Informace o publikaci
Fictional Worlds, Real Magic: An Anthropological Analysis of the Connection Between Contemporary Spirituality and the Video Game Industry
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2025 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Citace | |
| Popis | Long past are the days when video games were a marginal form of entertainment, reserved for a few enthusiastic individuals. Today, video games are a socio-economic powerhouse, influencing millions of users around the world, while generating billions of dollars in revenue annually in the process. One of the new cultural aspects, where their influence has gradually increased over the years, is contemporary spirituality. Despite that magical worlds and supernatural powers were already present in the beginnings of the video game boom, it has been mostly in recent years where game designers started to include references to real-world occultism, esotericism, or magical practice into their work. Examples such as the Shin Megami Tensei series, or the Persona series (both developed by the Japanese game company Atlus) are deeply inspired by various esoteric movements, philosophies, and aesthetics, reimagining them into new artistic form. It is thus of no surprise, that such video games soon caught the attention of modern practicing magicians, who started to gradually implement them into their own rituals. In this presentation, on chosen case studies, I will explore how on one hand the esoteric milieu is being represented in video games, while on the other, based on conducted interviews, how and why said representations are finding their way back into the real-world magical practice. |
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