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Item Details
Title: EGODS
FAITH VERSUS FANTASY IN COMPUTER GAMING
By: William Sims Bainbridge
Format: Hardback

List price: £107.50
Our price: £107.50
ISBN 10: 0199935815
ISBN 13: 9780199935819
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.
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Publisher: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS INC
Pub. date: 26 March, 2013
Pages: 336
Description: William Bainbridge contends that the worlds of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games provide a new perspective on the human quest, one that combines the arts and simulates most aspects of real life. The quests in gameworlds also provide meaning for human action, in terms of narratives about achieving goals by overcoming obstacles.
Synopsis: William Bainbridge takes an in-depth look at the fantasy religions that exist in 34 different massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. He categorizes the religions, noting similarities across the games. He points, for instance, to the prevalence of polytheism: a system which, Bainbridge argues, can function as an effective map of reality in which each deity personifies a concept. Religions are as much about conceptualizing the self as conceptualizing the sacred. Most games allow the players to have multiple avatars, an idea Bainbridge likens to contemporary scientific ideas about personality. He also focuses on sacred spaces; the prevalence of magic and its relationship to the computer program and programmer; the fostering of a tribal morality by both religion and rules programmed into the game; the rise of cults and belief systems within the game worlds (and how this relates to social science theories of cult formation in the real world); and, of course, how the gameworld religions depict death. As avatars are immortal, death is merely a minor setback in most games.At the same time, much of the action in some gameworlds centers on the issue of mortality and the problematic nature of resurrection. Bainbridge contends that gameworlds are giving us a new perspective on the human quest, one that combines the arts and simulates most aspects of real life. The quests in gameworlds also provide meaning for human action, in terms of narratives about achieving goals by overcoming obstacles. Perhaps meaning does not naturally exist in our universe, but must be created by us, both in our fantasies and in day-to-day life. Like the games analyzed in this book, he says, traditional religions are fantasies that should be respected as works of art in a future civilization of disbelief.
Publication: US
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Returns: Returnable
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BERKSHIRE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION (HB)
COMPUTER SIMULATIONS OF SPACE SOCIETIES (HB)
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CONVERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING HUMAN PERFORMANCE (HB)
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CULTURAL SCIENCE
DIMENSIONS OF SCIENCE FICTION
DYNAMIC SECULARIZATION
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EGODS (PB)
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GOD FROM THE MACHINE
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MANAGING NANO-BIO-INFO-COGNO INNOVATIONS (HB)
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ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAMES
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ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAMES (PB)
ONLINE WORLDS: CONVERGENCE OF THE REAL AND THE VIRTUAL (PB)
PERSONALITY CAPTURE AND EMULATION
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PROGRESS IN CONVERGENCE (PB)
RELIGION, DEVIANCE, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
RELIGION, DEVIANCE, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
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THE ENDTIME FAMILY (HB)
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THE WARCRAFT CIVILIZATION (PB)
VIRTUAL LOCAL MANUFACTURING COMMUNITIES
VIRTUAL SOCIOCULTURAL CONVERGENCE (HB)
VIRTUAL SOCIOCULTURAL CONVERGENCE (PB)

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