The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity

by Sarah Lynne Bowman

This study takes an analytical approach to the world of role-playing games, providing a theoretical framework for understanding their psychological and sociological functions. Sometimes dismissed as escapist and potentially dangerous, role-playing actually encourages creativity, self-awareness, group cohesion and “out-of-the-box” thinking. The book also offers a detailed participant-observer ethnography on role-playing games, featuring insightful interviews with 19 participants of table-top, live action and virtual games.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Nonfiction, Gaming, Games, Psychology

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2010

Reviews

[Diz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looks at role playing games from an academic perspective. There are some interesting ideas in here, for example the idea that role playing can serve as a modern ritual that can create meaning and community, and some ideas that I'm not all that interested in, for example the idea that role playing characters are all some sort of reflection of the self.

The author also collects information about the role playing experience though interviews from her playgroup. However, I wonder if the conclusions drawn from the data are relevant to today's role players. The reason why I say this is that the group she interviews is a World of Darkness group, and the interview responses from this group are treated as being representative of role players in general. The World of Darkness system was really popular in the 1990s and had a reputation of being the game for social outsiders (I was not outsider enough to play this). This outsider perspective is reflected in the interview responses she received. However, these days, especially since the debut of D&D 5th edition, role playing has basically become a socially accepted activity, particularly for those among the millennial generation and younger. So, I think that these younger gamers probably have a different perspective on role playing than the one portrayed in this book, and the younger gamers probably outnumber us now.

[Victoria Hawco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another book I’m jealous I didn’t write first, yet so grateful already exists for my own research purposes!

[Kellynn Wee]

I really liked Bowman's focus on mythological narratives (though I felt that she universalised a 'Western' narrative style as somehow foundational to all stories), the way she connected RPGs to other forms of communal storytelling, and her detailed research on the way that RPGs can help us build particular capacities and skills. She also gives a good overview of Victor Turner's take on ritual and how this could be applied to the way that we view TTRPGs. On the other hand, I do think that Bowman adopts a functionalistic approach to the work, where she brings a positivistic view of reality (i.e. that there is a "real" and "not real"; and also that everything is a proxy for something else: that there is a "realer" reality that needs to be read to understand the truth) to her research. This isn't a critique as much as my reflection that it's not how I myself view social reality. I also think that her book can come across as defending TTRPGs as "valuable" on the basis of the functions that they serve us (e.g. TTRPGs help build social skills), which again is something that I don't quite agree with; I think TTRPGs do not have to "teach" us anything and could simply be an enjoyable human practice of leisure. But then of course she writes from a different context where TTRPGS don't have the same social currency that they do today.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who is a book like this for? The most essential question of a book to ask is why does this book exist? Who is it for? What is the author trying to accomplish with this work? In this particular case, we have a short book that focuses on the scholarly and academic importance of role playing games, where the author herself is both a fond participant in role playing games as well as a scholar who has used her interest as a means of bringing some academic legitimacy to an interest of hers. The author clearly comes to this material with ulterior motives, most notably a desire to justify herself (and other games) to an academic community that might look down on role playing games. Similarly, the author desires to encourage a community that she views as being involved in important community-building activities that she credits with building empathy as well as creative insight by means of being able to imaginatively play as a different sort of being. The book is thus a demonstration of the truth that all people desire to justify themselves, and that this tendency is not in any way lessened by someone's academic ambitions or the sorts of habits and hobbies one wishes to justify.

This book is a relatively short one at just shy of 200 pages, divided into seven chapters that demonstrate the author's desire to turn role playing games into the fuel for her own academic ambitions. The author begins with acknowledgements, a preface, and an introduction. After that she explores the historical evolution and cultural permutations of video games with a (not very) subtle plug for the games that she is most familiar with from her own personal experience as well as those which are particularly popular (1). The author then explores role-playing in communal contexts, pointing to the community-building that results from a shared experience in creating a story as one does in role playing games (2). The author then explores interactional dynamics in role-playing games, pointing to how people play games and deal with both in-character and out-of-character matters (3). After that there is a discussion of role-playing as scenario building and problem solving, an obvious case for justifying it (4). This leads to the author discussing the importance of tactical and social problem solving (5), before moving on to discuss role-playing as an alteration of identity, which leads her to discuss the issue of identity (6), before closing with a discussion of character evolution and the types of identity alteration (7), a conclusion, interview questionnaire (i), chapter notes, bibliography, and index.

Even though as a fellow role-playing gamer, I might be expected to appreciate this book a great deal, there are at least a few elements in this book that keep me from enjoying the book as much as I would be expected to. A large part of this barrier between me and the author's attempt at justification comes from the author's continued focus in certain aspects that are modish within academia, such as a focus on gender and sexuality. Other aspects of the barrier come from her drawing attention to the way that gamers tend to comment that they are different from most gamers in not being socially awkward, which the author views as being some sort of violation of the community spirit that should come from gaming. I suppose the author does not think of herself as someone who is socially awkward herself, nor does she want to concede anything to the prejudices of those who would be hostile to gaming. The author sees is as an aspect of community theater which she predictably ties to neo-paganism and leftist political causes because everyone sees in what they love a reflection of what they believe in. And what this author believes in, I want no part of whatsoever.

