Have you noticed how many religions work just like games?
There are levels (from ordinary believer to pastor, bishop, or guru), missions (prayers, fasts, pilgrimages), invisible scoring (good deeds, tithes, hours in worship), and even epic rewards: healing, prosperity, salvation, enlightenment.
Sound familiar? It’s almost like an online game.
The problem is that when faith becomes too much of a game, we risk stopping being players and turning into NPCs – those automated characters in videogames that only repeat pre-programmed lines, without any freedom of action. Instead of being the protagonists of our own spirituality, we become extras in someone else’s game.
The Avatar of Faith
In many contexts, religious leaders end up becoming avatars: charismatic figures who seem to have special powers, speak as if they were divine messengers, and attract followers eager to “level up” by imitating their gestures and words.
This can give direction and inspiration, but it can also imprison – because whoever controls the avatar, controls other people’s faith.
The Sacred Dopamine
Just like in an addictive game, religion can also use the system of variable rewards:
- A miracle might happen at any moment, like a loot box.
- The fear of hell is the eternal “game over.”
- The community works like a clan, offering recognition and status.
- Testimonies are the “trailers” that keep hope alive.
This cycle traps the believer in a wheel of expectation, anxiety, and emotional reinforcement.
Spiritual Infantilization
Another issue is when religion pushes the believer into a state of childlike dependence:
“You don’t need to think – it’s already written.”
“You don’t need to choose – the leader decides for you.”
“You don’t need to grow – just obey.”
And so, in the name of safety, people surrender their freedom.
How to Leave the Game
Faith doesn’t need to be a battlefield with fixed rules, scores, and invisible punishments. It can be a space of freedom, encounter, and transformation.
That means recognizing when religion is turning into a “control game” and reclaiming autonomy: questioning, reflecting, dialoguing, and living spirituality as a personal path – not as a script imposed from outside.
At the end of the day, faith should not turn us into obedient NPCs, but into conscious players of our own spiritual journey.
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BATISTA, D. J., & WARZECHA, P. (2025). The Gamification of Faith: Refusing to Play With God Transforms Believers into NPCs. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16881304