The Study of Identifications of the Adolescent with the Characters in On-line Role-Playing Games

[[abstract]]Abstract Images not only offer the viewers surface meanings but also present connotations of values and ideologies which may influence the viewers. On-line role-playing games, which are based on presenting and playing the images of certain characters, are very popular pastimes among Taiwanese teenagers. The values and ideologies behind the images of these characters in on-line role-playing games may influence and change the involving adolescent, which are the main members operating the future society. The objectives of this study are to examine the adolescent’s experience of role-playing the characters in on-line games, and to investigate how they view these characters which they role-plays, and then to analyze the level of identification they have with the characters. To achieve these objectives and after a pilot study, three methods are used, including interview, observation, and document analysis. Four teenagers, two males and two females, studying in a junior high school in Taipei, are involved in the case study. After one-year research and field work, the main results of this study are as follows: 1. The adolescent’s role-play experience of the on-line game characters is a kind of experiment of role-play constructed and influenced by multiple forces. On-line game companies, teenagers themselves, the peer, parents, schools, and other social members, can all influence the adolescent’s experience or experiment of role-playing the characters. 2. The viewpoints which the adolescent hold toward the characters they role-play are limited to the surface level. The self-protective viewing manner of the adolescent limits themselves from examining the values of the images more deeply. The defensive and defiant stance which parents and the school adopt toward on-line games diminishes help and assistance in leading them to the better viewing manners. 3. The level of the adolescent’s identification with the on-line game characters is only to the surface values. Because of the unsupported and limited viewing manner, the adolescent restrict themselves to the surface meaning of the images without knowing it. Therefore, what they have identification with is just the surface values of the images. Finally, based on the results of the study, concrete suggestions are presented to the adolescent, parents, schools, and on-line game companies, and for the art education in Taiwan and for future research. It is hoped that every force that construct and influence the role-playing experiments can be self-vigilant and self-examining all the time. It is also expected that visual cultural art education can be improved and rooted to provide the adolescent with more relative art courses, which may develop the adolescent’s critical thinking and the ability to examining the images they are exposed to.