My presentation is a comparative study of the representation of religion in two digital games: Baldur’s Gate III and Warhammer: Rogue Trader. Both are successful titles representing their respective franchises, both were created under at least some level of creative control from the franchise owners (Randall 2023; Templar9999 2024), so their approach to representation of religions have to align, at least somewhat, with the general ideology of the respective franchises itself. This makes them an ideal tool for understanding franchises’ approaches to religion while limiting analysis in scope. The comparative aspect, in turn, is important to highlight both unique properties of the games as well as common trends underlying the shared fantastical milieu of the genre.
I base the methodology of my analysis on the work of Ninian Smart (1974; 1996). He conceptualized religion as a vehicle for preserving and transferring religious experience, an idea fully in line with a number of other authors. Smart also provided a concept of 7 religious dimensions, supposedly present in all religions to lesser or greater extent, functioning as a concrete mechanism of that process: narrative, doctrinal, ethical, emotional, social, ritual and material.
I do not claim that video games in question are capable of transferring religious experience to players. My research builds upon the tradition of simulation studies (Frasca 2003; Simpson 2011; Tuomas 2022; ) by claiming that both BGIII and RT contain models that can simulate religions – systems whose behaviour may resemble to someone a behaviour of a religion. By dissecting fictional religious traditions using Smart’s methodology, comparing them with each other and grounding them in a context of historical religions and, in particular, in the notion of a “cult” (Galanter 1999), it is possible to better understand how those games approach this complex topic, potentially influencing its understanding among the players.
Bibliography:
- Frasca, G. 2003. Simulation Versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology. In The Video game Theory Reader 2: 221-236. London, UK: Routledge
- Galanter, M. 1999. Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion. Oxford University Press.
- Randall, H. 2023. ‘There’s almost nobody left’: CEO of Baldur’s Gate 3 dev Swen Vincke says the D&D team he initially worked with is gone, due to Hasbro layoffs. PCGamer. Accessed 26.07.2024. URL: https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-almost-nobody-left-ceo-of-baldurs-gate-3-dev-swen-vincke-says-the-dandd-team-he-initially-worked-with-is-gone-due-to-hasbro-layoffs/
- Smart, N. 1974. Mao. Waukegan: Fontana Press.
- Smart N. 1996. Dimensions of the Sacred: An Anatomy of the World’s Beliefs. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Simpson, J. 2011. Identity crisis: Simulation and models. In Simulation & Gaming, 42(2), 195-211. LA: Sage.
- Templar9999. From what I understand, based on Kickstarter conversations, GW refused. Reddit. 04.04.2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/RogueTraderCRPG/comments/1b5yqcq/comment/kt8l2oo/
- Tuomas, H. 2022. Simulation. Encyclopedia of ludic terms. Accessed 26.07. 2024 URL: https://eolt.org/articles/simulation
Author bio
Leonid Moyzhes is a PhD candidate at the faculty of Social Science at Charles University. Leonid’s research interests concern representation of religion and spirituality in role-playing games, with a special attention towards games as a possible space for identity experimentation.
