others, they are now driven by the two guys of any race, national affiliation, Alex Valle didn’t fall back on turtle dogma of the game structure. cultural background, whatever; the one tactics. (Incidentally, Valle had more that plays like Wong will be booed, the success against Daigo than any of the For many, religion and philosophy make one that plays like Daigo will be a hero. Northern California players, save Wolfe.) Religion and philosophy in games may the world a richer, more meaningful take on a leading role, where games are place. Others feel trapped by the social You saw the same thing during Daigo’s You saw it *again* when Daigo took on produced by spiritually-focused and emotional demands they place on a first visit to America, back in the Alpha 3 John Choi in the Sagat/Ryu/Balrog developers who are trying to teach person. It might seem that religion and tournament. His Gen barely lost to SSF2T match. John Choi played turtle tenets of a religion. Conversely, religion philosophies can play similar roles within Graham Wolfe’s turtle Dhalsim. Realizing Old Sagat the entire match. Tiger, tiger, and/or philosophy may be but a minor a game world. And this week, it is this what he was up against (i.e. the tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger, all damned day. bit of the lore, serving to explain the discussion, religion and philosophy and hardcore turtling that was the weapon of No balls at all, play to win, no style, no motivation of game character(s). Either their role in videogames, in which the choice of most of Sunnyvale’s top class. Boring. So, when Daigo had had way, as in real life, the religion and writers of The Escapist engage. players), he switched to Guy -- and the enough, he switched to Balrog and philosophy in game serves as the rest was history. The crowd went nuts as mowed Choi down like a weed garden. inspiration for action. Cheers, Daigo laid absolute waste to his next five The crowd went wild with glee. opponents, of whom only the venerable Sure, there are plenty of games without any semblance of religion or not a bit of thought deeper than “this block goes here, this block goes there.” But those are also the games that don’t really engage the player on a deeper, core level. Entering and exiting a game of Tetris is about as difficult as … turning In response to “Fei Long and Justin off the console. Wong” from The Escapist Forum: The crowd cheered Daigo in that match Entering and exiting a game … adventure because he whacked, with verve and … quest? of Final Fantasy is not at all panache, a player notorious for being a easy. You have to learn to play. And gutless ultra-turtle. It is *that* simple. then, you care. You’re invested. And the Asian-vs.-non-Asian, American style vs. motivation, the religion and/or robotic Asian style, “yellow peril,” -- philosophy of the game world matters. none of that stuff was an issue. Take any To some this makes the game better; for No one likes a coward. That’s all you If Blu-Ray doesn’t win, the other two smart In response to “Frostbitten in need to know. bets are “both” (via dual-format players) or Florida” from The Escapist Forum: “neither.” Not trying to say the article is The more I read accounts like this, the - M. Cooper outright wrong here, but it presents what I more I realize just how lucky I was. I see as a rather skewed picture. headed out an hour before the stores In response to “The PS3 Deadpool” opened on Sunday, saw the lines going from The Escapist Forum: The article - Dom Camus all the way around the Best Buy and, chooses to compare PS3 sales with remembering the phone call the previous XBox360 and Wii sales across the same In response to “The PS3 Deadpool” week that Fry’s would only be getting ten month. An alternative might be to from The Escapist Forum: This of them, headed back home. Along the compare the PS3’s sales with its comparison is not really too meaningful. way, passed a K-Mart, already open half competitors during an equivalent window Rather than that, it doesn’t show a good an hour. Went inside. Three people after launch. I would do this comparison, future for Sony. The Xbox360 already ahead of me in line. Four Wiix left. And but 1UP have done it for me. has a large lead NOW. The PS3 needs to they sold out of all the games (had a Interestingly (though not necessarily outsell the 360 NOW in order to catch preorder for Zelda elsewhere), so I didn’t significantly) the PS3 comes out ahead. up. If it doesn’t, the gap in userbase even have to walk out of there with between the two consoles will simply Happy Feet. Why might we prefer this comparison? grow bigger. If Sony simply follows or Well, as Allen Varney points out, the PS3 only slightly beats the 360 sales pattern - Bongo Bill is short of great titles right now. One in the equivalent windows, it will simply year after launch, presumably there will mean that in the same time next year, be more. As for Europe, even with the the 360 will still have a significant lead. console being worse and the price being Of course, with the 360’s larger higher, the launch here in the UK was userbase, it’ll only get more support the most successful in history according while the PS3 receives less(overall to Joystiq. speaking). Less support -> Less sales -> Less support -> Less sales. Time isn’t on As for Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, it would be a Sony’s side here. brave man who still thought HD-DVD likely to win at this point. Certainly the - Meophist sales figures are favoring Blu-Ray as much as two to one according to IGN. When he stood up, she asked him if he But something tells me I’m not alone. If was praying for victory. Patton pro athletes are thanking Jesus, and I’m exclaimed, “Hell no, I’m praying that I thanking Possible Higher Power Maybe do my best.” Who Knows, something tells me quite a - Patton few of us look to the heavens for help, even when we’re just, well, goofing off Chaplains in the locker room. Pointing and playing games. And there’s a reason skyward after a home run. Doesn’t it just beyond the metaphysical for doing so. drive you nuts when you hear an athlete Since the dawn of civilization, sports and say, “Jesus Christ threw that touchdown games have been tied closely to the pass”? Really, how much can the King of gods we worship far more tangibly than Kings really care about the success or hoping Animus Cristi is smiling down on failure of a bunch of athletes competing the big game. for nothing other than Pride and Greed, two deadly sins? I think lots of us roll Here, by region, are a few of the games our eyes when we look at these wanton we would have been playing alongside displays of fair-weather faith (who thanks high clergy in past lifetimes. You know, if Jesus when they lose?), but athletes you believe in reincarnation. continue putting words in JC’s mouth, and probably will until the End of Days. Western Civilization No sense in getting off on an obscure Then again, so do I. Whenever I’m foot. The Greek Ancient Olympics are the locked in mortal combat in a multiplayer most famous marriage of play and faith game, competing with some other player on record. Dating back to 776 B.C., the thousands of miles away for nothing first Olympiad has numerous other than Pride (and if it’s an MMOG mythological origins. The first makes with free looting, Greed), I toss a silent mention of Pelops, the king of Olympia prayer for victory and bragging rights to who killed King Oenomaus of Pisa (son of the ether. Me, a confirmed agnostic - and Ares) during a chariot race. Pelops went a hypocrite. on to get the girl, Oenomaus’ daughter, and live happily ever after. To celebrate, the first ever Olympic Games were Of course, the Romans weren’t without philosophy, of all of them sumo is the thrown. A second story tells of demigod religious games themselves. The Secular most interesting. While it’s turned into a Heracles winning a footrace in Olympia. Games, which featured animal sacrifices competitive sport, the origins of sumo After the race, he