The Meaning Of Religion Within Video Games

In today’s society, video games are a key part with their influence, beliefs, and followers. But there is a problem in today's society people have religious intolerance on others ideas and beliefs. In 2012, the video game studio Bethesda Game Studios’ creative director Todd Howard averaged the playtime of millions of computer players on their game “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” and it was about seventy-five hours per user (GamesIndustry). To put that into perspective, according to Todd Howard there were over ten million people playing the game over both consoles and computers. That would mean the total amount of game time would be 750 million hours or about 85 thousand years. And with that amount of screentime the influence on someone's ideas and beliefs are tremendous. Skyrim has its own whole belief system with gods which are called the Nine Divines: Akatosh, Arkay, Dibella, Julianos, Kynareth, Mara, Stendarr, Zenithar, and Talos. (Uesp) With this ingame religion all the divines have their own followers, beliefs, and powers. Video games in many cases are exposed to different ways of how religion is with some in their own religion only having one God. It gives the players a new perspective because they can choose to worship the gods and win their favour or choose not to and go on about the story. Video games are an important part of the growing world as it can connect us with new ideas, bring in different perspectives, and can even be a tool to train professionals on their work. Within video games and social media, religion is often the base of a video games characters or its mechanics. So the question arises, how can video games create a platform for religion be interacted with the beliefs and ideas? Now to delve into the world of gaming and all of the influences.

In a game designer’s TED talk Jane McGonigal, who has been making games for around 20 years now and in her speech she talks about her goal to save the world in real life through the online gaming world. (TED) According to McGonigal people spent around three billion hours a week playing online games, and then following up saying that this is nowhere near enough to solve the world's problems. She then goes on to say that humanity would need to be around 21 billion hours of online gaming a week to make a difference with the problems of the world. McGonigal goes on to ask the questions of “What about games makes it impossible to feel that we can't achieve everything?” and “How can we take those feelings from games and apply them to real-world work?” She mentions games like World of Worldcraft and how when the player starts the game no matter the race different characters within the game they trust the player with world saving quests that are leveled to the player. The hours she is suggesting for screenplay for people around the world to have even half the population playing an hour a day would change the world. With the amount of screentime she is suggesting the influences from the video games would be tremendous to people with the games they play. Within World of Warcraft it is surrounded by religion with many standalone religions inside it.

In World of Warcraft there are many different religions but the most apparent ones are The Holy Light belonging to members of the Alliance, and Shamanism whose followers are members of the Horde. Now to get into the religions themselves and their relations to real world religions. The Holy Light is majorly made up of humans, draenei, night elves and dwarves, and relates to Christianity or Catholicism. In the land of Azeroth in Stormwind City is where the Cathedral of Light is located, which is reminiscent of the Vatican. Church leaders from around the world of Azeroth gather in the Cathedral of Light and send missionaries out to spread the message of the Holy Light. At the core of the Holy Light religion its all about “making the world a better place and making oneself better by helping other people.” While there are obvious similarities between The Holy Light and Christianity with the missionary work and helping others. The game company Blizzard probably changed The Holy Light from Christianity to avoid a lawsuit. The main difference is that the Holy Light does not involve worship of a single being. While the Light may be seen as a being or deity, and is sometimes worshipped and prayed to as one, it can be understood as more of a pervading force that guides all of its members to do good. Followers of the Holy Light follow three main teachings, or virtues, of respect, tenacity and compassion. Respect is crucial in understanding the relationship between oneself and others. They strive to better the universe and bring happiness to others. So they must respect the world in which they live in. The second virtue is tenacity. True adherence to, and mastery of, the Light takes years to master. Members must understand that it takes a lifetime of subjugation to properly serve the Light. The goal of members of the Light is to positively impact the universe, and only through a lifetime of servitude can members hope to achieve that goal. Servants of the Light must have the tenacity to hold their faith true for a lifetime. The final virtue is compassion. The

Holy Light says that people must help others to strengthen their bonds with the universe and those around them. In such a way, he or she is able to positively affect the universe. However, compassion can be dangerous, by giving help where it is not needed or wanted, a follower of Light can inhibit people’s ability to grow, by completing difficult tasks for those whom they are trying to help. In reality, these tasks are set out for people to help them grow, not for people to complete for them. So only the wisest members of the way of Light are taught compassion. As they are the only one who can properly discern who is actually in need of help, and who can grow on their own. On the other hand the Horde, do not have a religion like that of The Holy Light. In fact, the Horde are loosely held together by a strong War Chief, rather than by a set of beliefs. Those in the Horde that are religious or spiritual follow a more primal religion, known as Shamanism and/or Nature Worship, and are led spiritually by the village elders or leaders. They honor the spirits of their own ancestors and the elemental forces through ceremonial totems. “Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by the invisible force of spirits that affect the living in a very strong and meaningful way. Shamanism can therefore be seen as the practical application of the concepts of animism through specialized knowledge and abilities.

