Role-playing Study Research Articles

“It Might Have a Little to Do with Wish Fulfillment”: The Life-Giving Force of Queer Performance in TTRPG Spaces

In Cruel Optimism, Lauren Berlant asserts that “fantasy [can serve] as a life-sustaining defense against the attritions of ordinary violent history,” which is a statement that holds true for many queer role-players in TTRPG spaces (Berlant 2012, 45). Around the table, these worlds enable players to discover and render their identities legible in social utopian spaces and rehearse their performance for life outside of them. Through engaging with scholarship, autoethnographic writing, and cultural production surrounding TTRPGs, queer identity, avatars, and gender performance, this project asserts that TTRPGs function as safe spaces for becoming, due in part to the ability to create an avatar, or “flexible representational stand-in” for the self, that is queer and embodied through role-play (McMillan, 2015 13). This is achieved through tracking the author’s experience of discovering and forming their queer and trans identity through role-playing various characters and disciplining their function through related interdisciplinary theory across queer, feminist, and role-playing studies. Additionally, through utilizing additional ethnographic accounts and analyzing TTRPG-based media in theatre and actual play spaces, this project further establishes how the emancipatory potential in escapist TTRPG fantasy spaces can ultimately alter queer role-players’ engagement with material reality in a world adversarial to their existence and visibility, especially in light of the past few years.

Social Conflict in Role-Playing Communities: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

Much of the current research in the field of role-playing studies focuses upon the positive impact that games can have on the lives of participants. Analysis of the more negative social interactions within role-playing communities becomes necessary in order to establish a more complete picture of the psychosocial effects of these games. This research describes potential problems within role-playing communities in order to aid groups experiencing cohesion difficulties. This thematic, qualitative ethnography describes the types of social conflict occurring within role-playing groups and examines possible sources for their exacerbation. The study includes several types of role-playing from a phenomenological perspective, including tabletop, larp, and virtual gaming. Semi-structured interviews were collected from a selective sample of 30 international participants gathered from vastly different play cultures. While the types of games and methods of play contributed to conflict in some instances, striking similarities between the experiences of players across modes, cultures, and genres were observed. Emergent themes for sources of conflict included general problems inherent to group behavior, such as schisms, Internet communication, and intimate relationships. Other sources of conflict unique to the role-playing experience included creative agenda differences, the game master/player power differential, and the phenomenon of bleed, both in- and out-of-game. Potentially conflict-inducing play styles included long-term immersion into character, campaign-style, and competitive play.

Malaria situation in a clear area of Iran: an approach for the better understanding of the health service providers\u2019 readiness and challenges for malaria elimination in clear areas

BackgroundMalaria mortality and morbidity have decreased in recent years. Malaria elimination (ME) and effective efforts to achieve ME is one of the most important priorities for health systems in countries in the elimination phase. In very low transmission areas, the ME programme is faced with serious challenges. This study aimed to assess the trend while getting a better understanding of Health Service Providers’ (HSPs) readiness and challenges for ME in a clear area of Iran.MethodsThis study was performed in two phases. At first, the malaria trend in East Azerbaijan Province, was surveyed from 2001 to 2018; afterward, it was compared with the national situation for a better understanding of the second phase of the study. Data were collected from the Ministry of Health’s protocol and the health centre of the province. In the second phase, malaria control programme experts, health system researchers, and health managers’ opinions were collected via in-depth interviews. They were asked regarding HSPs readiness and appropriate Malaria Case Management (MCM) in a clear area and possible challenges.ResultsA total of 135 and 154,560 cases were reported in the last 18 years in East Azerbaijan Province and Iran, respectively. The incidence rate decreased in East Azerbaijan Province from 0.4/10,000 in 2001 to zero in 2018. Furthermore, no indigenous transmission was reported for 14 years. Also, for the first time, there was no indigenous transmission in Iran in 2018. The main elicited themes of HSPs readiness through in-depth interviews were: appropriate MCM, holistic and role-playing studies for assessment of HSPs performance, system mobilization, improving identification and diagnosis of suspected cases in the first line. Similarly, the main possible challenges were found to be decreasing health system sensitivity, malaria re-introduction, and withdrawing febrile suspected cases from the surveillance chain.ConclusionHealth systems in eliminating phase should be aware that the absence of malaria cases reported does not necessarily mean that malaria is eliminated; in order to obtain valid data and to determine whether it is eliminated, holistic and role-playing studies are required. Increasing system sensitivity and mobilization are deemed important to achieve ME.

