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Playing Gods is a satirical board game released in late 2008. Two to five players each represent a different god, and compete with each other to take over the world. This is done by spreading believers, converting the followers of other gods, or killing them off with Acts of God. The game premiered at the 2009 New York Toy Fair.
Playing Gods combines literate satire and social commentary with the carefree fun of the Old Testament. Players can pit Christians against Muslims and Hindus against Jews, or be the mascot, a machine-gun-toting Buddha. Players may choose to be any god from Jesus to the Buddha, from Cthulhu to Zeus, from the Cult of Oprah to the Almighty Dollar. [1]
Playing Gods is basically an area control game, like Risk . The board is a map of the world, and each continent contains a Holy City that is home of one of the world's religions. Circling the globe is an outer ring where the god pawns move around the board. They do not actually move onto the map of the Earth, they stay above in the heavens, gathering power through Wrath and Conversion cards. Wrath cards (also called "kill cards") are used to bring down natural disasters (plagues, locusts, avalanches, floods, and other Acts of Gods) on other gods' followers. Conversion cards are used to convert other gods' followers to your beliefs (promising them things like Afterlife, Prosperity, and Miracles).
Typical card content includes: "Bring down the plague: Kill two sects," "Your preacher is found with a prostitute, lose one sect," and "Another god's follower challenges you to prove you exist; you fry him with lightning in front of a crowd. Gain one sect." The game is won when one god converts or kills off all the other gods' followers.
Figures from the world's five major religions are included in the game: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. A sticker sheet is provided with the game to allow for other gods and religions, including Scientology (represented by Tom Cruise with a UFO over his head), Zeus, Jehovah's Witnesses, beer, the Cult of Oprah, the Almighty Dollar, war, J. R. "Bob" Dobbs (of the Church of the Subgenius), the Flying Spaghetti Monster, death, Satan, television, the Goddess, atheism, the Magic 8 Ball, McWorld (American consumerism), and others. Players are encouraged to create their own gods. [2] [3]
The game was introduced in September 2008 at Dragon*Con, the annual fantasy and science fiction convention in Atlanta. The game is produced by an independent company called Balls Out Entertainment, which, according to its Web site, "is an undisputed world leader in edgy fun, satirical entertainment, and pompous hyperbole. Formed just recently yet dating back to Caesar, Balls Out Entertainment is at once both new and improved."
According to the game's creator, Ben Radford, the game was partly inspired by a British game called War on Terror: The Board Game . The concept for "the world's first satirical board game of religious warfare" was inspired by his realization that "many of the world's worst conflicts are rooted in religion. Lots of people believe that God is on their side, and as long as God is on your side, any actions you take are justified... I realized, 'This is ridiculous, all these people killing each other because their neighbor down the road prays to a different god.'" Radford said. "I wanted to address this religious violence from a satirical angle, as I'd never seen it done before."[ citation needed ]
The public's reaction to Playing Gods has been generally positive. Australia's Synergy Magazine reported Playing Gods has “some of the nicest pawns I have ever seen in a board game... has great game play and comes with a smart, cynical and satirical tone. The Wrath and Conversion cards are amusing but also make you think about the inherent violence in religion and superstition… Playing Gods is blasphemy with style and offers a great board game with a good dose of insight and a great load of fun!”. [4] Other players have praised the game as "one of the coolest and most important things to happen to parlor games", [5] and “awesome, and damned funny.. it’s Candyland for people who want the express train to hell”. [6]
Users of the boardgaming community BoardGameGeek have praised the humor in the game, but given it a poor average rating [7] due to its boring gameplay and lack of meaningful decisions. [8]
The game's main theme—gods killing off each other's believers in religious warfare—has caused some controversy. The game comes with six pawns, including ones depicting Jesus swinging a cross as a weapon and the Buddha firing a machine gun. Several stores have refused to carry the game because of its potential to offend religious people. [9]
USA Today polled its readers about the controversy "Does Playing Gods go too far?" The results were split down the middle, with 48% saying it went too far, and 50% saying it didn't go far enough. Carl Raschke, professor of religious studies at University of Denver, stated that the game's perspective "has no basis in historical reality and doesn't actually represent any religion. It just appeals to people who hate religion to begin with—the hip subculture of militant popular atheists... . It sounds too stupid to go far." [10]
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliating with another. This might be from one to another denomination within the same religion, for example, from Baptist to Catholic Christianity or from Sunni Islam to Shi’a Islam. In some cases, religious conversion "marks a transformation of religious identity and is symbolized by special rituals".
