Blog 5

Progress report - How many interviews did you do so far? 

So far I have conducted 4 interviews on players of the table top role play game of Dungeons and Dragons. The interview consists of 10 questions.

The questions include;

1.    Do you believe that your dungeons & dragons character represents you?

2.    What aspects do you usually take in consideration when choosing creating your character?

3.    Do you pay attention to how your character is represented with the equipment or attitude that you give? 

4.    Do you believe you will be able to get along with a person in real life if you’re in-game characters’ work well together?

5.    Does it reflect your relationship with the party members in real life?

6.    What do you think attributes to the identity of the team as a whole?

7.    How important is D&D to you?

8.    Do you change yourself to fit your character? How?

9.    Do you think people play rpg to compensate what is lacking in real life?

10. Would you cosplay/ act out your character in real life? Solo/group.

As of yet, most of the interviewees have opposing ideals and tend to answer the questions vaguely. Therefore, interview questions may be further refined to better communicate with the interviewees. And 4 more interviews have been scheduled for 9^th of April, 2015.

For the literature review, I have only found 1 that relates greatly and directly to my topic. The book is called Shared fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds by Gary Alan Fine. As this book seem to be very compatible with my research, I have chosen it to be my primary source of information for my literature review.

The data is continuously being compiled and have yet to be completely analysed.

Preliminary findings

A few parallels and commonalities have been observed thus far.

From my weekly observation of the game of Dungeons and Dragons so far, it seems that many of the players take the game personally to a certain extent. For example, many of the players would sometimes call each other by their real name rather than their character’s name while playing the game. It seems from the examples that most players do not realize that they take the game so seriously, sometimes forgetting that it is all just a game. Another example is when a player accidentally kills a side character in the game and gets angry at the game master for allowing his death.

A few preliminary findings from my interviews include the fact that the players do agree that to some extent, their characters are a representation of themselves as a lot of personal interest parallels with the characters they play. And most interviewees, even casual players of the game, consider Dungeons and Dragons as a means to socialize with other gamers.

Blog 4

Summary of chapter 1 of Shared fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds

In his book, Gary Alan Fine refers to the table-top role play game, dungeons and dragons, and discusses why and how people “game”, playing through cooperation and constructing a “shared fantasy” which can be considered an imagined community, focusing on the process of social gaming as a collective achievement.

Another interesting fact about the game dungeons and dragons is the fact that the regulations and consequences of any action in the game is not fix or inevitable as is most video game

Fine proposes that fantasy role play games mirror war games, educational simulations and folie a deux (shared psychosis). War games; because some players become so overwhelmed and into the game that they may put aside their natural identity and temporarily become a character of the game they play. Simulation games are made to educate the gamers to adequately manage or approach difficult life situations. And folie a deux which the players share a collective imagined fantasy community in the form of a delusional system with a somewhat fixed set of ideology that outsiders would find difficult to accept.

My arguments and expectations as of the current moment is that the players of the game dungeons and dragons see the game as a sort of outlet for their unfulfilled desires that they would normally not be allowed to achieve in real life due to social regulations, such situations do not normally arise in our modern society or they do not have the courage to physically do, actions such as underage drinking, stealing or fighting villains or monsters. And being able to achieve such desires enhances their sense of comradery as party members, and encouraging them to further test the limits of what their characters are able to do in a social world without the limits set by reality.

Progress:

Observation have been conducted weekly some Friday and every Saturday since 29^th of January 2015 for better understanding of the game and to take note of any subconscious actions the players may display during the game.

Interviews or focus groups is scheduled to be conducted on the 2^nd of April depending on the availability or the interviewees. I am currently experiencing difficulties finding time for interview as most of the players have different schedules and may opt of online interviews through skype instead.

Reference

Fine, G. A. (1983). Shared fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Student name: Harina Rachel Anne Aristan

Blog 3

What is the refined research question that you are setting out to answer? (Please be specific in your research topic)

To what extent does sub-cultural identities associates with real life identity?

How does this develop themes and debates explored within the lectures of this module? (Please put down the revised short introduction to your project based on the one in blog 2. Remember that the introduction should include the purpose of your research project, significance and key concept(s) that may be useful for your analysis.)

The aim of my research is to examine the formation of imagined identities, both communal and self-identity, through the participation of the subculture of the imagined community of offline role-playing game of Dungeons and Dragons and how much they identify with the in-game persona they have created, if it is an entirely different person that they are able to freely control or a personification of what they believe or wish themselves to be. Overall, my research develops themes of subcultural identity, participation and imagined communities explored within the lectures.

What critical methodologies are you going to use? How are you going to produce the evidence you’ll need to answer your research question?

1) In-depth informal interview with 7 players of Dungeons and Dragons.

2) Textual analysis of related articles.

References

1. ‘Live in Your World, Play in Ours’: The Spaces of Video Game Identity, Sheila C. Murphy: http://vcu.sagepub.com/content/3/2/223.short
2. Identity in massively multiplayer online games: a qualitative pilot study, http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1497406
3. Fine, G. A. (1983). Shared fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4. A case of identity: Role playing, social media and BBC Sherlock; http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jfs/2013/00000001/00000002/art00002
5. Personality and Fantasy Game Character Preferences; http://ica.sagepub.com/content/27/1/37.short
6. Developing the Metafunctional Framework for Analysing Multimodal Hypertextual Identity Construction, Arianna Maiorani, http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-230-24534-1_13#page-1
7. Linser, R., Ip, A., Rosser, E. & Leigh, E. (2008). On-line Games, Simulations & Role-plays as Learning Environments: Boundary and Role Characteristics. In C. Bonk, M. Lee & T. Reynolds (Eds.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2008 (pp. 1757-1765). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved March 11, 2016 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/29895.

