At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Youth Ministers were searching high and low for ways to connect with and engage with students. One of the ways was through online gaming. Youth Ministers like Steve Cullum were even using games like Jackbox Games to reach teenagers in other states. Others would get on X-Box, Playstation or Nintendo Switch to play video games with students. And these are students the leaders would have not had a lot of contact with before the pandemic. It was an amazing time of connecting in different ways..
While this was a great time an opportunity for student ministers to connect with students, as more and more Churches began to meet back in person, online gaming options became less and less an attractive option. Then, in October 2021 Facebook announced their name change and a new focus on the metaverse. At that point regular online gaming became even less attractive as the focus switched to metaverse ministry. While a lot of the online community is now focused on the metaverse and virtual reality, there are still plenty of great online games that are available, fun, community building, and don’t require a headset to play.
The focus and priority for Churches and student ministries fo focus on the metaverse, the reality is, there are still plenty of people that play online. In fact, here are some stats on video games and gamers:
- The average gamer is 34 years old
- 70% of gamers are age 18 or older
- 60% of Americans play video games daily
- 45% of US gamers are women
Because of the variety of video game players and ages, people play them for a variety of reasons. Two of the four types of Gamers, highlighted by Bartle, are “Socializers” and “Achievers”. The “Socializer” experiences fun in games through interaction with other players, rather than playing alone. Socializers are also happy to collaborate in order to achieve bigger and better objective rather than playing and achieving it alone. The “Achiever” is all about collecting points and badges. They want to be able to show their friends that they are progressing and experienced. Achievers can often be found playing more competitive games.
Below are a list of games that student ministry leaders can play with either the average gamer and the more experienced, competitive gamers.
For the average gamer (The “Socializer”):
- Mario Kart Online. This is a classic Nintendo game that is easy and fun to play. People can compete with all their friends and others from around the world in different competitions on the Nintendo Switch.
Super Smash Brothers. Just like Mario Kart, you can create an arena and play with just your friends or others from other places.- Clash of Clans. Here you create your own Clan and start working together to be other Clans. This is a mobile device game.
- Among Us. This is for up to 10 friends and works just like Mafia. There is a killer “among us” and it’s your job to find the killer. You can play this on a mobile device or on a PC.
- Board Game Arena. Do you like board games? This is an online board game platform with over 230 games available that you can play with others.
- Psych! This party game is a great way for students and leaders to get to laugh as they try to get know each other with fake answers to real trivia questions.
- Jackbox Games. These games work great for fun and community building. There are a variety of games you can play in person online or just online.
For more experienced gamers (The “Achiever”):
- Fortnite. While some gamers will play Fortnite for fun and community, there are also a lot of gamers who are ultra competitive with Fortnite. It’s a very popular game and they are always updating it with new options and passes.
- Overwatch. This is a very popular and one of the best competitive games for team-based gameplay. You can pair up with 5 other players and battle it out with others.
- Call of Duty. This is a little bit more edgy and controversial as parents may not be too excited about their child playing games where people are activity killing others. However, this is a very popular game as a lot of teens and young adults play this game. You can play via multiplayer and in battle arena formats which makes for a great opportunity to work together and build friendships.
- Rocket League. This cross-platform gameplay is great for casual and hardcore competitive players alike. The game is simple yet hard to master as each player is dropped into a rocket-powered vehicle and must hit the ball into the opposing team’s goal to score points and reach victory. It’s similar to soccer, just futuristic and with vehicles instead of players.
- Goldeneye. This is a classic N64 game that was extremely popular with gamers. While you need an N64 to player this game, there are rumors and speculation that an updated version of this game is coming out soon.
Conclusion
Connecting with students is at the heart of student ministry. Student Minsters and leaders want to connect with students in a variety of ways. There are in person connection and online connection. Both can be equally effective. While online gaming may not be the “hot item” right now, it is still a great way to connect with students. With the variety of social and high performance games, a student minister can use game to start and grow relationships in hopes that it will lead to shared experiences. It is from those shared experiences that deeper, more spiritual conversations can hopefully come about. And, it is from those conversations that peoples lives may be changed for eternity. That is always a win.
What do you think? These are just a sampling of online games you can play? What are other ones? Share your ideas below or on social media.
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