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52 - Video Games and the Psyche: Agency, Anxiety, and Upbuilding · Mythic Mind Games

0:00
Speaker 1: Imagine that you have a set of decisions in front
0:02
Speaker 1: of you. Take the door to your left, take a
0:04
Speaker 1: door to your right. Embrace what seems to be the
0:07
Speaker 1: fate that is laid out for you, or attempt to
0:10
Speaker 1: defy that fate and forge your own path. You can
0:13
Speaker 1: choose to speak up when it's potentially dangerous to do so,
0:18
Speaker 1: or at least fraught with dramatic implications. Or you can
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Speaker 1: choose to stay silent when you know that there's something
0:25
Speaker 1: that perhaps should be said. When you are faced with defeat,
0:28
Speaker 1: you can try again, think through where things went wrong
0:32
Speaker 1: and where they might go better next time. Or you
0:35
Speaker 1: can choose to give up and to walk away. Whether
0:38
Speaker 1: you're dealing with real primary world situations or real secondary
0:43
Speaker 1: world situations, the point is the same that you're dealing
0:47
Speaker 1: with an existential moment. A moment that calls something up
0:51
Speaker 1: within you, that causes you to, your body even, to
0:54
Speaker 1: tense a little bit as you focus in on possibility
0:59
Speaker 1: and all the anxiety that that compels. The anxiety which
1:03
Speaker 1: is ultimately calling you to exercise your agency, exercise your
1:07
Speaker 1: freedom to determine what path you will carve ahead, not
1:11
Speaker 1: only in the movement that you take in the world,
1:15
Speaker 1: but also the movements that you take with your soul.
1:18
Speaker 1: Every time you make a decision, you're changing that part
1:22
Speaker 1: of you that makes decisions. And this is true whether
1:25
Speaker 1: we are dealing with the primary world or a world
1:28
Speaker 1: of imagination. And of course, by imagination, I don't mean
1:31
Speaker 1: things that aren't real. What I mean is things that
1:34
Speaker 1: are happening in those mental spaces, things that are happening internally.
1:39
Speaker 1: And those things have a certain reality to them. even
1:43
Speaker 1: if the world that we're dealing with is only real
1:45
Speaker 1: in a secondary sense. We are real as we engage
1:48
Speaker 1: with those worlds. And that is what this fall season
1:52
Speaker 1: of Mythic Mind Games is all about, as we engage
1:55
Speaker 1: with the broader fellowship-wide theme of exploring the psyche. Welcome
2:08
Speaker 1: back to Mythic Mind Games, or welcome for the first time.
2:11
Speaker 1: And if you are joining us for the first time
2:12
Speaker 1: for this new fall season of Mythic Mind, then I
2:15
Speaker 1: am Dr. Andrew Snyder. I'm a professor of philosophy and theology,
2:19
Speaker 1: and I really enjoy dealing with secondary world. Whether we're
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Speaker 1: talking about literature or video games or film, I believe
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Speaker 1: that there is a certain reality to fiction that it
2:29
Speaker 1: might even be described as hyper real. And that we're
2:32
Speaker 1: taking narratives that we experience in the primary world and
2:37
Speaker 1: then putting them in a highlighted form where we can
2:40
Speaker 1: see them more clearly. We can see more clearly the
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Speaker 1: metaphysical and the narratival structures that we deal with in
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Speaker 1: the primary world set before us in a way that
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Speaker 1: allows us to engage with them in a different kind
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Speaker 1: of way. And so when I talk about video games
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Speaker 1: as a medium for exploration, I don't just mean raw escapism,
3:03
Speaker 1: but I mean kind of what Tolkien says about fairy stories,
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Speaker 1: that they provide escape consolation and recovery, meaning we do
3:11
Speaker 1: escape from the primary world, from the facticity of our
3:15
Speaker 1: everyday life, into the freedom of a secondary world, but
3:19
Speaker 1: we ultimately escape so that we can gain something of
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Speaker 1: value that we can bring back into the primary world.
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Speaker 1: I believe that all that we do should be oriented
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Speaker 1: around the human purpose, which is multifaceted in many ways.