decreed that a race and ceremonies in addition to sporting date all the way back to the Chinese Han should be held there every four years. contests, were held roughly every 100 dynasty. It eventually made its way to Another credits the origin of the games years to celebrate each new generation. Japan and became closely tied to to the Spartans throwing a similar event The procedure of the Games demanded Shintoism. Originally called sumai, sumo a couple hundred years before, in order a new ceremony to be held after the last began its life as a ritual dance simulating to appease the gods before a battle. In person to witness the previous one died, something of an exorcism rite. one story, Zeus himself gets involved; literally celebrating the death-rebirth cycle. Participants were thought be ritualistically it’s told he inaugurated the first wrestling with a Shinto kami, or spirit. Olympiad in commemoration of his The first Games were held in celebration Since then, it’s evolved into the sport the defeat of the titan Cronus. of the miraculous recovery of a man Japanese go crazy over, where 400-pound named Valerius’ three children during a men hurl each other dozens of feet and The games were held in Olympia, a high- Roman plague; they were cured by then bow ceremoniously. Between a holy area for the Greeks. During the drinking water from a place called modern Yokozuna and a Shinto demon, events, priestesses of Demeter were on Tarentum. Valerius returned to Tarentum I’m not sure which I’d rather be staring hand to oversee the games. To honor the and made sacrifices to Pluto, the god of down in a ring. games, Greek sculptor Phidias the underworld, and Prosperina, the constructed a 40-foot statue of Zeus goddess of spring and rebirth, to give But for those of us who fear martial made in ivory and gold. Additionally, if thanks. Succeeding Games were combat, we’re blessed with go, a the games were in some way corrupted - dedicated to Pluto and Prosperina, as well Chinese-turned-pan-Asian board game. if athletes took money or someone as lesser gods of disease, the thinking Famously linked to modern numero- invaded Olympia as part of a territorial being they would be too busy watching mysticism in the movie Pi, go’s roots are dispute - it was considered blasphemous. the revelry to create new plagues. linked to ancient divination techniques. And perhaps most telling how closely the The board itself, a lined network of tiny Olympics were tied to Greek religion, the The Far East squares into which you put black and ancient games were abandoned in the Asian spiritualism is flexible enough to white stones, represents a blank 392 A.D., when the Christian emperor make its way into any number of aspects universe. Diviners would then place Theodosius I was picking apart the of life, not the least of which is martial astronomical symbols on the board and remnants of paganism in Roman culture. arts. While the majority of Eastern would then make their predictions martial arts are based in religious depending on where players placed their sponsored by stones in relation to the symbols. Even tells of a special mountain with a maze- pok-a-tok was religious ceremony, The Middle-East and North Africa now, the center of the go board translates like ascent. The first person to make it to political détente and blood sport. At the end of the day, if you want to find to “axis of heaven,” and the four a cavern at the summit returned with the the beginning of something human, your quadrants retain mystical symbolism: first go board, made entirely from Only nobility was allowed to play, and searching will probably take you to male, female, mountain and wind. magical stone. So two guys climb an would wear elaborate ceremonial garb ancient Egypt. As early as 2500 B.C. ancient mountain and one comes back over heavy padding. The game plays a senet was designed to bring common Go’s creation is also surrounded in myth with a game under his arm that ponders bit like a mix of soccer and basketball: people closer to the gods around them. and bears similarities to a Judeo- the heavens, and another comes back Players control a 10-inch, solid rubber Senet, which means “passing,” involves Christian story, that of Moses’ discovery with the foundation for modern lawmaking. ball using any part of their bodies except guiding pieces, called draughtsmen of the 10 Commandments. The story their hands and feet and try to direct it around the board and into a small box, Mesoamerica toward goals on either side of a stone representing the afterlife. While much of the Americas doubtlessly court. What’s most interesting is the linked games with their omnipresent reward for winning: decapitation at the While people did play the game for fun, religions, the only example to survive hands of the losers. It’s thought that the priests and non-clergy used it spiritually with any ubiquity was the Olmec game post-Olmec civilizations in Mesoamerica to communicate with the dead. Egyptian pok-a-tok. Dating back to 3000 B.C., considered death by pok-a-tok to be high mystics even had spells dedicated to honor, and the sacrifice was carried out divining where dead souls were in immediately after the game. Pretty relation to the positions of a senet board. tough to put together a dynasty; it It’s also thought they would use the makes the football salary cap liberating board to allow a person’s soul to reenter by comparison. its mummy, which they believed was what kept the mummies preserved. In In addition to the blood sacrifices, fact, the game permeated much of the Mesoamerican fortune tellers would track Egyptian’s afterlife beliefs, ranging from the path of the pok-a-tok ball during the tracking the sun god Ra’s travels through game, match its trajectory to planetary the underworld to rescue virtuous souls bodies and then use that to predict to rituals within their ominous-sounding harvest gains. The sport was so integral Book of the Dead. to the Olmecs and their descendant civilizations, it survived all the way up to Senet boards exist today, and contact with the Cortez and the Spanish. archaeologists have pieced together enough of the rules for The British anything to be found. I came across upon as a dangerous fringe cult by the from whatever may be up there. Next Museum to host a flash version. hazard, but it was developed during the Jews and the Romans. Openly time you pray for a little help in Counter- Crusades and was never spiritually celebrating your faith in Jesus landed Strike or during the World Series, Moving into the Judeo-Christian realm, motivated. I also found nine men’s you in a gladiatorial match against consider asking a bit louder: Those old the Jews developed dreidel, a dice-and- morris, but it predates Christianity, hungry lions. People had to declare their gods who seemed to take such an top gambling game, to both hide their though boards have been found inside faith in code; creating something more interest in the games we play probably religious activity and teach their faith Christian churches. Nothing from Jesus’ elaborate than an ichthys would most don’t hear so well in their old age. under the oppression of Antiochus IV time. How could Christianity, a religion likely have been viewed as time- Epiphanes. Antiochus, during the sacking that now covers the globe, be devoid of consuming and dangerous. of Jerusalem, made the practice of early holy games? Joe Blancato is an Associate Editor for Judaism illegal, so Jews who congregated And ultimately, even if there were The Escapist. He quotes Wayne’s World to teach the Torah would keep a dice- The answer lies in two places: Jesus Christian games like senet or the Secular and Dr. Strangelove more often than and-top game handy to fool Greek guards. himself and the politics of early Games, their chances of surviving what can be considered normal. Eventually, they began carving Hebrew Christianity. First and foremost, Jesus Theodosius’ anti-pagan purges would be letters onto the top and incorporated the wasn’t exactly