Pop theology: forum discussions on religion in videogames

Wildt, Lars de; Aupers, Stef

doi:10.1080/1369118x.2019.1577476

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…1 Informed consent was not deemed necessary up to this point: players posted anonymously on public forums, according to the terms and conditions for that forum's publication of their posts (cf. Bourgonjon et al, 2015;de Wildt & Aupers, 2020;Mo & Coulson, 2008).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Religion on Videogame Forums

2023

The Pop Theology of Videogames

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This chapter focuses on player communities. Based on an analysis of discussions on religion in games, among thousands of players on videogame fora, this chapter argues that players are prompted not just to play in isolation, but to collectively discuss the meanings and meaninglessness of religion in videogames. Doing so, they use videogames to learn about and, more often, fight about what games mean to them, in widely divergent ways. They thus perform a kind of "public religion", including conversations on the meaning of gods and religions in culture. These conversations are prompted by games and loosely based on their own religious beliefs, the content of the games they play, and their conceptions of what the developers intended.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Religion on Videogame Forums

2023

The Pop Theology of Videogames

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“…The resulting dataset consists of all 522 comments until the discussion was closed three days later. Informed consent was not deemed necessary under NU.nl’s terms and conditions ( De Wildt and Aupers, 2020 ).…”

Section: Method Data and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Poly-truth, or the limits of pluralism: Popular debates on conspiracy theories in a post-truth era

Harambam¹,

Grusauskaite²,

Wildt

2022

Public Underst Sci

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Conspiracy theories are central to “post-truth” discussions. Official knowledge, backed by science, politics, and media, is distrusted by various people resorting to alternative (conspiratorial) explanations. While elite commentators lament the rise of such “untruths,” we know little of people’s everyday opinions on this topic, despite their societal ramifications. We therefore performed a qualitative content analysis of 522 comments under a Dutch newspaper article on conspiracy theories to study how ordinary people discuss post-truth matters. We found four main points of controversy: “habitus of distrust”; “who to involve in public debates”; “which ways of knowing to allow”; and “what is at stake?” The diverging opinions outline the limits of pluralism in a post-truth era, revealing tensions between technocratic and democratic ideals in society. We show that popular opinions on conspiracy theories embody more complexity and nuance than elite conceptions of post-truth allow for: they lay bare the multiple sociological dimensions of poly-truth.

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“…Steam is the digital store that mainly supplies this VG in Spain, and therefore, one of the platforms that most specific reviews of 'Papers, Please' provide in our language. Informed consent was not necessary since Steam data is public and keeps the anonymity of its participants (Bourgonjon, et al, 2015;de Wildt and Aupers, 2020;Fiesler & Proferes, 2018;Mo & Coulson, 2008).…”

Section: Task and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do pro-social video games promote moral activity?: an analysis of user reviews of Papers, Please

et al. 2022

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Video games are the digital entertainment resource most in demand by young people, which has led an increasing number of education experts to study their possible benefits. In particular, in this research, we set out to identify the potential of ‘Papers, Please’ to promote moral learning. Thus, we have tried to identify those objectives that go beyond the success in the video game and could favor moral learning. For this purpose, we have investigated what types of moral discourses arise from playing ‘Papers, Please’, a video game where you adopt the role of a customs inspector in a totalitarian state who must obtain the necessary money to fund their family. To do this, we analyzed the moral content of 1,560 player reviews. Results showed that only 4.94% of the reviews presented Moral Intuitions (moral content), which occurred more in the players who had played longer and had declared more Negative Emotions. As for the analysis of the Moral Intuitions, results showed that the players mainly made references to Care for both Family and Immigrants and point out the Authority of the State. However, Fairness/Cheating is less represented, despite the many events related to Immigrant discrimination. Through Exploratory Factor Analysis, we identified three dimensions, one of them pragmatic, oriented to success in the video game, and the others aimed at epistemic aspects beyond the objectives of the video game and that delve into the moral aspects of the game events. Hence, although spontaneous video game use is oriented toward pragmatic goals, ‘Papers, Please’ can guide players to think about the morality of the video game. Nevertheless, if we want to favor moral learning with ‘Papers, Please’, it is necessary to promote epistemic goals aimed at the explicitation of the morality that underlies the video game. To this end, we propose the application of scaffolding that favors these objectives.

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Pop theology: forum discussions on religion in videogames

Abstract: Lars de Wildt is a Ph.D.-candidate and lecturer at the Institute for Media Studies at KU Leuven. His research (inductive, multi-method) currently focuses on the ways in which videogame players and developers play with religion in a supposedly secular age. Lars has been

Cited by 17 publications

References 32 publications

Public Religion on Videogame Forums

Public Religion on Videogame Forums

Poly-truth, or the limits of pluralism: Popular debates on conspiracy theories in a post-truth era

Do pro-social video games promote moral activity?: an analysis of user reviews of Papers, Please

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