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Polygamer #18: Charles Battersby on atheism & religion in games

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Ken Gagne
Charles Battersby

Charles Battersby hosted the PAX East 2015 panel "The End Boss Doesn’t Exist: Atheism in Video Games", featuring Ken Levine of Irrational Games and Chris Avellone of Obsidian Entertainment. The panel played to a packed house, such that I couldn’t get in — so I invited Charles onto Polygamer to discuss what I missed!

In this interview, Charles defines some basic terminology before fielding such questions as why atheists are drawn to video games; why religion seems to influence music and art so much less than games; what fictional religions can learn from real-world religions; and how religion and atheism can be used respectfully in games.

Download the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

  • Charles Battersby: Writer, actor, game designer, theater critic
    • Explosion
    • AUTOMATON
    • Dusty Cartridges
    • Complex
  • PAX East 2013 panel "Will Win/Should Win at PAX East", sponsored by NAVGTR
  • Press XY: Transgender Issues in Gaming
  • Rebecca "Burger Becky" Heineman to deliver KansasFest 2015 keynote
  • PAX East 2015 panel "The End Boss Doesn’t Exist: Atheism in Video Games
  • Dragon Age
  • "Why Do Atheists Like Video Games More Than Religious People Do?"
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Emissary of the Prophets
  • Game Church
  • Final Fantasy IV’s Holy/White magic spell
  • Koran quotations found in LittleBigPlanet
  • Khadeja Merenkov on cultural gatekeepers & white privilege
  • Ken Levine’s BioShock
  • Fallout’s Hubologists
  • What is Satanism?
  • Quest for Infamy
  • Hatred on Steam Greenlight
  • Anita Sarkeesian receives Harvard Humanist of the Year award
  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
  • Games For Change
  • Charles Battersby’s upcoming speaking schedule
  • Life Is Strange developer interview
  • Theater For Nerds
https://media.blubrry.com/polygamer/www.polygamer.net/wp-content/uploads/podcast/pg18-charles_battersby.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:59 — 28.8MB) | Embed

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Related

Posted in Podcast | Tags: agnostic, agnosticism, atheism, atheist, Charles Battersby, Chris Avellone, church, deism, faith, Ken Levine, panel, PAX East, Press XY, religion, religious |
« Polygamer #17: Jandy Hardesty on films, criticism & parenting
Polygamer #19: Elisa Meléndez on avatars, FragDolls, racial diversity & rock bands »

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