Free Will vs Predestination is hotly debated among Christians. Free Will says we make our own choices and God holds us accountable for that. Predestination seems to imply God is making choices for people to some degree. That He overrides free will to make it happen. I think the reason they believe this is because His Plan requires specific things to happen in the future that implies He controlled the world and people in it to make it happen. So, they think Free Will can't exist. Gaming argues otherwise.
In games, a designer creates the world players inhabit. These worlds let players use free will in terms of movement, acquiring/using resources, and interacting with each other. The world designer often has expectations of the player. They want them to do certain things, go certain places, and so on. There's also usually an over-arching story where very specific events will happen in the future in order.
Players are usually rewarded for following the designers' intended path. If they do it long enough, they reach the winning point. It's often perfect for the player. If they disobey, they experience anything from immediate discipline to eventual loss of life. Those in the world are usually allowed three choices: progress on important matters; doing pointless, but fun, activities that stall their progress; failing with temporary or permanent loss.
Although players have free will, the designer wants them to progress down the intended path. The designer has many options for getting the player to do what they want:
1. Designers can tell players what's required using the designers' words (i.e. on-screen). There's an implied promise that believing and acting on those words will lead them somewhere good. Example is with on-screen messages or in-game books.
2. Designers can design the physical world to entice good behavior or punish bad behavior. Good ones might be places to find food, paths that are easier to cross, and so on. Bad ones will make the struggle pointlessly harder, damage/kill the person, or prevent progress altogether. Barren landscapes, walls, mountains, and natural disasters are most common ways to prevent bad behavior.
(Note: The reward vs punishment system usually works through obstacles. The person will be able to get through some obstacles. Examples include crossing hard terrain or defeating enemies. Experience handling these problems may be used to build them up and further equip them for future challenges. If the designer is limiting player's behavior, the obstacles will appear to be impossible to overcome. While some are obvious, others will require repeated failures for the player to believe this. The designer is rewarding good character that battles obstacles with persistent effort by default, not quickly throwing in the towel.)
3. Designers often put both a time limit into games where the player's life or the world is over at the end of it. There's a limited amount of time for players to accomplish the designer's goals before their time in the world is judged. This incentivizes players to make the most use of their time. If they're not doing it, the timer might be a reminder to get back on track.
4. Designers put people in the world to influence the person: non-player characters, or NPC's. The good ones will help, heal, or equip the person. For intended path, they might give hints or even tell them what they need to know. Some know a piece of the puzzle. Some have direct revelation from the designer. The bad ones, usually enemies, will try to block progress by misleading, injuring, or killing the player.
5. Designers also design some environments to force player progress. We already noted the designer can reward players for going down the intended path. For forcing, a simple example is how some side scrollers have the screen moving from left to right with the player dying if the screen catches them. Maybe the level is filling with lava or water which forces the player up. Many conversations are scripted with predefined choices. The player might be dropped into a specific location by their allies' orders, kidnapping by opponents, or even teleportation. Random events might make them need to acquire (or replace) gear that only exists in specific places.
(Note: I have to go to work soon. So, I'll just drop these in a quick summary.)
Our world has a Designer, God, with goals for His characters (us) and His world. Some are general aspects of their behavior. Some goals are specific events He will force to happen. He gives people free will by default to choose among these. Free will is a gift, though, which God can suspend at any time.
God designs people's environment... the physical laws of our world, our biology (esp genetics), our minds (esp behavioral patterns), our natural environment (esp resources), and other creatures on the Earth... to push people's behavior in a direction He wants day to day. From miracles to natural disasters to mind-altering drugs, God can override any of this at any time to force a specific outcome.
Characters respond by mostly doing whatever they want. They can make progress toward their God's goals for them, waste their time, or do what will penalize them. Some actions increase or decrease their health with some actually killing them. One action, repenting with trust in Jesus Christ, gives them eternal life and maybe a boost in all other areas. Listening to the Designer's Word helps them make more progress.
God has a minimum of two timers, two countdowns, running for His characters: the end of their individual lives; the end of the world. Those who recognize this are incentivized to maximize what they value most: selfish pleasure, helping others, or achieving the Designer's goals. Listed in the order they usually choose them but not of their importance.
The end of the world preceeds great, eternal blessings for all characters obeying the Designer. The Designer promised it would come after all people's received the Designer's message, the Gospel. That incentivizes characters to work together to get the message to the whole world. If people listen to it, the world changes in a way to incentivize the behavior the Designer wants in more places. The end of life and of the world also discourages over-investing in worldy things because they'll all be stripped away from characters at some point.
The Designer sometimes sends direct messages to the characters', via prophecies or angels, revealing their will. The Designer and the adversaries sometimes take direct control of characters' minds (i.e. Saul forced to worship God; demonic possession). The Designer and the adversaries can limit characters' by taking away their resources, health, mental abilities, or lives.
The Designer causes specific events to happen in the future. They're usually through the collective choices of characters mixed with events, especially natural, that are under the Designer's control. I theorize the Designer uses the above-mentioned methods to do this.
In human designs, the designer gives human characters free will most of the time to operate within the constraints of the designer's world. That includes future events that are guaranteed to happen (fixed). Designers mostly do this by how they set up the attributes of the world, the characters' own design, and events in the world impacting them. Sometimes, the Designer overrides their characters' free will to move them in a specific direction but it's highly-selective and rare in most games.
God designed our world, has a Plan for our lives, and said He gave us free will. Created in God's image, what human designers do might be derived in some ways from what our own Creator does. If humans can accomplish their plans without making robots, then our God can certainly do the same thing in the same ways. At a minimum! He probably has other methods to achieve such goals that we haven't thought about.
Therefore, I believe gaming is a proof that predestination, even of future events, can work through rather than without free will. God doesn't have to control our minds like puppets every second of the day. He does suspend free will at times, though. I further argue that God accomplishing billions upon billions of specific events using free agents that mostly work against Him is a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring, display of power. If anything, predestination through free will is the most God-glorifying because it requires the most powerful God.
I feel both Calvinism and Arminianism have a weaker God in comparison to this view. They also might not contradict it depending on how you frame them. Of optional theologies, I continue to believe this one because (a) it helps me worship God in awe and (b) I believe God's methods must be superior to what I see humans accomplish all the time. I won't think less of God than I know about people.
The gaming metaphor also helps me remember that we are also in a game. It's a high-stakes game where the losers burn alive forever and the winners can loose the jackpot by making bad choices. While Christ won the game, with a high score nobody can beat, He shares His rewards with anyone who tries to play like Him. So, we need to be in the game! Let's aim for the highest score we can, too!
(Note: I have a brief essay arguing for this with how engines are designed and classical vs quantum physics.)
(Read the Gospel, learn to share it, read other essays, or back to home.)