3:34
Speaker 1: But ultimately, we are made in the image of God,
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Speaker 1: and our purpose is to reflect that image. And one
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Speaker 1: way that we do that is through creativity and engaging
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Speaker 1: with creative things. And I recognize, and perhaps especially so
3:47
Speaker 1: with my general or my core audience, which tends toward
3:52
Speaker 1: Christian and tends toward academic directions, that there's a lot
3:56
Speaker 1: of hesitancy regarding the value of video games. Are they
4:01
Speaker 1: something that grown-ups should be dealing with? Is this an
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Speaker 1: adult enterprise? Is it something that's befitting the responsibility that
4:08
Speaker 1: adults should have? Is it befitting the kind of seriousness
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Speaker 1: that Christians should have? Is it befitting the kind of
4:16
Speaker 1: seriousness that academics should have? And so I want to
4:19
Speaker 1: begin by dealing with those concerns. And really, this entire
4:22
Speaker 1: episode is going to be something of a justifier, something
4:26
Speaker 1: of a warrant for approaching video games in, yeah, of course,
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Speaker 1: a fun way, but also a serious and an intellectually
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Speaker 1: and a morally responsible way. And so let's begin by
4:38
Speaker 1: recognizing the suspicion that a lot of people have towards
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Speaker 1: video games in general as an art form. First, of course,
4:44
Speaker 1: there's the charge that video games are simply frivolous, that
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Speaker 1: This is just play. And of course, grown people have
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Speaker 1: better things to do. And this is not a bad impulse.
4:56
Speaker 1: Time has a moral dimension to it. We are mortal.
5:00
Speaker 1: And what that means is that our time is precious.
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Speaker 1: And of course, we don't want to throw it away
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Speaker 1: on entirely useless endeavors. Likewise, our attention has a moral
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Speaker 1: component to it. We are responsible for where we are
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Speaker 1: directing our attention. And so that instinct to... and be
5:15
Speaker 1: wary of things that are frivolous is not necessarily wrong,
5:19
Speaker 1: or at least not entirely. Also, there's a recognition that
5:22
Speaker 1: video games can be addictive, and a lot of people
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Speaker 1: have unhealthy engagements with video games, have unhealthy addictions to
5:28
Speaker 1: video games. And some games are engineered just to keep
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Speaker 1: you going through the loops, through rewards, streaks of some
5:34
Speaker 1: kind or another, or a fear of missing out. If
5:37
Speaker 1: you've ever looked up from your screen and recognized that
5:40
Speaker 1: you've lost an evening that you should have given to
5:43
Speaker 1: do things that ought to take more priority in your life.
5:46
Speaker 1: Maybe you've missed out on family time, you've missed out
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Speaker 1: on work, you've missed out on school, you've missed out
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Speaker 1: on much needed rest. Somehow or another, you've lost something
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Speaker 1: that you know you should have been engaging with. Well,
5:58
Speaker 1: if that's the case, then you know in your body,
6:01
Speaker 1: you know that unhealthy kind of anxiety that you have
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Speaker 1: when you are fogging up your life with misplaced priorities.
6:09
Speaker 1: And so that captive attention that video games can hold
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Speaker 1: on somebody. I mean, that's obviously a concern. Also, there's
6:17
Speaker 1: a concern from the academic side of things that this
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Speaker 1: is not a rigorous medium, that we're not dealing with
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Speaker 1: the text of a book, although some video games do
6:25
Speaker 1: have a good bit of text. You're not dealing with
6:28
Speaker 1: philosophical treaties in an obvious conventional sort of way. You're
6:32
Speaker 1: not engaging with real life, so-called. And so why should
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Speaker 1: we give this medium the dignity of treating it as
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Speaker 1: a philosophical or even a theological enterprise. And to be clear,
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Speaker 1: some games do actively deform desire simply by the nature
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Speaker 1: of the material that you're dealing with. Some games are
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Speaker 1: just a thin escapism that won't actually provide you with
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Speaker 1: anything as a return of your investment of time. And
7:00
Speaker 1: so I want to affirm that sometimes wisdom means saying
7:04
Speaker 1: no to things. That's discernment. But I do also want
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Speaker 1: to affirm that that's not unique to video games. That's
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Speaker 1: true of any art form. That some art is good
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Speaker 1: and is naturally predisposed for the upbuilding of the soul.
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Speaker 1: Some art is bad. Some movies are good. Some movies
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Speaker 1: are bad. Some books are good. Some books are bad.
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Speaker 1: Some art is good. Some art is bad. And, of course,
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Speaker 1: by bad... I don't necessarily mean like it's not engaging.
7:31
Speaker 1: It's not attention grabbing. But for me, bad art is
7:35
Speaker 1: kind of like the siren that the worst kinds of art,
7:38
Speaker 1: the most nefarious kinds of art are those that are
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Speaker 1: actually really attractive, but for the wrong reasons. They're like
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Speaker 1: the sirens of Greek mythology in that they cast these
7:49
Speaker 1: apparently beautiful songs, but they end in you being consumed.