a man of the Earth. Much doubtful. This was a man who not only game into their teaching. of his teachings only touched upon what canceled the Secular Games and the people did here. Rather, his message Olympics, he expelled bishops of After a successful Jewish revolt in was this life was temporary; a short step Christian ideology different his from Jerusalem, the Jews inaugurated in the journey to becoming one with Constantinople and Rome. If there were Hanukkah, and dreidel became part of God. The idea of him staging something sects that incorporated games into their the holiday, used in part to teach children like the Secular Games, or suggesting worship, which could easily have been the story of the Greek expulsion from his disciples try to speak with him via a construed as paeans to old pagan ways, Jerusalem. The letters on the dreidel top senet board, was contrary to all of that. they probably didn’t risk passing down stand for nun, gimmel, hey, pey, which What’s more, Christianity is a the traditions to the generations born means “a miracle happened here.” monotheistic religion. There is no god of after Theodosius. discus, just like there’s no god of spring Jesus Didn’t Play Dice with the Worldly or disease. There’s just God. Without a “Zeus Threw That Touchdown Pass” As I did my research for this article, I Zeus to defeat a Cronus or a demon to And that brings us back to the original kept trying to find an instance of early dance with, there’s not much to draw from. question: Does Jesus care if we win the Christian churches, or Jesus, playing big game? Probably not; if anything, he games in a way to get closer to God. But Additionally, Christianity’s beginnings cares how we play the game. But that each avenue I searched, there wasn’t were of secret origins. It was looked doesn’t mean we’re without a little help holding hands with Mario and Zelda, Will does not begin to describe the sum total Wright casting the unfaithful out of the of the experience to those of us on the SimGarden, Cliffy B curbstomping The inside. That we, as gamers, are Devil. We pray to them by hurtling misunderstood does not even touch upon insults (and controllers) when their the matter. We’re beyond misunderstood; worship demands sacrifice, we tithe (and we’re often willfully unapproachable, then some) to stay in their good graces wearing our 1UP Tees as a shield against and we congregate en masse on web belonging, blotting out our windows to forums and message boards to compare reduce both the glare of the sun and the and contrast our devotion to the deity … chance of being seen. We live both for and fight over whose is better. and in the games, and it is there that we feel most secure, most powerful and most And then there’s the games. We huddle real. This is not an illusion. over them like shamanic medicine, breathing the fumes of “new plastic” and Consider the peyote cactus which, seeing fully-rendered, high-res visions in according to Peyote.org, is “employed as a a quest to soothe our souls, expand our religious sacrament among more than minds or attain oneness with our unique forty American Indian tribes in many parts group consciousness. The games are the of the United States and western Canada.” Alpha and Omega of our shared religion, and through them we relate to each These [Huichol] Indians still assemble other and the world. Within them we find together in the desert 300 miles peace and a vague sense of security, and northeast of their homeland in the The pews are made of ballistic nylon commence whenever we feel like because of them and the community Sierra Madre mountains of western infused with plastic pellets. In front of each worshipping. We’re a devout bunch, we are, their worship engenders, we find a home Mexico, still sing all night, all day, still rests a rack, not for hymnals, but gaming but we don’t get out enough to proselytize. for our wandering souls; a place where weep exceedingly. magazines. There’s an altar, but it’s not at we are understood and feel “of worth.” the far end of the room, under a crucifix, The windows may or may not be stained Those on their first pilgrimage are it’s right in front of you, and it’s made of glass (more likely they’re posters) and Narrowly Defined blindfolded, and the participants are plastic and glass. This is the church of depict our own brand of iconography: That we play games, read about them, led by the shaman to the “cosmic gaming, my friends, and services Miyamoto coming down from Mt. Fuji argue about them and even make them threshold” which only he can see. All stop, light candles, and murmur peyote plant? Alan Pope, a behavioral education at the University of Wisconsin prayers while the shaman, imbued with scientist at NASA Langley Research Center at Madison, and Dmitri Williams , a supernatural forces, chants. in Langley, Virginia believes so. Pope, in an professor of speech communication at attempt to prove that the same meditative the University of Illinois at Urbana- The Huichol Peyote hunt is seen as a effects experienced with techniques like Champaign, claim that some games return to Wirikuta or Paradise, the biofeedback-controlled meditation training “promote sociability and new archetypal beginning and end of a could be replicated with videogames, worldviews,” which sounds a lot like mythical past. A modern Huichol conducted a study with 22 children (PDF) organized religion to me. “mara’kame” expressed it as follows: suffering from ADHD. Half of his group “One day all will be as you have seen it was treated with biofeedback meditation, The researchers, claim that MMOs there, in Wirikuta. The First People will the other half with videogames. The function not like solitary dungeon cells, come back. The fields will be pure and results were startling. but more like virtual coffee shops or crystalline, all this is not clear to me, pubs where something called “social but in five more years I will know it, After 40 one-hour sessions, both groups bridging” takes place. They even liken through more revelations. The world showed substantial improvements in playing such games as “Asheron’s Call” will end, and the unity will be here everyday brainwave patterns as well as and “Lineage” to dropping in at again. But only for pure Huichol.” in tests of measuring attention span, “Cheers,” the fictional TV bar “where impulsiveness and hyperactivity. Parents everybody knows your name.” The phrase “only for pure Huichol” echoes in both groups also reported that their sentiments seen on gaming blogs and in children were doing better in school. “By providing places for social Wii lines everywhere that only those interaction and relationships beyond who’ve been indoctrinated, only those There may be far less singing (unless the workplace and home, MMOs have who are in can understand and partake of you’re playing Singstar), dancing (DDR) the capacity to function much like the paradise - or Final Fantasy. It’s a setting or weeping (Final Fantasy VII) but hangouts of old,” they said. And they apart of one’s group from those on the playing videogames indisputably focuses take it one step further by suggesting outside and suggests that the shared the mind, providing clarity and improving that the lack of real-world hangouts “is experience has more value than simply concentration, creating a shared what is driving the MMO phenomenon” the effect of the drug - or the game. experience similar to consuming the in the first place. … “To argue that … bushy, hallucinogenic cactus plant of MMO game play is isolated and passive But what, really, are the effects of Mexico. But what of the social media consumption that takes the videogames on the mind, and can they component? According to Science Blog, place of informal social engagement is compare to the psychoactive effects of the Constance Steinkuehler, a professor of to ignore the nature of what participants actually do behind the According to these two reference sources, computer screen,” the authors wrote. videogaming could very well qualify.

