Video games, like comic books, have never really gotten the respect they deserve as a medium. I meet too many people who assume that anything that involves a controller must be for kids and be about killing aliens. But this is changing. People who hear the phrase “video game” and think Donkey Kong are going the way of people who remember when comic books cost a dime.
It is widely believed that as the audience matures, and the fogeys shuffle off to complain about the next media revolution, video games will tackle more mature themes. But what about religious themes?
First off, it’s obvious that Danny is a secularist. When talking about religious themes (at about 2:30) he automatically jumps to secularism and religious freedom. Fine, but recognize that religion is a broad topic.
Folks like James McGrath are happy to expound on the way that science fiction handles religious issues – sometimes without mentioning religion at all. A discussion of guilt and redemption could be considered a discussion of Christian themes, even if no one name-checks Jesus. A discussion of the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force is just as much a religious discussion as a commentary on the First Amendment. A game doesn’t have to feature religious conflict to have religious content.
I don’t agree that video games shy away from depictions of religion, and the early days were not a barren wasteland. Infocom’s A Mind Forever Voyaging dealt with Reagan era policy, including the emphasis on traditional religion. In Sid Meier’s original Civilization, building temples and cathedrals pacifies your population: Religion as the opiate of the masses. The original Portal, which sparked arguments about what qualifies as a game, involves a character who becomes a science fiction messiah and leads humanity to a new Kingdom.
Darklands, which was set in medieval Germany, tried to stay true to medieval Catholicism, with a lengthy list of saints that you could pray to for various effects. In the fourth Ultima game you were tasked with becoming a secular redeemer by mastering a virtuous life. Most other fantasy games had some sort of polytheistic religion in the background.
Adventure, an expansion of Colossal Cave, was one of the first video games with a story, and it had a major portion in a church. And if you want a depiction of the futility of prayer, try typing “xyzzy”.
I could go on (endlessly). The point is that video games have always dealt with religion on some level. So I think the response to, “why aren’t games handling religious issues?” is “what do we mean by handling?” and “which religious issues?”
(Postscript just to say goodbye to Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore, whose computers got me started.)
Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2012/04/religion-and-video-games/#ixzz37Sq1ObnI
Digital Game Studies is dedicated to the investigation of the largest, fastest growing, and most popular form of mediated entertainment--the video/computer game. The book series is devoted to work that critically examines video games and engages the broad range of social and cultural issues they engender. The series will offer books addressing a variety of questions, including: What values or ethics do games convey? What are the social, political, and environmental implications of the production and manufacture of videogames? How do video games intersect with other forms of public discourse and media? How are social relations mediated by video games? How do video games reform the social construction of race, gender, and sexuality? For more information, visit the Digital Games Studies website: http://www.digitalgamestudies.org. Inquiries and submissions may be sent to series editors Robert Brookey at [email protected] or David J. Gunkel at [email protected]. You may also contact IU Press Sponsoring Editor Raina Polivka at [email protected].
Robert Alan Brookey and David J. Gunkel, editors
Cover
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Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
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pp. i-vi
Contents
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pp. vii-viii
Acknowledgments
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pp. ix-xii
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Introduction: What Playing with Religion Offers Digital Game Studies
Heidi A. Campbell and Gregory Price Grieve
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pp. 1-22
The perpendicular Gothic spires of a thirteenth-century medieval cathedral tower over the strangely empty English countryside. Inside, the richly decorated choir stalls are empty; the sun filters through the stained-glass windows, streaking the dust-filled air and illuminating the gilded nave and the hallowed halls, which are covered with a veneer...
PART 1. Explorations in Religiously Themed Games
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1. Dreidels to Dante’s Inferno: Toward a Typology of Religious Games
Jason Anthony
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pp. 25-46
It’s hard to imagine two more different arenas than games and religion. Games strike us as a pleasant distraction, a space where amiable conflicts play out to a conclusion which, tomorrow, won’t matter much. Religious activity is clearly quite different. It calls for utmost seriousness and a minimum of conflict, and our commitment will ...
