Bible Games as Religious Educational Tools in Seventh-Day Adventist Church. A Ludic Inventory

Abstract

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has developed some analogical and digital games with religious education purposes over the last decades, so this article seeks to answer the following question: how does the Bible study paradigm influence the production of religious games at Seventh-day Adventist Church? The article maps the main Seventh-day Adventist game titles in English from the 1930s to nowadays, building a ludic inventory. Based on elements and procedures of content analysis method, the analysis of elements of the ludic inventory as title, game mechanics, genres, etc., show that the text-based Bible study paradigm of Seventh-day Adventist Church influenced the production of the church’s games with fundamental characteristics of Bible study guides incorporated into the game design and production, such as: (1) a question-and-answer style, (2) an emphasis on mastering text-location in the Bible, and (3) a memorization of texts. Besides, the analysis of the ludic inventory also presents that the SDA games were designed under some Seventh-day Adventist religious education principles, involving the discussion about the conceptual binomials competition versus cooperation and fun versus recreation.