(Mit) Gott spielen: Götter und Gottesbilder in Videogames

As part of the “Fürth feiert Vielfalt” festival (April 24 to May 10), Dr. Nathanael Riemer, research assistant specializing in Judaism at the Bavarian Research Center for Interreligious Discourse (BaFID), will give a lecture on the topic of "(Mit) Gott spielen: Götter und Gottesbilder in Videogames".

In the video game Detroit: Become Human (2019), the player takes on the role of an android named Markus and encounters African-American preacher Gordon Penwick, who instructs his audience with the following speech: "Poor sinners! The end is near! Retribution is near. Technology corrupts us—technology is evil! We play God by creating machines, but we are not God! We are nothing but dust. We created androids in our image, but they only reflect the darkness in our souls!" The following lecture explores how deities and religions are portrayed in video games and what roles they play there. The focus is on computer games for adults that have been given the age ratings USK 18 or USK 16. The lecture is visualised using game clips and pursues cultural and religious studies questions from an observational perspective.