7:54
Speaker 1: that you're drawn in by your appetites, but eventually your
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Speaker 1: appetites do you in. And so that's what I consider
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Speaker 1: to be bad art in the most dangerous sort of sense.
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Speaker 1: And video games certainly have some bad art to them,
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Speaker 1: but I'd argue that the fact that there is bad
8:10
Speaker 1: art doesn't mean that there's not also good art, just
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Speaker 1: as with other mediums. I've referenced this supposed quotation from
8:17
Speaker 1: Martin Luther before, in which he says that men can
8:19
Speaker 1: go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit
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Speaker 1: and abolish women? The point being that just because someone
8:26
Speaker 1: can go wrong with something, or to kind of extend
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Speaker 1: that a little bit, just because some aspects of this
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Speaker 1: medium may pose potential dangers, that doesn't mean we need
8:34
Speaker 1: to cast out the entire medium. But I do want
8:37
Speaker 1: to point something out here, that the moment that you
8:40
Speaker 1: seriously worry that games waste you, addict you, or numb you, well,
8:46
Speaker 1: you've already recognized that games have the capacity to form you. Well,
8:52
Speaker 1: what if They could not only deform you, but what
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Speaker 1: if they could actually form you in a positive direction,
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Speaker 1: better equipping you to be an integrated self in the
9:03
Speaker 1: primary world, right? If a video game can deform you,
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Speaker 1: then potentially it has the power to form you in
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Speaker 1: an up-building way as well, so long as we're dealing
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Speaker 1: with worthwhile material, and most importantly, I would argue, as
9:16
Speaker 1: long as we're dealing with a self who wants up-buildings.
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Speaker 1: We want a self who wants proper soul formation. We
9:23
Speaker 1: want a self who wants to be intellectually formed in
9:26
Speaker 1: a positive and moral direction. I believe that you will
9:30
Speaker 1: find what it is that you are seeking. The Proverbs
9:34
Speaker 1: tell us that wisdom calls out in the marketplace. What
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Speaker 1: that means is that we shouldn't scorn the wisdom of
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Speaker 1: the marketplace simply because it happens to be in the marketplace,
9:43
Speaker 1: the place where people are. And there are a lot
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Speaker 1: of people who actively engage with video games. It's one
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Speaker 1: of the largest, most popular media today, and that spans
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Speaker 1: generations increasingly. That includes males as well as females. like
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Speaker 1: there are a lot of people who engage with this
10:01
Speaker 1: medium and so I don't think that it should be
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Speaker 1: neglected but I think that there's a lot of benefit
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Speaker 1: to us as individuals as well as with what we
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Speaker 1: positively contribute to society to be on guard to be
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Speaker 1: discerning to be looking for wisdom where it is found
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Speaker 1: in the marketplace. And that very much includes video games.
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Speaker 1: And so don't sleep on this. Don't put this to
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Speaker 1: the side. This is a culturally important thing, but also
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Speaker 1: can be important for you as an individual. Now, that
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Speaker 1: being said, my argument is not that everybody needs to
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Speaker 1: play video games, but my argument is that, well, there
10:36
Speaker 1: are positive ways to play video games. There are positive
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Speaker 1: ways to incorporate them into your lives. that don't cause
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Speaker 1: you to have mismanaged desires and mismanaged priorities. All things
10:47
Speaker 1: need to be in order. Now, I'm just gonna go
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Speaker 1: through a number of reasons why video games as a
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Speaker 1: medium relate to or can contribute to our broader exploring
10:58
Speaker 1: the psyche seasonal theme at Mythic Mind. First of all,
11:01
Speaker 1: there's emphasis on agency that we've already been talking about
11:04
Speaker 1: on the main Mythic Mind show as I've been speaking
11:07
Speaker 1: with Tyler Finders and Jeremy Key a couple of licensed
11:10
Speaker 1: therapists about things related to selfhood and anxiety and the
11:15
Speaker 1: choices that we make, the real choices we have in
11:18
Speaker 1: front of us. And video games very much help to
11:21
Speaker 1: promote a sense of agency or the recognition of the
11:24
Speaker 1: agency that we have. And so in most stories, whether
11:28
Speaker 1: talking about literature or movies, you engage as an observer.
11:34
Speaker 1: You simply see things unfold in front of you. And
11:37
Speaker 1: there's a certain benefit to that. Now, obviously, in your imagination,
11:40
Speaker 1: you still kind of put yourself in the story. But
11:42
Speaker 1: for the most part, everything that you do is strictly cerebral.