Conflict and Change: Testing a Life-cycle Derived Model of Larp Group Dynamics

This paper extends theoretical work on small group dynamics in live action role-play (larp; Leonard and Arango 2013), honing in on three challenges larps face that are anticipated by our unique integration of roleplay studies with small groups research. These challenges are: relative group embeddedness, which can cause splintering and unfavorable social comparison when a larp is situated in a dense network of other larp groups; bleed of relationship dynamics such that in-character conflicts can foster intragroup tension (Bowman 2013), especially under conditions of zero-sum competition; and principled conflicts in which players disagree on core values, ideas, and goals of the larp itself (Wheelan 1994). We analyzed 17,371 survey responses to explore the role of embeddedness, socially competitive play, and regional play-style “fit” in explaining larp satisfaction. We discuss implications of these hypothesis-driven analyses, both for their scholarly and practical value.

A pilot study about application of role-play teaching method in clinic medical education of Children Primary Health Care

Objective In order to understand application of role-play teaching method in clinic medical education of Children Primary Health Care about developmental and behavioral diseases, this study was performed. Methods 119 undergraduate students of Grade 2011 were divided into 4 classes and every class was again divided into 3 groups with 9 or 10 students in each group. And reference information and network resources link were provided for them. All groups in each class were asked to weave a plot, which should be about life of a child in school and family, who was with one kind of clinical types of atten-tion deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). On the 3rd week, all groups perform their plots. The best group should win a prize. At that time, teachers should evaluate these plays and add some information about AD-HD. On the 4th week, the concept of the disease, clinical manifestations, classification, treatment and other content were once again taught in the form of lecture and students landed network teaching platform and completed the questionnaire. Network teaching platform system based on the students' completion of the questionnaire automatically generated relevant data, extracted and generated data and statistics analysis. Result 50.3% (96/191) students think the role-play study is very good. 43.7% (83/191) students think it is good. 33.2% (63/191) students think the role-play study is very helpful for their self study. 29% (55/191) students think it is very helpful to broadening the scope of clinical thinking. In view of the problems about whether or not to teach after the relevant teaching, 59.5% (114/191) of the students believe that teachers just should add partial knowledge about ADHD. Conclusion Role playing teaching can improve the teaching efficiency and help students to adapt to the future clinical work, improve their ability to identify, judge and diagnose the disease, and at the same time, deal with the corresponding teaching content of the major courses to adjust. Key words: Role-play teaching; Clinic medical education; Children primary health care

International Journal of Role-playing Issue 4 - Special Issue: Role-playing in Games -- Full Issue

