Book by Lars de Wildt
Young people in the West are more likely to encounter religion in videogames than in places of wo... more Young people in the West are more likely to encounter religion in videogames than in places of worship like churches, mosques, or temples. Lars de Wildt interviewed developers and players of games such as Assassin’s Creed to find out how and why the ‘Pop Theology of Videogames’ is so appealing to cultural industries and their audiences. Based on extensive fieldwork, this book argues that developers of videogames and their players engage in a pop theology through which laymen reconsider traditional questions of religion, by playing with them. Games allow us to engage with religious questions and identities in the same way that children might play house or pretend to be soldiers. This requires a radical rethinking of religious questions as no longer just questions of belief or disbelief; but as truths to be tried on, compared, and discarded at will.
Journal Articles by Lars de Wildt
Journal of Consumer Culture, 2023
Videogame companies are selling religion to an overwhelmingly secular demographic. Ubisoft, the b... more Videogame companies are selling religion to an overwhelmingly secular demographic. Ubisoft, the biggest company in the world's biggest cultural industry, created a best-selling franchise about a conflict over Biblical artefacts between Muslim Assassins and Christian Templars. Who decides to put religion into those games? How? And why? To find out, we interviewed 22 developers on the Assassin's Creed franchise, including directors and writers. Based on those, we show that the 'who' of Ubisoft is not a person but an industry: a depersonalized and codified process. How? Marketing, editorial and production teams curb creative teams into reproducing a formula: a depoliticized, universalized, and sciencefictionalized 'marketable religion.' Why? Because this marketable form of religious heritage can be consumed by everyone-regardless of cultural background or conviction. As such, this paper adds an empirically grounded perspective on the 'who,' 'why' and 'how' of cultural industries' successful commodification of religious and cultural heritage.
Public Understanding of Science, 2022
Conspiracy theories are central to "post-truth" discussions. Official knowledge, backed by scienc... more 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.
Politics of Production: Videogames 10 years after Games of Empire
Games and Culture, 2020
2019 marked ten years since the publication of Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter’s Games of... more 2019 marked ten years since the publication of Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter’s Games of Empire, which has become a seminal book in videogame cultural criticism. Ten years later, there is still a pressing need for cultural and materialist criticism of the politics of production within game studies. In putting together this special issue, our hope is to identify new developments in the game industry and academia that are emblematic of 21st-century capitalism. Just as Games of Empire popularised critical political-economic perspectives ten years ago, we encourage others, as the authors in this issue did, to continue and maintain investigations into questions of ownership, privatized property, coercive class relations, military operations and radical struggle. Such analyses are necessary not only to trace but also to open up new directions in game culture and academia for decades to come.
Games and Culture, 2020
2019 marked ten years since the publication of Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter's Games of... more 2019 marked ten years since the publication of Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter's Games of Empire, which has become a seminal book in videogame cultural criticism. Ten years later, there is still a pressing need for cultural and materialist criticism of the politics of production within game studies. In putting together this Special Issue, our hope is to identify new developments in the games industry and academia that are emblematic of 21st century capitalism. Just as Games of Empire popularised critical political-economic perspectives ten years ago, we encourage others, as the authors in this issue did, to continue and maintain investigations into questions of ownership, privatized property, coercive class relations, military operations, and radical struggle. Such analyses are necessary: not only to trace, but also to open up new directions in game culture and academia for decades to come.
Politics of Production: Videogames 10 years after Games of Empire
Games & Culture, 2020
2019 marked ten years since the publication of Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter’s Games of... more 2019 marked ten years since the publication of Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter’s Games of Empire, which has become a seminal book in videogame cultural criticism. Ten years later, there is still a pressing need for cultural and materialist criticism of the politics of production within game studies. In putting together this special issue, our hope is to identify new developments in the game industry and academia that are emblematic of 21st-century capitalism. Just as Games of Empire popularised critical political-economic perspectives ten years ago, we encourage others, as the authors in this issue did, to continue and maintain investigations into questions of ownership, privatized property, coercive class relations, military operations and radical struggle. Such analyses are necessary not only to trace but also to open up new directions in game culture and academia for decades to come.
