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Gaming culture, motivation, and cathartic experience: an ethnographic study of tabletop roleplaying streamers

dc.contributor.authorSagstetter, Seth, author
dc.contributor.authorSnodgrass, Jeffrey G., advisor
dc.contributor.authorCohen, Adrienne J., committee member
dc.contributor.authorDiffrient, David Scott, committee member
dc.date.accessioned2023-01-21T01:24:18Z
dc.date.available2023-01-21T01:24:18Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractWith the rise of online, streamed entertainment and the resurgence of tabletop roleplaying games in popular media, it has become essential to examine participation motivations in the tabletop streaming space. To investigate play and community participation motivations I have drawn from my own decade long experiences in the tabletop space and initial observations of tabletop roleplay streams to inform interviews of seventeen active streamers. Interviews were further enhanced by both participating in a tabletop stream and observing streams online over the live streaming platform Twitch. Player relations to character and a desire to engage in game play emerged as motivations to initially participate in streaming roleplaying games. Once engaged in the broader tabletop community, players found themselves better able to express their ideal selves and, building upon psychological anthropological theories on cultural norm congruence, better fit into a community with new, alternative cultural norms that more closely aligned with players of marginalized identity. Player character relationship and the safety brought about by alternative cultural norms also allowed for the emergence of therapeutic benefits of play, through cathartic experience. The safety to express ideal selves, the comfort brought on by more closely aligning with the community's norms, and the relief of emergent cathartic experiences best explain player motivations to return to online streaming groups.
dc.format.mediumborn digital
dc.format.mediummasters theses
dc.identifierSagstetter_colostate_0053N_17551.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10217/235974
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherColorado State University. Libraries
dc.relation.ispartof2020-
dc.rightsCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.
dc.titleGaming culture, motivation, and cathartic experience: an ethnographic study of tabletop roleplaying streamers
dc.typeText
dcterms.rights.dplaThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
thesis.degree.disciplineAnthropology and Geography
thesis.degree.grantorColorado State University
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts (M.A.)

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