Playing (with) God: Gods and images of God in videogames

In the video game "Detroit: Become Human" (2019), the human playing the android Markus meets the African-American preacher Gordon Penwick, who lectures his audience with the following speech: "Poor sinners!" The end is near! Retribution is near. Technology is corrupting us - technology is evil! We play God by creating machines, but we are not God! We are nothing but dust. We created the androids in our image, but they only reflect the darkness in our souls!"

In the following lecture, we will explore how deities and religions are portrayed in video games and the roles they play. The focus will be on computer games for adults, which are given the age classifications USK 18 or USK 16 by the responsible authority, the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK). We will visualize the lecture using game recordings and explore questions of cultural and religious studies from an observational perspective.