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Speaker 1: Like you're not in any kind of bodily sense getting
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Speaker 1: involved in the story. You're not making decisions in the
11:52
Speaker 1: story regarding what's happening in the narrative. You are simply
11:56
Speaker 1: an observer. Well, in a video game, it's a little
11:58
Speaker 1: bit different in that you aren't simply watching wills at work,
12:02
Speaker 1: but you're actually exercising your own will. Even when the
12:05
Speaker 1: paths are designed in a linear format, you still lean in.
12:10
Speaker 1: You hesitate. You commit to things. You make decisions of
12:14
Speaker 1: some scale or another. And that matters psychologically. Choice practiced
12:20
Speaker 1: is different from choice observed. Now, my point in saying
12:24
Speaker 1: that is not that video games are somehow better than
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Speaker 1: books or better than movies, but they do something different.
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Speaker 1: And that different thing that they do is good in
12:33
Speaker 1: its own right. And so video games have a particular
12:37
Speaker 1: contribution to the way that we engage with art. And
12:40
Speaker 1: I don't think that's something that we should neglect. Also,
12:44
Speaker 1: we're able to engage with danger. We're able to engage
12:49
Speaker 1: with important themes of courage and determination and sacrifice in
12:54
Speaker 1: ways that don't have the same real-world fallout. And I've
12:59
Speaker 1: seen many people talk about this as the value of
13:02
Speaker 1: stories in general. C.S. Lewis has talked about this. I've
13:06
Speaker 1: seen Kierkegaard talk about this. That one benefit of engaging
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Speaker 1: with stories is that you're able to live different lives.
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Speaker 1: You're able to have experiences that you would never have
13:16
Speaker 1: in your primary world existence. And as you engage with
13:19
Speaker 1: these kinds of experiences, well, you're allowed to get things
13:24
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't otherwise have access to. and bring them
13:26
Speaker 1: into your primary world experience. And so engaging with secondary
13:30
Speaker 1: worlds is important. And this is something that Mythic Mind
13:33
Speaker 1: has always cared about. We've always cared about engaging with
13:36
Speaker 1: secondary worlds. We pursue wisdom through primary and secondary worlds.
13:40
Speaker 1: Or as Tolkien says, that we engage in sub-created worlds,
13:45
Speaker 1: which have a certain veracity. They have a certain truthfulness
13:48
Speaker 1: to them that allows us to engage with truth in
13:51
Speaker 1: a new kind of way. And so you're able to,
13:55
Speaker 1: in video games, you're able to explore courage and cruelty, patience,
13:59
Speaker 1: or panic without having the same primary world fallout. And
14:04
Speaker 1: this can be cheap, of course, depending on, again, the
14:06
Speaker 1: medium that we're dealing with, the video game that we're
14:08
Speaker 1: dealing with, or it can be a potential, an existential
14:13
Speaker 1: or a psychological laboratory. And in large part, the difference is, again,
14:17
Speaker 1: it's not so much the game, although that's important, the
14:21
Speaker 1: material you're working with is important, But the major difference
14:24
Speaker 1: is you as the player, as a person engaging with
14:27
Speaker 1: these worlds. The difference is how awake you are when
14:32
Speaker 1: you play. Now, as I say that, I don't necessarily
14:36
Speaker 1: mean that every time you play a game, you need
14:38
Speaker 1: to be working out some kind of philosophical treaties in
14:41
Speaker 1: your head or, you know, working out like the kind
14:43
Speaker 1: of content that you would produce to talk about the
14:46
Speaker 1: value of the game. I'm talking about more of an
14:48
Speaker 1: embodied kind of experience. And the reality is everything that
14:51
Speaker 1: you do should be oriented around the task of wisdom.
14:55
Speaker 1: And that includes entertainment. That includes fun. It includes the
14:59
Speaker 1: healthy kind of escape that we're talking about. And so
15:03
Speaker 1: part of being awake means simply being awake to the
15:09
Speaker 1: value that you're getting in exercising your agency. and intentionally
15:15
Speaker 1: using games, as entertaining as they may be, like using
15:18
Speaker 1: games to trigger a deeper part of yourselves than mere amusement.
15:23
Speaker 1: You move away from amusement to musing, that you muse
15:28
Speaker 1: on wisdom. You muse on the kind of decision-making that
15:33
Speaker 1: you can actually bring into the primary world. You muse
15:36
Speaker 1: on the imaginative world that you're dealing with to help
15:41
Speaker 1: you become more expansive and to consider possibility in new
15:45
Speaker 1: sorts of ways as you engage with the primary world.
15:49
Speaker 1: And so that itself is beneficial or at least potentially beneficial.