International Journal of Role-playing Issue 4 -- Full Issue
 Table of Contents
 J. Tuomas Harviainen -- "Editorial -- Special issue: Role-Playing in Games"
 This special issue contains five articles chosen from amongst those presented at the Role-Playing in Games seminar at the University of Tampere, Finland, April 10-11, 2012. Several others from that seminar will be appearing in future issues of this journal. Read the full editorial here
 Sarah Lynne Bowman -- "Social Conflict in Role-Playing Communities: An Exploratory Qualitative Study"
 Much of the current research in the field of role-playing studies focuses upon the positive impact that games can have on the lives of participants. This research describes potential problems within role-playing communities.
 Angelina Ilieva -- "Cultural Languages of Role-Playing"
 Role-play interaction in live role- playing games is also language interaction. Role-playing language is different from everyday language, because the worlds created in role-play are not just a reflection or extension of everyday life.
 David Jara -- "A Closer Look at the (Rule-) Books: Framings and Paratexts in Tabletop Role-playing Games"
 As texts which are based on collaborative and interactive narration, tabletop – also known as “pen and paper” – role- playing games (TRPGs) are distinct in their technological simplicity.
 Michał Mochocki -- "Edu-Larp as Revision of Subject-Matter Knowledge"
 The paper presents theoretical foundations of the author’s approach to the design of edu- larps. It is deliberately steering away from cross-disciplinary teaching, artistic education or soft skills training in order to advocate larps tailored to single school subjects, focused on integration and consolidation of curricular knowledge.
 Jaakko Stenros -- "Between Game Facilitation and Performance: Interactive Actors and Non- Player Characters in Larps"
 The challenge of combining narrative and gameplay in live action role-playing games (larps) has been successfully negotiated with the use of runtime game mastering and interactive actors (ractors) performing non-player characters (NPC).

Using Role-Play and Case Study to Promote Student Research on Environmental Science

ABSTRACT Reform efforts encourage teachers to engage students in critical thinking skills and research. They also encourage teachers to meet the needs of their diverse student population and support students in developing communication skills. One way to step outside of traditional teaching approaches and engage middle school students in critical thinking, communication skills, and learning communities is by using an integrated role-play and case studies approach. This teaching approach combines the narratives of case study with the simulation and gaming features of role-play. Through this integrated technique, students are provided the context of a scientific issue through a case study, allowed to take on the role of a case study character, and presented with multiple opportunities to research environmental science content.

Creating In-Depth Learning Experiences by Using Rawls' “Veil of Ignorance”

Combining a variation of John Rawls' “veil of ignorance” mind experiment with role-playing and case studies allows instructors to create assignments that engage students in the full range of learning processes, encourage them to consider a wide range of viewpoints, provide them with opportunities to apply the cognitive and the affective components of learning, and make real for them world views competing for influence in the development of policies, regulations, and laws. This article presents three examples of this curriculum innovation in a graduate Human Behavior in the Social Environment sequence, followed by suggestions of its use in practice, research, and policy courses.

Aggressor and Victim Perspective-Related Differences in Perceived Legitimacy of Aggression in Soccer

The purpose of this role-playing study was to explore the perceived legitimacy of aggression in soccer as a function of perspective-related differences (aggressor vs victim) and type of aggression (instrumental vs hostile). 120 soccer players watched videotaped aggressive interactions in soccer and took the perspective of the actors (aggressor then victim or the reverse). Then they rated the legitimacy of each aggressive behavior depending on its ultimate goal (instrumental then hostile or the reverse). When participants adopted the aggressor perspective, they perceived instrumental aggression as more legitimate than hostile aggression. In contrast, when participants took the perspective of the victim, no significant difference was found regardless of the type of aggression. The discussion focussed on implications and consequences of such divergences in aggressive sport situations.

Influences on communication about reproduction: the cultural evolution of low fertility

The cultural norms of traditional societies encourage behavior that is consistent with maximizing reproductive success but those of modern post-demographic transition societies do not. Newson et al (2005) proposed that this might be because interaction between kin is relatively less frequent in modern social networks. Assuming that people's evaluations of reproductive decisions are influenced by a desire to increase their inclusive fitness, they will be inclined to prefer their kin to make fitness-enhancing choices. Such a preference will encourage the emergence of pronatal cultural norms if social networks are dense with kin. Less pronatal norms will emerge if contact between kin makes up a small proportion of social interactions. This article reports evidence based on role-play studies that supports the assumption of the kin influence hypothesis that evaluations of reproductive decisions are influenced by a desire to increase inclusive fitness. It also presents a cultural evolutionary model demonstrating the long-term effect of declining kin interaction if people are more likely to encourage fitness-enhancing choices when interacting with their kin than with nonrelatives.

