The intersection of culture and belief gets explored in last May's NY Times magazine; author Jonathan Dee cadences on this: "Most games contain no instructions and only the simplest prelude. You learn how to play by playing. You are faced with a seemingly opaque environment and a confusing, seemingly infinite range of choices. It's easy to despair. What draws us in is our faith in the unseen designer--the certainty that somewhere within that baffling range of options a path has been laid out for us, and to stay in the game we have to find it." He's making a connection between gaming (in virtual realities) and life as it is. This might be a stretch, had he not interviewed a number of Christian game-designers, one of whom says "It really seems that the area of games isn't Christ's territory. It's Satan's backyard. And we're trying to take some of that territory back."

Despite this assertion, I think that gaming doesn't seem to dignify a Christian presence. If, like me, you're not passionate about gaming, you think: Why bother? and then: isn't there something more pressing on which to spend your time? And isn't it a bit dangerous to go where you don't need to go? So I wonder: where's God in this? And if anyone has an answer, I'd be interested in thinking about it--