15:53
Speaker 1: And also when you play a video game, unlike perhaps
15:55
Speaker 1: when you are reading a book, your body is more
16:00
Speaker 1: in it. You can feel more of your heart rate
16:02
Speaker 1: at times, particularly tense times. You might lean in a
16:05
Speaker 1: little bit. You get that little spike when you almost
16:08
Speaker 1: make it. This isn't pure intellect. It's embodied attention. And
16:13
Speaker 1: existential questions always involve that kind of embodied attention. That
16:18
Speaker 1: it's not merely an intellectual exercise. It is intellect. It
16:22
Speaker 1: is spirit It is body, it is soul, it is
16:25
Speaker 1: an integrated self working together when we are approaching it correctly.
16:30
Speaker 1: And so those existential moments, whether in the primary world
16:33
Speaker 1: or in a secondary world, are important. They're revelatory and
16:37
Speaker 1: they are forming. And that is one potential value of
16:41
Speaker 1: video games. And now let's talk a little bit more
16:43
Speaker 1: about the psychological, the existential yield that video games can have.
16:48
Speaker 1: Because if what I've said so far is right, then...
16:50
Speaker 1: Games really do press on the same nerves that philosophy
16:54
Speaker 1: and Christian psychology really care about. And I want to
16:58
Speaker 1: highlight some of those points right now. First, there's the
17:02
Speaker 1: possibility that anxiety reveals. Every prompt that you have is
17:07
Speaker 1: a potential avenue for a decision. It's a fork in
17:10
Speaker 1: the road. And interactive media like video games concentrate possibilities.
17:15
Speaker 1: You can do this. You can do that. You can fail.
17:17
Speaker 1: You can quit. You can try again. You can think
17:20
Speaker 1: about where things went wrong and load a previous aid.
17:22
Speaker 1: You can start again. You can find out the pathways
17:26
Speaker 1: of meaning, the pathways of decision making. And just considering
17:30
Speaker 1: different possibilities allows us to break through the potential despair
17:34
Speaker 1: of finitude that we often have as we become overly
17:37
Speaker 1: preoccupied with the things that are and we forget the
17:40
Speaker 1: things that could be. And asking that question of what
17:44
Speaker 1: could be? What could I have done different? What can
17:46
Speaker 1: I do different now? What are the possible consequences of
17:49
Speaker 1: my decision making? Like just engaging in that kind of
17:53
Speaker 1: thinking exercise about possibility. helps us to break out of
17:58
Speaker 1: the realm of pure facticity that we often deal with,
18:00
Speaker 1: where we give ourselves over to the tyranny of order
18:03
Speaker 1: that says things cannot be other than they are. And
18:07
Speaker 1: it's very easy to do that, to become a victim,
18:10
Speaker 1: not simply a fortune or a fate, but a victim
18:12
Speaker 1: of ourselves, of our own stagnant thinking that says things
18:16
Speaker 1: can't be different, I can't be different, I can never change,
18:19
Speaker 1: my situation can never change. And so engaging with possibility
18:24
Speaker 1: is a very helpful exercise. considering different paths. And so
18:29
Speaker 1: this video games can give us something of the dizziness
18:32
Speaker 1: of freedom that comes before and during and after a
18:36
Speaker 1: meaningful choice. And that's close to how Kierkegaard talks about anxiety.
18:41
Speaker 1: That anxiety is not the fear of a concrete thing,
18:44
Speaker 1: but it's the vertigo of freedom. And I'm not currently
18:47
Speaker 1: teaching the concept of anxiety from Kierkegaard in this video.
