Identity Building Among Role-Playing Gamers: Slaying Goblins in the Real World

Drawing on 19 months of participant-observation and 20 in-depth interviews with players, Heather Shay demonstrates that gamers derive significant social and psychological benefits from table-top role-playing games-not least in that players often feel the hobby makes them better people.
Playing these games allow players to depict themselves as good, moral actors through their in-game actions as well as by making the game enjoyable for their fellow players in real life. Table-top role-playing games also serve a psychological function by allowing participants to take imaginary risks with their characters, which in turn make them feel more alive than their everyday experiences allow them to. As they pretend to be fictional characters in fictional worlds, players use these games to create identities that make their lives more meaningful.

Heather Shay is assistant professor of sociology at South Carolina State University.