Make-believe and make-belief in Second Life role-playing communities
| Document type: | Journal Articles |
|---|---|
| Article type: | Original article |
| Peer reviewed: | Yes |
| Author(s): | Maria Bäcke |
| Title: | Make-believe and make-belief in Second Life role-playing communities |
| Journal: | Convergence : The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Volume: | 18 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pagination: | 85-92 |
| ISSN: | 1354-8565 |
| Publisher: | International Council for Adult Education |
| URI/DOI: | 10.1177/1354856511419917 |
| Organization: | Blekinge Institute of Technology |
| Department: | School of Planning and Media Design (Sektionen för planering och mediedesign) School of Planning and Media Design S-371 79 Karlskrona +46 455 38 50 00 http://www.bth.se/dsn/ |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This feature article applies the concepts of 'make-believe' and 'make-belief' formulated by performance theorist, Richard Schechner, in a study of two role-play communities, Midian City and Gor in the online 3D environment Second Life. With make-believe fantasy role-play at their core, members of the two communities negotiate the social and political norms, the goals of the community and as well as the boundaries of the virtual role-play. The article explores the innovative forms of interaction at play in these negotiation processes, using (cyber)ethnographic methods and the analysis of various textual sources, Goffman's theories of social performance as well as various types of performance discussed by Schechner and Auslander. The innovative forms of interaction are analysed in the light of the new technology and as performances and make-belief strategies directed towards realizing performative utopias, towards influencing the direction in which leaders and residents of this digital context want the role-play to develop, and towards shaping the emergent social and cultural rules and the political framework of the role-play. |
| Subject: | Psychology\General Technoscience Studies\General |
| Keywords: | digital space; make-belief; make-believe; negotiation; online worlds; performance; role-play; Second Life; virtual; virtual worlds |
