The curious religions of multiplayer video games

[rug]

Online gamers are putting gods in the machine.



A Night Elf Priest from World of Warcraft.

By Abraham Riesman
Globe Correspondent
July 14, 2013

These days, it’s a common refrain that the youth of the first world are growing up godless: Church and temple attendance have plummeted in developing countries. Meanwhile, those same young people are increasingly plugged in: Gaming, especially online gaming, has become a multibillion-dollar industry.

But what if they’re having religious experiences inside those very games? William Sims Bainbridge, a sociologist who has been studying religion for more than 40 years, turned his attention toward religion within gaming in 2007 and found far more worshipers there than you might expect.

Though at 72 years old Bainbridge might not fit the conventional image of a gamer, he has logged more than 3,000 hours in more than 30 online games to find that religion—albeit fictional, often fantastical religion—is a powerful force in many of the intricate virtual worlds where some gamers spend their time.

What do these religions look like? In a new book, “eGods: Faith Versus Fantasy in Computer Gaming,” he paints a detailed portrait. There are the gods of “EverQuest II,” vain and capricious creatures who abandoned the world and have only recently come back, leaving players to decide whether they stand to gain from worshiping them. There is “World of Warcraft”’s Church of the Holy Light, a massive bureaucracy only vaguely focused on the impersonal divine entity at its center. There are tech-obsessed religions, such as the one in the game “Fallen Earth” that seeks to destroy the remains of humanity in order to “reboot” society.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/07/13/the-curious-religions-multiplayer-video-games/a09DHHGybIWccqwHPPa1vJ/story.html

[cbayer]

1. Fascinating. I had no idea, since I never play these games.

But the people I know who do certainly do seem like fanatics, so this should be no surprise.

[uriel1972]

3. Hmmm you never know who might be an online game player...

Would that make me a "Fanatical Atheist"?

[cbayer]

4. I don't know. Are you?

[Neoma]

2. The Elder Scrolls (Skyrim) has 9 divines.

Talos (Under debate.)
Mara
Akatosh
Dibella
Zenithar
Arkay

And er...*looks up*

Stendarr
Kynareth
Julianos

I guess that's it unless you count the daedra. They're more like demons. Some good, some bad. And one God is under fire in skyrim. Started an entire civil war and all just because they want to worship Talos.

I like the mythology of it all. But I can hardly say I'm having religious experiences while going around setting fire to people when blessed by a divine. Especially since I'm planning to become a vampire to kill all the homeless people after I assassinate the emperor. Get my drift?

[cbayer]

5. Say what? You are going to kill all the homeless people?

Wow, what's up with these games?

[Neoma]

6. Well, really you can kill anyone in the game.

I added that for dramatic effect, but it's definitely not a non-violent game. Neither is WoW I'm sure. A good chunk of games are based on Zelda.

[ButterflyBlood]

9. The only real "homeless people" in Skyrim I can think of are the bandits

But you can kill anyone. Just do it in a city and the guards hit you, and that can be tough early on. Winning such a battle is a great achievement, and that's why players try this sort of thing, not due to any sadistic fantasies or anything. I should point out that slaughtering entire villages does not work in your favor since that also means killing all the innkeepers, blacksmiths, food sellers, etc. that you rely on for supplies and recharging. It's a lot of work for no real gain.

It's kind of like the Grand Theft Auto games. The reason why people liked to cause mass destruction and kill as many people/blow up as many cars as possible was because that'd increase your wanted level, the police would escalate against you, and eventually as you kept it up, you'd die. The challenge was to see how long you could do it. A person seriously playing GTA would never go around shooting random people because that would make completing your mission far more difficult.

[cbayer]

10. I love computer games, but have never been into these kinds.

I really like the Wallace and Gromit game, though.

There was no religion and no one dies.

[kentauros]

11. These are the only games I play, and you might like them, too:

Littlewing Pinball

Jigsaws Galore

I did play Myst at one time, but was just never 'clever' enough to solve it all.

Now, there is a game I've wanted to get called the Wild Divine. Although even for that discount price, I'd rather get a legitimate copy of Corel Painter 12 and maybe a larger tablet from Wacom. Both would relax me as I actually produce something

[cbayer]

12. I loved Myst and apparently there is a new game that is similar.

I have serious connectivity issues right now, so can't download anything.

I am a Sudoku addict. So totally left brained am I, that I am surprised that I don't fall over when I stand up.

Thanks for the suggestions. When I get to a place I can download, I will check them out.

[kentauros]

13. I had to look up Sudoku,

and now that I see it, I don't think that's for me. Too analytical!

The pinball games are great, though they are difficult at times. Once you get into the multiball play, then you rack up the points fast. All done on the keyboard, too.

The jigsaw puzzle game allows you to use your own photos, which is what I do instead of the supplied or packs you can buy. A wide screen is best for that one, too

[cbayer]

14. I was a huge pinball fan earlier in my life.

It's hard to find a real machine these days. Everything is electronic. Will check out the computer games, though.

