Demon: Encyclopedia II - Demon - In games

Demon - In games

The earliest connection of the word with games is that the British call a form of solitaire "Demon", from at least the nineteenth century. The selection of this word comes from the observance of a player by others. Formerly, adults nearly always bet on card games. As the player is turned from interaction with others and is forced to move cards around without feeling, the player is metaphorically considered possessed by a demon.

It has been asserted by conservative religious groups that demons communicate with humans through the use of a Ouija board and that demonic possession is possible in this way. The most common explanation is that the Ouija board's users move the game's planchette with their hands (consciously or unconsciously) and only appear to be communicating with spirits. The resulting possession appears to be purely psychosomatic. The original idea for the use of spirit boards was to contact ghosts of dead humans and not evil spirits or demons.

Many fantasy-themed role-playing, computer and video games feature demons as enemies. Some allow player characters to summon or control demons, and others feature a main character that is a demon or part demon. Such games are sometimes accused of trying to draw children into the occult, although this is a minority viewpoint. See Fiend (Dungeons & Dragons) for further information on this topic.

Some recent Japanese video games feature demons stylized as a race of beings who are not necessarily irredeemably evil. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, in particular, is remarkable for having a young demon king as its main character.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "In games", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki