Playing with Religion in Digital Games

10. “God Modes” and “God Moods”: What Does a Digital Game Need to Be Spiritually Effective?

214 “I’m not sure how much religion you’ll find in The Path,” writes Michaël Samyn, director of the Belgian independent studio Tale of Tales, in response to an inquiry.1 After all, The Path “is a short horror game inspired by older versions of Little Red Riding Hood, set in modernday .”2Sixsisters,agedninetonineteen,aresentonanerrandtotheir sick and bedridden grandmother. Mother tells them to stay on the path that leads through a thick and dangerous forest. The woods, however, promise adventures that can hardly be resisted by the girls. In the forest, they find strange areas and objects related to their characters and life situation. Most important, they find their personal wolf–a traumatic encounter, after which grandmother’s house becomes a place of surreal nightmares that end with the death of each girl. The Path, which won awards for innovative game design, shows little overt religious symbolism, apart from some Christian crosses at the graveyard and the girls’ reflections about death. However, a glance at the developer’s forum reveals that players relatively often tie their play experiences to religious themes.3 Therefore, the game might be an example, on one hand, of the suggestion of William Sims Bainbridge and Wilma Alice Bainbridge that it is “possible that certain categories of games satisfy some of the same psychological needs satisfied by religion ,”4 and on the other hand, of game researcher and designer Ian Bogost’s approach that games may have a spiritually relevant persuasive effect through their procedural representations and interactions rather than through their contents.5 In this chapter, I suggest a ludologically influenced religious studies approach to digital games.6 I am interested “God Modes” and “God Moods” What Does a Digital Game Need to Be Spiritually Effective? ten Oliver Steffen “God Modes” and “God Moods” 215 in the basic structural elements of games that generate religiously or spiritually relevant experiences in players. As a start, I examine a number of scientific and journalistic publications that, in their discussion of digital games’ effects, not only refer to religious terms, metaphors, and themes, but also provide details about the characteristics of the corresponding ludological structure. I offer a list of criteria to compare the spiritual efficacy of digital games–an essential aspect of the implicit religious potential of games. I then show that this efficacy may be understood and compared in terms of flow, meditation, empowerment, disempowerment, and morality. This catalog becomes the basis for my analysis of The Path, which is followed by a discussion from a religious studies perspective. So even if Michaël Samyn is not sure how much religion is in The Path, I’ll gladly follow his friendly invitation: “But have a look. . . . And do please let us know what you find!” Theories and Concepts The following key theories and concepts will be used to unpack the “religious ” experiences reported by game players. 10.1. Rose off the path. The Path (2009). 216 Oliver Steffen Implicit Religion and Spiritual Efficacy In this chapter, “religion” is defined according to the sociological theory of “implicit religion,” which covers cultural phenomena that are not attributed to traditional religions, but have the same or similar structures and functions for individuals. Here, I focus on a single theme of implicit religion, spiritual efficacy, as expressed by the German sociologist of religion Günter Thomas. First, through rituals and other strategies, the religious communication process induces and interprets experiences of altered states of consciousness. These experiences show two typical poles: an operation of consciousness that is to the greatest possible extent hetero-referential, that is, the individual consciousness is absorbed by external stimuli, as in practices of ecstasy; and an operation of consciousnessthatistothegreatestpossibleextentself -referential,forexample ,phenomenaof silence,meditation,andmysticalexperience.Second, religious communication provides cognitive, affective, and evaluative orientation.Third,itsuggestsspecificwaysof behavingandacting.Thus, the individual consciousness of the participants, or their self-perception and social perception, is meant to be shaped permanently.7 As I will show, parallels can be found for these three interdependent factors in digital game literature. “God Mode” and “God Mood” To examine spiritual efficacy in digital games in more detail, let me introduce the twin concepts of “god mode” and “god mood.” In digital gaming, “god mode” is a common term for the practice of permanently maximizing the avatar’s attributes, that is, achieving a state of immortality , by altering the game rules. This process has several aspects that are relevanttothischapter...