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2. Locating the Pixelated Jew: A Multimodal Method for Exploring Judaism in The Shivah
Isamar Carrillo Masso and Nathan Abrams
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pp. 47-65
The video game The Shivah (Wadjet Eye Games, 2006) opens with the epigraph: “A Goy [non-Jew] came up to Rabbi Moishe to ask, ‘Why do rabbis always answer with a question?’ to which Rabbi Moishe replied, ‘Why not?’” In a similar Talmudic style, this chapter opens with a question: “Where has the pixelated Jew gone?” In popular...
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3. The Global Mediatization of Hinduism through Digital Games: Representation versus Simulation in Hanuman: Boy Warrior
Xenia Zeiler
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pp. 66-87
Research on digital games and religion has primarily concentrated on European and U.S. settings. Asian developments, except the Muslim Middle Eastern contexts of Syria and Palestine, have long been nearly completely overlooked.1 This is even truer when it comes to digital games that are related to Hindu and Buddhist traditions, regions, and audiences. Though in the first decade of the...
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4. Silent Hill and Fatal Frame: Finding Transcendent Horror in and beyond the Haunted Magic Circle
Brenda S. Gardenour Walter
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pp. 88-106
On a rainy afternoon in a sleepy, middle-class American town, seventeen-year-old Heather Mason visits an aging shopping mall on an errand for her father. Walking through the main entrance, Heather is transported to the horrifying town of Silent Hill, where the mall has become a monster-infested and blood-soaked nightmare. Descending...
PART 2. Religion in Mainstream Games
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5. From Kuma\War to Quraish: Representation of Islam in Arab and American Video Games
Vít Šisler
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pp. 109-133
Video games increasingly recreate real-world events and spaces, making tangible connections to the outside world. In doing so, they use real people, places, and cultures as their referents, opening new forms of representation.1 Since 9/11 there has been an increase in video games, mainly first-person shooters, produced in the United ...
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6. Citing the Medieval: Using Religion as World-Building Infrastructure in Fantasy MMORPGs
Rabia Gregory
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pp. 134-153
“A betrayal. A curse. The Age of Strife Begins. . . . Warriors, heroes, and adventurers begin the restoration. . . . What role will you play? Join the battle for supremacy or let chaos rule. Shadowbane.” This resonant baritone voiceover to the cinematic introduction to Wolfpack’s 2003 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) lists dualistic clichés of fantasy role-playing games as the camera pans over...
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7. Hardcore Christian Gamers: How Religion Shapes Evangelical Play
Shanny Luft
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pp. 154-169
On the website Hardcore Christian Gamer (HCG), evangelicals share their faith as they deliberate over their favorite video games.1 Their religiosity is overt. Members engage in online Bible study, post prayer requests, and share spiritual testimonies with one another. For example, in a discussion forum designated for sharing spiritual testimony...
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8. Filtering Cultural Feedback: Religion, Censorship, and Localization in Actraiser and Other Mainstream Video Games
Peter Likarish
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pp. 170-190
Users don’t always play the same game. Two gamers rush home with copies of a recent entry in their favorite fighting game series, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi (Atari, 2007). One lives in Japan, the other in the United States. Both tear open the packaging, choose their favorite character, and start fighting others from the television series....
PART 3. Gaming as Implicit Religion
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9. The Importance of Playing in Earnest
Rachel Wagner
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pp. 193-213
The error people tend to make the most in thinking about games and religion is to assume that the primary opposition at work is the idea that religion is “serious” whereas games are “fun.” I propose that a more accurate distinction is between being earnest as opposed to being insincere in one’s engagement with the ordered world...
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10. “God Modes” and “God Moods”: What Does a Digital Game Need to Be Spiritually Effective?
