Video dan Mobile Games, Petaka atau Peluang?

Baru-baru ini Saya melihat video proses pembuatan sebuah video game genre aksi laga dari franchise yang dulu amat Saya gemari, kini sequel terbarunya baru saja dirilis untuk platform PS5. Meski sekarang Saya menggeluti banyak hal dan tanggung jawab, once a gamer always a gamer. Wow, desain permainan ini terbilang sangat prima dalam banyak hal, setidaknya yang Saya amati, detail visual yang dihasilkan oleh "game engine"-nya, kualitas directing mulai dari voice acting dan motion capture-nya yang semakin lifelike.

Salah satu alasan mengapa video/mobile game membuat ketagihan adalah bagaimana mereka dibuat secara amat serius dan skala besar (seringkali dgn SDM dan budget mendekati Holywood blockbuster).

Mulai dari audio-visual, musik, jalan cerita & alur cerita/level yang seolah bercerita & berdialog dengan isu-isu mental-emosional, sosial aktual dan "nyambung" dengan masa kini dari kita yang memainkannya. Makanya tidak aneh juga kalau mereka yang kecanduan game umumnya juga mrk yang mengalami bullying atau suasana komunitas/keluarga yang kurang kondusif. Kebutuhan utk merasa senang, hebat, diakui, menang, dan lain sebagainya. Sedih memang kedengarannya, namun meski semu, games menawarkan hal-hal tersebut. Hikmahnya, kita ditantang untuk lebih engaged dgn komunitas & keluarga ketimbang memberi instruksi, opini, apalagi larangan semata yang sifatnya satu arah, kita ditantang untuk rendah hati & sungguh mendengarkan angan-angan dan kegelisahan generasi yang lebih muda.

Melarang tanpa solusi/alternatif sepertinya kurang bijak dan tak akan banyak berpengaruh. Sebaliknya mungkin kita bisa mencoba mendorong anak-anak atau remaja untuk tertarik pada sisi kreatif di balik games yang mereka sukai. Banyak sekali skill yang terlibat dalam pembuatan games, terutama yang "rating"-nya tinggi. Mulai dari kemampuan sastra untuk merancang karakter dan jalan cerita, seni akting, computer/electronics utk teknologi motion capture dan lain sebagainya, skill musikal dan tata suara, desain visual, programming/coding, hingga marketing, managerial, teamwork & leadership skill.

Atau .. mungkin membuat hal lain semenarik dan semenghibur games.

It's Only a Key Lock

We messed up big time, and God still wants us..

A take from Psalm 149:4

I used to think that "forgiving & loving ourselves" isn't biblical because I was more brought up with the stories of sacrificial faith even martyrdom both from biblical figures and the saints across Church's vast history.

It wasn't until recently that I was convicted by this sentence, "God takes pleasure in his people". Being sometimes too obsessively careful in sharing my takes, I stopped for a while due to historical gap surrounding this word "rotzé" used in v.4 for "to take pleasure in".

Rotzē רוֹצֶה is one of those words that I managed to learn through _Duolingo_ and in modern context it simply means "I want/he wants", (the not so simple : verb, 1st&3rd person masculine singular, present/participle, simple active form).

After a rethinking, I decided to share it anyway, vulnerably. 

There have been countless times of shock realizing I was just being "overkill" in my scolding on the boys. I was seemingly aware yet almost unable to control my reactions whenever one of them neglected instructions or if things were lost or broken under their watch. It grievens me deeply that I haven't been able to keep my promise in not repeating physical and verbal assaults I've received from my parents, especially my Dad, even after my Mom was "born again" and immediately showed tremendous change in temper, Dad didn't seem to slow down. It got even to the point where my wife had to stepped up to mediate our worst fights back when we're still dating. I was wrecked and disoriented to realize that all these times, amongst all others hardships I had become my worst enemy.

Then one moment of grace came from unexpected direction. I have been attending weekly lesson zoom (3rd month now) with RLST community, and this month's topic is "Treasure from The Old Testament", the mentor was also one of GSJA "Pdm" (associate pastor)*, in his 30's, with a (bibl.)Th.M under his belt and 400 pages thesis for his Th.B, arguing against the "misuse" of the prophetic office in our times.

Long story short, in that session (lasted around 2.5 hours), his one statement stayed in my mind.. "after the siege of Jerusalem by the Babilonians, there's no more mention about the Ark of The Covenant, until The Book of Revelation".. They've lost it! Up until today there's no hard proof besides countless conspiracy theories surrounding the findings of the Ark. Whether it's carelessness in safekeeping or in maintaining allegiance to Yahweh which would prevent such tragedy to occur in the first place, Israel messed up.. big time.

I nearly burst to tears when strangely fragments of little Felix being beaten or yelled at for more than an hour swooshed through my mind. I haven't forgiven myself for things lost and broken, I hated myself for not being good enough, for not being perfect, and later on, for not being "successful". And when I realized the gravity of Israel's mistake, and how God has been showing that not only He's forgiven them, there's this little voice in me saying, "It's only a key lock that you lost, forgive yourself, if you want to obey God, forgive and love yourself, learn to unashamedly rejoice." Being realistic, there are going to be series of spiritual and mental detox which I gladly go through, my children healthy growth is afterall paramount. Yet, I'm thankful for that moment of grace, and also to you, I suspect (and I'm usualy quite sharp with this 😅) that you've also been praying for me. 💕🙏

Should there be comments or responses, my *I will* (which I forgot to say yesterday) is that : I will learn to receive God's forgiveness by being ready in forgiving myself and others.

Many times the problem of fault and forgiveness are highly subjective, proven by how many people hold on to bitterness even though one party might not realize the fault of simply also to bitter or "thickskinned" to care. So as Ptr Tommy (IES Northwest Jakarta) often preached, it should always start with me, cause my Father in Heaven have started it through Jesus.

The word "rotzē" isn't what it used to be, when you search "רוצה", there are less than 10 appearances in the OT, and it usually means "to desire" or to "favor highly", because the Bible, especially older English uses "want" for different meaning which are either "hunger" or "being needy". But that just get even better. To know that God wants me, as if He won't be complete without me, that's already something that will cause me to die smiling, then how much more to know that He delights himself and takes pleasure in me? That means the whole world. 💕

Note:

* Currently moved to become the teaching pastor of Reformasi Liturgi Church, a local community ecumenical home church under GMII (Evangelical Methodist Church in Indonesia), and in process of continuing to theological doctoral study.