Buddhism
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Pepper's new job is performing Buddhist funeral ceremonies
Pepper the robot has seen a variety of gainful employment in its relatively short life. It's worked in a mobile phone store, a Pizza Hut and a French train station, but now it seems it's jacking in the corporate world for more spiritual pursuits: Buddhist funerals. At the happily-titled Life Ending Industry Expo in Tokyo, Aldebaran's humanoid 'bot could be found clothed in religious robes and chanting sutras in a computerized voice while tapping a drum.
Cute robotic monk knows the meaning of life
The Longquan (Dragon Spring) Temple in Beijing is spreading Buddhist teachings with the help of an adorable, two-foot-tall monk. His name is Xian'er, and he's a robot with a touchscreen chest. The temple teamed up with a dozen local tech and culture companies to create Xian'er, according to The New York Times. Xian Fan, the head of the temple's Comic Center, which designed the robot and publishes Buddhist comics, says the machine demonstrates that "science and Buddhism don't clash or contradict each other."
Irreverent confession: An interview with Faxion Online's UTV True Games
You're dead -- so sorry, chap! Fortunately, that doesn't mean your gaming adventures are over. On the contrary, according to Faxion Online, they've just begun. In the world of Limbo, players are pulled between the forces of heaven and hell as they fight each other through the physical manifestations of the seven deadly sins. Curious about Faxion Online, we sat down with UTV True Games to discuss the deep issues of beta, religion and epeens. Massively: How's the progress toward closed beta coming along? UTV True Games: It's coming along at an insane pace. The team is focused and beating away at the long list of tasks that loom before us all prior to launching beta as well as the game. We are working on zones, abilities and items, along with wrapping up features and tightening the nuts and bolts of various aspects of the game. The team was able to catch their breath over the holidays a bit, so it's going to allow us to have a good strong kick to the finish.
Buddhist leader says video games are cathartic
24-year-old Ogyen Trinley Dorje wasn't selected, in childhood, as the 17th Karmapa* (think: the Dalai Lama of a different sect of Tibetan Buddhism) for his suitability with the modern world, but he's still a fan of a number of aspects of popular culture. In a recent interview with The Times of India, the Tibetan Buddhist leader's aforementioned fanhood surfaced while discussing the cathartic properties of video games. "For me sometimes it can be a relief, a kind of decompression to just play some video games," the Karmapa explained. "If I'm having some negative thoughts or negative feelings, video games are one way in which I can release that energy in the context of the illusion of the game. I feel better afterwards." Forget all the studies arguing this point -- when it comes to video games' therapeutic properties, we're inclined to believe the input of a professional meditator. *It should be noted that there is a dispute over who is the 17th Karmapa. Trinley Thaye Dorje has also been recognized as the current Karmapa by some authorities. Maybe they could settle it once and for all in a proper match of Madden or something?[Via Kotaku; image credit: Prince Roy]
Game mechanics: Crafting deities
Hey, check this out. I was pondering something the other day as I passed a Buddhist temple in San Francisco: virtually every religion that has ever been still exists in some form or another. It's said that a god only dies when its last follower has lost faith. That got me thinking: how could this work as a play mechanic in an MMO?What if you could craft your own religion, the same way you craft a weapon, complete with the deity of your choice, and receive direct benefit from worshiping at its temple? Say, a hefty buff to carry into your next battle, or an automatic resurrection upon any of your teammates? Further, let's suppose that the only way for your god to grow in strength was for you to build temples to it, at which its adherents would pray for a predetermined duration each game session?It gets crazier: you could proselytize and convert other players to your religion, or defile the temples of your rivals and weaken their god's strength. With a minimum number of followers needed to create a new god, there would be few instances of novelty and 'throwaway', or 'gag' gods to clutter up the system; this would be a serious tactic for use by the devout! There are many ways to make this sort of thing work. What about roleplay? Would there be PvE applications as well as PvP? Is there already something like this in place for some MMO? Someone send me a sign, show me the light!
Meditate and Destroy: featuring Second Life machinima
There's a fascinating new movie soon to be released called Meditate and Destroy, which features the real-life story of Noah Levine, and his conversion to Buddhism after a living a punk-oriented lifestyle during his adolescence, complete with substance abuse and jail time. What brings it to the attention of Massively is its inclusion of a Second Life-made machinima that functions as the climatic scene of the documentary. "We have been trying to include animation in the film but our budget has been very limited. Animation is a time consuming and laborious process. With the tools available in Second Life, we are relieved that we can create something cutting edge in a community atmosphere." said director Sarah Fisher. The documentary's studio, Blue Lotus Films, collaborated with Virtual Light Studios to create the machinima. The movie screens at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco on the 14th of November. [Thanks, Sarah!]