The doors, as William Blake (or Jim Mirren at Zelda Universe connects the Morrison) would say, are being cleansed, dots between the Zelda universe in and we begin to see games as they truly particular and organized religion fairly are. Providing both a social and mental convincingly, starting with the yellow, stimulus, playing games, in this light, can triangular symbol adorning the T-shirts be seen as quite similar to the benefits of of many a gamer: “The Symbol. Every organized religion, offering a sense of religion has one (or even several) major belonging, a shared mythology and even symbol/s. Christianity in all of its the physical stimulus akin to drug-induced branches has the Cross or Crucifix, spiritual visions, like those experienced by Judaism has the Star of David, Islam has the peyote worshippers of Mexico. the Star and Crescent, Taoism has the Yin and Yang etc. What does Hyrule’s That we get something real and physical religion have? I think any Zelda fan from games is only beginning to be should know; the Triforce.” understood, but those of us who are in already know it feels good to be a part of Tom Rhodes, writing in Issue 66 of The the culture and to play games. That’s Escapist shares Mirren’s perspective on why we play them, why we belong. But the religious significance of the can you go so far as to describe mythology of games and suggests that videogaming as a “religion”? gaming as a religion unto itself may be evolving because of such strong Philosophy of Life symbolism. “With the increasing Merriam Webster defines a religion as “a influence that gaming is having on the personal set or institutionalized system collective psyche,” he writes, “[social of religious attitudes, beliefs, and integration of games] can’t be too far practices.” Encarta agrees and further behind, and with it comes controversy. describes religion as “an object, practice, We may have never connected religion cause, or activity that somebody is and gaming before in any strong way, completely devoted to or obsessed by.” but that day is arriving soon enough.” That day may already be here, but is was a cult, and its members were mostly this year’s GDC. As at most Nintendo videogaming a religion or a cult? disaffected outsiders (computer geeks) keynote speeches, there was cheering, Consulting our references, Webster who raised money for the cult by standing, yelling “Woo!’ and shouting of defines a cult as a “great devotion to a producing web sites and doing various encouraging pleas such as “You can do person, idea, object, movement, or computer consulting. Whatever trials and it!” and “We made it!” The looks on many work” Again, Encarta goes a bit further tribulations the 39 members of Heaven’s of the faces were bordering on manic. defining a cult as “idolization of Gate faced in their daily lives, their There was clearly adulation, identification somebody or something: an extreme or burdens were sufficient to convince them and love for the man who made Zelda excessive admiration for a person, that a better life lay in store for them in and the brand he represents. At the philosophy of life, or activity” and the arms of an unknown alien race, suggestion that Nintendo had finally “sociology elite group: a self-identified about which the only evidence for beaten rival Sony, the crowd, literally, group of people who share a narrowly existence lay in the mind of one man, went wild. defined interest or perspective.” And Marshall Applewhite, aka “Do.” here we have conflict, since Jim Munroe at The Cultural Gutter videogaming, based on definitions alone, On March 26, 1997, following speaks of his confrontation with the could be either. instructions from Do, the members of obsessive fans of one particularly the cult, ate poisoned pudding and died. symbolic game: “When I posted my bad Idolization of Somebody According to Harry Jones, writing for review of Zelda: The Legend of Last month marked the 10-year SignOnSandiego.com, family members of Windwaker (Nintendo, 2003) to this site anniversary of the infamous Heaven’s the cultists suggested they’d joined it immediately inspired a flood of Gate mass suicide, a brutal act by a cult Heaven’s Gate “searching for answers outraged comments … over 8,000 words who all believed (or were led to believe) and goals. … Applewhite offered a about a column that was about 800 that a spaceship riding (invisibly) behind simpler, more focused way of life that words long. … One of them said that one the comet Hale-Bopp would whisk them also isolated group members from the of my points ‘bordered on blasphemy.’” away to the extraterrestrial kingdom of outside world and fostered a shared heaven if their souls were freed from belief system.” Wired columnist Clive Thompson, writing their bodies at the exact moment the about his Final Fantasy “virginity” paints comet passed overhead. Which is very similar to what users a similar picture: experience upon entering the cult of According to all definitions, anecdotal gaming. I learned this firsthand, taking Consider, for starters, the fan base. evidence and statements from former part in the ritual of adoration that was Gamer culture is already insular, but members, the Heaven’s Gate community Shigeru Miyamoto’s keynote speech at Final Fantasy fans were so wild-eyed and devout that they seemed like a Eventually, it became terrifying for any their own kin. And yet, to those of us on between wearing a T-shirt and monastic order living inside craggy self-respecting gamer to admit that you the inside, this is not an aberration. This committing mass suicide, and one would caves on an unnamed planet. They’d hadn’t played a Final Fantasy game. is, simply, the way it is. It may seem have to argue that the cult of gaming hang out in clusters, painstakingly strange unless you belong, unless you’re itself reflects multiple cults, each dissecting snippets of character A Self-Identified Group in. seemingly at war with one another over dialogue, musing on the subtle Game developers haven’t cured cancer, rival systems and even games. But the distinctions of green magic versus the fed the poor or eradicated global strife. Love, as Shakespeare says, makes fools similarities are unmistakable, and one black stuff, bitching about how They make games. And yet many are of us all. The poor Heaven’s Gate folks must ask oneself what would happen if recurring characters like Bahamut -- treated like saints, more respected than loved Do deeply, and believed in him and Miyamoto weren’t such a gentle soul? Bahamut? -- had been reskinned for the president of the United States and the way of life he represented. We