18:51
Speaker 1: That's for our Academy course in October. But I just
18:53
Speaker 1: want to emphasize the point that games can do a
18:56
Speaker 1: good job of giving us exercise in that vertigo, that freedom,
19:01
Speaker 1: that dizziness of freedom that anxiety provides us with. And
19:05
Speaker 1: it puts these decisions in your hands in a very
19:09
Speaker 1: literal kind of sense. Also, there's the idea of identity
19:13
Speaker 1: or a role. Who am I when I play? Am
19:17
Speaker 1: I myself playing the game? Am I putting myself within
19:20
Speaker 1: the context of an avatar of some kind, the the
19:23
Speaker 1: leading protagonist? Am I creating a character and deciding who
19:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to be in this world? And why am
19:31
Speaker 1: I drawn to certain archetypes? If you're playing a game
19:34
Speaker 1: with a character creator, very often people are drawn to
19:37
Speaker 1: certain archetypes, whether you're the sword and board type, you're
19:40
Speaker 1: some kind of sneaky thief, you're a wizard of some kind,
19:44
Speaker 1: magic user, mage. We're all drawn towards certain things and
19:49
Speaker 1: it's worth asking the question, why? Why do I gravitate
19:52
Speaker 1: toward this kind of character, and what does that reveal
19:55
Speaker 1: about me? What does my decision-making in the game reveal
19:59
Speaker 1: about who I already am under pressure? Or also, and
20:03
Speaker 1: maybe more times than not, we can consider, what would
20:06
Speaker 1: it be like to be someone who is very much
20:09
Speaker 1: unlike me, That's a very helpful exercise. What would it
20:12
Speaker 1: be like to engage with the world in a fundamentally
20:15
Speaker 1: different sort of way? Either way, whether you're putting yourself
20:20
Speaker 1: into the game or you're putting yourself into somebody else,
20:24
Speaker 1: there's some identity work that's happening here that could potentially
20:27
Speaker 1: be a set of very useful exercises. Then there's the
20:31
Speaker 1: idea of desire and habit. that games, in some sense,
20:36
Speaker 1: they teach you what to want next. You obviously bring
20:40
Speaker 1: your own desires into the game, but games also train
20:43
Speaker 1: you in desires. And this is, of course, where things
20:45
Speaker 1: can potentially get dangerous, in that games teach you what
20:49
Speaker 1: you should want next, whether it be some kind of upgrade,
20:53
Speaker 1: some kind of achievement, some kind of goal that you're
20:56
Speaker 1: trying to achieve. When this is naturally part of the narrative,
20:59
Speaker 1: this tends to be more up-building, as you're trying to
21:01
Speaker 1: overcome some evil save something that's worth saving, do something
21:06
Speaker 1: of nobility and courage. These are good things, but also
21:10
Speaker 1: there's just the endless superficial grind that you can engage
21:14
Speaker 1: with with a lot of games. That's not necessarily such
21:17
Speaker 1: a good thing, although achievement itself can be a good thing.
21:20
Speaker 1: Dedication to a goal, even if that goal itself is
21:24
Speaker 1: not necessarily terribly noble, that dedication itself can be a
21:28
Speaker 1: good thing. It really just comes down to having rightly
21:31
Speaker 1: ordered priorities, rightly ordered desires across your engagements with life.
21:37
Speaker 1: And so my point is simply that we need to
21:41
Speaker 1: be on guard. Video games can train us to want
21:44
Speaker 1: good things, to put the world into order. That is good.
21:47
Speaker 1: So long as we are awake to what's happening and
21:49
Speaker 1: that we bring that desire, set things in order, set
21:52
Speaker 1: things right to our primary world, those are good desires
21:55
Speaker 1: that video games can help to cultivate within us. But
21:58
Speaker 1: of course, they can also... tilt in the direction of
22:01
Speaker 1: superficial addiction, that's not so good. And so my point
22:05
Speaker 1: throughout this is not that video games are universally good,
22:07
Speaker 1: but that if we practice discernment and we simply ask ourselves,
22:12
Speaker 1: am I engaging with this in a way that's leading
22:14
Speaker 1: me in a positive soul formation? Am I following the
22:17
Speaker 1: path of wisdom here or am I not? Like if
22:20
Speaker 1: you're asking that question, odds are that you're already at
22:23
Speaker 1: least starting to move in the right direction because The
22:27
Speaker 1: Fool isn't very concerned about where the path of wisdom is.
22:31
Speaker 1: But if you are, perhaps sometimes questioning, sometimes you don't
22:34
Speaker 1: really know for sure, is this upbuilding? Simply asking the
22:38
Speaker 1: question is a good first step. And so games can
22:41
Speaker 1: cultivate desires for good things, for setting the world in
22:44
Speaker 1: order in various ways, for engaging in noble sacrifice and
22:48
Speaker 1: all these various virtues of human existence. Or they could
22:51
Speaker 1: potentially train our desires in the wrong direction If we're
22:54
Speaker 1: on guard with that, that's potentially a positive avenue for self-formation.
22:58
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about what happens when
23:01
Speaker 1: you fail in a game. Perhaps one of the most
23:04
Speaker 1: iconic things in my head now is from playing a
23:07
Speaker 1: Claire Obscure, that music that plays when you die. Oh
23:10
Speaker 1: Claire Obscure It's just like it does something to you.
23:20
Speaker 1: It disheartens you, but also it makes you want to
23:22
Speaker 1: jump back in and make things right to engage with
23:25
Speaker 1: something that's more beautiful than the outcome that you received.