International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2020
Lars de Wildt is Ph.D.-candidate and lecturer at KU Leuven's Institute for Media Studies, studyin... more Lars de Wildt is Ph.D.-candidate and lecturer at KU Leuven's Institute for Media Studies, studying how videogames changed religion in a supposedly post-secular age; and how networked media changed conspiracy theories in a supposedly post-truth age. Lars was Visiting
International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2020
Religious icons and representations increasingly appear, in the West, as cultural heritage rather... more Religious icons and representations increasingly appear, in the West, as cultural heritage rather than active subjects of religious practice. While churches become tourist landmarks rather than places of worship; religions’ stories and characters – their intangible cultural heritage – survive as rich bases for popular media alongside their traditional use of mediating divinity. This paper studies one form of such popular media – Japanese videogames, using the Final Fantasy series as a case study – to ask: Which religions, folklores, cultures and their divinities are represented in videogames? (All of them, flattened non-hierarchically.) How are these divinities mediated in videogames? (Together, juxtaposed eclectically.) And what are the implications for including what are normally mutually exclusive mediations of divine worship into popular media together? (It re-introduces them to a practice common outside of Abrahamic, protestant conceptions of world religion, by freely combining cultural heritages and religious practices in what are called ‘multiple religious belongings’). While these representations of eclectic religion may seem to trivialise traditions by making them interchangeable, it also manages to de-objectivate them and reveal their fictional, artefactual origin as cultural heritage, while leaving them intact as contemporary practices.
Pop theology: forum discussions on religion in videogames
Information, Communication & Society
Players of videogames are talking about religion. Despite longstanding theories of Western religi... more Players of videogames are talking about religion. Despite longstanding theories of Western religious decline, recent scholarship has assessed that religious traditions and narratives feature prominently in videogames. In order to answer how player communities in game culture deal with religion in games, this study analyzes online discussions (N=100) and interviews with strategically selected players (N=20) to assess which games provoke discussions about religion, which religious topics are discussed about these games and what implications this has for theories of religious privatization. Based on the analysis, players are divided into four ideal-typical positions: players of all beliefs either Reject, Debunk, Debate or actively Connect with the worldviews presented in the games they play. In all, this online engagement with religion, gods and the nature of holy texts, presents a “pop theology” of amateurs showing an interest in and having a public conversation about religion in the face of a post-secular society.
Pop theology: forum discussions on religion in videogames
Information, Communication & Society
Players of videogames are talking about religion. Despite longstanding theories of Western religi... more Players of videogames are talking about religion. Despite longstanding theories of Western religious decline, recent scholarship has assessed that religious traditions and narratives feature prominently in videogames. In order to answer how player communities in game culture deal with religion in games, this study analyzes online discussions (N=100) and interviews with strategically selected players (N=20) to assess which games provoke discussions about religion, which religious topics are discussed about these games and what implications this has for theories of religious privatization. Based on the analysis, players are divided into four ideal-typical positions: players of all beliefs either Reject, Debunk, Debate or actively Connect with the worldviews presented in the games they play. In all, this online engagement with religion, gods and the nature of holy texts, presents a “pop theology” of amateurs showing an interest in and having a public conversation about religion in the face of a post-secular society.
Information, Communication & Society, 2019
Players of videogames are talking about religion. Despite longstanding theories of Western religi... more Players of videogames are talking about religion. Despite longstanding theories of Western religious decline, recent scholarship has assessed that religious traditions and narratives feature prominently in videogames. In order to answer how player communities in game culture deal with religion in games, this study analyzes online discussions (N=100) and interviews with strategically selected players (N=20) to assess which games provoke discussions about religion, which religious topics are discussed about these games and what implications this has for theories of religious privatization. Based on the analysis, players are divided into four ideal-typical positions: players of all beliefs either Reject, Debunk, Debate or actively Connect with the worldviews presented in the games they play. In all, this online engagement with religion, gods and the nature of holy texts, presents a “pop theology” of amateurs showing an interest in and having a public conversation about religion in the face of a post-secular society.
