Religion in Computer Games

I found these recently - two short videos that discuss the role of religion in computer games:

Part 1 and Part 2

They were certainly thought provoking.  Some main points include that religion is treated in a shallow way (at least the "lore" of it) but that including religious content could add significant depth to a game.  I'm not much of a gamer anymore, but one of my favorites was Deus Ex as it touched on a number of philosophical and moral themes.  In addition to the challenge of the game, I got to think through some things and how the character I controlled should act.

I think they left out other reasons religion is not touched on in depth, which is the potential to resist identifying with something you don't like or disagree with.  People have very strongly held beliefs and feelings about religion, and that can either drive them to or from a game no matter the quality of the gameplay.  Imagine if Starcraft (one of the most successful games ever) also had some very deep religious content, such as a current religion being attributed to each of the three factions.  Someone could find it difficult to identify themselves, even if only in a game, with another religion.  We may want to be a hero that saves the day, but not switch religions.  And, I could see that lead to commercial failure.

I know there is some talk in the gaming world of electronic games being considered an art form.  Perhaps some are.  However, a major historic driver for art is the expression of religious belief.  I agree that games cut themselves off from greater things by avoiding religion.

Healthcare Technology, Suffering, and the Christian

This is one of the most thoughtful pieces I've read about our relationship to technology.  The article focuses on healthcare technology, but the points about a Christian view of suffering are key to thinking about any modern technology.

Modern Healthcare: Are We Playing God?

The Web We Lost

Saw this article about The Web We Lost.

It underscores that the technology we design comes with assumptions.  The World Wide Web was built around certain assumptions that our current crop of social media services don't always share.  There's good and bad to that, but more essentially the underlying philosophy will come out.

Moral dimensions of technology companies

Yes, I'm resurrecting this blog. Here are two articles/posts regarding the moral dimensions of a technology company.
Travis Shrugged

No I still don't want to work for Google

 Take the time to read them and think about the goals and philosophy of the companies making all these techie-gadget-doodads and how that will inevitably be infused into their products.

More Universal Church Tech Trends

As a follow-up to a recent post on technology trends in church, I saw this list of top 5 technologies that will shape the church by John Dyer. I like this one better as he gets at more universal technologies and asks questions about how they impact our life and/or worship.

Thoughtful Points on Tech from Turkle

The Perils of Digital Technology. Go have a read - some good thoughts on the nature of digital technology and how we (don't) thoughtfully approach it.