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Shamanism is not, however, organized into full-time rituals or spiritual association as priests. When compared to real world religious traditions, Shamanism and Nature Worship are seen as less of a mainstream religious tradition, and directly relate to the religious practices of Shamanism and Nature Worship in the real world. With the Alliance and The Holy Light’s connection to mainstream Western Religious traditions and the Horde and Nature Worship’s relation to nonwestern religious traditions, there may be a correlation between player choice in choosing whether to join the Horde or the Alliance, based on the player’s religious affiliation outside of the game. Research done on this topic, however, is highly unregulated, unorganized, and lacks professionalism. There exist research papers wherein the authors examined people on their server and attempt to relate small-scale religious behavior to large scale trends within the game. One such paper, Religion and World of Warcraft, was written and submitted by University of Denver Students Greg Brunk, Kevin Chaves, and Parker Wiseman for a class specifically taught on World of Warcraft, by Richard Colby.

The paper assumes that players that are followers of Western Religious traditions in real life are more likely to choose Alliance characters, whereas atheists and followers of nonWestern Religious Traditions were more likely to choose Horde characters. (RichardColby) They had a sample size of 42 players which is way too small to be accurately representing of the population, and lacked the professional presentation of a proper research paper. To truly have a case study with something of that nature, a larger sample size, spanning numerous nations and servers with vast and random sampling would need to occur to have a proper study going on. Even though, the small findings that the Denver students found is not without its purpose. They managed to prove, even on the small scale used, that religion affects a character choice in the game. The sample size (21 Horde and 21 Alliance) seems consistent to show that players that adhere to Western Religious traditions choose to be an Alliance character more so than Horde, and vice versa for nonreligious players as Horde characters. There are many factors that contribute to a player’s choice in the game: groups of friends in real life tend to play in the same faction together, which faction has the cooler-looking characters. Holding these other factors constant, you find a small relation of religious Alliance to nonreligious and/or non-Western Religious Tradition Horde players. With the conclusion of the World of Warcraft religion time to go into the world of The Elder Scrolls.

Within the universe of The Elder Scrolls there are many beliefs systems from all the different provinces within Tamriel the body of land that holds all the magic and special beliefs. The Nine Divines consist of: Akatosh is the Dragon God of Time and chief god of the pantheon, Arkay who is God of the Cycle of Life, Death, and Mortals burials and funeral rites, Dibella the Goddess of Beauty, Julianos God of Wisdom and Logic, Kynareth Goddess of Air, wind, sky and the Elements, Mara Goddess of Love and compassion, the Mother Goddess, Stendarr God of Mercy, Justice,charity, luck, and righteous rule by might and merciful forbearance, Talos Hero-god of Mankind, conqueror God, God of Might, Honor, State, Law, Man, War and Governance, Zenithar God of Work and Commerce, Trader God. (TES Wiki) The Imperial Pantheon of the Nine Divines, also known as the Eight and One, consists of the most important religious order in Tamriel. The religion combines the Eight Divines pantheon created by Alessia with the apotheosized form of the founder of the Third Empire, Tiber Septim (Talos), the ninth Divine. There are six gods and three goddesses. In Cyrodiil, there is a chapel in each major city venerating the divines. There are also many little shrines along the roads that are devoted to the Nine Divines.(TES Wiki) As a Cyrodiilic pantheon, the Nine Divines have been most commonly worshipped in Cyrodiil for most of their history.

While by the Fourth Era the Nords had enthusiastically taken to the worship of the Nine, they had historically had their own pantheon. Because Talos was not originally one of the Divines, in some religious sects they are referred to as 'The Eight And One.” Following the signing of the White-Gold Concordat, Talos was effectively removed from the pantheon of the Gods—and The Eight Divines worship resumed. Where required, Thalmor agents from the Third Aldmeri Dominion, ensure that the worship of Talos remains an illegal activity. Emperor Titus Mede II stated in a publication that mortal men such as Talos were never meant to achieve apotheosis. It is for this very reason that the Emperor, and indeed the Empire itself, recognizes that allowing the worship of Talos was a mistake and publicly declares its support of removing Talos worship from Tamriel. It is unknown if whether this public renunciation of Talos' divinity is an act to appease the Thalmor or if this is the Emperor's sincere belief. Whatever the reason, the outlawing of Talos worship is one of the causes of the Stormcloak Rebellion, who see the ban on the worship of Talos as a violation of Skyrim's religious freedom. And the influences of all races and cultures is the Nords, Bretons and Imperials were all heavily inspired by ancient and feudal European cultures in real life. The Akaviri are the obvious East Asian version of Nirn. Most people affiliate the Akaviri with the Order of the Blades and subsequently samurai, katanas and Japanese culture in general. Onto the Dunmer architecture is obviously Chinese with some prominent fantasy flares. Their culture is also unique as they are culturally rich but somewhat isolated. However, the Elven races of Nirn are much more complex than a simple comparison. Dunmer armor and weaponry are very unique, though their swords are actually reminiscent of the Indonesian kris. (Tamriel Foundry) There are many more cultures and influences along with religions within these cultures. The influence that a game with such an in depth lore and backstory of every little detail would ensure somewhat “educate” the play. And by educating this does not mean that one is learning from the game more of an exposure that there can be so many cultures with different religions within them. The player would have an experience to then think of after playing.