‘I Don’t Think You're Going to Have Any Aborigines in Your World:’ Minecrafting Terra Nullius
British Journal of Sociology of Education, 2019
The myth that justified the takeover of a continent lives on both in classrooms and popular media... more The myth that justified the takeover of a continent lives on both in classrooms and popular media. Drawing from classroom observations in an urban primary school in Australia, this paper enters the technology in education conversation, more specifically through the use of videogames for learning. Based on classroom exchanges between teachers and students, we interrogate how the school's use of Minecraft, a best-selling commercial videogame, continues to reproduce myths of settler colonialism in the 21st century. Specifically, the curriculum mobilizes structures inherent to both Minecraft and modern Australia's treatment of its Indigenous populations. That is, both classroom and videogame interactions reproduced the myth of terra nullius: the doctrine that determined land, prior to colonization, was empty and unowned, and therefore available for settlement by the colonizer. We conclude that within videogames and classrooms, students' voices manage to interrogate the curriculum, resisting the reproduction of erasive coloniality in school.
British Journal of Sociology of Education, 2019
The myth that justified the takeover of a continent lives on both in classrooms and popular media... more The myth that justified the takeover of a continent lives on both in classrooms and popular media. Drawing from classroom observations in an urban primary school in Australia, this paper enters the technology in education conversation, more specifically through the use of videogames for learning. Based on classroom exchanges between teachers and students, we interrogate how the school’s use of Minecraft, a best-selling commercial videogame, continues to reproduce myths of settler colonialism in the 21st century. Specifically, the curriculum mobilizes structures inherent to both Minecraft and modern Australia’s treatment of its Indigenous populations. That is, both classroom and videogame interactions reproduced the myth of terra nullius: the doctrine that determined land, prior to colonization, was empty and unowned, and therefore available for settlement by the colonizer. We conclude that within videogames and classrooms, students’ voices manage to interrogate the curriculum, resisting the reproduction of erasive coloniality in school.
Playing the Other: Role-playing religion in videogames
European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2018
In contemporary ‘post-secular society’, videogames like Assassin’s Creed, BioShock Infinite or Wo... more In contemporary ‘post-secular society’, videogames like Assassin’s Creed, BioShock Infinite or World of Warcraft are suffused with religious elements. Departing from a critique on studies perceiving such in-game representations as discriminatory forms of religious Othering, the main research question of this article is: how does role-playing the (non-)religious Other in games affect the worldview of players? The study is based on a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews held with 20 international players from different (non-)religious backgrounds. Rather than seeing religion in games as representations of ‘Othering’, the analysis demonstrates that players from different (non-)religious beliefs take on different worldviews while role-playing the (non-)religious Other. Atheists relativize their own position, opening up to the logic of religious worldviews; Christians, Hindus and Muslims, in turn, compare traditions and may draw conclusions about the similarities underlying differ...
European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2018
In contemporary 'post-secular society', videogames like Assassin's Creed, BioShock Infinite or Wo... more In contemporary 'post-secular society', videogames like Assassin's Creed, BioShock Infinite or World of Warcraft are suffused with religious elements. Departing from a critique on studies perceiving such in-game representations as discriminatory forms of religious Othering, the main research question of this article is: how does role-playing the (non-)religious Other in games affect the worldview of players? The study is based on a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews held with 20 international players from different (non-)religious backgrounds. Rather than seeing religion in games as representations of 'Othering', the analysis demonstrates that players from different (non-)religious beliefs take on different worldviews while role-playing the (non-)religious Other. Atheists relativize their own position, opening up to the logic of religious worldviews; Christians, Hindus and Muslims, in turn, compare traditions and may draw conclusions about the similarities underlying different world religions. Other players 'slip into a secular mindset', gradually turning towards the position of a 'religious none'. It is concluded that playing the religious Other in videogames provides the opportunity to suspend (non-)religious worldviews and empathize with the (non-)religious Other. The relevance of these findings is related to broader sociological debates about 'post-secular society' and the alleged increase of religious fundamentalism, conflict and mutual Othering.
