More than 60,000 users in Italy are playing Fantapapa, an online video game inspired by fantasy football that requires players to assemble a team of cardinals whom they believe have the best chance of becoming the next pope.
To participate, players must choose 11 cardinals whom they see as the frontrunners in the upcoming conclave, set for next week.
They must then also designate a "captain" — the cardinal they imagine is the one most likely to become the next pontiff — and a "goalkeeper," or the one who they think is the least papal.
Once they've hand-picked their "team," players get to predict the new pope's name, whether his priorities will be more progressive or conservative, what day the pope will be elected, and how many attempts it will take the cardinals to decide on the new pontiff.
Each correct prediction scores points, resulting in a league table — and eventually, a winner.
Co-creator of the game, Pietro Pace, said they were inspired by the success of Fantacalcio, a fantasy football game, and Fantasanremo, a song contest fantasy game.
"We tried to apply the same logic to the conclave in essence," Pace said.
Another co-creator, Mauro Vanetti, said speculation about the next pope was a major topic of discussion in Italy. He explained that the game's creators aimed to explore popular sentiment, while simultaneously respecting the solemnity of the matter.
"We know that the religious hierarchies are part of the power in this country and also, let's say, at an international level, so it is a historic event and it seemed interesting to us to take it from a light-hearted side, but also based on real data," Vanetti said.
The conclave, where the College of Cardinals gather to elect the new pope, will begin next Wednesday. Over a hundred cardinal electors will be locked inside the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, and will participate in multiple rounds of voting until one cardinal receives a two-thirds majority.
While the conclave process is shrouded in mystery, making it hard to predict what might be the cardinals' final decision, this has not stopped participants from choosing their favourites.
So far, players' top choices include the late pontiff's secretary of state, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, closely followed by another Italian, Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna, and third in line, Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.
