De-Roling from Experiences and Identities in Virtual Worlds

Within dramatherapy and psychodrama, the term ‘de-roling’ indicates a set of activities that assist the subjects of therapy in ‘disrobing’ themselves from their fictional characters. Starting from the psychological needs and the therapeutic goals that ‘de-roling’ techniques address in dramatherapy and psychodrama, this text provides a broader understanding of procedures and exercises that define and ease transitional experiences across cultural practices such as religious rituals and spatial design. After this introductory section, we propose a tentative answer as to why game studies and virtual world research largely ignored processes of ‘roling’ and ‘de-roling’ that separate the lived experience of role-play from our everyday sense of the self. The concluding sections argue that de-roling techniques are likely to become more relevant, both academically and in terms of their practical applications, with the growing diffusion of virtual technologies in social practices. The relationships we can establish with ourselves and with our surroundings in digital virtual worlds are, we argue, only partially comparable with similar occurrences in pre-digital practices of subjectification. We propose a perspective according to which the accessibility and immersive phenomenological richness of virtual reality technologies are likely to exacerbate the potentially dissociative effects of virtual reality applications. This text constitutes an initial step towards framing specific socio-technical concerns and starting a timely conversation that binds together dramatherapy, psychodrama, game studies, and the design of digital virtual worlds

Creating an independent work of fiction through live action role-play

Live action role-play (larp) is a recognized form of role-play where players physically embody characters in fictional settings. The medium is immensely versatile and different larp traditions approach the activity and its design in a variety of ways. The participatory and ephemeral nature of larp makes it a difficult medium to explore without playing. It is, however, relevant to communicate aspects of the activity to external audiences for purposes of posterity and recognition. Larp documentation cannot encapsulate the fleeting artwork, as it lacks a permanent form. As the player is the central audience of larp, we seek to understand the player experience in order to comprehend the relevance of larp. The importance of documentation forces the larp community to explore new ways of capturing the dissipating artworks. The study explores what can be captured of the ephemeral larp experience, and how it translates to outside audiences. The written part of the study examines characteristics of larp and central challenges for its documentation, as well as the creation of a fictional documentary film. The artistic part of the study is the outcome of an exploration of larp as a platform for creation, resulting in a fictional documentary called “Vielä hetki.” The study shows that while larp is impossible to document thoroughly, parts of the ephemeral larp experience can be captured. Larp documentation should be approached as a collection of different documents, as no single document or medium can cover the whole larp. The medium can be used as a source for sampling, as larp provides a platform for artistic exploration but only allows parts of its expression to be captured. It is possible to create independent works of art inside larp that external audiences can relate to and to utilize such artworks in translating the exclusive larp experience to non-participants. When larp documentation is implemented into the fiction of the larp, it becomes a diegetic part of the larp and creates more intimate documents of the elusive and coveted player experience.Liveroolipeli eli larp on roolipelaamisen muoto, jossa osallistujat ilmentävät hahmojaan fyysisesti fiktiivisissä ympäristöissä. Larp on äärimmäisen monipuolinen media ja erilaiset larppaamisen perinteet tarjoavat monia vaihtoehtoja larppaamisen ilmentämiseen. Larpit ovat osallistavia ja hetkellisiä tapahtumia, joihin ulkopuolisten on vaikea tutustua. Tiedon säilyvyyden ja larppaamisen tunnistettavuuden lisäämiseksi on tärkeä dokumentoida larppeja ja viestiä niistä myös ulkopuolisille. Larppeja on kuitenkin mahdotonta tavoittaa dokumentaation keinoin, sillä larp on taiteenmuotona aineeton ja hetkellinen. Larpin keskeisin osa on pelaajan kokemus, joten keskitymme usein taltioimaan pelaajien kertomuksia tarjotaksemme käsityksen larpin tapahtumista ja niihin liittyvistä kokemuksista. Dokumentoinnin tärkeys pakottaa etsimään uusia menetelmiä hetkeen sidotun teoksen vangitsemiseksi. Tämä työ tutkii mitä voimme säilyttää larppien tarjoamista ohikiitävistä kokemuksista ja niiden mahdollisesta funktiosta ulkopuoliselle yleisölle. Työn kirjallinen osuus tarkastelee larppien ominaisuuksia ja niiden dokumentointiin liittyviä haasteita. Kirjallinen osuus käsittelee myös fiktiivisen dokumenttielokuvan tuotantoprosessia, ja sen lopputuloksena syntynyttä elokuvaa ”Vielä hetki.” Tämä dokumenttielokuva on opinnäytteeni taiteellinen osa. Työ osoittaa, että vaikka larppien kokonaisvaltainen dokumentointi on mahdotonta, pystymme tallentamaan merkityksellisiä osia ohikiitävistä kokemuksista. Dokumentoinnin tulisikin rakentua useista eri menetelmistä ja lähestymistavoista, sillä mikään yksittäinen keino ei ole tarpeeksi kattava larpin kokonaisvaltaiseen ilmentämiseen. Liveroolipelit tarjoavat alustan ”sämpläykselle” (eng. sampling), mahdollistaen osiensa käytön taiteellisten tuotosten luomisessa. Larpin puitteissa on näin ollen mahdollista luoda itsenäisiä taideteoksia, jotka voivat tarjota tarttumapintaa larpin ulkopuolisille yleisöille. Dokumentoinnin ollessa osa larpin fiktiota, se muodostuu osaksi pelaajan kokemusta, ja pelaajan kokemuksesta tulee vastavuoroisesti keskeinen osa dokumentaatiota