love the latest version. loved more deeply than most gamers love games, and the people who make them, What if, standing before the assembled and from the games themselves we get might of his fans, he hadn’t said “My a physical and spiritual sense of well- vision does not have to be your vision. I being, and a communal feeling of am only one person,” but rather “If our belonging. For the games we do truly will is so strong that no hardship and foolish things like stand in line, suffering can subdue it, then our will and overnight, outside, for the chance to our [Nintendo] might shall prevail?” (maybe) spend buckets of money on devices that do (essentially) the same thing as the ones we’ve already bought, Russ Pitts is an Associate Editor for The five times over.. Escapist. He has written and produced for television, theatre and film, has been Is this the same as swallowing a poison writing on the web since it was invented pill to get to heaven? Are gamers at risk and claims to have played every console of becoming a massive cult rivaling all ever made. His blog can be found at the religions of the world, drawing in the www.falsegravity.com. young and disaffected, focusing them toward the goal of … something? Perhaps not. Perhaps there is a wide disparity “What is man, that thou shouldest in snazzy Catholic cardinal robes, acting magnify him? And that thou shouldest as the right-hand man of evil? You can’t set thine heart upon him? And that thou be serious. Anyone who willingly plays shouldest visit him every morning, and this cringe-inducing balderdash should try him every moment?” rend her PC in shame. Worse, Eternal - Job 7: 17-18 Forces is far from alone in its self- indulgence and supercilious attitude For all the angels and messiahs and toward its “built-in” audience. Many Raptures, Christian videogames, as a Christian titles address their consumers as rule, just aren’t all that Christian. Oh, both simpletons and suckers: Because our they have plenty of Scripture quotes, game includes crucifixes, you’ll overlook Bible stories and nonthreatening rock its contrived, outrageous plotlines. anthems by Jars of Clay. They deal with themes like salvation and the Post- But as conspicuous as they are, these Apocalypse, and players get to smite faults aren’t structural. Flaws like demons, lead Israelite armies and convert unbelievable characters or contrived non-believers. God games cram together storylines are just surface cracks, as all the juicy features you’ve come to easily repaired as, say, blocky animation expect from pop-culture treatments of or poor camera angles. It’s fixable. Just Christianity. But don’t be fooled. Even find the right story, the right characters Jesus would be embarrassed to play Left and the right context, and you can make Behind: Eternal Forces. it work.

So many contemporary Christian games Then again, if you fix the surface cracks, are unintentional self-parodies. By the real defects bubble to the surface, embracing Evangelical culture so and those are harder to scrub away. indulgently and completely, these games are nothing but interactive stereotypes. Let There Be Violence Take the above-mentioned Eternal Christian developers suffer the same Forces. Rock stars as the messengers of videogame violence Catch-22 as the rest the Antichrist? A faux-Pope, decked out of the industry, but in some ways, they get it worse. If they include death or of identity and mortality, of righteousness teachers, who purse their lips at its combat in their games, Christian and survival, and the hope that even if flowery language and themes of designers invite outrage from all all things must come to an end, maybe, depression, loss and suicide. But this quarters. Without physical conflict, just maybe they don’t have to. philosophical dialogue about why bad however, their games will be financial things happen to good people resonates in failures, widely ignored by the gaming Eternal Forces tried to capitalize on ways all of King David’s begatting doesn’t. community. Exacerbating matters are 10,000 years of imagery and failed, certain self-righteous members of the because the game didn’t commit fully to Job is a genuinely nice guy, the sort who media and gaming community, salivating those ideas. I mean, the Biblical looks after orphans, prays for his kids like E.K. Hornbeck at a Tennessee tent Tribulation - that’s violent, juicy stuff. and never cheats on his taxes, and God revival, who gleefully, proudly denounce That should have worked. Instead, the rewards him richly for his goodness. But the obvious Christian hypocrisy, be it real developers held back, sanitizing the one day, Satan suggests that God put or imagined. situation, wiping it clean of blood and Job to a test, and God readily obliges. gore, yes, but also of pain. As a result, After Job loses all his livestock, suffers That’s crap. If anything, God games death in Eternal Forces has no cost; it’s the death of his seven sons and aren’t violent enough - or, at least, just a winking out, a tally mark on a contracts a nasty case of full-body boils, violent in the right ways. scorecard rather than an intimate, he loses heart. Depressed and defeated, terrifying event. Job famously begs to take God to court From the Mahabharata to the Old for His crimes. Testament, we’ve used combat, gore and I’m not surprised, however. Pain is death as a narrative tool to replicate and uncomfortable, unreliable and But Satan had a point, egging God on examine the similar violence raging tremendous. It consumes you, casting like that. If by being good, you can inside each of us. doubt and shadows on everything you entirely avoid misfortune, what believe. Just ask Job. distinguishes righteousness from It’s a metaphor for the soul. That’s the commerce, a mere business transaction core of religion, behind the Bibles and Job and the Crisis of Faith between you and God? If Job only the singing and the wafers that melt on Squeezed between the friendlier Book of reveres God because he receives your tongue: that action-reaction Esther and the more accessible Book of blessings in return, does his worship conflict, the incessant animal struggle, Psalms, the Book of Job is one of my mean anything at all? As nice as he is, that purging of whatever doesn’t work. favorite Biblical passages. It’s often Job never questioned or challenged this It’s about the fear inside, a competition ignored by aggressive Sunday school exchange, and he never had reason to. So he was trapped, stuck in his own there’s no avoiding the final exam - writes, “He who wavereth is like a wave ignorance. His faith was