Page 106 - Pure Life 11

Playing the Gospel of Video Games /105

In 2006, The Shivah won an AGS Award for Best
1
Dialogue writing and Gilbert won the Lifetime
Achievement Award. The Shivah came 2nd in Game
Tunnel's Sound award for 2006 and 3rd in their
2
Adventure/Quest Game of the Year awards.
Other Web sites states for The Shivah:”This game is
not for everyone; no game is. But if you adore old-school
adventure games; and you are willing to overlook
antiquated graphics for the sake of a story with actual
emotional impact. Then downloading the demos is a
mitzvah”. And talking about mitzvah, there is a case
3
when at a Reform synagogue used a game during a Jewish
religious worship.
”At a Bar Miztvah, the clergy and staff of the
synagogue struggled to reach the child, until they tapped
into his passion for Minecraft. Facing a variety of learning
differences, the child was eventually able to have a Bar
Mitzvah ceremony including a live video tour that he gave
of a Minecraft design inspired by his Torah portion. He
performed exegesis of the text through designing
structures in Minecraft.
The rabbi at the synagogue describes how the
community found this to be a deeply moving and
meaningful experience for all involved, and cites the use
of Minecraft as a key for an important moment in the life
4
of the synagogue and the family.”
Islam does not forbid leisure or having fun in permissible
ways, so a UK-based company named Abu Isa Games
developed in 2006 the game Abu Isa’s Quest for knowledge.

1. http://americangirlscouts.org/AGSAwards/awards.php?year=2006, September 16, 2017.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shivah, September 16, 2017.
3. Campbel, 2010, p. 63.
4. Ibid, p. 18.