Pop Goes the Culture

If I had to face Jesus in a guitar battle, I bet I'd lose

Here's something I bet you don't know: I'm a rock star - actually, a guitar god!

I've gone head-to-head with Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello and sent him packing. I've had a guitar battle with Guns N' Roses' (and currently Velvet Revolver's) Slash, and sent him away with his tail between his legs while hundreds of people go wild, celebrating my rockin' victory, wishing for an autograph, a lock of my hair or even my baby (wait...scratch that last one).

Then I notice the clock and realize I'm going to be late for work if I don't get a move on, so I turn off my Nintendo Wii, swear under my breath and scoot out the door.

In case you haven't caught on by now, I'm talking about Guitar Hero, the biggest video game craze since every gamer went out and bought an XBox specifically for Halo 3 tournaments.

This thing's big now and quickly growing. It's already sprouted a competitor, the very-fun-to-play Rock Band (which brings bass, drums and vocals into the mix), along with world-wide tournaments and even ramblings of a movie in the works (too bad the ramblings sound like it'd be an utter crap Brett Ratner flick).

There is one problem, though. While the music used for the game is some of rock's super hits, what about other forms of music? Do you really want a cherry pie to constantly put a smile on your face 10 miles wide? Are there really fun and games when they welcome us to the jungle?? What if we have a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell??? (wait...scratch that last one).

Heck, what if you like, say....Christian music?

Well, gee golly, are you in luck!!!

Harmonix, the same company responsible for both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, is currently developing and releasing on Sept. 25th, 2008 a Guitar Hero knock-off called Guitar Praise. Instead of the usual heavily-tattooed, hard-livin' hair band primadonnas seen before, Guitar Praise is going to be full of songs by today's most popular Christian bands, including (but not limited to) Caedmon's Call, dc Talk, Toby Mac, Skillet, Hawk Nelson, Jesse Daniels, Newsboys, Petra, Spoken, Whitecross and a bunch of others.

Now, there's bound to be a lot of suits in the gaming and music industries who'll no doubt put their heads together, guffawing and declaring how uncool playing Christian music really is. There's no market for this sort of game, they'll say. Today's youth culture aren't about worship, right?

They have no clue. The Christian demographic amongst young people is enormous in this country and the market is virtually untapped in the video game community. That's not to say that every kid, tween and teen who worships wants to mash 'A' repeatedly to throw the stone at Goliath or put in a cheat code to get more loaves of bread to feed the 5,000, but this is a pretty slick way to bring their beliefs (and wallets) to the forefront (and, yes, the money factor shouldn't necessarily come first for a Christian video game but, let's face it, someone's making money off this thing).

It's not without it's flaws, though. The game is only available for PC or Mac (no Playstation, XBox or Wii version - yet) and comes with a hefty price of $99.95 (though that includes the game and guitar controller and is comparable to the Guitar Hero games). However, with a lack of Christian-based games outside of the Veggie Tales realm, I'm willing to bet this'll do well.

So go ahead - tell your local priest or pastor to sit back and relax one Sunday morning and make the congregation testify yourself by rockin' the pulpit!!!

- Jason

My dwarf paladin led to my divorce!

Most people seem to get divorced in this day and age at the drop of a hat, though often it's due to serious issues like fighting, abuse, a partner going astray, alcohol and drug addiction, etc. Well, add another reason to the compost pile of holy matrimony - video game addiction.

It seems a 28-year-old California woman is dumping her hubby of 6 years due to his extreme addiction to the online roleplaying game (RPG) World of Warcraft. Wife Joeclyn said of ex-husband Peter:

“He would get home from work at 6:00, start playing at 6:30, and he’d play until 3 a.m. Weekends were worse — it was from morning straight through until the middle of the night. It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life.”

She goes on to explain that she would try to schedule "together" time for the two of them and he would never participate because he was in the middle of a raid. Afterwards, he just couldn't understand why his wife was so upset. Hmmm...

Feel sorry for her? Try this: she bought him the game for Christmas. Still have sympathy pangs? It gets better: she literally helped make the game!

Joeclyn is a former employee of Blizzard Software, the company who created the behemouth videogame, and actually helped develop it for a short period of time. In the article she says:

"[Blizzard] built it in such a way that you have to keep putting more and more time into it to maintain your status. I remember thinking when I was married that it was downright exploitative to people who couldn’t control themselves in that way. It’s set up like a drug.”

Really? You knew this and gave it to your husband???

Now, before every female who reads this blog decides to gut me alive (and I'm talking to both of you), let me say that by no means is the husband blameless. Seriously, 6 pm to 3 am? Wow. And when your wife sets aside "together time", you sure as hell better be there! (Guys, take notes).

But why would you buy your spouse something that you know that people are getting hooked on? Did you try to talk about counseling or get him help? 'Cause if there's one thing this man needs now, it's help. He's addicted and, while videogame addiction is still a sticky subject amongst professionals, this guy obviously needs some intervention.

I'll admit that I played this game a little at one point (shut up, Mariah). Absolutely nowhere nearly this bad, but I graduated college with a friend who became a background artist for the game and passed a copy on to me. It's fun for awhile, and I can believe how people would become addicted. Like anything else, it needs to be played in moderation. Now if only you could convince the average gamer of that...

What do you think? Are videogames a justifiable reason for divorce? Was she right to do what she did?

And guys: when you get home tonight, give your wife a kiss before plopping down in front of the TV or videogame console. She needs to know she's loved and appreciated.

Also, if you don't, you'll never hear the end of it ;)

- Jason