The Charity of Gamers

"Goodness is the only investment that never fails." -- Henry David Thoreau

With all of that in mind it is time to examine just what constitutes charity. According to most common dictionary definitions, charity -- or almsgiving -- is the offering of money, time, or goods by private or public figures for the relief of the unfortunate or needy members of a community, or entities whose principal works address the needy.

As is often the case when a word or a concept is being examined, the epistemological roots often helps to paint a larger picture and, especially when the concept has social-origins, allows us to better understand how its meaning and its application have evolved over time and what it means to us today, so would it shock you to discover that our entire concept of charity springs from religion?

"The English word 'charity' can be traced back to the 4th Century when St. Jerome translated the Bible from Greek into Latin. The Greek word 'agape' was used in the Bible as a noun, verb and adjective. Agape appeared over 312 times in the New Testament (Peck, 6). Prior to the Bible, 'agape' had only been used sparingly in the Greek classics . . . There really was not one precise meaning of the word 'agape' in the Bible because of the multiple uses of the word. The implied meaning, of course, affected the word(s) chosen for the translation. St. Jerome chose the word 'caritas' or 'charitas' as a synonym for 'agape.' The Latin word 'caritas' already existed and by using the word in the translation of the Bible, the word was given a religious meaning as well as a secular meaning." (11)

So in the process of translating the Bible from one language to another more widely used language the translator -- either knowingly or by accident -- set into motion the first steps in what would become the foundation values for countless Christian organizations and groups that would follow! The choice of that word would shape the way that societies viewed the whole notion of charity, and for the most part in good ways!

The ripples of that word choice can still be felt today, as statistics support the willingness to give of oneself in time, or to give money, with a direct correlation to how happy you are -- remember the point above about gamers being more sensitive to the plight of the less fortunate because they are gamers, meaning because they are happy? (12) Yes, it is your happiness as a gamer that makes you a better person as a human, and how cool is that?

In 1996 then First Lady and now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote a book entitled "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us" that, while it was the source of more than a little controversy considering that it was used to take some cheap shots at her when she was campaigning for the Democratic nomination for President, among the other points that it made was the fact that our efforts -- and responsibility -- as members of our community extends to charity within that community. Some politicians still do not get it, some members of our society still equate charity with giving the lazy a free ride, largely I suspect because they cannot see the horrific results of the policies that they themselves helped to create and how that has played out on the world landscape.

Fortunately though, as gamers, we get it; and what is more, between the gamers who work at the game companies who create the games we play, to the gamers who make up social groups and guilds, right down to the individual gamers sitting in front of their consoles and PC's slaying Orcs who Must Die and swinging from their Bat Ropes, we have many options available to us to help.