There are many examples of using metaphor and allegory to communicate religious beliefs. One of the most famous of which is C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, which espouses Christian beliefs in a mythical setting. Could Zelda be doing the same with Buddhism? I couldn't find much of anything on game designer Shigeru Miyamoto's religious affiliation (other than vague connections in his games to Shinto legends), so I can only speculate.
Regardless of whether that's true, it seems that sweeping legends and vast worlds of myth are commonplace in many of the best games. Final Fantasy has often produced games that emphasize universal oneness and interconnection, such as the Lifestream in FFVII or Gaia in FFIX. Xenogears goes in a completely opposite direction, saying that humanity was the creation of an alien technology that produced us so that we could power its escape eons later. All this, yet Harry Potter gets flack for having witches and wizards.
Perhaps this is simply the result of gaming being less socially integrated than film, television, or literature. With the increasing influence that gaming is having on the collective psyche, that can't be too far behind, and with it comes controversy. We may have never connected religion and gaming before in any strong way, but that day is arriving soon enough.
Is this a bad thing? Hard to tell. I think it's positive in the sense that it allows us to examine our preconceived notions about the world, God, and religion in general, like all good art can. One should always try and explore things like that with an open mind. It could only be negative in that it further denigrates a (recently) mainstream medium that is trying to find legs among the general population. After all, if there's concern that violence in games can have undue influence on the youth, imagine what would happen if the manic media reported that it's converting children into Shintoists.
Ultimately, these weighty issues are ignorable if the game is fun to play. Until I sat down to write this article, I hadn't considered what all that mythology meant, let alone appreciated that it may have greater implications. However, if Roger Ebert is right, if gaming is merely a lengthy distraction from more important things, then we'll happily never have to worry about any of these issues.
But if Ebert is wrong, I'm happy to worry.
Tom Rhodes is a writer and filmmaker currently living in Ohio. He can be reached through Tom [dot] Rhod [at] Gmail [dot] com.
