Abstract:
Video Games are known as one of the most effective and popular media in current age. This article is an attempt to study the influence of videogames on the religious identification of gamers by studying The Sims 3 game. Important features such as cultural and religious contexts of players and their participation in making narratives in the game are effective in their reception of influence. Stuart Hall’s Base Model of Encoding/Decoding with the help of other components from James Gee have been used to make this model more applicable to video Games. Research methodology used for this research included in-depth interview with gamers of “The Sims 3” and studying their interaction with this game. The results of the study indicate that although in minor cases we have seen some resistance against the ideology of the game، players don’t have the power of resistance against game’s main hegemony، i.e. consumerism and hence are classified in dominant position in Hall’s grouping.
Machine summary:
. Keywords: Reception theory, video game, The Sims 3, identity formation, cyberspace, cyborg, interactive media, consumption, in-depth interview Investigating the mode of religious identity formation Female players of the video game The Sims in confrontation with the game * Hamed Haji Heidari Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran hajiheidari@philosociology.
In a summary of the reasons for the attractiveness of video games for girls, one can point to ten main factors: the presence of female hero characters, character progression, social relationships, non-violence, cooperation, care, realistic conditions, slow pace, good story, and parallel storylines (Nakamura & Wirman 1, 2005).
Cyberspace is a new possibility for humans to explore and delve into the complexities of their personal identity (Robins 1, 1996: 91); in such a space, the limitations of the real world, such as family and religion, no longer exist, and the individual can gain freer experiences and explore more within their own existence.
Another point worth mentioning here is that qualitative methods and the deep interview approach, instead of seeing information as subjects to be investigated, consider them as participants with whom cooperation must take place and view the interview as an interactive process between the researcher and the participants (Hsiao2, 1.
However, one of the important points observed in the interviews is that although some interviewees consider themselves religious, none of them mention the dimensions of consumerism present in the game, which is in opposition to religiosity; this indicates that the consumerist lifestyle, which as previously mentioned is in conflict with a religious life, has become prevalent among these individuals.
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