Among Us
On June 15, 2018, Innersloth, an American Gaming studio published a game on the internet. That year, the maximum number of simultaneous players at any given point of time was 30. Come 2020 and the lockdown, the game was discovered by Korean gamers and eventually reached Brazilian gamers who posted it on Twitch, after which the game exploded in its popularity. Today, the Android playstore boasts 100 million plus downloads of the game. You ask any kid under twenty and they are playing Among Us with the their friends at some point of the week if not everyday. In India, the PUBG ban also help skyrocket Among Us to popularity. For those above 25, you would recognise the plot of this murder-mystery online game which has a space setting, which is quite similar to games like Mafia.
I was asked by someone if it’s ok to conspire to kill. Clearly, the game is raising ethical issues in a some discerning minds as well.
To brush it away as a simple killing game is to miss the ultimate concern of the players. It’s the lockdown. Most of us miss doing something together with our friends. The thrill of chance to laugh together, conspire something naughty together — we miss all of that. And most of the students are dreading their next online class. Some form of entertainment together would be a great idea! The ultimate concern is to feel togetherness, to play together without having to think too much of our daily concerns. In other words, it is to feel ‘among’.
There is something within us that longs for company, for community for relationship. And when it comes in the form of a game, why not. Mini-militia, PUBG, and games that had gone before had even disinterested gamers jumping on the bandwagon since their friends were there. God knew this deep longing within human hearts which none of these games can fulfill. Thus we read in John 1:14, “the Word became flesh and lived among us”. Jesus came to bring God ‘among us.’ His name is also Immanuel — God with us. The difference is that, in the game, there is a killer among us and we need to vote him/her out. But with Jesus among us, it is about love. It is about holding everyone close to true Life. It is about snatching our brother/sister from the fire of death.
More than condemning the game, I would like you to think of the game as a springboard to think about the God who brought heaven among us and calls us to allow love, joy, peace, patience, goodness and the like to flow into our lives. The ultimate concern behind the game is that deep togetherness we are longing for. In that case, let’s go to the source ( Jesus Christ) and experience that deep togetherness. Read him, know him, practice him, share him. Perhaps, than we might find better ways to let love flow among us and discover a new way to just ‘be’ among us.
