“Religious” and “Gamer”: Negotiating the Legitimacy of Video Games in a Muslim Context *

CENGİZ Ö. F., ATAMAN K.

Games and Culture, 2023 (AHCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1177/15554120231204146
  • Dergi Adı: Games and Culture
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Communication & Mass Media Index, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Psycinfo, Sociological abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: beneficial act, gamer, legitimation, orthopraxy, religious, vain act
  • Marmara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Individuals who self-identify as “religious gamers” constitute a relatively new and niche category. This study aims to understand how these individuals evaluate their video game-playing activities in the face of their religious beliefs and commitments. To this end, we conducted semistructured interviews with 15 participants. The data suggests that for the participants, the religious status of video games is based on a broader evaluative framework than the religious one. The “vain act–beneficial act” dichotomy, which we conceptualized in this study, explains the difficulties and contradictions that religious gamers experience in legitimizing their gaming activities because they consider the game a vain act even though they play it with enthusiasm. Based on the evidence gathered, we concluded that religious gamers do not consider playing games illegitimate, either religiously or morally. However, they cannot conclusively legitimize it either—a delicate situation that drags them into a strange predicament.