This talk is a part of a larger project that analyzes Video Games, Women and the Problem of Evil. Often video games are dismissed as mere child’s play. Concentrating on the role of women, Grieve argues that video games are important because they often operate as potent vernacular theodicies through which players engage with contemporary ethics.
His talk, “Darkrim,” concentrates on Bethesda Game Studios’ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) and compares the game’s “vanilla” evil, which resembles a Manichaean battle, to user-modified versions of the game which often transform Skyrim a BDSM form of edgeplay.

Gregory Price Grieve is Head and Professor of the Religious Studies Department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He researches digital religion, particularly the study of video games.