Franchised Esotericism:Religion as a Marketing Strategy for the Assassin’s Creed Franchise

Despite being one of the most popular franchises in the history of video gaming, Assassin’s Creed [AC] builds on something increasingly unpopular: religion. This chapter aims to show that AC nonetheless uses religion, and then aestheticizes it in two ways – (1) perennially and (2) esoterically, – serving to attract the largest possible audience; an audience that is nonetheless demographically predominantly secular. Based on a content analysis of the franchise itself – additionally informed by player interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2019), online discussions (de Wildt/Aupers 2020), developer interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2021), and analyses done elsewhere (cf. de Wildt, 2020) – I ask:1. Who plays Assassin’s Creed, and what is likely to be their religious position? (The answer to which is ‘the exact demographic at the forefront of secularisation – Western, male, young, and educated.) 2. How does AC represent religion for this largely secular audience? (As perennial – i.e., that there is one underlying truth common to all religious and philosophical traditions – and esoteric – i.e., that religion can be made understandable through the combined, rare knowledge that only a select few have access to)I conclude that while AC’s audience is at the forefront of secularisation, the AC franchise presents this audience with a perennial, esoteric representation of religion, and does so in a commodified way, using the logic of esotericism to sell its ‘marketable’ religion across various transmedial media objects. What is the consequence of this? AC’s representation of religion follows the same market logic that spirituality and New Age religion have taken outside of the church, particularly since the 1960s: a picking and mixing of religious elements from any tradition at hand. Moreover, this handpicked assemblage presents a “marketable” religion that will offend nobody and that anyone can identify with (de Wildt/Aupers 2021). Rather than perform individual bricolage, however, consumers of AC are invited to reconstruct meanings that have already been laid out by the franchise: a commodified, enjoyable puzzle that promises the answer to understanding all of history’s mysteries. This logic of esotericism – of piecing together scientific, historical, mysterious and religious knowledge – is at the centre of AC as a franchise. Every media object – AC’s many games, books, and other transmedia products – offers a piece of this puzzle that only the ‘true’ fan has access to. It offers all the joy of understanding the ‘real’ truth behind everything, without having to believe in anything at all

Franchised Esotericism:Religion as a Marketing Strategy for the Assassin’s Creed Franchise

Despite being one of the most popular franchises in the history of video gaming, Assassin’s Creed [AC] builds on something increasingly unpopular: religion. This chapter aims to show that AC nonetheless uses religion, and then aestheticizes it in two ways – (1) perennially and (2) esoterically, – serving to attract the largest possible audience; an audience that is nonetheless demographically predominantly secular. Based on a content analysis of the franchise itself – additionally informed by player interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2019), online discussions (de Wildt/Aupers 2020), developer interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2021), and analyses done elsewhere (cf. de Wildt, 2020) – I ask:1. Who plays Assassin’s Creed, and what is likely to be their religious position? (The answer to which is ‘the exact demographic at the forefront of secularisation – Western, male, young, and educated.) 2. How does AC represent religion for this largely secular audience? (As perennial – i.e., that there is one underlying truth common to all religious and philosophical traditions – and esoteric – i.e., that religion can be made understandable through the combined, rare knowledge that only a select few have access to)I conclude that while AC’s audience is at the forefront of secularisation, the AC franchise presents this audience with a perennial, esoteric representation of religion, and does so in a commodified way, using the logic of esotericism to sell its ‘marketable’ religion across various transmedial media objects. What is the consequence of this? AC’s representation of religion follows the same market logic that spirituality and New Age religion have taken outside of the church, particularly since the 1960s: a picking and mixing of religious elements from any tradition at hand. Moreover, this handpicked assemblage presents a “marketable” religion that will offend nobody and that anyone can identify with (de Wildt/Aupers 2021). Rather than perform individual bricolage, however, consumers of AC are invited to reconstruct meanings that have already been laid out by the franchise: a commodified, enjoyable puzzle that promises the answer to understanding all of history’s mysteries. This logic of esotericism – of piecing together scientific, historical, mysterious and religious knowledge – is at the centre of AC as a franchise. Every media object – AC’s many games, books, and other transmedia products – offers a piece of this puzzle that only the ‘true’ fan has access to. It offers all the joy of understanding the ‘real’ truth behind everything, without having to believe in anything at all