blind, empty, without it, spirituality, philosophy, even of the sea, driven with the wind and like a salve without a wound. It had no existence as we know it is utterly tossed. For let not that man think he doubt to give it contrast and weight: meaningless. Like a bridge walked upon, shall receive anything of the Lord. Having never been tested, Job’s faith had like a hypothesis tested, doubt is more (James 1:6, KJV).” Ouch. never passed the test. important than reverence, sacrifice, even hope, because it brings you closer than For the most part, the modern Job’s pain leads him to doubt, and he you were to Truth and thus to God. Evangelical movement abides by the suffers a crisis of faith of such Apostolic example, treating doubt like an magnitude, you’d expect to read it in a Doubt in a Pop-Christian World intellectual plague that must be Jean-Paul Sartre play, not the Good Judging by Job’s happy ending, God quarantined for the faithful to survive. Book. Job and his three best friends agrees that doubt has its uses; and for Most Christian videogames, created with argue over God’s motives for evil and his part, Jesus was quite tolerant of that same Testimonial bent in mind, also loss, and our protagonist angrily accuses questions and challenges, too. He follow suit. If these games do address a God of punishing righteous men while embraced Thomas, skeptic of the crisis of faith, the outcome is inevitable, letting sinners go free. It’s not that he Resurrection, and fondly teased a seasick even pre-destined: The Good guys will ever stops believing the existence of God Peter after a storm nearly capsized their hang with God, the Bad guys end up (this is the Bible, of course), but the boat. (“Oh ye of little faith, why did you with Satan, and once converted, neither point is Job no longer believes in God - doubt?”) Jesus even experienced his own side ever looks back. (In fairness, which in reality is far worse. His trust is crisis of faith: As he died on the cross, Eternal Forces does address the gone, his faith decayed. That’s one hell he echoed the voices of countless future conversion issue, but the process is of an unapologetic stance for a Biblical Christians and asked, “Father, Father, glossed over; treated, once again, more hero to take. why have you forsaken me?” like a plot or gameplay device than a compelling story in and of itself.) Job’s doubt is violent: Not bloody, of But the New Testament - particularly the course, but painful, tumultuous and letters of the Apostles - preaches a Without spiritual challenges or questions, incredibly uncomfortable to witness. Yet, different approach. Stuffed with these characters become automatons of one of the lessons of the Book of Job is reprimands against the faithless, the destiny, acting out a story they don’t this doubt matters. It can’t be ignored or Apostles suggested constant vigilance control or participate in making. So you argued with or reasoned away. Instead, against questioners and skeptics, end up with violence without pain, faith it’s a test we all take, where each of us arguing that they couldn’t be trusted or without doubt - a one-dimensional comes to different conclusions; but reasoned with. James, for instance, cartoon of everything religion stands for, open-endedness, Christian games would Besides, look again at the Book of Job. stripped of its sense and resonance. need to take a page from GTA and allow After all his fears and suffering, after all players to make any choice that they see his questions and tirades, Job scores a Let There Be Light fit, be it Christian or evil or some gray reprieve from his pain. God doesn’t Even still, the solution isn’t as simple as space in between; and, more apologize for the bad times, of course, plunking a grieving father covered in importantly, to permit all options at all but He does eventually restore Job’s boils down into post-Apocalyptic New times. Give players that freedom of fortunes, healing the sores, refurbishing York. Doubt is a deeply personal choice to be tempted by Satan, to be his property and, best of all, blessing experience, one that everyone has. But convinced by God or to dabble with both him with more children. Out of that oddly enough, doubt only makes sense - just like real life, just like the rest of us darkness and tribulation, Job’s faith has at the time and to the person having it. do. Give players the full experience of actually become stronger than it was Even Job is alone in his misery, and his the consequence of free will. Games like before. His doubt was not something to friends, helpless observers, just can’t Planescape: Torment understood this be feared, or avoided, or shunned, but understand how he feels. So how do you well, feeding off players’ emotions and rather embraced, because it made him a replicate such a specific, unique moral choices to drive the plot. better person in the end. experience as a crisis of faith into something as broad and mass-market as Yes, it’s risky. Conceivably some Maybe it’s about time the same thing a videogame? impressionable soul could be seduced by happened to Christian videogames, too. evil (or, well, as much as anyone could A crisis of faith is, after all, good for the The trick, I think, is to make the violence be seduced in a videogame). But you soul. inseparable from the player: That is, give can’t do doubt halfway. A crisis of faith is the player the opportunity to explore her a violent, brutal affair, and if it’s going to Lara Crigger is a freelance science, tech own crisis of faith, to feel it from the work in a videogame, that game has to and gaming journalist whose previous inside out, through her own actions and commit itself to the idea fully. Sure, work for The Escapist includes “Mind Over freedom of will. The interactivity of people might still shun these titles (after Matter” and “Searching for Gunpei Yokoi”. videogames offers a great advantage: all, doubt is not nearly as sexy as Her email is lcrigger[at]gmail[dot]com. The divide between character and exorcising demons), but then again, they’d observer is already half-scaled, and in probably have shunned them in the first certain types of games (adventure place. At least this way, the games are games or RPGs, for example), the barrier honest, treating players with respect and is even lower. So to seize upon that not like some “built-in” audience. therefore fitting, take on the impossibly bureaucratic and complex Norse mythology. It continues to provide an object lesson in game balancing 15 years after it first began shattering the dreams of anyone who dared to step outside the safety of their village.