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Bowman's The Functions of Role-Playing Games as a part of my MSc Sociology dissertation research. Before I properly start I have to say it was a refreshing read with a good overview of TTRPGs (table top roleplaying games) and how players relate to their characters which I think is genuinely quite novel.

However, as a piece of theoretical work the text was lacking in some rather important areas. Firstly, the book had no methodology section, detailing the claimed ethnographic approach. However, it seems that the actual method was more akin to several structured interviews with an attempt at autoethnography scattered throughout. Personally, I am a big fan of autoethnography unfortunately the method requires heavy technique and experience such as a sharp focus on reflexivity. None of which was mentioned due to the lack of a methods chapter. Even more shocking was no a single mention of ethics which goes without saying is a poor choice and honestly puts the whole research thesis into question.

If the glaring methodological problems are ignored — or at least side-lined for now — the actual content of the book was fairly enjoyable. It must be said that the theoretical backing was never explored as well as expected, or hoped. Potentially a flushed out literature review would have sufficed. But the discussion of the roleplaying typology and identity alteration was good enough to keep my reading.

There are some theoretical critiques I have such as the general functionalist interpretation of TTRPGs. A question I walked away with was to what extend do TTRPGs provide an avenue for transgressive behaviour to become concealed behind closed doors never to be expressed but rather repressed? This question relates specifically to queerness which the book never addresses directly. Secondly, the use of TTRPGs as a tool of discipline, by the military for example, was not critically scrutinized enough.

Apart from some of these limitations, some more damning than others (*cough cough* methods *cough cough*), the book was a good addition to a severally lacking area of research.

[Ian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic research on role-playing games is few and far between, so Bowman deserves praise for diving into this relatively unexplored niche from an academic viewpoint. While there are some tremendously insightful sections (particularly near the end, on the types of roleplayers and their relationships to their real selves), much of the book falls flat, with an overly basic introduction to the genre and observations that feel trite, obvious, or rely too much on long block quotes from other scholars. The prose also feels like a PhD dissertation and is relatively laborious to read -- a friendlier voice with more insights from the author would have made this a far more enjoyable experience. Useful if you're using this for research, but not at all for the casual reader.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was lovely to find a text that did not focus solely on Dungeons and Dragons. The inclusion of LARPing can dramatically broaden the RPG scholar's conception of player immersion (especially if we add in Bowman's later essays on "Bleed," or how character and player perspectives can bleed over to the other). The conception of the different types of characters players generate is also great, if partial and not necessarily giving full consideration to the impact of game rules on player options.

[Peter Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book and one of the first of its kind, The Functions of Role-Playing Games tackles the psychological aspects of tabletop RPGs and LARP. The first 5 chapters can be a little dry for experienced RPG hobbyists, but chapters 6 and 7 where the author finally gets to stop laying groundwork and actually is able to start doing some analysis are great and very interesting.

[Rhockman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un listado muy abarcativo de distintas formas en las que pueden estudiarse los juegos de rol y un montón de referencias a estudios que se hayan hecho. Podría servir de guía de referencias para alguien que quiere estudiar al respecto pero no hay ninguna interpretación o aporte de parte de la autora.

[Clyde Warden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good quality research on RPG players with well flushed out history/background.

[Antonio Roda Martínez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro ha sido un maravilloso descubrimiento. Junto con la recopilación de Zagal sobre Roleplaying como fenómeno transmedia y el libro de Mackay de los juegos de rol como arte performativo, lo mejor que he leído de juegos de rol en cuanto estudios académicos.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, the author shares her research and experiences with role playing games and explores how such games can be used to explore different identities. I found this to be an intriguing exploration of role-playing games and how people use them to explore their identities as well as how they are used by society in general for problem solving. The author does an excellent job of showing the breadth of role-playing games, and the various uses they are put to. This is an excellent book to read to understand identity alteration and how the assumption of different roles allows people to explore who they are in relationship to the characters they create and become. The author also provides some useful insights via Jungian theory on archetypes and identity that can be helpful for understanding the psychology of role playing games.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a little clunky but I give it 4 stars because it's got some really solid ideas. I think the author maybe tries to take on a little too much in it, but that's not surprising given the great deal of crossover between role-playing games and other types of re-enactment and theater. She draws her sources from a lot of different disciplines which is really the strength of this book.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, I'll admit. I skipped quite a lot in this book. This is an academic look at RPGs. Very well done, and I'm glad I read most of it, but some was just not of interest to a non-academic.

If you are researching RPGs -- in particular the psychology of them, this is a good book to read.

[Александр Гидревич · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bibliography in this book - great example and help for person who looking for academic approach to subject of role-playing.