23:29
Speaker 1: And so games, very often, they make you fail. That's
23:33
Speaker 1: part of the game, that there's danger, that things could
23:36
Speaker 1: go wrong. And the way that you relate to that
23:38
Speaker 1: failure can have positive or negative implications. Failure can hollow
23:42
Speaker 1: you out into a kind of rage quit nihilism where
23:46
Speaker 1: if things aren't easy, I'm just not going to engage
23:49
Speaker 1: with it. And surely you can think of how dangerous
23:52
Speaker 1: that is as a life philosophy. If things aren't easy,
23:55
Speaker 1: I'm just not going to engage with it. Now, sometimes
23:58
Speaker 1: it is healthy to take a break, walk away for
24:01
Speaker 1: a little bit, but then come back and finish your task.
24:04
Speaker 1: And video games, especially the ones that are particularly difficult,
24:08
Speaker 1: can train you in that kind of dedication to thinking
24:11
Speaker 1: through where things went wrong and how they might go better.
24:16
Speaker 1: And that sort of strategic thinking is very helpful. It's
24:18
Speaker 1: kind of hopeful thinking that says that I know that
24:21
Speaker 1: there is a path forward if only I can find it.
24:25
Speaker 1: That is a bit of wisdom that we can take
24:27
Speaker 1: into the primary world. It can teach us that kind
24:31
Speaker 1: of failure. It can teach us patience. It can teach
24:33
Speaker 1: us attention, humility. grit, perseverance, it can teach us to
24:39
Speaker 1: think and to act in a way that is set
24:42
Speaker 1: on the goal of victory. And that's engaging with pretty
24:46
Speaker 1: high stakes on an existential level. Let's talk a little
24:49
Speaker 1: bit about the idea of seriousness. For many games, you
24:53
Speaker 1: can kind of save scum your way out of things,
24:55
Speaker 1: that failure doesn't have any lasting implications, but sometimes the
24:59
Speaker 1: decisions that you make, even the opportunities that you miss,
25:03
Speaker 1: stick and you can't undo something. And then suddenly the
25:08
Speaker 1: gameplay feels particularly moral. It feels serious. It feels like
25:11
Speaker 1: the things that you do in this world actually matter.
25:16
Speaker 1: And that can be good training in dealing with real
25:19
Speaker 1: life where obviously our decisions stick, right? You can't save
25:22
Speaker 1: scum your way through life. That sometimes you have to
25:26
Speaker 1: engage with the decisions that you've made. You have to
25:29
Speaker 1: engage with the consequences of your failures. of missed opportunities, right?
25:33
Speaker 1: Things that you missed that you simply can't go back to.
25:37
Speaker 1: You have to learn to accept loss. That's why one
25:40
Speaker 1: of the first conversations that we're going to be having
25:42
Speaker 1: this season is on grief in video games. Maybe sometimes
25:47
Speaker 1: the loss is scripted. And I think that sometimes video
25:51
Speaker 1: games can be particularly helpful in allowing us to engage
25:55
Speaker 1: with that kind of loss, with that kind of grief
25:57
Speaker 1: that is simply unavoidable. But we'll talk more about that
26:01
Speaker 1: when we get to that chat. And so as we
26:04
Speaker 1: start to move toward the end, why aren't video games
26:07
Speaker 1: a betrayal of seriousness and especially the kind of seriousness
26:11
Speaker 1: that Christians want to bring to things? Well, positive self-formation
26:15
Speaker 1: always cares about attention and desire, what you look at,
26:20
Speaker 1: what you reach for, what you rehearse. Well, in large part,
26:23
Speaker 1: that's what you become. that you move in the direction
26:27
Speaker 1: that you are looking for better or for worse. And
26:30
Speaker 1: it's true whether you're looking at a work of art
26:33
Speaker 1: or you're looking at a painting, you're reading a good novel,
26:37
Speaker 1: you're listening to good music, you're playing a good video game.
26:40
Speaker 1: If you're doing all these things in the right way,
26:42
Speaker 1: then your attention is being trained, your desire is being trained,
26:46
Speaker 1: you're being oriented in a particular direction. If that direction
26:49
Speaker 1: is upbuilding, then you are being built up. And video
26:53
Speaker 1: games are no exception to this. Games are simply another
26:57
Speaker 1: secondary world practice of wisdom, or at least they can be,
27:01
Speaker 1: with the added pressure of the agency that comes with
27:04
Speaker 1: your personal involvement in the medium. So to reiterate, especially
27:09
Speaker 1: for those who are still a little bit cautious about
27:10
Speaker 1: the potential artistic value of video games, what we're looking
27:15
Speaker 1: for here is serious attention, not uncritical celebration of frivolity.
