It seems like all of these games like FarmVille have these artificial time-impositions, where they are imposing a certain amount of time that you are supposed to not want to wait through so that you will then go make an in-app purchase, or get organized in a vey measurable way, with your currency being equated to their currency every time it happens.

So how hard would it be to make the above case to and then ask for funding from one or a bunch of religions in which a less measurable type of organization is valued, for instance through meditation. You could build a game platform that, instead of imposing these artificial time barriers and then asking for money, would allow the developer to impose the artificial time barrier and then offer the adherant something to do during what would otherwise be a time of great angst. So this game platform would optimize the possibilities for building in the kinds of non-monetary things you could do during a time barrier. One example could be, you could practice letting go of the past and future, just for the time allotted, and if you had trouble with this the game would offer ramps that made it easier to learn. Or you could type in Hail Marys for instance.

This would be kind of like the religious themed amusement parks like Holy Land USA, but for resource-management games.

Internal-resource-management games.
-- JesusHChrist, Apr 01 2014

For a Buddha with a bigger belly button, click here.

Since this is a subject matter I have more than a passing familiarity with, what's the business model you're envisioning?
-- theircompetitor, Apr 01 2014


I could see Scientology going something of this route. "You have downloaded an engram virus! Send $200 to clear it!"
-- RayfordSteele, Apr 01 2014


[business model] I was thinking you could charge different religions for the basic game which they could have their developers personalize, so that they are the crusaders you know or whoever, and then these different versions could be fed to children at Sunday school as part of the gamification of the classroom. You start with the children, you see, (wrings hands together). And the since there is a tendency for religions to factionalize, as virtual reality bigger and bigger there will be an economic principle keeping you in the donuts.
-- JesusHChrist, Apr 01 2014


Casual games, by nature, are anti-zen.

Oddly enough, I just had this same conversation with a buddhist friend of mine who wanted to build an app to help you practice buddhism (awareness, living in the now, meditation).

However, we humans are environmentally triggered. And, the mobile device & computers are already triggering a huge response in us to be in a 100% stimulated state. So, any thing we do now that's remotely "Zen" is usually far away from these devices.

Meaning, in practical application, people don't wait during the recharge time in games, they just switch to another game, email, twitter, HB, etc.
-- sophocles, Apr 01 2014



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