Echoes of Purgatory in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

However unlikely, the Catholic doctrine of purgatory appears frequently in the popular game World of Warcraft. According to what might be called “Tolkien’s replacement theory of fantasy,”1 people use fantasy to access important ideas, especially religious ones, that the real world has lost. As religiosity continues to decline in the real world, video games may actually preserve some of the most important religious ideas. For many people, if these trends continue, purgatory may be knowable from video games and almost nowhere else. We will report on some of these surprising appearances in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, then discuss why purgatory might be considered interesting and fun for contemporary gamers. We will then discuss the broader social significance of this and other echoes of religion in video games.