Peer versus authority as decision maker: are the demographics of the perceiver related to judgements of fairness?

In a role-playing study, 264 university students evaluated the fairness of procedures and outcomes used to punish a student for plagiarizing from a web site. Individuals reading the scenario gave the highest ratings of justice when the decision maker was a group of nonpeers (faculty), compared to when the decision maker was an individual or peer (student). Sex and self reported guilt of individuals reading the scenario also influenced their ratings of justice.

Pre-managerial Business Education: A role for role-plays?

Can we add real value to our teaching through a strategic employment of the role-played study exercise? This article examines the question with concentration on the integration of role-play studies into the undergraduate business curriculum. The article aims to provide a better understanding of what role-playing means (of equal value to the non-subject specialist) and to evaluate the pay-offs and pit-falls of this 'active' approach to teaching and learning. A key outcome is the establishment of advice and guidance on how to run successful exercises. The author contends that those with limited or zero management experience can benefit significantly from a unique perspective on management challenges and from simulating aspects of human interaction and decision-making in organisational settings. Employed within a business curriculum, role-plays are promoted as a bona fide teaching option and as a way to prepare participants for the real world. Bringing issues and concepts off the pages of student textbooks, role-plays can, under certain conditions, let students learn, practice, succeed and fail, all in a supportive environment.

Disputant Reactions to Managerial Conflict Resolution Tactics

This study examined disputants’preferences for supervisory conflict resolution tactics. We identified three research needs. Previous work has (a) been mostly from the manager’s (and not the subordinate’s) perspective, (b) examined only a limited set of possible intervention tactics, and (c) tended to be confined to North American samples. In this role-playing study, we addressed these three needs by examining disputant reactions to five different conflict resolution tactics. In addition, we included participants from Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the United States. The results provide evidence pertaining to the efficacy of some tactics and the problems of others. In particular, managers seem to engender the most positive responses when they act either as impartial facilitators or as inquisitorial judges.

Advance notice as a means of reducing relative deprivation

Considerable research has documented that global perceptions of proceduralv fairness are associated with reductions in relative deprivation (RD). Less research has examined the specific process elements that lead individuals to perceive procedural fairness. In view of this, several researchers have suggested that providing advance notice concerning a negative decision increases perceived justice and thereby lowers levels of RD. Unfortunately, the evidence for this causal relationship is currently limited and is based upon a small number of correlation and role-playing studies. Thus, the present paper reports on two experimental studies that investigate the causal relationship between advance notice and RD. Findings in Study 1 showed that advance notice impacted the cognitive aspects of RD but not the affective or behavioral aspects. However, some methodological limitations were identified. These were corrected and a second experiment was conducted. This time advance notice lowered both the cognitive and affective aspects of RD but still did not impact the behavioral measure. Results are discussed in terms of Tyler's (1987) group value model.

Anger and aggression during role-playing: Gender differences between hormonally treated male and female transsexuals and controls

A role-playing study on anger was conducted in order to identify the influence of sex hormones on individual and gender differences in irritation, anger arousal, and aggression. Different groups were studied: female-to-male and male-to-female transsexuals, with either group tested after 3 months of cross-sex hormone treatment, and untreated control women and men. All subjects were exposed to a 35-min videotape of an individual tested in an aversive, physically stressful, and frustrating situation in the laboratory. While watching, subjects were asked to imagine being in the same situation. Meanwhile, cardiovascular responses were registered and the intensity of moods and aggressive behaviour were assessed. Apart from a clear effect upon cardiovascular arousal and anger-related moods, there were also some interesting differences between the four groups, the most interesting one being a stronger aggressive response in the female-to-male transsexuals. Furthermore, interesting information was gathered with respect to the issue of whether role-playing and actual experimentation provide valid tests of anger and aggression in real life. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Mission Destination, Mission Duration, Gender, and Student Perceptions of Space Habitat Acceptability