On the surface, Ragnarok is an unassuming rogue-like PC game possessed of a peculiar amount of traditional RPG mechanics. Many of the NetHack elements are there, but the constraint of a tightly formed mythology and mission structure makes the chaos In the mythology of the frozen North, darkness and the inexorable crawl of and random area generation infinitely the Gods know their place. As we famine. A God above the judgment of more compelling. While much less is peasants till the earth with our frozen man? Who you couldn’t touch or kill? possible for the player than in most knuckles waiting for the sun to return, What fun could that possibly be? rogue-likes, the tension and paranoia of we expect results from those above. If the game turn random dungeons into the crops failed, we could blame the The Norse have been thoroughly heart-stopping affairs. crop-bringer Thor as much as praise him represented in computer games; their when frostbite held back. If famine names plundered for games as diverse The game introduces you to a somber persisted, we could sacrifice our own as StarCraft, Max Payne, Age of situation via text on an introductory King to him. Finally, if that failed, we’d Mythology and the brilliant-but-forgotten screen: “Your village, once peaceful and sentence him to being forgotten. Early Hammer of the Gods (Holistic Design, thriving, is deserted and overrun by Christian missionaries were baffled by a 1995). Among them all, Norsehelm creatures from the nearby forest.” Your people who had adapted every part of Productions’ Ragnarok (aka Valhalla) is list of quests doesn’t begin small; simply their mythology to pain, disease, the most brutally unforgiving, and go to the battle at the end of time, and be sure to bring the gods all the one character, for the next it means prey to those two ever-hanging words: weapons they’ll need to kill the creatures instant death. You die. of chaos, before they die themselves. There are no “please clear my basement You Die (and die and die) You manage to teleport yourself to of rats,” only “help end the world in a This controlled chaos means more than Slaeter’s Sea. You are hit by a slightly less depressing manner.” And so, just replayability. Ragnarok is nothing hatchetfish; you die. You zap yourself you venture out as one of six classes and short of a simulator for the with a wand; you die. You grow an extra fumble through a system of codes that capriciousness of the ancient world. Life finger; you die. You commit magical need methodical unraveling before you for characters in the game is as brutal genocide on a race of bats, heavenly can hope to live past a single screen of and forceful as the time it represents. rangers appear; you die. As you the forest outside. Whereas other games are happy to use continually perish, the game deletes Norse mythology as an identikit racial your save file but keeps your ghosts You can read scrolls and drink potions, if mode that plays nicely with others to around to torment you; literally a case you find them, but the scrolls are provide a mix of abilities or units, of anti-experience points. The more “ragged” or “papyrus,” the potions Ragnarok’s torment of its players you lose, the harder it gets. Become “grimy” or merely “orange.” They could teaches them to submit to fatalism and careless and the forest outside the bless your sword with a much-needed fully embrace the Norse way of life. village screams with ghosts and zombies, +1, or far more likely, kill you horribly, former selves come back to punish you described in the sparsest prose at the Element by element, what begins as for not being strong enough. bottom of the screen, “You die.” Your survival morphs into an aggressive only choice is to work your way around assault on the game mechanics, as you From the simple graphics to the the safer edges of the world, picking off menace the unseen data spreads. You deliberate pace of weapon acquisition, what you can while scouring for scrolls of figure, for example, that a scroll of every aspect of Ragnarok is tinged with identification that will let you avoid blessing can be used to empower a scroll the sadness and fury of Norse mythology. drinking or reading anything disastrous. of identification. That scroll can then Vast forces swirl around you, and the epic Slowly but surely, it’s possible to turn the identify everything in your backpack. quest will be fulfilled through divine luck odds in your favor and begin crawling Eating certain monster corpses gives you and an iron will much more than skill or through the lists of quests. On your powers. With each scrap of knowledge, experience. As the game world grows second playing, Ragnarok’s genius is the game bends to your will. In the and you can escape into all the realms of apparent; where “grimy” was a boon for process, dozens of your heroes will Midgard, the monsters grow more perish, in one form or another, falling powerful by orders of magnitude, all capable of smashing apart your hours of to saviors and Gods in a matter of hours, to know you’re already doomed, and the play but urging you on with the promise without ever disturbing the gel in their gods are coming with you. We are of dropped loot and an edible corpse. hair. By the time we reach the end we trained through the game’s trials and are a walking inventory of potential. Like errors - through actually eating the Underneath the rhythm of difficulty and all good saviors, death is impossible, and corpses of our failures - to understand weirdness sits something utterly unique; we can roll back the stone to reveal the it wasn’t all feasting, horned helmets you are being slowly religiously save file. To save the world, heroes have and heavy metal. A true test of faith. converted. Not into the literal worship of to be blank slates, their paths to 16-color gods only a handful of pixels greatness inevitably slicked with blood. high, rather your approach to the game Christian McCrea is a freelance can take on any form, as long as it Norse heroes are different in one subtle writer for The Escapist. adjusts to the possibility of the next way: They are equals of the gods in keystroke teleporting you inside the every respect, who are mortal, bound by stomach of a Hel dragon, having an laws and have gods and giants of their entire class of items written out of own to fear. There is no resurrection, existence forever or finding yourself only rebirth. Forget becoming the God of deep in a mushroom-powered War and reveling in vaguely homoerotic hallucinogenic death sequence. The triumph on a brooding throne; the real result of this abusive relationship is the battle has just begun. Norse mythology player gradually becomes more Norse in is, and always was, playable. Every his style and method of play. They simply journey is heroic. It demands people have to in order to climb over Yggdrasil, accept chaos, and then shows them how the world-tree and finally across Bifrost, to tame it. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the rainbow bridge to heaven where the the world, the falcon cannot hear the gods are already half-dead, having waited falconer – the hero wades in, eye-deep so long for your arrival. in hell, and prays for good fortune.

Make Me a Believer Ragnarok is ultimately a gaming paean RPGs have always been steeped in to an ancient way of life. It is neither eschatology; the study of the end of the faithful nor meticulous, but acts as a world. Heroes go from sleepy amnesiacs manual for true believers. To be Norse is But just how far have we come in the For example, is rescuing your convicted past two decades? friend from prison a Good act if she is actually guilty? This is awkward to Ultima’s Virtues, Fallout’s Karma and address in a single-axis framework, but Reputation, Fable’s point system, Jade in a game implementing the Gygax Empire’s Paths and other player model it would shift the player’s alignment systems owe an enormous alignment in the Chaotic direction. debt to the original alignment system – Regardless of motive, it is a clear the one introduced by Gary Gygax and defiance of law. What about a player who Dave Arneson in Dungeons & Dragons. advocates changing the law, then? Civil Originally just a single axis with three disobedience is certainly Chaotic, but points (Law, Neutrality, Chaos), legitimate legal protest doesn’t exactly Advanced Dungeons & Dragons conform to the Gygax model’s ideal of expanded it into the two-axis, nine-point Lawful, which entails conforming to the Good-Evil/Law-Chaos framework used will of a sovereign. most famously in the digital realm by BioWare and Black Isle. The Gygax model’s weaknesses stem from its origin in D&D, which began life Lawful Good or Neutral Evil? Open