Page 99 - Pure Life 11

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98 PURE LIFE, Vol.11.No.4, December. 2017 (Rabīʿ Al-Thānī 1439. Azar 1396)
Yet, the experiences of the players, both inside and
outside of the games, are very real. The virtual spaces that
players engage in are created by humans.
This has a positive and negative effect for the overall
argument surrounding video game religion: Something created by
man does not hold intrinsic sacred value (in comparison to the
Quran in Islam). But, its innate creation by man, like a skyscraper
or a computer, is what makes virtual reality real, not fake.
Therefore, players are engaging in real activities with
real consequences. Catherine L. Albanese outlines the four
main components of a religion in her book America
Religion and Religion. In it, she says that religions
provide the four Cs: creed, code, cultus, and community.
Creeds are the “explanations about the meaning of
1
human life” , codes are the “rules that govern everyday
2
behavior,” cultuses are the “rituals to act out the insights
and understandings that are expressed in creeds and
3
codes,” and communities are “groups of people either
formally or informally bound together by the creed, code,
4
and cultuses they share.”
It is easily to see that video games, nowadays fits
Albanese’s theory about religion. They build communities
around mean-making activities in online sacred spaces,
follow rituals such as completing daily activities in game
that in turn reward the player.
They are subject to the rules and laws that govern the
game and, the it offers explanations for life after, as well
as provides both real life and fantasy world meaning-
making from their actions.

1. Catherine and America, 1999. p. 8.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.