27:20
Speaker 1: We are engaging with discernment that's willing to name what
27:23
Speaker 1: generally deforms within this medium, both in the material itself
27:27
Speaker 1: as well as the attitudes that we can bring into
27:30
Speaker 1: the games that cause for deformation of the self. The
27:33
Speaker 1: claim that I'm advancing is not that games are some
27:36
Speaker 1: kind of sacred entities. But the claim is rather that
27:40
Speaker 1: ourselves are being shaped in the way that we engage
27:44
Speaker 1: with games. And if we do that in a discerning way,
27:47
Speaker 1: they can actually be upbuilding, allow us to make a
27:49
Speaker 1: broader impact on our culture, which is so invested in
27:53
Speaker 1: this medium. And so I welcome you to join us
27:56
Speaker 1: with Mythic Mind Games, but I also encourage you to
27:59
Speaker 1: join us on the broader path that we're walking with
28:02
Speaker 1: Mythic Mind this season. Whether you're looking at essays in
28:06
Speaker 1: the Inkwells, You can take it in one of our
28:08
Speaker 1: academy courses, especially the upcoming course on Kierkegaard's psychology, life
28:13
Speaker 1: in anxiety and despair. Or you want to work through
28:16
Speaker 1: one of the courses that we've taught before on life, death,
28:19
Speaker 1: and meaning with Beowulf and Boethius. You can take a course.
28:23
Speaker 1: You can take a course. You can join these various
28:25
Speaker 1: conversations that we're having on video games, on literature, on philosophy,
28:29
Speaker 1: on film by becoming a member over at mythicmindfellowship.com. Become
28:34
Speaker 1: a paid member at any level to join the conversation.
28:36
Speaker 1: or just follow along for free. Again, you can become
28:39
Speaker 1: a free member in order to just keep up with
28:40
Speaker 1: all the various things that we're doing so you don't
28:42
Speaker 1: miss that. And because exploring the psyche is the season's
28:46
Speaker 1: leading theme, the games here are not just a side quest,
28:50
Speaker 1: but it's part of a bigger picture aimed at proper self-formation.
28:55
Speaker 1: And so I invite you to bring your suspicions, if
28:57
Speaker 1: you still have them, but also bring your curiosity. Maybe
29:00
Speaker 1: you'll learn something new, something beneficial to you, or at
29:02
Speaker 1: least you'll be able to look at games in a
29:05
Speaker 1: new kind of way. My goal here is not to
29:07
Speaker 1: make you like every video game, but part of my
29:10
Speaker 1: goal here is to get us to ask what our
29:12
Speaker 1: engagement with video games is doing to the self and
29:16
Speaker 1: what wisdom requires of us in response. And so in conclusion,
29:21
Speaker 1: video games are structured existential experiences. And if we care
29:26
Speaker 1: about becoming a self before God, as Kierkegaard would say,
29:30
Speaker 1: then we should take those experiences seriously for our sake
29:34
Speaker 1: as well as for the broader culture. And so one
29:37
Speaker 1: encouragement as we move forward in this series is I
29:41
Speaker 1: encourage you to play a game. Even if you're somebody
29:44
Speaker 1: who hasn't played a game in many years, pick up
29:47
Speaker 1: an old favorite or something new, whatever, pick something up
29:50
Speaker 1: and ask a few questions of yourself as you play.
29:53
Speaker 1: Whether it is successful or not, what does this game
29:56
Speaker 1: ask of my attention? What is it training me to want?
30:00
Speaker 1: And what did failure do to me? Did it harden me?
30:03
Speaker 1: Did it humble me? Did it hollow me? Did it
30:05
Speaker 1: help me to think about things in a different kind
30:08
Speaker 1: of way? And just asking those questions will help you,
30:11
Speaker 1: I think, to start to approach video games in a
30:14
Speaker 1: different kind of way, in a more inherently up-building sort
30:18
Speaker 1: of way. It will make you a person who is
30:20
Speaker 1: looking for wisdom. in this aspect of the marketplace. And
30:24
Speaker 1: so I encourage you to join us at mythicmindfellowship.com. You
30:28
Speaker 1: can become a free member to keep up with all
30:30
Speaker 1: that we're doing across the board, or you can become
30:32
Speaker 1: a paying member at any level in order to join
30:35
Speaker 1: in these conversations, get full access to our Discord server.
30:39
Speaker 1: And then if you become a member at the fellow
30:41
Speaker 1: tier or higher, you can also participate in any of
30:43
Speaker 1: our available Mythic Mind Academy courses. But that is it
30:46
Speaker 1: for now, and I will talk to you next time.