Yep, well. I think we both made valid points there, which don't really impact on one another. As for the problem you're defining there: I think there's always that "problem" in Cantr with all sorts of things, not just religion. Our emotional investment in the game isn't real, just role-played; and the stakes are never as high as our characters think they are. The worst thing that can actually happen is the character gets killed, and that will never matter as much to the player as it does to the character. Whether we can act like we really believe our "immortal soul" to be in jeapordy depends to a large extent on our role-playing skills I suppose
I don't know that fear of God's wrath and stuff like that really plays any part in most religions anyway. Certainly plenty of religions (eg Buddhism, Sikhism) get along nicely without putting the "fear of God" into their followers. It should be just as easy to get such religions to spread in Cantr as it is IRL. The trouble with Religion IRL (in my view; I know I'm risking sparking off cotroversy here) is that it tends to begin as metphysics and end up as a tool of oppression, picking up all sorts of emotional dross along the way. It's quite a challenge to RP all the psychic complexities involved, if you want to introduce the kind of religion that's approaching the end of that process (better not give an exaple). But then it's quie a challenge to RP a fully-functional human being anyway. The best of us are likely to prioduce cardboard cut-outs, by contast.
Of course "Knowing no such things are programmed to happen in Cantr" is
OOC knowledge, right,; so, ideally, it wouldn't make a differerence. But then belief in "Jos the Creator" is making use of OOC knowledge and I'm very glad the PD hasn't tried to stamp it out on that basis. It's rather cute.
That's got to be the closest thing Cantr has to the familiar Judeo-Christian sects IRL, and I rather enjoy the fact that Jos's relation to Cantr is quite closely analogous to Christian fundamentalist's concept of God, when you think about it. He certainly created Cantr, and he and his angels have been know to produce "miracles" in response to the prayers of distressed Cantrians (e.g, the tiredness reset, and the item decay reset. What else can you call that but Divine Intervention?). And he can and does judge those who break the Rules of the Game. Anger him enough and you might even lose your Immotal Soul (i.e your account gets cancelled, and you can't create any more characters). I don't know how much of this this you could incorporate into in-game religion, before somebody decided it really was a CR- breach, but it would be rather fun to develop a branch of Cantrian Religion which really did reflect Cantrian reality; and it seems to me that it wouldn't be very much different from IRL religion, after all.
Vicar wrote:julie2 wrote:Here's a thought: paranormal events are every bit as possible, or impossible in Catr as they are IRL, surely? The IRL question is a matter of debate, but most people believe in the paranormal, or else have an open mind. So paranomal events might, in fact, occur without being programmed in or occurring as bugs, right? Unless you're totally sceptical.
The problem is that Cantr is a "Meta" world where it's difficult to threaten people with gods or religion, because we know that no such things are programmed to happen in Cantr.
"Real life" religions persuade people ro do all sorts of stuff, becuase the stakes are higher (immortal souls in jerpordy, etc).......
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