This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. If you take into account the proliferation today of end-of-the-world scenarios in zombie literature, in sci-fi dystopia, and in the countless shooter video games that depict our urban landscapes descending into smoldering ashes, it is clear that as humans we are deeply fascinated with the apocalyptic. But why is this connection so strong? And what does it tell us about ourselves? We crave visions. We hunger for certainty, or at least the temporary promise of order. Both violent video games and apocalyptic literature tend to depict a kind of other-world in which vast and meticulously created structures relay information about an imaginary space that we can enter into as an escape from our ordinary lives. Both are seated within worlds that were purposefully designed and motivated by a view of the end times. Both present a view of time that is motivated by an end goal – depicting the experience leading up to the end time as a kind of cosmic order-making. In a way, then, both apocalypses and violent video games are religious texts, and do a kind of religious work. In this talk, we consider this comparison, and demonstrate how the apocalyptic mindset has a seductive appeal that makes it difficult to keep within imaginary quarters as it reflects deep anxieties associated with living in a globalizing, industrialized, deeply mediated world.

Rachel Wagner: Rachel Wagner is Associate Professor of Religion and Culture at Ithaca College. She regularly publishes in the areas of religion and media, religion and film, and religion and video games. Her first book, Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality (Routledge, 2011), explores how our fascination with all things virtual reveals our desire for new rituals and new modes of worldbuilding. Recent publications include chapters in Understanding Religion and Popular Culture (Routledge, 2012); The Encyclopedia of Video Games (Greenwood Press, 2012); Digital Religion (Routledge, 2012). Playing with Religion in Digital Games (University of Indiana Press, forthcoming) and The Companion Volume to Religion and Popular Culture (Routledge, forthcoming). Her article “God in the Game: Cosmopolitanism and Religious Conflict in Video Games” recently appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (OUP, January 2013). She is Co-Chair of the Religion, Film and Visual Culture Group of the American Academy of Religion.

Rachel Gray: Rachel Gray is currently a Junior Physical Therapy major with a double minor in Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at Ithaca College. She has lived in Milford, New Hampshire almost her entire life, but calls many places home including Ithaca NY and Gloucester MA. Rachel first heard of TED in high school from her dear friend, Nakita VanBiene, and has loved listening to and talking about them ever since. It then became a dream of hers to either speak at a TED event or attend one; and now she will be able to do both. On top of school work Rachel has been a Resident Assistant for two years and would love to continue to be one her senior year. In her free time, Rachel enjoys running the hills of Ithaca’s campus and through the Natural Lands. Even though she is a Physical Therapy major, her love of religion and interest in the effect that media has on individuals has been growing since her freshman year of college. Rachel has enjoyed exploring her passions with long-time professor Rachel Wagner while collaborating on “X-Box Apocalypse.”

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