* * *

What physical resources (e.g. camera) will this primary research require?

Yes (Please specify): Camera, Voice Recorder, Paper/Note book and Pen

Where and when exactly is this primary research going to take place?

Place(s):	Pacific Coffee Emporium; Shop 6, G/F, 9 Kingston Street, Fashion Walk, Causeway Bay.	Baptist Oi Kwan social Service 3/F, 36 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
Date and Time:	Every Saturday from Feb to April 7 pm to 10 pm	Every Friday when available 7 pm to 9 pm

Which key persons (e.g. family members, trustworthy friends, business owners, etc.) have agreed to help and support you in carrying out this research?

Yes (Please provide name and contact):

Harina Rochelle Marie Aristan; 5242 5956

Sikdar Sharu; 9285 5081

Self-assessment of risk:

Is this research exercise likely to expose you to any health and safety risks or any risk to property? (If the answer is yes, please specify the risks)

Yes: exposure to theft by using a camera and voice recorder in a public place

Name: Harina Rachel Anne Aristan

HKU SPACE Student Number: 10586450

Research Diary 2: Statement of Intent

My Research questions are “How does Identities form in the sub-culture of “Dungeon and Dragons”? And to what extent does the in-game character share similarities with the players in real life?”

Due to the increased popularity of social media, people have become warier and obsessive with how they are presented and they do what they can to strategically manipulate their presentations. But role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons give the opportunity to form a new identity and somewhat start anew in a fantasy realm with unrealistic things like magic skills and twists in the story with the toss of dices, with few limitations from the player’s handbook. It is questionable if such in-game character can become accurate representations of the gamer even in an offline community.

The aim of my research is to examine the formation of imagined identities, both communal and self-identity, through the subculture of the offline role-playing game of Dungeons and Dragons and how much they identify with the in-game persona they have created, if it is an entirely different person that they are able to freely control or a personification of what they believe or wish themselves to be.

For my methodology I intend to conduct In-depth interviews with around 8 gamers who are involved in the role-playing game community in Hong Kong and they have played “Dungeons and Dragons”. I will also be doing some field study by sitting-in some sessions. Furthermore, I will join one of the community of Dungeons and Dragons and record my experiences of how my finding differ or align with my original expectations. Due to the popularity of the game Dungeons and Dragons not being widespread in Hong Kong, I believe that quantitative analysis will not be effective for my research.

Tentative Questions include;

·         To what extent do you think the in-game character is an extension of yourself?
·         What aspects do you usually take in consideration when choosing creating your character?
·         Do you pay attention to how your character is represented with the equipment or attitude that you give?
·         Do you believe you will be able to get along with a person in real life if you’re in-game characters’ work well together?
·         To what extent do you believe that a female in-game character is played by a female player?

I have contacted 2 groups, with around 6 members in each group, of ‘dungeons and dragons’ gamers in the Wan Chai district though the use of a social networking site that meet on a weekly basis. We will be going into a Pacific Coffee Branch or have a room in the Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service Centre if permitted by the abilities of the host.

http://www.meetup.com/Hong-Kong-Tabletop-Gaming-Group/events/227358959/

Name: Harina Rachel Anne Aristan

Research Diary 1

Just as much as Media and Culture influence society, it is also strongly influenced by society, in other words, they are socially driven. Also, Both Media and Culture are in constant need of updating due to the many changes and evolutions. But with these many changes, there also comes the need to validate information that due to the overload of information we are able to access these days and this is where academic researches comes in. Academic researchers have rather strict requirement of reliability and validity, and give rise for seemingly mundane ideas to show how much potential they have and can be used to the fullest extent.

For Quantitative research the strengths are that data can be analysed quickly and easily and can be used to generalize the population. Also, it is anonymous for any sensitive issues making participants more willing to speak their mind without the desire to hide their true opinions. On the other, the weaknesses are that it is not cost efficient to print questionnaires while participation cannot be observed and confirmed when using online surveys. Moreover, more participants needed to answer questionnaires while answers are limited to very general responses.

For Qualitative research the strengths are in-depth, personal and detailed data that can be obtained in a naturalistic environment with less participants needed. While the weaknesses are the smaller sampling size which leads to difficulty in obtaining solid statistic as the findings cannot be generalized and there is a high chance of biases occurring.

My tentative research topic is “The use and occupation of imagined space in the table top Role-play game subculture of ‘dungeons and dragons’ in Hong Kong” and the ways that the role-play subcultural identities are influenced with the imagined space in the game.

I believe this research will yield interesting results as the role play game Dungeons and Dragons is not one of the more popular online game like DOTA or League of Legends, with exquisite graphics and characters readily designed for immediate use. The players are forced to use their collective imagination as the game master tells the story and build their own characters with different races, languages and skills and form a party in which they are made to go on an adventure either finding treasure or killing monsters while working effectively as a team.

For this research I believe that a suitable research method would be qualitative instead of quantitative as the game of “dungeons and dragons” is not very widely spread throughout Hong Kong. I plan on getting in touch with any dungeons and dragons community that I may be able to find in Hong Kong and sit in on game sessions as my field observation/ ethnography on a weekly basis as well as conduct informal interviews with the participants of the role play.

Student name: Harina Rachel Anne Aristan.