“GaMe OvER:” Digitalizing Religion in Video Gaming

The appearance of religion is, by common consensus, seems to limit its restriction to matters of transcendence or the metaphysical rather than the presumed mundane realm of digital games. The frontier of popular gaming culture, though, opens an encounter that, remarkably, derives elements of religion into practice. The player’s avatar becomes immersed into a medieval fantasy filled with mystical courts, godly pantheons.

The revolution of religious motifs can even contribute to the secular, gaming setting, using conceptions of the player’s ability to be “reborn” as an ascription from the traditional Hindu/Buddhist concept of reincarnation or the Christian notion of resurrection.

Other negations of the “one-way street” in the religious intersection of gaming displays several references of religious beliefs that go beyond the boundaries of games, shaping pop cultural influences that either leave the players entering the virtual “real world” — treating it as much as a Christian literalist would read an erotic presentation.

— Transformation of the “gaming culture” into a “gaming religion”

The notion of transferring a literal concept to the digital aesthetics of video games where materiality does not exist in the physical sense would, undoubtedly, materialize as being contradictory. However, probed from the lenses of the gamers and the virtual environment becomes integrated with their socio-cultural contexts, resulting in the online world appearing in the authentic sense [1].Thus, religion can be institutionalized in both the discourse of “culture in games” and alternatively, “gaming in popular culture”.

Drawing the analogical frames between the Michelangelo depiction of “The Creation of Adam,” Sistene Chapel (on left) and the comparative reference to the ‘religious’ culture of the iconic ‘Mario’ and ‘Warfare’ games (on right)

In other aspects, the localization of imposing order is ritualized quite heavily in games like Venetica[2] (see trailer below), deploying sentiments of player agency and performativity that becomes personified by fulfilling the “quests” embedded in the digital game — similar to the sacred order that preserves the divinity associated with the Snowpiercer [3].

— Immerse yourselves in the “virtual” religiosity — a prelude into ‘Venetica’

The attribution of spirituality, itself, absorbs a subtle penetration in the appropriation of how the games, themselves, are marketed as a commodified service.If we are to saturate ourselves into the force of ‘Capitalist Spirituality,’ [4] we must attribute some attention, then, to the merit of its quality in converting the personal context of creativity into neoliberal goods

Either way, considering a game-immanent approach may serve to assist in the way religion changes representation in the myriad of its interactions with the gameplay mechanics, negotiating religious content into the game sphere.

References:

[1] Heidelbergl, Simone & Miczek, Nadja, 2010. Religion on the Internet — Aesthetics and the Dimensions of the Senses. Introduction to the Special Issue. In: Online — Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 4.1 (2010), pp. 1–12. Available: http://archiv.ub.uniheidlberg.de/ois/index.php/religions/article/view/9832.

[2] Venetica. Released 2009. Deck 13 Interactive/dtp entertainment.

[3] Harris, Jennifer. “Snowpiercer.”Religion and Popular Culture. Web. September 13 2014. https://medium.com/religion-and-popular-culture/snowpiercer-cb4f0fdef8d0

[4] Harris, Jennifer. “Selling Spirtuality.” Lecture. University of Toronto. Toronto, Canada.