{"id":13929,"date":"2024-03-29T11:38:22","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T10:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/29\/if-life-is-one-giant-computer-simulation-god-is-a-rubbish-player-dominik-diamond\/"},"modified":"2024-03-29T11:38:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T10:38:22","slug":"if-life-is-one-giant-computer-simulation-god-is-a-rubbish-player-dominik-diamond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/29\/if-life-is-one-giant-computer-simulation-god-is-a-rubbish-player-dominik-diamond\/","title":{"rendered":"If life is one giant computer simulation, God is a rubbish player | Dominik Diamond"},"content":{"rendered":"

While religion doesn\u2019t feature much in video games, I find the theory that we are all characters in a huge sim ever more believable \u2013 and appealing<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Easter weekend, when Catholics like me spend hours in church listening to the extended editor\u2019s cut of a story whose ending we already know. Sitting there for the millionth performance of the Passion recently, I got to thinking about how few religious video game characters I\u2019ve ever encountered. It\u2019s interesting that in a world where so many people\u2019s lives are dictated by religious beliefs, there is such a scarcity of religion in games. I mean, you could argue that all <\/em>games are Jesus homages, with their respawns and extra lives, but even I admit that\u2019s a stretch.<\/p>\n

The Peggies in Far Cry 5 are a mind-controlling violent cult; those Founders in BioShock Infinite use religion to elevate and justify hatred of foreigners; and you have those wackadoodles in Fallout worshipping atomic bombs. Religion is almost exclusively used as means for leaders to get minions to do bad things. (Admittedly, they may be on to something here.) I guess that when so many video games are structured so as to set you up as a lone protagonist, up against a huge force, religion is a fairly obvious go-to villain.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nWhile religion doesn\u2019t feature much in video games, I find the theory that we are all characters in a huge sim ever more believable \u2013 and appealing
\nIt\u2019s Easter weekend, when Catholics like me spend hours in church listening to the extended editor\u2019s cut of a story whose ending we already know. Sitting there for the millionth performance of the Passion recently, I got to thinking about how few religious video game characters I\u2019ve ever encountered. It\u2019s interesting that in a world where so many people\u2019s lives are dictated by religious beliefs, there is such a scarcity of religion in games. I mean, you could argue that all games are Jesus homages, with their respawns and extra lives, but even I admit that\u2019s a stretch.
\nThe Peggies in Far Cry 5 are a mind-controlling violent cult; those Founders in BioShock Infinite use religion to elevate and justify hatred of foreigners; and you have those wackadoodles in Fallout worshipping atomic bombs. Religion is almost exclusively used as means for leaders to get minions to do bad things. (Admittedly, they may be on to something here.) I guess that when so many video games are structured so as to set you up as a lone protagonist, up against a huge force, religion is a fairly obvious go-to villain. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While religion doesn\u2019t feature much in video games, I find the theory that we are all characters in a huge sim ever more believable \u2013 and appealing It\u2019s Easter weekend, when Catholics like me spend hours in church listening to the extended editor\u2019s cut of a story whose ending we already know. Sitting there for …<\/p>\n

If life is one giant computer simulation, God is a rubbish player | Dominik Diamond<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13929"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}