Abstract
This case study analyzes three contemporary Muslim games and explores the ways in which the hero's identity, i.e. the virtual representation of the player's self, is constructed and communicated to the players. The case study is based on content analysis of these games and on interviews with their producers.
The key research question of this study is how identity can be construed on the level of game play - that is through the interactive transactions between the player and the game as enabled by the game's rule system. In doing so, this study compares the different concepts of identity of three Muslim games while simultaneously analyzing how these concepts are (or are not) embedded in their game play.
On a more general level, this study aims to lay down a theoretical and methodological framework for analyzing video games from the perspective of cultural and Islamic studies in particular.