Death is a core feature of most video games — for the player’s avatar at least. In fact, games might be one of the last, mainstream cultural spaces that regularly grapple with questions of mortality and the afterlife.

What questions and longings as human beings are explored in this burgeoning industry?

Dr Frank Bosman is a researcher in the School of Catholic Theology, Religion and Practice at Tilburg University, in the Netherlands. He is the author of Gaming and the Divine: a new systematic theology of video games.

Dr Heidi Campbell is Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University, and director of the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies. Heidi’s many books include an edited collection on Playing with Religion in Digital Games.

More on digital religion on Soul Search:

• Islam and the internet
• Digital religion — an overview