Zachary Anderson of Raiding Party Games saw the retailer looking for good Christian games (see 'Chris Hunter of Funhouse Games and More on Christian Games') and sent these thoughts:

 

In response to a question about where to find a game that exemplifies Christian values without being a 'lets-all-get-along' sort of game:

 

The problem here is how to express 'Christian Values' through a game format.  Given a Universal Truth, everyone believes the same thing, so there isn't any disagreement, and as such there's no reason to compete.  If the competition is to find out who's the best, using strategy to hinder one's opponent isn't usually seen as fair play, so in a game without such there wouldn't be any interaction with one's opponents.

 

Devil's advocate sort of games probably shouldn't be suggested, since one player ends up playing 'The Dark Side'.

 

That being said, there are a few I can think of.  Games where 'the badguy' is played by the game itself rather than another person, like Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings (strong Christian themes even if not set in Jerusalem; that might garner controversy in the store, though) game, is possible.  I haven't checked out Descent Into Hell, but if the players aren't hindering one another that's another possibility.  Beyond that, trivia games or games with a Christian label slapped on it are probably the most popular.

 

To be honest, playing 'values' is hard to design as a game.  The best possible games to bring up peoples' values are going to be 'getting to know you' sort of games, and then people get to talking about their values.  Otherwise you get into a competition about whose values are the best, and either you have a dogma to define which person is right and there isn't a competition so much as a quiz to see who has the right answer, or people have differing values without a dogma and everyone has a subjective answer to why their values are right without there being an objective right answer (and thus, no way to 'win').

 

I hope that helped.  Best of luck and God bless your store.


 

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