Representation of religion in Bioshock computer game franchise

Popularna kultura je pomemben del našega vsakdana in je ena ključnih tem za preučevanje, da bi bolje razumeli dinamiko družbe. Del popularne kulture so tudi računalniške igre, ki imajo vse večjo prisotnost in vlogo v naših življenjih, na katere pa še vedno velikokrat gledamo stereotipno kot na zabavo za otroke in pubertetnike. Pri videoigrah so se dosedanje raziskave osredotočale predvsem na vzročno-posledične povezave z nasiljem pri igralcih videoiger, kar podaja zelo omejen pogled v svet sporočil, ki jih prenašajo, zato se mi zdi pomembno preučevati tudi druge vidike. Videoigre lahko prenašajo resna sporočila o najrazličnejših temah, ki ponujajo refleksijo družbenih razmer v sedanjosti, preteklosti ali svarijo o morebitni prihodnosti. Moj cilj je pokazati in izpostaviti povezavo med tremi izbranimi računalniškimi igrami kot delom popularne kulture ter religijskimi elementi, ki jih vsebujejo. Uporabila sem primarne in sekundarne vire, med katerimi sem največ poudarka dala igranju videoiger samih in črpanju iz ustreznih znanstvenih člankov. Posluževala sem se tudi drugih virov, ki so posredno ali neposredno zadevali mojo temo in so se mi zdeli pomembni za obravnavo. Najpomembnejša in osrednja metoda, ki sem jo uporabila, je študija primera, kjer sem pri analizi ugotovila, da v vseh treh delih franšize prevladujejo izmišljene religije, ki posredujejo (včasih nejasne) religijske elemente resničnih religij, predvsem krščanstva, vendar ustvarjalci videoiger kritiko usmerjajo k drugim temam oz. izmišljenim religijam.Popular culture is an important part of our daily lives and is one of the key topics to study in order to better understand the dynamic of society. Part of popular culture are also computer games, which have an increasing presence and role in our lives, but are still often looked at stereotypically as entertainment for children and adolescents. In video games, research to date has focused mainly on the cause-and-effect connections with violence in video game players, which gives a very limited view of the world of messages they carry, so I think it\u27s important to study other aspects as well. Video games can convey serious messages on a wide variety of topics, offering a reflection of social conditions in the present, past, or warning us about potential future. My goal is to show and present the connection between the three selected computer games that are a part of popular culture and the religious elements they contain. I used primary and secondary sources. Among them, the most emphasized is playing computer games themselves and drawing from relevant scientific articles. I also used other sources that directly or indirectly concerned my topic and that I found important to address. The most crucial and central method used is case study, where I established in the analysis that fictional religions prevail in all three parts of the franchise, which convey (sometimes obscure) religious elements of real religions, especially Christianity, however creators of the videogames direct criticism to other themes or fictional religions