Games and Culture, 2019
This article explores the cultural appropriation of the term avatar by Western tech culture, and ... more This article explores the cultural appropriation of the term avatar by Western tech culture, and what this implies for scholarship of digital games, virtual worlds, social media and digital cultures. The term has roots in the religious tradition of the Indian subcontinent and was subsequently imported into video game terminology during a period of widespread appropriation of Eastern culture by Californian tech industries. We argue that the use of the term was not a case of happenstance, but a signalling of the potential for computing to offer a mystical or enchanted perspective within an otherwise secular world. This suggests that the concept is useful in game cultures precisely because it plays with the ‘otherness’ of the terms original meaning. We argue that this indicates a fundamental hybridity to gaming cultures that highlights the need to add postcolonial perspectives to how issues of diversity and power in gaming cultures are understood.
ToDiGRA: Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association, 2018
This article examines which bodies have access to participate in Digital Games Research Associati... more This article examines which bodies have access to participate in Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) events, and to DiGRA as an organization. It is based on a survey (N=174), among subscribers to the DiGRA “Gamesnetwork” mailing list. The survey included questions on age, gender, location and career level to gain insight into who is included in the DiGRA community, with further questions on problems and challenges faced by those who have had trouble accessing DiGRA. This paper does not proceed solely by statistical methodology, but draws on feminist theories of embodiment and qualitative methods. Through this diverse methodological approach, the paper analyzes which bodies have difficulties accessing DiGRA’s academic communities and conferences, which practices cause these difficulties, and which policies might be introduced to address these. The survey indicates that young, early-career and women’s bodies are in particularly precarious positions. This situation is perpetuated through various practices of economic and social inaccessibility. Upon reflection, the paper proposes a set of policies to address these practices. We conclude that this survey and its analysis are only a first step to making DiGRA a more diversely inclusive organization.
In the literature on religion in games, two broad types of religion have been depicted: on the on... more In the literature on religion in games, two broad types of religion have been depicted: on the one hand, historical religions—Christian, Muslim and Buddhist narratives, tropes and symbols—and, on the other hand, fiction-based religion, referring to fantasy, myth and popular culture. In this article we aim to describe, analyze and explain the emergence of a new, unacknowledged repertoire. Building on two case studies—Fallout 3 and Horizon: Zero Dawn—we argue that modern technology (computers, AI, VR, androids) itself is becoming a sacred object of veneration in fiction, specifically in post-apocalyptic games that imagine man-made annihilation. Although the themes and topics differ, this emergent form of techno-religion in game narratives is generally located in a post-apocalyptic setting. Although they are fictitious, we conclude that such narratives reflect developments in real life, in which technology such as artificial intelligence is feared as an increasingly powerful, opaque force.
Modern game scholarship in the past two decades has known two dominant, yet paradoxical, tendenci... more Modern game scholarship in the past two decades has known two dominant, yet paradoxical, tendencies in theorizing the subject of play: an interpellationary account and a deconstructivist one. Going from Miguel Sicart’s concept of the ethical player as an initial compromise between the two, this article argues for an ideological subject of play that is a split subject. Aside from phenomenological presense through ‘playing subjects,’ as Foucaultian subjects constructed by the governing structure of rules, we must recognize the parallel subjectivity of ‘played subjects,’ inherent to – and narrativized by – the game as avatars, visual narrators or sheer content. In this constellation, the player appears to have a merely precarious position over the played, ready to lose control at the whim of the game.
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Book by Lars de Wildt
Journal Articles by Lars de Wildt