Abstract
This is an ethnographic study of the communication behaviors of the role-playing game subculture in a Texas college town. Over a sixteen month period, data were gathered by a participant observer who became a full member of the culture. The methodology applied herein espouses that this membership is desirable for obtaining a thorough description of the research site, and that the researcher in such a role is participating in a collaborative act with the other members of the culture as data are collected. Detailed field notes were taken by the researcher, and interviews of members were conducted at the research site. Both the field notes and the interviews serve as the data base which support the claims made in this study. Role-playing games are popular culture texts primarily consumed by a mostly white male urban subculture. The consumption patterns of this subculture are found to be highly complex, as is their communication behavior while playing these games. Gamers use multiple situational definitions or "frames", as sociologist Erving Goffman called them, to guide their communication while playing, as they alternate between the fantasy world which provides the setting for the game and the home of the fictional characters the players portray, and the real world they themselves inhabit. The ability to shift between these frames is a defining characteristic of experienced members of the subculture. Players exhibit a number of different though non-discrete styles of play, and a clear and consistent progression of play styles is described. Although current popular culture models are useful in understanding the role-playing game phenomenon, certain elements in the current conception of "text," as elucidated in the popular culture theory of John Fiske, prove to be too limiting. An addition to existing theory is presented which captures the qualities of this and potentially other forms of interactive text.
Barry, P. J (1995). Communication and the culture of fantasy in role-playing games. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1995 -THESIS -B376.