Anonymous, 20 Jun 2013
Research on Middle East, Islam and digital media
keyword: video games

Jordan: Video Games Design

Design Institute Amman, based in Jordan, organizes series of workshops on video games design. It starts with "Introduction to Video Games Design: The Age of Videogames: from Pong to Gamification" (23-25 May). It will continue with following courses, and with "Video Games Design Summer Camp" (23-27 June). StencylWorks, a game creation toolset, is to be used at the events.

New Book: Digital Ethnography: Anthropology, Narrative, and New Media

Integrating insights from cultural anthropology, folklore, digital humanities, and digital heritage studies, this book brims with case studies that provide in-depth discussions of applied projects. Web links to multimedia examples are included as well, including projects, design documents, and other relevant materials related to the planning and execution of digital ethnography projects. In addition, new media tools such as database development and XML coding are explored and explained, bridging the literature on cyber-ethnography with inspiring examples such as blending cultural heritage with computer games.
 
Bainbridge, William Sims, eGods: Faith versus Fantasy in Computer Gaming. Oxford University Press, April 2013 abstract full text

New Book: eGods: Faith versus Fantasy in Computer Gaming

The author takes an in-depth look at the fantasy religions that exist in 34 different massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. He categorizes the religions, noting similarities across the games. He points, for instance, to the prevalence of polytheism: a system which, Bainbridge argues, can function as an effective map of reality in which each deity personifies a concept. Religions are as much about conceptualizing the self as conceptualizing the sacred.
 
Wagner, Rachel, God in the Game: Cosmopolitanism and Religious Conflict in Videogames. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 81, Iss. 1, 2013 abstract full text

New Book: Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds

The book offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and new media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of new media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From cell phones and video games to blogs and Second Life, the book considers the theoretical, ethical and theological issues raised.

Book: Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality

This book offers an engaging exploration of religious practice in the digital age. It considers how virtual experiences, like stories, games and rituals, are forms of world-building or "cosmos construction" that serve as a means of making sense of our own world. Such creative and interactive activity is, arguably, patently religious.
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