Any suggestions for good iPad games? I like to use the iPad for games, as I can sit outside and use no electricity.

I don't have anything with a big screen. Have to watch energy consumption pretty carefully.

[kentauros]

15. I don't own any kind of pad/tablet computer,

so my best guess for good games would be things like crosswords, majong, solitaire. Littlewing makes some of their pinball games for the pads and phones, but would think they'd be a bit hard to see.

Here's a flash-based game called "flOw", though I don't know if it'll work on iPads, being flash and all. It's fun and calming and addictive

[cbayer]

17. Thanks for the suggestions.

I briefly had some kind of pinball game for the iPad. It was kind of fun because you could shake the tablet just like a real table. But it wasn't that much fun.

Will check out some of your links when I can.

Again, thanks for all the suggestions!

[kentauros]

18. You're welcome!

And have fun, wherever you are, and wherever you find yourself

[LostOne4Ever]

7. I think this guy is putting way too much into it.

WoW in particular is high fantasy which often has a long and involved backstory involving a pagan pantheon. They are the source of magic spells used by the players and evil bosses in the world.

Interestingly enough, WoW kinda secularizes its own religion in that they hint quite heavily that the "gods" are actually just Aliens. One race of demons in wow, the eledar, were originally a people who were corrupted and you can even play a non-corrupted version of them in the Dranei.

A recent development in the game is that the rather vain Nightelves have recently discovered that they are in fact just an race of trolls mutated by exposure to the magic of the moonwell. Up until recently they believed they were the first race created by Elune (moon goddess).

Similarly since they moved away from the moonwell and discovered the sunwell the High elves started to evolve their own set of traits distinguishing them from the Nightelves. When the sun well was destroyed many high elves turned to demonic magic to sated their magic addiction and started developing demonic traits like glowing green eyes.

The gnomes who are pretty atheistic have learned they were originally robots created by the gods who fell victim to the curse of flesh. They are just now learning how to become priests (cough field medics cough).

"The thing about the Holy Light is, it is, at best, an ethical system, and there is no hint that a deity exists. It presents a few fairly simple ethical principles and it gets debated at various points, but if you actually do all of the quests, all of the missions, you realize it’s a sham. It claims high ethical characteristics, but that is merely the way this somewhat tottering aristocracy holds control"

The light itself is not a sham in the game, rather the church built around an incomplete understanding of it is the sham. For example, the Naruu are messenger's for the light and if you pick a priest or a paladin your abilities draw from the light. What more proof do you need that something exists than the ability to resurrect the dead and turn the undead into dust? There is no faith in these type of fantasy tales, the existence of their pantheon is provable fact.

But in real life you don't get such obvious proof much less gods coming down and directly interacting with people. Im not saying that they don't put alot into their mythos, but that its par for the course in fantasy games and usually the explanations for the abilities they give players and the major plot moving device.

[gcomeau]

8. Best place to have religion, right where it belongs...

...in a fantasy world where it serves entertainment purposes without causing any harm.

[rug]

16. Here's some more entertainment.

[JoeyT]

19. He's either really reaching or he's lost his mind.

I had no idea WoW had any relevant deities whatsoever, and I had four level 80s (one of which was a paladin) and a guild full of lore obsessed weirdos that could (and often did) tell you why one faction hated another or allied with another. The only reason I was aware there were deities at ALL in WoW was from playing Warcraft 3 before it came out. They're seriously that absent. I honestly thought they were all dead.

The only experience I had with Everquest's pantheon was invading their homes and killing them and their servants repeatedly to steal their things. They were dragons with Death Touch and a bigger aggro radius.

I didn't play EQ2 enough to get much into it, but I didn't see a whole lot of stuff about deities other than the Dark Elves (Who are religious fanatics anyway) grumping about how maybe Innoruk was possibly coming back. Other than wondering when they're going to show up so we can kill them for their gear again, no one in Everquest 2 seems to care about deities.

The vast majority of players completely ignore in game pantheons unless it directly benefits them in some way. Then they'll do the quest or whatever and go back to ignoring them. The only way EQs really benefit players is a handful of crappy deity specific gear, and in determining faction. Way back in the first few months I abused a bug to create an agnostic cleric and had to give it up after my guild refused to sell me any spells. Agnostic is actually the *best* choice in the game as long as you're not a cleric/druid/paladin. Not picking a deity doesn't make you kill on sight anywhere. Being in an area where your deity is hated means everyone in the town will try and kill you. One class (Enchanter) more or less HAS to be agnostic if you want any use out of them.

He might have been playing on Roleplay Enforced servers, but that's hardly an example of MMORPG culture: The number of people playing RE are vanishingly small to the point most MMORPGs only have one or two for every ten regular servers and five playerkilling servers, and they're universally mocked by pretty much everyone else. You could just as easily make the claim (based on RE servers) that MMORPG players are leading the way in bringing back horrible fake old English. Dost thou knowest of what I speaketh?

Real world religions aren't in any way threatened or being replaced by in game ones.