Religion: No Pain, No Game

Avowed hippy atheist mesmerizes masses

A new religion was born last March in New Mexico. Its Messiah, a slender redhead with two sons named after a random license plate and Scrabble tiles revealed the new religion to an elated gathering of pilgrims who collectively experienced transcendent conversion. The new acolytes are oracles of human potential and longing, visionaries of doom and salvation, they’re apostles of the future; they’re game programmers.
     Scoff at your peril— these people don’t merely control billions of dollars, they control billions of minds. With hypnotic, addictive, even deadly power.
     Fortunately, there is but one talisman record of the new religion—a thumb-sized covenant—and nobody outside the gaming geek universe has the slightest idea wtf it is about. Alarmingly, its rapidly evolving mystical power has already caused shame, outrage, banishment and persecution. Volcanoes are involved.
     It’s uncertain where this is heading; check back in 2,000 years.