While I was at IMGDC, talking with people and listening to the sessions something struck me.  It seemed the majority there looked at religion as something to be at best scoffed at and at worst ridiculed.  Now on the surface you may think that this is a personal matter and does not reflect on game design but I argue that it reflects very heavily on the quality of a game design.   Let me explain. Look at the current MMOs out there on the market.  While you can look at the lore and might catch a mention of Gods and Goddesses you really don't see much in the game play itself.  Here are games that are suppose to be set in an environment in which the common rabble held strong superstitious beliefs as well as the heroes pulling supernatural powers from the heavenly firment.    In some of the games it even mentions that powers come directly from the gods.  But characters in game show no hint that this is the case.  Paladins can group with necromancers; good aligned clerics can indiscriminately kill good aligned creatures with out any repercussions. It is almost as if the developer didn't take religion seriously or is so scared of offending someone that they make it a non issue.  To me it takes away from the immersion of the game and here is why.  While I have my own personal beliefs, when I am in game I try to understand what would be my character's motivation to do something.  I have been known to turn down quests in other games just because I felt it was something that was against my character's background or was adverse to his beliefs.  And I would often stop playing a game when forced  do a particular quest just progress the story line.   And if I was the god or goddess that was pouring out my blessings onto a character that was not following my doctrine, I would be very pissed and be apt to withdraw my gifts at inopportune times.  It seems to me that many developers have lost the ability to believe and in turn lost the ability to make a believable world and that is a great shame.  The ability is there to make more fulfilling worlds, and more believable story lines and content the developers just have to put in the effort and if I may say it, have a little faith. When the saints go marching in! Array