In a role-playing study designed to test the hypothesis that mission destination and mission duration affect the perceived habitability of spaceflight environments, college students read one of four space mission scenarios which varied destination (the moon or Mars) and duration (one month or one year). They then completed a 7-factor environmental rating scale. Whereas mission destination had no effect on perceived habitability, the environment was less acceptable for the extended than for the brief mission, and women rated the environment less favorably than did men. Results suggest that spaceflight environments are multidimensional, and that to assess habitability we must not only ask, "What is the environment?" and "Who are the environment's occupants?" but also, "What are the conditions and circumstances surrounding the environment's use?"

The use of role-play in teaching medical students obstetrics and gynaecology

There is a great need to review and critically assess medical education. Role-play has seen increasing use as an educational tool. We investigated its role in a 'conventional speciality', Obstetrics and Gynaecology. This is a part of the medical curriculum where communication skills are particularly important, but difficult to learn in practice. Twenty-one medical students took part in three role-play case studies. An innovation we implemented was the use of 'time outs' which could be called at any time through a session. After the exercise students were required to complete a questionnaire designed to probe their attitudes towards the experience. The results indicate that this technique can be successfully used in teaching a conventional speciality. Unlike some previous studies we also found this to be a satisfactory tool in teaching the factual part of the course. We found the 'time out' innovation to be an important aid. We argue that there is an important niche for role-play in medical education.

FOLLOWERS' PHENOMENOLOGICAL FIELD AS AN EXPLANATORY FRAMEWORK TO FIEDLER'S SITUATIONAL FAVORABILITY DIMENSION

Fiedler's contingency model (FCM) is based on the assumption that the interaction between leader's characteristics (leader's LPC) and the controllability of the situation determines followers’ productivity. The present paper, based on Lewinian analysis, suggests that followers' productivity is determined by followers' goals and motivations. These goals and motivation are partially determined by the situation and partially by the followers' perception of the situation. The leader is only a part of this. To demonstrate this claim a role play study was conducted. Subjects received a description of a leader (high or low LPC) and information about the followers' motivation in the situation. Four sets of situational conditions, characterized by octants 1, 4, 5 and 8 of the FCM were used. The dependent variable consisted of subjects' predictions of followers' productivity. It was hypothesized that the correlations between the projected group's productivity and leader's LPC would not be lower those that obtained by Fiedler, although the situational variables were replaced by information about followers'motivation. The hypothesis was confirmed.

Role‐playing as a method in nursing research

This report describes a way in which role-playing can be applied in nursing research. The questions investigated were how much the memory capacity is influenced by different methods of providing information, and in what manner objective and comprehensive information about a disease with all its possible consequences is experienced by the recipient. To elucidate these questions, 48 healthy persons imagined that they had a chronic disease. The study was arranged as a 2 x 2 factorial design, the factors being group information versus individual information about the disease, and provision of the whole information at once versus division of the information into three parts separated by 15 minutes. The information was given orally and a structured interview was consequently conducted. After 1 week the subjects were telephoned and were asked to tell the investigator what they remembered about the disease. The results showed that the amount and type of information recalled was not affected by the way in which it was given. The information in itself, however, had the effect of making the subjects calmer. Several parallels between the results of the role-playing study and observations in patients demonstrate that role-playing provides useful knowledge and should be applied to a greater extent in nursing research.

Purchasing agents' perceived importance of marketing mix components in different industrial purchase situations

Little is known about how industrial buyers evaluate the importance of various components of a vendor’s marketing mix across different purchase situations. However, the importance of product, price, distribution, and promotion efforts may vary across different products and buy classes. To examine this assumption, a systematic role-playing study of 254 industrial purchasing executives was conducted. Results of the analysis suggest that relations among the marketing mix components vary by product type and buy class.