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Gaming as a Religion

 

            The definition of a religion is "a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance." A form of modern day religion is video gaming. Gaming and religion hold a supreme importance to people. Worldwide religions can claim to worship one deity or another such as Allah, Yahweh or the Grecian Pantheons, much the same way that gamers can identify as gamers, but can break down into subcategories. These differences in subcategories do not hold the same conflicts as holy wars, however, these subcategories do vehemently defend their respective games or systems. Religions often have a religious head to steer followers and guide them on a specific path. Gamers also have religious heads and figures to guide them, in their case they have social media personalities and streamers. .
             The worship of a specific deity or higher power can become either a cause for community or grounds for a holy war. There is the religious civil war in Ireland between the Protestants and Catholics for example. Despite Protestants and Catholics believing in the Bible, they interpret it differently. Catholics see the bible as an insufficient guide to being a good Christian, relying on Catholic traditions in conjunction with the Bible. Protestants believe the Bible alone is enough scripture for salvation from their sins. A comparison can be drawn to how differences in the gaming community can cause a divide. The gaming community worships specific companies and developers. The most prevalent feud is between Microsoft and Sony. But similar to religion, the different communities can co-mingle without incident if companies or developers are mutually shared. Companies that make games for both PC and console can bring together the group as a whole, in the case of the Call of Duty games. Discussions about how to best play Call of Duty, what items or perks used in-game and personal prowess bring together two different groups under one common ground.


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