Franchised Esotericism:Religion as a Marketing Strategy for the Assassin’s Creed Franchise

Despite being one of the most popular franchises in the history of video gaming, Assassin’s Creed [AC] builds on something increasingly unpopular: religion. This chapter aims to show that AC nonetheless uses religion, and then aestheticizes it in two ways – (1) perennially and (2) esoterically, – serving to attract the largest possible audience; an audience that is nonetheless demographically predominantly secular. Based on a content analysis of the franchise itself – additionally informed by player interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2019), online discussions (de Wildt/Aupers 2020), developer interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2021), and analyses done elsewhere (cf. de Wildt, 2020) – I ask:1. Who plays Assassin’s Creed, and what is likely to be their religious position? (The answer to which is ‘the exact demographic at the forefront of secularisation – Western, male, young, and educated.) 2. How does AC represent religion for this largely secular audience? (As perennial – i.e., that there is one underlying truth common to all religious and philosophical traditions – and esoteric – i.e., that religion can be made understandable through the combined, rare knowledge that only a select few have access to)I conclude that while AC’s audience is at the forefront of secularisation, the AC franchise presents this audience with a perennial, esoteric representation of religion, and does so in a commodified way, using the logic of esotericism to sell its ‘marketable’ religion across various transmedial media objects. What is the consequence of this? AC’s representation of religion follows the same market logic that spirituality and New Age religion have taken outside of the church, particularly since the 1960s: a picking and mixing of religious elements from any tradition at hand. Moreover, this handpicked assemblage presents a “marketable” religion that will offend nobody and that anyone can identify with (de Wildt/Aupers 2021). Rather than perform individual bricolage, however, consumers of AC are invited to reconstruct meanings that have already been laid out by the franchise: a commodified, enjoyable puzzle that promises the answer to understanding all of history’s mysteries. This logic of esotericism – of piecing together scientific, historical, mysterious and religious knowledge – is at the centre of AC as a franchise. Every media object – AC’s many games, books, and other transmedia products – offers a piece of this puzzle that only the ‘true’ fan has access to. It offers all the joy of understanding the ‘real’ truth behind everything, without having to believe in anything at all

Conclusion:Pop Theology

This chapter concludes that there is a disjunction between the production and consumption of religion in videogames. On the one hand, the production of games leads to a commodification and “sameness” of religion in videogames, hollowing out the meaning of religious practice and belief. On the other hand, the consumption of games leads to meaningful public debate and individual (ir)religious experience, reasserting inter-religious conversation in the post-secular. This conclusion argues that religious signs are first turned into “simulacra” by game developers, and then played with and negotiated by players, resulting in a “pop theology.” That is, an exchange of belief for play as the epistemological strategy for relating to religion in post-secular, mediatized societies. Videogames thus offer a ludic epistemology of religions as worldviews to be tried on, compared and discarded, rather than as sources for belief or disbelief in ultimate truths

Franchised Esotericism:Religion as a Marketing Strategy for the Assassin’s Creed Franchise

Despite being one of the most popular franchises in the history of video gaming, Assassin’s Creed [AC] builds on something increasingly unpopular: religion. This chapter aims to show that AC nonetheless uses religion, and then aestheticizes it in two ways – (1) perennially and (2) esoterically, – serving to attract the largest possible audience; an audience that is nonetheless demographically predominantly secular. Based on a content analysis of the franchise itself – additionally informed by player interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2019), online discussions (de Wildt/Aupers 2020), developer interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2021), and analyses done elsewhere (cf. de Wildt, 2020) – I ask:1. Who plays Assassin’s Creed, and what is likely to be their religious position? (The answer to which is ‘the exact demographic at the forefront of secularisation – Western, male, young, and educated.) 2. How does AC represent religion for this largely secular audience? (As perennial – i.e., that there is one underlying truth common to all religious and philosophical traditions – and esoteric – i.e., that religion can be made understandable through the combined, rare knowledge that only a select few have access to)I conclude that while AC’s audience is at the forefront of secularisation, the AC franchise presents this audience with a perennial, esoteric representation of religion, and does so in a commodified way, using the logic of esotericism to sell its ‘marketable’ religion across various transmedial media objects. What is the consequence of this? AC’s representation of religion follows the same market logic that spirituality and New Age religion have taken outside of the church, particularly since the 1960s: a picking and mixing of religious elements from any tradition at hand. Moreover, this handpicked assemblage presents a “marketable” religion that will offend nobody and that anyone can identify with (de Wildt/Aupers 2021). Rather than perform individual bricolage, however, consumers of AC are invited to reconstruct meanings that have already been laid out by the franchise: a commodified, enjoyable puzzle that promises the answer to understanding all of history’s mysteries. This logic of esotericism – of piecing together scientific, historical, mysterious and religious knowledge – is at the centre of AC as a franchise. Every media object – AC’s many games, books, and other transmedia products – offers a piece of this puzzle that only the ‘true’ fan has access to. It offers all the joy of understanding the ‘real’ truth behind everything, without having to believe in anything at all