A Mimetic Method

How does a practice of mimesis — as dramatic enactment in a live-action role-playing game (LARP) — relate to the design of artificial intelligence systems? In this article, I trace the contours of a mimetic method, working through an auto-ethnographic approach in tandem with new materialist theory and in conjunction with recent tendencies in design research to argue that mimesis carries strong potential as a practice through which to encounter, negotiate, and design with artificial intelligence imaginaries. Building on a new materialist conception of mimesis as more-than-human sympathy, I illuminate how LARP that centered on the enactment of a fictional artificial intelligence system sustained an encounter with artificial intelligence imaginaries. In what can be understood as a decidedly mimetic way of doing ethnography of algorithmic systems, I argue that we need to consider the value of mimesis — understood as a practice and a method — as a way to render research into artificial intel- ligence imaginaries

Collaborative worldbuilding: Examining identities, ideologies, and literacy practices in a youth role-playing community

Thesis advisor: Jon M. WargoRole-playing games (RPGs) are storytelling games that employ character generation, improvisational acting, and rule-based interactions to build worlds and coauthor narratives. Contemporary education research identifies RPGs as robust examples of school-based and extra- academic literacy practices. As sites of narrative possibility and precarity, RPGs are political projects that can resist and reify hegemonic ideologies of race, gender, and power. In this three- paper dissertation, I build upon game studies and literacy scholarship to nuance the ways six youth participants coauthored worlds, negotiated storytelling practices, and (re)produced Whiteness. In Paper 1, I highlight a phenomenon I call “liminal play” – moments of gameplay wherein the boundaries between players, characters, and texts converge. My findings illustrate how liminal moments of play forward social and compositional dimensions of collaborative storytelling. In Paper 2, I leverage conversation analysis to detail how participants’ play-based talk oscillated across two participation frames: the game (i.e., their character roles) and the metagame (i.e., their player roles). My analysis examines the nested and contested processes of narrative negotiation inherent in RPG interactions. Finally, in Paper 3, I interrogate how participants’ worldbuilding practices resisted and reified White racialized ideology. Oriented by critical Whiteness studies, I unmask how participants and I privileged Whiteness despite our efforts to resist hegemonic Dungeons & Dragons lore.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction

Design Resources in Movement-based Design Methods:A Practice-based Characterization

Movement-based design methods are increasingly adopted to help design rich embodied experiences. While there are well-known methods in the field, there is no systematic overview to help designers choose among them, adapt them, or create their own. We collected 41 methods used by movement design researchers and employed a practice-based, bottom-up approach to analyze and characterize their properties. We found 17 categories and arranged them into five main groups: Design Resources, Activities, Delivery, Framing, and Context. In this paper, we describe these groups in general and then focus on Design Resources containing the categories of Movement, Space, and Objects. We ground the characterization with examples from empirical material provided by the design researchers and references to previous work. Additionally, we share recommendations and action points to bring these into practice. This work can help novice and seasoned design researchers who want to employ movement-based design methods in their practice.This research was supported by the EU Erasmus+ project Method Cardsfor Movement-based Interaction Design (2020-1-DK01-KA203-075164) IO4: Gathering movement-frst methods for the design of movement-based experiences. This work was also partially supported by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid) under the Multiannual Agreement with UC3M in the line of Research Funds for Beatriz Galindo Fellowships (MovIntPlayLab-CM-UC3M 2021/00050/001) in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation), and by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101002711; project BODYinTRANSIT). We would like to collectively acknowledge all the people and institutions that have made possible the individual projects featured in this paper: ACHIEVE, KOMPAN Workshop, Astaire, Super Trouper (Vetenskapsrådet grant number 2017-04880), Magic outFit (Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, PID2019-105579RBI00), Sense2makeSense (SpanishAgencia Estatal de Investigación, PID2019-109388GB-I00), LearnSPORTtech, Tangibles, DigiFys (Sweden Innovation Agency Vinnova grant number 2016-03777), Diverging Squash, GIFT, and Online Course in Embodied Interaction

Player Types, Motivations & The Western Australian Live Action Role-Play Community: An investigation of Possible LARP Player & Digital Game Theory Compatibility

