Faith and World of Warcraft at Colorado University

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-29-2009 @ 6:39PM

Aubrecia said...

But it doesn't fit the most basic definition of a religion: Nothing is being worshipped.

Perhaps the term he was looking for was "community"? Or "culture," more likely. WOW is a culture all on its own; it provides community, interaction, even somewhat of its own language. But the very definition of religion is that there is a deity concept. Perhaps not a god itself, but a reverence and honor for spirits or concepts that is beyond the level people have on a normal human level.

While some WOW players might have that for the tier of the month, the rest of us raise our eyebrows and go on seeing it as a game. Not a god. There's no faith structure or moral guidelines in WOW, unless you define the TOS as such, and there's no greater concept involving "hey, what happens to my characters after I type "DELETE" and press "YES"? Do they go to Azeroth in the sky?"

It's data. It's a game. And any sane WOW players will think of those who do regard it as a religion as having a few screws loose.

1-29-2009 @ 7:26PM

Keyra said...

Well, from a strictly RPing point of view, what is being worshiped is Elune, The Light, The Earth Mother/Ancestors, etc. but then only from one's character's standpoint when one is actually playing that character, and not in all actuality (we hope!). In this essence it can fit the criteria if he's delving into the RP genre, but if not then I don't know what he is basing the subject of Divinity upon.

Unless it's the rather ephemeral code itself which doesn't have a physical presence, but is comprised solely of electronic data transference? Hmm...

Add your comments

Your comments:

Remember me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.