Populous is a video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts, released originally for the Amiga in 1989, and is regarded by many as the first God game. With over four million copies sold, Populous is one of the best-selling PC games of all time.
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Divine retribution is supernatural punishment of a person, a group of people, or everyone by a deity in response to some action. Many cultures have a story about how a deity exacted punishment upon previous inhabitants of their land, causing their doom.
A pantheon is the particular set of all gods of any individual polytheistic religion, mythology, or tradition.
The Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning, is a monotheistic new religious movement which was established in China in 1991. Government sources estimate the group has three to four million members.
Navayana means "new vehicle" and refers to the re-interpretation of Buddhism by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar; it is also called Neo-Buddhism and Ambedkarite Buddhism. Ambedkar was a polymath, theologian and scholar of Buddhism. He was born in a Dalit (untouchable) family during the colonial era of India, studied abroad, became a Dalit leader, and announced in 1935 his intent to convert from Hinduism to a different religion, and he has studied all the major religions of the world in depth, including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, and Buddhism, for nearly 21 years. Thereafter Ambedkar studied texts of Buddhism, found several of its core beliefs and doctrines such as Four Noble Truths and "non-self" as flawed and pessimistic, then re-interpreted these into what he called "new vehicle" Buddhism, or Navayana. Ambedkar held a press conference on 13 October 1956, announcing his rejection of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, as well as of Hinduism. Thereafter, he left Hinduism and adopted Navayana, about six weeks before his death. Its adherents see Navayana Buddhism not as a sect with radically different ideas, but rather as new movement founded on the principles of Buddhism.
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Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God, in most cases transcendent. In religions that accept polytheism, the different gods and goddesses may be representations of forces of nature or ancestral principles; they can be viewed either as autonomous or as aspects or emanations of a creator deity or transcendental absolute principle, which manifests immanently in nature. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally; they can be henotheists, specializing in the worship of one particular deity, or kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times.
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Nontheistic religions are traditions of thought within a religious context—some otherwise aligned with theism, others not—in which nontheism informs religious beliefs or practices. Nontheism has been applied and plays significant roles in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. While many approaches to religion exclude nontheism by definition, some inclusive definitions of religion show how religious practice and belief do not depend on the presence of a god or gods. For example, Paul James and Peter Mandaville distinguish between religion and spirituality, but provide a definition of the term that avoids the usual reduction to "religions of the book":
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Chakradhara, also known as Sarvadnya Shri Chakradhar Swami or Kunwar Haripaladeva was an Indian saint and philosopher, who is considered as an avatara of Krishna by his disciples and one of the most important exponents of the Dvaita tradition within Hinduism. He is the founder of Mahanubhava Sampradaya of Krishnaism. Shri Chakradhar Swami advocated worship of Lord Krishna and preached a distinct philosophy based on Bhakti. He did not recognize caste distinctions, and like Buddha had only two others viz the householder and recluses. Some sources claim that Chakrapani Prabhu and Govinda Prabhu as the originators of Mahanubhava doctrine and Chakradhara as the first apostle who systematized Mahanubhava as a school of Bhakti philosophy. Chakradhara's birth anniversary is observed on the Tithi of Bhadrapada Shukla Dwitiya.
Sanghyang Adi Buddha is a concept of God in Indonesian Buddhism. This term was used by Ashin Jinarakkhita at the time of Buddhist revival in Indonesia in the mid-20th century to reconcile the first principle of the official philosophical foundation of Indonesia (Pancasila), i.e. Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa that requires the belief in a supreme God, which Buddhism, strictly speaking, does not believe in. This concept is used by the Indonesian Buddhist Council, an organization that seeks to represent all Buddhist traditions in Indonesia such as Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.
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