“Religious” and “Gamer”: Negotiating the Legitimacy of Video Games in a Muslim Context* Ömer Faruk Cengiz 1 and Kemal Ataman 1 Abstract 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 sug- gests 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 contra- dictions 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. Keywords religious, gamer, vain act, beneficial act, legitimation, orthopraxy 1 Faculty of Theology, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey *This article is taken from Ömer Faruk Cengiz’s graduate thesis, “‘Religious’ and ‘Gamer’: The Intersection of Two Unexpected Fields and their Dramaturgical Reflections,” carried out in 2020 at Marmara University under the supervision of Kemal Ataman. Approval to conduct this research was issued by the Ethics Committee of Marmara University’s Social Sciences Institute. Corresponding Author: Ömer Faruk Cengiz, Faculty of Theology, Marmara University, Mahir Iz Cad. No. 2 34662, Altunizade, Uskudar, Istanbul, Turkey. Email: ocengiz@marmara.edu.tr Article Games and Culture 2025, Vol. 20(4) 403–418 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/15554120231204146 journals.sagepub.com/home/gac