“Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken”. Frank Herbert.

     I’ve always been a firm believer in the power of game education. Either it being childhood games, boardgames or computer games. Some games strive to be for entertainment purposes, others are educational, and some others are philosophical. There are plenty of studies on this, educational and philosophical. Some other works and research are philosophical, sociological or psychological. This research aims to analyze the complexity of these games.

     One game I can recall from my university years, called Gothic, was based off an enclosed world from a magic ritual, in which you were capable if entering, but incapable of ever coming out of. 

In this game there were plenty of different communities and societies with an interesting variety of social structures. One of the factions and communities of this game, the Sleepers sect, different from all other factions (mercenaries, loyalists, rebels) was kind of like a Hippie-Buddhist cult. The members of this cult oversaw planting and harvesting a plant called swamp seed. A significant amount of time was dedicated to consuming this plant, connecting with their God, the Sleeper and worshipping of the temple. The members of this sect were spending most of their time in a pleasant state of relaxation, sleepiness, numbness, bliss, and ignorance. They were indifferent to any external dangers that were threatening them. They were certain that the soldiers were there to guard them, and that their leaders were there to protect them.  

     Interacting and observing behaviors, opinions, and different mentalities, I remembered of the concept of the Sleeper Sect. There are certain people, that have the certain belief that everything being communicated through main-stream media is the absolute truth and can never be debated. And many of the decisions of nations and governments plans can only be implemented only through citizen’s consent. There is an interesting book which explores this concept, it is entitled “Manufacturing Consent” written by Noam Chomsky. It is important that we remember that the controversial actions of certain states, such as the political-military conflicts started by the USA, have been fully supported by the mass-media, and therefore, they gained support of the whole population. Ronald Wright has showed us, in his book “A short history of Progress”; that during times of crisis and war, power is easily acquired, when we are being promised security, safety. The more obscure the enemy is being portrayed and imagined, the more efficiently consent is being fabricated. 

     Now, going back to the types of people who believe that the main-stream media communicates to them the absolute truth, we can observe how convinced we are that the state, the government, political parties, institutions, or corporations want to offer us wellbeing and welfare. We are going to name all these organizations, institutions, parties, corporations, collectively the “benefactor”. Remember, they can never be regarded as suspicious, missing their integrity or being ill-intentioned. Due to its abilities and knowledge, anything that is unfavorable to the benefactor is excluded from the dialogue. Due to its expertise, rhetoric, and discourse (and the myths in which it is concealed) “the benefactor” could never harm anybody. Even though documents are being handed to them, objective opinions of specialists, clear proof of their dishonorable intentions, destructive actions and controversially discourses…the members of the Big Sleeper Cult will bring up the same ideological poetry, the magic formulas they have been taught and repeated. The ridiculing, adoption, and incrimination of the heretical are an absolute necessity. The members of the Big Sleeper cult worship a notion called Science. There is no specification of an exact field, a discipline. What is certain is that Science cannot be debated or even invalidated. Of course, Science is just a worshipping object when it serves the ideology of the cult. In other instances, Science is bigot, patriarchalist, sexist, misogynistic and racist…and it is completely ignored. Even though History is clear, resources and proof are abundant, the Sleepers refuse to believe that “Science” has been many times used in destructive and ignoble ways. 

     When they are being confronted with this fact, they repeat their ideologies, or enchant the magic formulas…and passionately infuriate the heretics. There is no more room for rational, logical discourse. It is also interesting to observe the fact that the Sleepers are so passionate and eager to impose or ask for punitive measures to diminish the opposition. Apart from their worries and complaints to the apostates and heretics, the Sleepers, asleep being, see life as an ever wonderful, a bright future, consuming their master’s messages with delight, and are very cautious whenever the heretics and pagans try to question their beliefs.