Public Religion on Videogame Forums

This chapter focuses on player communities. Based on an analysis of discussions on religion in games, among thousands of players on videogame fora, this chapter argues that players are prompted not just to play in isolation, but to collectively discuss the meanings and meaninglessness of religion in videogames. Doing so, they use videogames to learn about and, more often, fight about what games mean to them, in widely divergent ways. They thus perform a kind of “public religion”, including conversations on the meaning of gods and religions in culture. These conversations are prompted by games and loosely based on their own religious beliefs, the content of the games they play, and their conceptions of what the developers intended

Single-player Religion

This chapter builds on the previous chapter by conducting in-depth interviews with 20 players: Why do they individually play with religion? and How do they adopt worldviews (albeit temporarily) that are not usually theirs? Players, whether atheists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, self-identified Pagans or of other convictions, all have one thing in common: they are prompted by games to enter worlds with different beliefs than theirs, taking up identities of religious “Others” that do not share their own religious convictions of everyday life

Franchised Esotericism:Religion as a Marketing Strategy for the Assassin’s Creed Franchise

Despite being one of the most popular franchises in the history of video gaming, Assassin’s Creed [AC] builds on something increasingly unpopular: religion. This chapter aims to show that AC nonetheless uses religion, and then aestheticizes it in two ways – (1) perennially and (2) esoterically, – serving to attract the largest possible audience; an audience that is nonetheless demographically predominantly secular. Based on a content analysis of the franchise itself – additionally informed by player interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2019), online discussions (de Wildt/Aupers 2020), developer interviews (de Wildt/Aupers 2021), and analyses done elsewhere (cf. de Wildt, 2020) – I ask:1. Who plays Assassin’s Creed, and what is likely to be their religious position? (The answer to which is ‘the exact demographic at the forefront of secularisation – Western, male, young, and educated.) 2. How does AC represent religion for this largely secular audience? (As perennial – i.e., that there is one underlying truth common to all religious and philosophical traditions – and esoteric – i.e., that religion can be made understandable through the combined, rare knowledge that only a select few have access to)I conclude that while AC’s audience is at the forefront of secularisation, the AC franchise presents this audience with a perennial, esoteric representation of religion, and does so in a commodified way, using the logic of esotericism to sell its ‘marketable’ religion across various transmedial media objects. What is the consequence of this? AC’s representation of religion follows the same market logic that spirituality and New Age religion have taken outside of the church, particularly since the 1960s: a picking and mixing of religious elements from any tradition at hand. Moreover, this handpicked assemblage presents a “marketable” religion that will offend nobody and that anyone can identify with (de Wildt/Aupers 2021). Rather than perform individual bricolage, however, consumers of AC are invited to reconstruct meanings that have already been laid out by the franchise: a commodified, enjoyable puzzle that promises the answer to understanding all of history’s mysteries. This logic of esotericism – of piecing together scientific, historical, mysterious and religious knowledge – is at the centre of AC as a franchise. Every media object – AC’s many games, books, and other transmedia products – offers a piece of this puzzle that only the ‘true’ fan has access to. It offers all the joy of understanding the ‘real’ truth behind everything, without having to believe in anything at all