“The World is a Maze of Illusions.” Peripheral Religion and Enchantment in Cyberpunk 2077
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F25%3A10503719" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/25:10503719 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=azz-6JMYHv" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=azz-6JMYHv</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.48783/gameviron.v22i22.274" target="_blank" >10.48783/gameviron.v22i22.274</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
“The World is a Maze of Illusions.” Peripheral Religion and Enchantment in Cyberpunk 2077
Original language description
In this article, we examine peripheral religion and the peripherality of religion in Cyberpunk 2077 (2020). From a hermeneutic analysis of the game's narrative and mechanical elements, we argue that - despite the secular register of the game's techno-dystopian setting - the underlying enchantment of the gameworld subtly reinforces the epistemic legitimacy of otherwise peripheralized religious practices and beliefs. We begin with an overview of key theoretical concepts concerning simulation, representation, and enchantment that converge at the core of our argument. Following this, we situate Cyberpunk 2077's gameworld within the longer literary history of cyberpunk as a genre of speculative fiction and conclude with a close reading of the tarot-themed questline Fool on the Hill that runs parallel to the game's main narrative. Our analysis illustrates the complicated relationships between the game's fictional setting, its mechanics and rules, and the game's status as a simulation of an enchanted world, which together invite players to reflect on peripheral religion in a present day characterized by the secularizing spectre of the Enlightenment.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>ost</sub> - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50802 - Media and socio-cultural communication
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Gamevironments
ISSN
2364-382X
e-ISSN
2364-382X
Volume of the periodical
22
Issue of the periodical within the volume
Special Issue
Country of publishing house
DE - GERMANY
Number of pages
42
Pages from-to
97-138
UT code for WoS article
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EID of the result in the Scopus database
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