You might not have known this, but videogames can have a lot of potential beyond being just a form of entertainment and fun for people. Games have the power to evoke emotion, develop relationships with people across the world, help deal with mental and physical illness, and can even save lives through charity foundations and giving people with suicidal thoughts hope to continue to that next level.
Games have proven over the years to, not only deliver a great entertainment experience, but also life changing revelations for many players. Games give a sense of importance and meaning in many people’s lives, similar to how life changing adopting a religion and a set of beliefs and convictions can be for a person.
Oddly enough, however, these two impactful elements of gaming and religion have never mixed to create a truly unique and otherworldly experience. It seems that religion and the virtues, real-life change, and transformations that comes out of the belief and following of a higher power is intentionally left out of the videogame medium.
On the rare occasions that religion and games do attempt to collide, it produces bland, educational-based experiences or offensive tiles tha “downplay” religious icons or themes by inserting it into the gaming world. This is a very special blog post because today I dive into why religion and games are in this constant separation from each other and the missed potential of religious games impacting people from all walks of life.
The Potential of Games and Religion
The medium of games has such a far reach into the emotional and practical aspects of everyday life. Games have the unique ability to relate and draw deep connections with fictional characters with more intensity and intentionality than books and movies can with titles like The Last of Us and Telltale’s The Walking Dead.
They also allow people to get fit and active with games like Pokemon Go and WiiFit. Games even have the awesome ability to teach future surgeons how to properly perform various operations on patients and to instill the combat readiness in soldiers on different combat situations all through simulations. Plus, games are just so dang fun that it's hard not to have a fun, meaningful experience by playing them.
Now let’s look at religion for a second. Many people in this world latch onto religion as the driving force in how they decide to live their life. It determines their code of ethics and morals as they interact with different people in different situations.
It gives them purpose and meaning in their life, knowing that there is something or someone bigger out there, much bigger than themselves, that gave them that first breath of life and has a plan for them. Religion is the foundation for one’s belief system and impacts every decision and reaction a person has in their short life on earth. It’s no wonder why religion holds such an important place in people’s lives.
Now what if, and hang with me here, what if these two highly powerful and impactful elements came together? I know, kinda weird to imagine right? Well allow me to help paint a picture for you.
Imagine if you will, a game in which you felt the emotional pull, the conviction of sin, the drawing closeness to a savior, a God, who loves you more than anything else in this world. Being able to witness first hand literal life change and transformation all through the experience of, not a baptism, not a holy divine intervention in the middle of the woods, not even an out of world experience, but through a spiritual journey of a controller in your hands.
I firmly believe that religious games have the potential to make an outstanding impact on people, changing their lives for the better. Games that leave people crying after a character dies or feeling motivated to be their own hero and pursue their own dreams in life, is just the beginning. There are millions of people out there who do not believe in religion, but a majority of them do play games. Imagine the reach and impact a carefully woven religious gaming experience can have on these people. It would be evangelism the likes that people like Paul, Martin Luther or Billy Graham could ever possibly imagine.
Why is Religion Set Apart from Games?
If there’s so much potential in a religious videogame, then why are the religion and videogames often so far apart from each other? Well I think there are two main reasons why a lot of developers haven’t delved into this idea of religious games very much.
1.) Religion Can Be a Boring Game
Not many people find religion based games very exciting or entertaining. Many major religions, such as Christianity and Judaism have proven to not be very interesting gaming experiences for players.
Why? Well compared to other religions, iconic characters like Jesus or Abraham are pretty boring to the world. While Christians might find Jesus walking on water fascinating, he’s not exactly the “coolest” god as far as the rest of the world is considered.
Many people would be much more interested in characters like Zeus the lighting God of Greek Mythology or Amaterasu the sun wolf of Japanese Buddhism. These religions are rich with interesting gods, worlds, and plot lines that cannot be found in the real world and so people are naturally drawn to them.
Take SMITE, for example. SMITE is a battle arena game in which players go head to head against each other while playing as gods from different mythologies, such as Greek, Celtic, and even Eygptian religions.
The game excels at making players feel powerful through the creative liberties in the aesthetics and combat mechanics of these gods of diverse backgrounds. However, when Hi-Rez Studios, the creators of SMITE, were asked if they were going to add any Christian/Jewish religions to the mix this is what they had to say,
"From [the] perspective of a video game, the key Abrahamic figures--Adam, Noah, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, are not that interesting in character design or gameplay."
I think one of the main reasons why mainstage religions of our time aren’t taking the spotlight in games is because they are too close to reality and therefore are boring. Games like God of War and Okami are big hits because they explore these vast religions that are new and exciting for many players.
Plus, it doesn’t help that a lot of religion games are often education based games that are geared mostly towards children. Games like Bible Adventures or The Bible Game don’t offer a lot of depth and are often straightforward and dull compared to other mainstream games.
Religious games have unfortunately built up a stereotype of being these half-baked games whose sole purpose is to educate rather than entertain, let alone make kind of impact or deep thought in the player. This puts the genre of religious games at a great disadvantage on reaching a much greater demographic of people, both religious and atheist alike.
2.) Controversies of Religion in Games
The other reason that mainstage religions haven’t fully entered the gaming scene is because developers have to face the potential risk of offending people with their creative take on religious icons. Many studios in the past have faced controversies surrounding certain religious themes and symbols being added into a game world.
Hanuman: Boy Warrior has received a lot of backlash from the Universal Society of Hinduism for allowing people to control Hauman, a devotee of the Hindu god Rama. Many people thought that by controlling a highly revered deity using a controller devalued and scrutinized the holiness of Hanuman.
Another game known as, I Am Jesus Christ, faces similar controversies. I Am Jesus Christ is a VR simulation game where you play as Jesus Christ and perform some of the famous miracles recorded in the New Testament, such as curing the blind and turning water into wine.
This game is more of an interactive experience rather than a game, but it is still getting a good amount of disapproval. Many people view this game as blasphemous because people are placed in the role of Jesus and are able to perform the same holy miracles as He once did.
Coming back to SMITE, again. While, Hi-Rez stated that the Abrahamic characters of Christian/Jewish religions were not very interesting in game development, I believe another reason why they refuse to add these characters in their game is because of the wide amount of controversy they would have to face.
I’m sure not many people would approve having Jesus, the god of peace and love who sacrificed his own life for mankind, start drop-kicking Zeus or Rama in a game based around killing other gods.
When it comes down to it, many people believe that tough topics, such as religion don’t belong in the gaming world. With games being able to give the player all the control in how they interact with their character and the world, it’s a very dicey roll of chance on how people will respond when developers decide to insert religion solely into the hands of the player in the virtual world.
No matter how offensive these games may or may not be, there will always a certain level of attack or disapproval for combining something as holy and personal as religion with something as whimsical and player-interactive as games.
With these hurdles to overcome, it’s easier for studios to avoid tackling meaningful religion in their games at all and focus on fantasy world building and character development instead. If religion and games are ever to coexist with one another, it’s most likely going to be a long road to get there.
It’s a very thin line to make a game that wholeheartedly accepts religion without facing backlash or becoming too boring and it doesn’t seem like any developers have found that line yet or are willing to take that leap of faith to get there.
While, there’s plenty more to talk about on this subject, I think I’ll leave it here. What do you guys think about religion and games? Do you think a religious game could be possible? Comment below and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Dean Willms
~Gamer, Designer, Friend.
