Player-Character Similarity in Role-Playing Gamers
Project Abstract
Role-playing games (RPGs) have been growing in popularity throughout the last decade (Diamond, 2022). In these games, players assume control of a character, often for the purpose of influencing an overarching narrative. Neustaedter and Fedorovskaya (2009) identified three ways people may role-play as a character: similar to how one truly is, an idealized version of oneself, or a person completely other than oneself. Nacke and Nacke (2021) suggested that the type of character one chooses to play may be a function of the discrepancy between the “actual” self (who one truly is), the ‘ideal” self (who one wishes to be) and the “ought” self (who one believes they should be).
The present study examines potential relationships between participants’ escapist tendencies, self-esteem, personality characteristics, and the types of characters they create in role-play scenarios. Data collection is ongoing and set to conclude in mid-March of 2025, with data analysis set to conclude by the end of that month. Participants with some amount of RPG experience are asked to complete a series of questionnaires measuring their motivation to escape (Stenseng et al., 2012), self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965), and the personality characteristics of agreeableness, extraversion, and honesty-humility (Ashton & Lee, 2009). Participants then engage in a creative role-play exercise, asking them to describe a setting and create an original character within that setting. They then complete five role-play prompts as the character. Finally, participants rate the personality characteristics of their created character and report the degree of similarity between their characters and their actual, ought, and ideal selves.
It is predicted that participants high in escapism will create characters with personality characteristics different from their own and will report that their characters are less similar to their actual self. It is also predicted that subjects low in self-esteem will create characters less similar to themselves. Additional exploratory analysis will investigate how these factors may interact to predict actual-character discrepancy. Further exploratory analyses will investigate what factors predict character similarity to the ideal and ought selves. The exploration of these topics may provide new insight into how individuals perceive themselves, identify psychological links between RPG-players and the characters they create, and potentially highlight the beneficial effects of this increasingly popular pastime.
Conference
Conference Name: The 96th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association
Dates: April 10 - 12th, 2025
Sponsoring Body: Midwestern Psychological Association
Conference Website: https://midwesternpsych.org/
Funding Type
Travel Grant
Academic College
College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Area/Major/Minor
General Experimental Psychology
Degree
Master of Science in General Experimental Psychology
Classification
Graduate
Name
Patrick Cushen, PhD
Academic College
College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Recommended Citation
Whitfield, Chloe; Cramer, Entropy; and Cushen, Patrick, "Player-Character Similarity in Role-Playing Gamers" (2025). ORCA Travel & Research Grants. 197.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/orcagrants/197
