Religious Motives in Secular Culture: Exploring the Phenomenon of Video Games

Student: Shishlakova Elizaveta

Supervisor: Alexander Agadzhanyan

Educational Programme: Philosophy and History of Religion (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2018

The term essay is the analysis of religious motives in two fantasy-RPG single-player video games: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins. In the first part of the essay, the interaction of religion and popular culture in a secular society is considered. The second chapter is devoted to the consideration of the existence of the game (through game philosophy appeal) and to the identification of essential characteristics of the video game and approaches to its study. The third and final chapter opens with a brief analysis of the methodology of religion in video games research, on the basis of which the choice is made in favor of the methodology of "procedural rhetoric" by I. Bogost, and ends with a practical part of the work - artificial religious systems and gameplay related to religion analysis in previously mentioned video games.

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