Playing with Religion in Digital Games by Campbell Heidi A.; Grieve Gregory P.;

Author:Campbell, Heidi A.; Grieve, Gregory P.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2014-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

NEOMEDIEVAL RELIGION AND PLAUSIBLE REALISM IN SHADOWBANE

More elaborate uses of neomedieval religion for narrative occur in MMORPGs deemphasizing player-versus-environment challenges (narrated by non-player characters) in favor of player-versus-player conflict. Shadowbane used its religious lore to explain “free-for-all player v. player combat,” the idea that each player is free to kill anyone else he or she encounters. Instead of simply explaining these rules in the manual or in an in-game tutorial, Shadowbane used a complex religious narrative introduced online and in IRC chat to make the game rules and technological limitations part of the game world’s own history.19 These intricate in-game design elements connected gamers directly to the world whose story their play was co-writing.

Two moments from Shadowbane’s lore crystallize how neomedieval religion was woven into every layer of the game’s mechanics. The first explains kill-and-be-killed unending war (free-for-all player-versus-player combat); the second explains the game’s cycle of death and rebirth. In a struggle to conquer the world and even the gods, an elf king by the name of Sillestor draws the mighty sword Shadowbane and slays Loromir, Archon of Peace, initiating unending violence (archons are “emanations” of the All-Father, thus a blend of Scandinavian and Gnostic origin stories). According to the lore, “all of the strife, pain, and war that has troubled our broken World was born in that instant, and . . . since Loromir’s death true peace is impossible.” This confrontation explicitly sets Shadowbane in a world of eternal war; peace is literally dead. The lore goes on to explain the historical origins of religiously motivated rivalries among the available player races, each linked to the death of Loromir.

Through both the detailed religious rivalries between different player groups and the death of Loromir, Archon of Peace, Shadowbane’s lore requires players to resolve disputes through violence rather than peaceful negotiation. Players are not just allowed to kill each other in any circumstance, for any reason; they have no alternative but to do so. From its earliest iteration as a web portal hosting a teaser trailer, Shadowbane promoted the lore authored by Meridian, the game company’s official “sage.” Because Meridian’s history was available several years before the game’s release, it also served as advertisement. The lore wove medieval Christian and Nordic religious systems into its virtual landscape. For instance, permanent death was no longer possible after the sword Shadowbane shattered the world into shards (game servers) and disrupted the cycle of death. Instead, players immediately “respawned” at two possible locations, Soul Stones and Trees of Life. Some players took the game up without studying the lore, and others formed guilds that wrote their own centuries of historical involvement into the back-story. Guilds that strictly adhered to the lore were at a disadvantage in combat due to imbalances between races and classes. Some guilds thus formed alliances of necessity with those who should, by the logic of the lore, be their bitterest enemies.

Though game imbalances meant that ARAC (all-race, all-class) guilds dominated the server maps, with each action players continued to participate in the game’s neomedieval religions.

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