Could Gaming be next major religion?...
...if is not already?
Quite difficult question to answer, and maybe, just maybe there won't be a response to it in our lifetime. But this doesn't mean we can start thinking about it!
I've been spending many afternoon/nights drilling down into this thought.
Mac-o thinking about gaming as a religion circa 2018
But given the fact most influential religions are centuries old with a very complex history, lost in translation concepts and different view points; I decided to simplify the process before going mad.
[Note: I left out "younger" religions such as Scientology for practical reasons]
So what I did was to create a check list. That's right, a simple and straight forward checklist. But I called it "Ultimate Check List to evaluate if your activity has Epic Religious Potential in the centuries to come" just to add some awesomeness to it. I was going to call it "Ultimate Check List to evaluate if your activity has Epic Religious Potential in the centuries to come that fell from the sky and enlightened your existence" but thought it was too much.
I narrowed down the check list items to the ones here-under based in common points between Christianity, Judaism, Islamism and an some extent Hinduism. (Perhaps in a second though exercise I will include Buddhism, but before doing so I need to learn more about it.)
Ok, its check list time:
Holy places - checked!
We Gamers have tons of learning and interacting places, where we can play co-op or against, individually or in teams, places were we can share tips, info, troll each other, discuss new features or skills, you name it. And among those we have places that are the ones we worship the most, those places that are one of a kind, that we always want to visit or have became a must. I'm talking about places like Steam or Twitch in the virtual work, or E3 and South Korea irl.A Martyr - checked!
And i'm not referring to the inquisitor, I'm talking about someone who gave everything to the people, and everything was taken away from him by obscure forces.
In my opinion Gaming has this figure portrait in Kim DotCom. I know this sounds controversial! But isn't that part of being a Martyr?
Think about it, he created one of the most popular sharing platforms in the world, where cracked games had been download by the thousands on daily basis... to then and all of the sudden unnecessary force was used to shut him down... a message was sent that day.A Chosen one - checked!
This is not the chosen one from Kung Pao, this is the one anointed by the code, chosen by the GPUs and raised by the fires of the web. I'm talking about Gabe Newell! I don't think I need to further explain this one.
A Devil - cheeeeecked!
Not everyplace is the shire [LOTR alert activated]. We need an opposite since "maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light"[1]. Something that became quite clear when EA launched BF2 back in Jan and the microtransactions (MTXs) topic skyrocketed in Google Analytics like one of Elon Musks Falcon Heavy.
Torches were lit, kingdoms fell and all which was know never was the same. This demon brought to us, on a global scale, what true gamers had fear the most ...Pay to Win.Followers- more than checked!
From what we can call the "Gaming Low Age", or "Few, Happy Few Pixels Era" when Dr Edward Uhler showcased his game based machine in NY's world fair in 1940 and led approximately 50.000 people to play with it. Passing by the "Sweet Arcade Era", "Later LAN Party Kingdoms" to our "Sweet Modern Age Gaming" the gaming world has increased to over 2 billion gamers worldwide and by 2020 that number is forecast to increase by 35%
Daily practices - checked!
We all have our weekly routines, even pre-game routines. Some make sure to save the game every time you kill a boss, or move 30 mins in the story-line. Others make sure to check for updates before going to bed. Also there's people that wake up and first thing first say hello to his peers in Discord.
These are just some examples, but there are many more. The beauty of them, is that they are shared by all gamers across the globe, making these practices part of the culture formed by this soon to be religion [?]Factions, or colliding sides - che che che cheeeecked!
With such a big group of people, scattered in various regions and with all kinds of backgrounds, experiences and more. It is not surprising to have within the population groups with different views like Christianity with Protestants - Orthodox; Judaism with Zionist - Orthodox or Islam with Sunni - Shia.
In the Gamer world is PC Master Race - Console Peasant. But in one point these two branches of Gaming come together and is the despise to Mobile Gamers.
There are other few items i'm still evaluating such as Evolution, Written Tradition including Epic Histories; and Heavenly ideal combined with Sense of Meaning. But most likely I will work on them deeper into the night with my adventure companion shaped as a crafted beer.
Let me know your thoughts and of course feel free to expand the topic [you may reach the apostle rank].
Cheers,
@Mac-o
[1] Madeline L'Engle
[2.1]https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/
[2.2]https://filmora.wondershare.com/infographic/video-game-trends-and-stats.html
[3] https://www.ageofempires.com/news/matintheworlds-wololo-priest