Triggered to Thinking

Life is what you make of it, right? This is a common saying that rings true for many people. In anthropology, different people give symbols different meanings in various historical contexts. The swastika used by the Nazi part is an example of this. Most are familiar with the usage of the swastika by the Nazis and by modern-day Neo-Nazois. However, this symbol predated the Nazi party, and it had a different meaning from practitioners of the Jain faith. For the Jains, this was not a symbol of hatred or racial superiority but a symbol of piety. Manoj Jain explains, “The Swastika is considered an auspicious and a pious symbol. The red arms of the swastika represent the four possible states (gatis) of rebirth: human, heaven, hell, and animal.” 

Within the field of video games and religion, players of these video games have elucidated different meanings for the symbols embedded in video games. The experiences are not uniform, and other players have different experiences. The field of religion and video games and the relationship between them is still rudimentary; one critique of qualitative research into the relationship between video games and meaning-making is that “Qualitative studies on religious-meaning making in games are overly exploratory and they need more systemic research designs” (Sisler et al, 2017). 

This critique is well founded, but I am optimistic that more qualitative research into video games can generate more data on the meaning-making that gamers draw from video games. Stef Auspers, Julian Schaap and Lars de Wilt conducted a study on World of Warcraft players. These authors utilized the theory of Symbolic Interactionism, which stipulates that “humans act toward things based on the meanings they ascribe to those things” (Blumer, 1966).

Within the realm of digital ethnography, video game players have encountered and experienced a wide array of mystical experiences that players can thus translate to the real world. Scholars have explained that in relation to digital ethnography, ethnographers should “take advantage of extended fieldwork to study culture through participation that is authentic in that culture’s own terms” (Boellstorff et al, 2012 p. 69)

One respondent explained how he became interested in Buddhism due to his experience with World of Warcraft’s “Tauren” culture (Sisler et al, 2017). Online research into World of Warcraft also discovered that many players found connection with outside religion, and while not always converting to a religion, the religious world of World of Warcraft allowed them to gain more sympathy for religion. 

These systems of meaning, which can be similar to mystical and religious experiences, can be connected to different gaming communities. The Dutch scholar Johan Huizinga argued for a cultural interpretation of games. In his book Homo Ludens, he explained that games ” promote the formation of social groupings that tend to surround themselves with secrets and to stress the difference from the common world by disguise or other means” (Kowert & Quandt, 2016, p.157). 

Bonnie Nardi engaged in an anthropological study of World of Warcraft called My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft. Nardi examined the guilds and culture of World of Warcraft players by playing the game herself. She found that players often felt a sense of empowerment after adding mods and a sense of the game’s style to their preferences for their characters (Nardi 2010, 148). 

Constance Steinkuehler found in her research that players are engaged in a “community of practice”. These communities allow players to understand the world and themselves. T. I Taylor found in the world of Everquest that players would benefit from cooperation (Taylor 2006). The high level of 65 can only be achieved with the help of others in Everquest. Gamers have also noted the satisfaction that accomplishing goals can bring. A player in GenZ commented, “Just as in any other online game in which you play together with others, the feeling is great: you have accomplished something together, it worked, you set a goal, and everything worked wonderfully” (Taylor 2006, p. 31). 

Works Cited

Bareither, C. (2020). Playful virtual violence. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108873079

Boellstorff, T., Nardi, B., Pearce, C., & Taylor, T. (2012). Ethnography and virtual worlds. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.cttq9s20

Campbell, H. (2014). Playing with Religion in Digital Games. Indiana University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.2979/6972.0

Methods for studying video games and religion. (2017). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315518336

Nardi, B. (2010). My life as a night Elf Priest. University of Michigan Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.3998/toi.8008655.0001.001

Taylor, T. L. (2006). Play between worlds. The MIT Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/5418.001.0001

The Video game debate: unravelling the physical, social, and psychological effects of digital games. (2016). Choice Reviews Online, 53(12), 53–5133. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.196868