Oliver Steffen
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pp. 214-237
“I’m not sure how much religion you’ll find in The Path,” writes Michaël Samyn, director of the Belgian independent studio Tale of Tales, in response to an inquiry.1 After all, The Path “is a short horror game inspired by older versions of Little Red Riding Hood, set in modern day.”2 Six sisters, aged nine to nineteen, are sent on an errand to their ...
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11. Bridging Multiple Realities: Religion, Play, and Alfred Schutz’s Theory of the Life-World
Michael Waltemathe
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pp. 238-254
In Resistance: Fall of Man, a first-person shooter set in an alternative history, aliens have attacked earth and enslaved most of humankind and transformed them into supersoldiers. Some of the fighting in the game takes place in what is left of Manchester Cathedral in England, which in the alternative history is now infested by alien forces. As a result of this depiction, in the real world the Church of England ...
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12. They Kill Mystery: The Mechanistic Bias of Video Game Representations of Religion and Spirituality
Kevin Schut
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pp. 255-276
The video game medium is ideally suited to represent one aspect of religion: the experience of being a god. Game after game gifts players with supernatural powers. From Dust (Ubisoft, 2011) has players take the role of a Polynesian deity that protects The People mostly via reshaping entire islands. The title character of Bayonetta (Platinum Games, 2009) is a witch who can take on and destroy the forces of heaven....
Gameography
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pp. 277-280
Contributors
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pp. 281-284
Index
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pp. 285-301
Editors: Heidi A. Campbell, Gregory P. Grieve
Shaman, paragon, God-mode: modern video games are heavily coded with religious undertones. From the Shinto-inspired Japanese video game Okami to the internationally popular The Legend of Zelda and Halo, many video games rely on religious themes and symbols to drive the narrative and frame the storyline. Playing with Religion in Digital Games explores the increasingly complex relationship between gaming and global religious practices. For example, how does religion help organize the communities in MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft? What role has censorship played in localizing games like Actraiser in the western world? How do evangelical Christians react to violence, gore, and sexuality in some of the most popular games such as Mass Effect or Grand Theft Auto? With contributions by scholars and gamers from all over the world, this collection offers a unique perspective to the intersections of religion and the virtual world.
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Table of Contents
Introduction: What Playing with Religion Offers Digital Game Studies by Heidi A. Campbell and Gregory Price Grieve
Part 1: Explorations in Religiously Themed Games
1. Dreidels to Dante’s Inferno: Toward a Typology of Religious Games by Jason Anthony
2. Locating the Pixelated Jew: A Multimodal Method for Exploring Judaism in The Shivahby Isamar Carrillo Masso and Nathan Abrams
3. The Global Mediatization of Hinduism through Digital Games: Representation versus Simulation in Hanuman: Boy Warrior by Xenia Zeiler
4. Silent Hill and Fatal Frame: Finding Transcendent Horror in and beyond the Haunted Magic Circle by Brenda S. Gardenour Walter
Part 2: Religion in Mainstream Games
5. From Kuma\War to Quraish: Representation of Islam in Arab and American Video Games by Vit Šisler
6. Citing the Medieval: Using Religion as World-Building Infrastructure in Fantasy MMORPGs by Rabia Gregory
7. Hardcore Christian Gamers: How Religion Shapes Evangelical Play by Shanny Luft
8. Filtering Cultural Feedback: Religion, Censorship and Localization in Actraiser and Other Mainstream Video Games by Peter Likarish
Part 3: Gaming as Implicit Religion
9. The Importance of Playing in Earnest / Rachel Wagner
10. “God Modes” and “God Moods”: What Does a Digital Game Need to Be Spiritually Effective? by Oliver Steffen
11. Bridging Multiple Realities: Religion, Play and Alfred Schutz’s Theory of the Life-World by Michael Waltemathe
12. They Kill Mystery: The Mechanistic Bias of Video Game Representations of Religion and Spirituality by Kevin Schuts
Gameography
Contributors
Index
Playing with Religion in Digital Games
Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader
Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God
