Gamers who also happen to be adherents of the old gods of Northern Europe

Source: http://www.runestone.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83&Itemid=487

What is Asatru?
Long before Christianity came to northern Europe, the people there – our ancestors – had their own form of spirituality that influenced every aspect of their culture. One expression of this European spirituality was Asatru. It was practiced in the lands that are today Scandinavia, England, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and other countries as well. Asatru is the original, or native, religion for the peoples who lived in these regions. Nevertheless, Asatru is more than just a religion in the narrow sense of the word. It is our way of being in the world; some of us call it the “Germanic Folkway” to underline this larger concept.

What does the word “Asatru” mean?
It means, roughly, “belief in the Gods” or “those true to the Gods” in Old Norse, the language of ancient Scandinavia in which so much of our source material was written. (A more literal translation would be “gaining experience of the ancestral sovereign gods.”) Asatru is a name given to the religion of the Norsemen, but we use this term to include the spiritual worldview of all the Germanic peoples, not just the Scandinavians.

When did Asatru start?
Asatru is thousands of years old (though it is practiced in a modern form today, to meet the needs of our age). Its beginnings are lost in prehistory, but it is older than Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or most other religions. The spirit it expresses, though, is as ancient as the northern European peoples themselves because it is an innate expression of who and what we are – not merely a set of arbitrary beliefs we have adopted.

Why do we need Asatru? Aren’t most people who want religion satisfied with Christianity or one of the other “established” religions?
People are attracted to the better-known religions because they have genuine spiritual needs which must be filled. People are looking for community, fellowship, and answers to the “big questions”: the purpose of life, how we should live it, and what happens after death. For many people today, the so-called major faiths do not have answers that work. Asatru does. Once seekers realize that there is another way – a way that is true to our innermost essence – they will not be satisfied with anything less than a return to the Way of their ancestors.

Why is the religion of our ancestors the best one for us?
Because we are more like our ancestors than we are like anyone else. We inherited not only their general physical appearance, but also their predominant mental, emotional, and spiritual traits. We think and feel more like they did; our basic needs are most like theirs. The religion which best expressed their innermost nature – Asatru – is better suited to us than is some other creed which started in the Middle East among people who are essentially different from us. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are alien religions that do not truly speak to our souls.