This thesis aimed to investigate the extent to which Bartle’s (1996) Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) player taxonomy can be applied to the classification of the motivations of the Western Australian Live Action Role-Play (LARP) community. This work resulted in the production of the refined LARPer Motivation Typology theory which can provide a greater understanding of the motivational behaviours of WA LARP participants for the benefit of scholarly researchers, LARP Organisers and individual LARP players

Research method for locative games

This paper presents a methodology approach for locative games studies using as reference the actor-network theory. The hypothesis supports that actor-network theory could be useful because it focuses on agencies between humans and non-humans; by the same way, it provides useful categories to support the researcher in the description of an emerging phenomenon. Locative gaming is a fruitful experience to use concepts from actor-network theory because it is connected to many humans and non-humans actants. In the attempt to achieve a research method for locative games using actor-network theory, this study provides a description of some game sessions of Pokémon GO played in Copenhagen during the summer of 2017.This paper presents a methodology approach for locative games studies using as reference the actor-network theory. The hypothesis supports that actor-network theory could be useful because it focuses on agencies between humans and non-humans; by the same way, it provides useful categories to support the researcher in the description of an emerging phenomenon. Locative gaming is a fruitful experience to use concepts from actor-network theory because it is connected to many humans and non-humans actants. In the attempt to achieve a research method for locative games using actor-network theory, this study provides a description of some game sessions of Pokémon GO played in Copenhagen during the summer of 2017

De-roling from experiences and identities in virtual worlds

Within dramatherapy and psychodrama, the term ‘de-roling’ indicates a set of activities that assist the subjects of therapy in ‘disrobing’ themselves from their fictional characters. Starting from the psychological needs and the therapeutic goals that ‘de-roling’ techniques address in dramatherapy and psychodrama, this text provides a broader understanding of procedures and exercises that define and ease transitional experiences across cultural practices such as religious rituals and spatial design. After this introductory section, we propose a tentative answer as to why game studies and virtual world research largely ignored processes of ‘roling’ and ‘de-roling’ that separate the lived experience of role-play from our everyday sense of the self. The concluding sections argue that de-roling techniques are likely to become more relevant, both academically and in terms of their practical applications, with the growing diffusion of virtual technologies in social practices. The relationships we can establish with ourselves and with our surroundings in digital virtual worlds are, we argue, only partially comparable with similar occurrences in pre-digital practices of subjectification. We propose a perspective according to which the accessibility and immersive phenomenological richness of virtual reality technologies are likely to exacerbate the potentially dissociative effects of virtual reality applications. This text constitutes an initial step towards framing specific socio-technical concerns and starting a timely conversation that binds together dramatherapy, psychodrama, game studies, and the design of digital virtual worlds.peer-reviewe

Performing Fantasy and Reality

Fantasy is a phenomenon that has a strong presence in both everyday life and in research. Fantasy is a central part of contemporary, consumption-oriented culture through its strong ties to the development of identity, the construction of communities, the attainment of desires, and the creation of meanings. Nevertheless, fantasy in itself is rarely the focus of research and thus remains undefined and under-explained. Moreover, research that does note fantasy tends to accentuate only its entertaining and leisurely aspects, presenting it as something unserious, irrational, and escapist. Studies further tend to present fantasy as something purely cognitive and imagery-based. However, fantasy is also a bodily and shared experience that is tied to materiality, space, and culture. It therefore becomes important to explore fantasy as a phenomenon in its own right from a bodily and negotiated point of view. In this research, I explored how individuals engage in the performance of fantasy in order to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon as a subjective experience that is a part of contemporary Western culture. Talking on a performance methodology that focuses on experience, participation, and interaction, I collected data ethnographically in the context of live action role-playing games. I supported the ethnography with art-based research that took form in visual art addressing the theory and data analysis of this study. I propose that fantasy can be described as the conscious engagement in two parallel performances, the performance of reality and its transformation that is outside of our symbolic order. Fantasy is therefore a different approach to and interpretation of normalised performance and reality. I further show that fantasy is intrinsically tied into the performance of reality. Fantasy allows investment into reality through its explicitly reflexive nature that pushes individuals to become aware of and thus also critical of the structures of their everyday performances. Lastly, I map out two different types of fantasy performance, entertainment-driven fantasy and exploration-driven fantasy. These differ in the ways individuals negotiate roles, interaction, space, time, and materiality as part of the performance. Entertainment-driven fantasy allows momentary attainment of personal desires, while exploration-driven fantasy leads to more long-term agency through reflexive learning. All in all, this research brings new insight into the understanding of fantasy as part of contemporary consumer culture, tying it into experiences of space, materiality, agency, desire, Utopia, nostalgia, mass media, and entertainment. Through shedding light on fantasy's intrinsic connection to reality, this study examines not only the human experience of the non-real, but also our current subjective experience of reality, society, and shared meaning