DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2020-3-459-474

Live-action role-playing games and online role-playing games: psychological functions in the modern sociocultural context

Polina V. Tsygankova
Ph.D. in Psychology, Associate Professor
of the Department of Clinical Psychology

Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University,
1, Ostrovityanov st., Moscow, 117997, Russia;
e-mail: polina_tsy@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6271-2076

Ekaterina Yu. Suvorova
Independent Researcher

Moscow, 117997, Russia;
e-mail: ekaterinabatyshkina@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3572-9777

The article deals with the functions of role-playing games of different types in adulthood in conjunction with the particularities of the players’ self-consciousness. Changes in the status of game in the sociocultural context of postmodern society are discussed. 45 respondents took part in the empirical study: 15 participants of live action role-playing games (8 women, average age 31.53 ± 6.48 years old, game experience 10.7 ± 5.9 years), 15 participants of the online role-playing game «Second Life» (8 women, average age 33.8 ± 5.62 years old, game experience 9.57 ± 4.33 years), and 15 people who are not keen on role-playing games (8 women, average age 30.33 ± 6.03 years old). In course of research were used the author’s questionnaire Self-Portrait of a Role-Playing Games Participant, a modification of Kuhn–McPartland’s Twenty Statements Test, Dembo–Rubinstein’s self-esteem measurement methods, and the Giessen Personality Questionnaire by D. Beckman. It has been found that while «players» and «non-players» lack differences in self-esteem, the participants in role-playing games rate the in-game-self higher in a number of parameters than the real-life-self. The characteristic features of self-consciousness of participants in role-playing games have been identified. For the participants in live action role-playing games, those include cognitive simplicity of the self-image and social orientation of the self-identity. For the «Second Life» players, over-differentiation of the self-image and egocentric orientation of the self-identity are common. The key functions of role-playing games have been identified based on the content analysis of the questionnaires. They are as follows: getting intense emotions and changing identities are the key functions in the group of live action role-playing games’ participants, while self-fulfillment and transgression are typical for the «Second Life» players. The results are discussed in the context of possible changes in modern criteria for distinguishing normal and pathological personality.

Keywords: functions of game in adulthood, role-playing game, live action role-playing game, LARP, massively multiplayer online role-playing games, MMORPG, Second Life, self-identity, in-game-self, sociocultural aspects of norm and pathology.

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Received 15.04.2020

 

For citation:

Tsygankova P.V., Suvorova E.Yu. [Live-action role-playing games and online role-playing games: psychological functions in the modern sociocultural context]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Filosofia. Psihologia. Sociologia [Perm University Herald. Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology], 2020, issue 3, pp. 459–474 (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2020-3-459-474