Palm On the surface, the “Gygax model” as a glorified tabletop miniature or Closed Fist? Such questions were seems to offer more flexibility for player wargame. Players in D&D needed to be inconceivable in gaming’s early days. alignment systems than its most able to choose from balanced classes Rogue didn’t care if you styled yourself a common CRPG alternative – single-axis with defined roles, and the player group noble hero, and the classic Gold Box Good/Evil models. Both typically needed a common goal. The alignment games wouldn’t let you be much else. associate Good with altruism and Evil system restricted the actions of players The first major North American computer with self-interest, but the Gygax model choosing to play certain character roleplaying game to seriously consider offers the additional axis of Law and classes, which compensated for the any form of player alignment, Ultima IV, Chaos, corresponding roughly to special abilities of those classes. The demanded the player conform to the authoritarianism and libertarianism. This prominence of altruism and the overall game’s eight virtues. When your choices allows games implementing the Gygax emphasis on heroism at the Good end of are limited to honesty, compassion, model to assign alignment labels to the alignment spectrum helped foster humility and the like, it’s hard to be, actions that wouldn’t be clear-cut in a player cooperation. To make it work, well, evil. single-axis Good/Evil model. Good and Evil were precisely defined, tossing aside more than two millennia of their experience point value. If the open, more linear gameplay, cliché-riddled philosophy, which made it difficult for player has the audacity to choose Evil, plots and simplistic characterization of any game implementing the model to well, what conscience is there to salve? both players and NPCs. ask meaningful questions about the Indiscriminate slaughter is nature of Good or Evil. Evil’s watchword. Some CRPGs, notably The Elder Scrolls series, eschew player alignment systems Typically, the Gygax model is codified in a Alignment weights can also be abused almost entirely in the name of player CRPG by assigning alignment weights to more directly. If you pickpocket a farmer freedom. However, player alignment various actions and dialogue choices. A but rescue the blacksmith’s daughter system or no, CRPGs can’t avoid player wishing to be Good should choose from her kidnappers, the net result is a answering the classic question of moral the most polite dialogue options and shift in your alignment toward Good. absolutism vs. moral relativism. If Good make sure to commit acts of kindness on Trying this approach in real life will make and Evil exist in the game world, it’s a regular basis; a player wishing to be you pretty unpopular and maybe even because they have been codified during Evil can feel free to fling all manner of land you in jail, but somehow it works the development process; the system’s insults at non-player characters and then just fine in BioWare’sNeverwinter Nights. discrete nature is inherently limiting. rob them blind. Neutrality is awkward – In fact, a Paladin in NWN can go to an rather than remaining Neutral by striving inn, loot someone else’s wardrobe and That said, it’s entirely possible for a game to chart a course along the middle ground remain a Paladin; in tabletop D&D, the implementing a player alignment model between Good and Evil and/or Law and Paladin would immediately lose all unique to take a nuanced approach to ethical Chaos, players remain Neutral by Paladin abilities and have to undertake an questions – just ask Black Isle Studios. perpetrating an equal weighting of Good atonement quest to regain them. and Evil acts. There’s no way to After two critical successes in the form of differentiate a shift toward Neutrality The outcome of these problems is twofold: Fallout and Fallout 2, Black Isle tried from a shift toward Good, Evil, Law or Most CRPGs that implement an alignment their hand at the Gygax model and Chaos in the Gygax model. system only assign weights to a small created (another) one of the best CRPGs subset of actions – hence NWN’s looting of all time: Planescape: Torment. Where This way, though, the player’s conscience Paladins – and also severely restrict player Neverwinter Nights might have four is salved preemptively. When the choice in terms of both dialogue and dialogue options at a given point, PST inevitable slaughter of hordes of enemies course of action, in order to focus the might have eight – if the player’s begins, a Good player has already game’s narrative. In other words, the intelligence, wisdom or charisma rationalized killing them as the inevitable principal effects of the Gygax model on attributes were high enough. Combined consequence of their Evil nature – and North American CRPGs have been less with the directly observable instances and effects of alignment in the game Obsidian Entertainment, formed by a players along a couple of paths toward world – for example, the entire town of group of Black Isle alumni after Interplay the all-too-common “Good ending” and Curst moves from one plane to another closed Black Isle, crafted the sequel to “Evil ending” – that is, if an “Evil ending” because the aggregate alignment of its KotOR, adding an Influence value to the is even included. citizens’ actions shifts – the result is a alignment system, to track the extent to much more interesting take on the which NPCs were open to persuasion by Settings, graphics and physics are Gygax model, allowing the player more the player. This is a natural extension of becoming increasingly complex in ethical flexibility. It is possible (though Fallout’s Reputation – a single number CRPGs, and player alignment models difficult) to play throughPST without that determines whether word of the need to grow along with them. The kinds killing more than a handful of creatures, player’s altruistic or self-interested of deficiencies revealed by NWN’s looting and the “best” of its multiple endings can actions (represented by the Karma Paladins have to be resolved, but there is only be obtained if the player can avoid value) has reached a given NPC. It much further to go. Obsidian has killing the game’s final antagonist. contrasts starkly with PST, where a explored Evil player alignments more sufficiently charismatic player can deeply than most, and they’ve made an Whatever the player alignment system, persuade an NPC to virtually any course effort to chart some of the ethical murk robust dialogue is crucial to capturing of action. Such NPC-specific player between the Gygax model’s well-defined ethical nuances that most CRPGs simply attributes, combined with branchy Good and Evil, but even they have yet to steamroll over. Some of BioWare’s pre- dialogue trees, can create richer player- stray too far. We need an ambitious and post-NWN efforts are also known for NPC interactions and allow a developer developer to take that first complete expansive dialogue trees: The Baldur’s to pose more interesting ethical step outside the long shadow of the Gate series uses the D&D ruleset and dilemmas to the player. Gygax model, abandon Good and Evil, implements the Gygax model, and the and treat in-game ethics with the detail firstKnights of the Old Republic game Still, the strength of Gygax-model CRPGs and nuance they deserve. combines the D&D ruleset with Star like PST suggest it may not be the Wars’ Light and Dark sides of the Force. inherent restrictiveness of the Gygax Raja Doake is a would-be writer in However, the Baldur’s Gate games model holding back North American engineer’s clothing who lives in Ontario, encourage heroism in traditional Gygax CRPGs, but rather CRPG developers using Canada, and spends way too much time fashion and shy away from murky ethical it as a crutch to simplify characterization thinking about this stuff. questions. Jade Empire abandons Gygax, and storytelling. Because Good and Evil but the Open Palm and Closed Fist paths are defined so clearly by the Gygax are simply a re-imaginging of the same model, it’s extremely easy to create altruism/self-interest divide. cookie-cutter characters and railroad EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editors Lead Artist Account Executive Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Rebecca Sanders Russ Pitts Layout Artist Chairman of Themis Group Contributing Editors Jason Haile Thomas S. Kurz JR Sutich Shannon Drake Lead Web Developer Whitney Butts Research Manager Nova Barlow Web Developers Erik Jacobson Contributors Tim Turner Lara Crigger Raja Doake IT Director Christian McCrea Jason Smith

Issue 91 © 2007. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com