Christian, the real variety anyway, are trustworthy, reliable and they have your back.  You may have misunderstandings with your fellow travelers, but in the end, none of it matters but the great goal of reaching the New Earth.

3. Blissful productivity: A Christian on a mission experiences this bliss throughout his work.  He knows he is doing a good thing at the peak of his skills. He is content doing good in partnership with God. Christians are busy people because we are commanded by the rules of the game to do good where our hand finds good work to do.

4. Epic Meaning:  A Christian has purpose and meaning to his life. He is connected to the eternal. Everything he does is part of God's plan.  The moment he leaves the Shadowlands, it is an epic event.

It is little wonder that the practice of Christianity has such a powerful ability to change our lives.  My own experience is that you change from the old self-centered person to a Christ-like person inevitably.  It is not by your own efforts.  We are built to respond to the Christian life as we do.  After all, it was God who designed both us and the game of life that we play.

It explains also why gaming is such a powerful experience.  Gaming is a shadow of living in the Real World as living in the "Real World" is a shadow of living in the eternal "super real" world.

The thing to watch for is that there is someone else out there using the shadows for his own purposes. He is not God. He has claimed the Shadowlands as his own kingdom and sets himself up as the prince. All games are not benign as all things in our so-called Real World are not.  There are lies in lies and layers of deception. Games have traps built into them that lead you astray and kill you.  So does the Real World.  Be careful what games you choose to play and be very careful that you know who designed them.

The Game of Life - What's Really Going On (Part 2)

Jane McGonagal has announced that she is devoting her life to creating games that build upon the skills gamers develop in on-line games such as World of Warcraft to solve real world problems.  She's taken a run at it with such games as "World Without Oil" in which gamers try to figure out how to survive in a worldwide oil crisis and another games designed to enlist gamers to help solve problems in Africa. Her goal is to translate the energy, brains, social organizing power and productivity of computer games into real world solutions.

But who says the "real" world is the ultimate level in McGonagal's game system.  McGonagal sees gaming as 10,000 hours of time we spend, just as we spend 10,000 hours of time in school learning skills that can translate to the "real world".  She sees gaming as a parallel to formal education, both contributing skills that we can use at the next level - the three-dimensional world we all inhabit.

Real Life!

It's an interesting model, but what if it doesn't end there?  What if "Real Life" isn't the ultimate reality either?

Okay before you decide I've watched the "Matrix" one too many times, hear me out.  What is it about games that make for such an effective teaching tool?  There are a couple of things:

1.  If you die in the game or lose, you don't die or lose in the real world.  You've learned your lesson and next time you can get it right.  This characteristic of games led to the idea of Eastern mystics (great game players themselves) that life is an endless cycle of do-overs till you get it right and achieve something called nirvana. Nice idea, but I think they missed the point.  This characteristic of games (that no matter how the game works out, you'll be okay in the real world) makes game players very brave and willing to take risks. Games then become a place where we can practice risk-taking.

2.  Multi-player games encourage building alliances and partnership to win the game. It's interesting how some people will choose a noble, trustworthy persona and others will choose to give their dark side free reign.  In Monopoly, for instance, I've seen people lose time and again because they were being "nice" to their fellow players instead of being the cutthroat the game calls for.  Games allow you to experiment with social interaction so you can see the consequences of what you do.  This is a powerful teaching tool.  Even single player games are not always about winning entirely. Players often go easy on less experienced players or throw games because they want their opponent to feel good about themselves.


In sports we learn teamwork and physical skills, planning and execution. These are all things that translate to the real world or they were supposed to until school sports programs gave themselves over to a winning at all costs philosophy.  Then, sports began to teach players that it was all about the money, that unless your shoes cost $200 a pair, you were less worthy than others and that personal fame and glory for your personal exploits was more important than the good of the team.  That's why you see so many teams with expensive marquee players that are perennial losers.

So what if real life is a teaching experience. What if real life is teaching us lessons that, like games and sports lessons, are for use at another level - something beyond "Real Life".

More tomorrow.

The Game of Life - What's Really Going On

I watched an interesting speech by game designer Jane McGonigal on the TED website this morning over breakfast.  McGonigal believes that games are more than just an amusement, but are actually a powerful tool for teaching.  Malcolm Gladwell in his book "Outliers-The Story of Success"  makes the case that anyone can become a superstar if he or she devotes 10,000 hours of intensive study to a single skill or subject.  Anyone!

A couple of interesting facts here.  From fifth grade to high school graduation you spend about 10,000 hours in class.  At the current rate, in countries with a well-developed technological infrastructure and above average standard of living, the average child will spends 10,000 hours playing on-line games by the time he or she reaches the age of 21.  According to Gladwell this will make them superstars.

The question is, at what are they learning to be superstars.

McGonagal cites 4 traits that on-line games develop. 

1. A sense of urgent optimism:  In games you are always on the verge of succeeding at something, perhaps of winning big. At the very least, the solution to whatever problem is presented to you in the game is right around the corner.  You know the problem can be solved, so the game encourages you to be optimistic.

2. The ability to weave a tight social fabric:  Gamers choose their companions in the gaming world who share their goals and values and who are trustworthy, reliable and who have a skill to contribute to the task at hand. The gamer learns to find friends who are a philosophical match and to provide them with positive reinforcement to remain part of the group.

3. A sense of "blissful productivity":  Psychologist  Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (me high, cheek sent muh high eee) called this experience flow.  It's the feeling you get when you are doing something that you know how to do well that you also enjoy doing.  Very often persons experiencing "flow" or "blissful productivity", as McGonagal calls it, lose track of time or awareness of what's going on around them.  Athletes get this when playing whatever sport they play. Runners experience it as a "high".  Practitioners of forms of meditation experience it as part of their rituals. Sportsmen and gamers get into the rhythm of the contest and lose all sense of the world around them. This is a very addictive experience and people go back to it looking to reproduce that transcendental experience with almost the fervor of an addict looking for the next drug hit or alcoholic for a booze binge.

4. Epic meaning:  In the game there is a sense of some connection to a wider world or a greater meaning.  Athletes get it by setting "world records". On-line gamers get it by completing a level, saving a planet or rescuing the princess. My son once set a district record in the 100 meter sprint. Yesterday he described that one race in vivid detail down to the reaction of his coach and teammates on the sidelines. He set a record that goes into the books forever.  However small such a thing might seems to a disinterested observer, it is a big thing to those participating in the game. As humans we have a powerful need to tell our story in such a way that we are the hero of our own story and that our actions have meaning beyond our immediate mundane lives.

I believe that McGonagal's observations about gaming point to an even larger truth about what Douglass Adams called "Life, the Universe and Everything Else".  There's more going on here than you might think. Turns out the reason games are so good at honing these particular skills, may explain why Christianity is so successful at improving the quality of human beings. 

More on that tomorrow.....