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

Abstract

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.