”Jag tycker alla människor ska prova spela rollspel” : - En intervjustudie om hur rollspelare ser på sina erfarenheter och den utveckling som har skett gällande rollspel från 1990-talet fram till 2016.

This study aims to investigate how individuals that have been playing pen and paper role-playing games since the 1990s to 2016 view their own experiences and the development of role-playing games. Six informants were interviewed in-depth about their experiences and how they view the change of roleplaying games and how society sees it. All the informants had been playing roleplaying games since the 1990s and are still playing. In the thematic analysis, five themes were identified: negative experiences, relationships, fantasy, development and normative change. This study exemplifies the complexity of belonging to a stigmatized group and also how a cultural phenomenon can grow, change and become accepted. It also highlights the role the informants themselves played in that change. Interestingly, it was found that the informants kept playing, despite the stigma around their hobby, because they found role-playing to be meaningful and stimulating and not for the reason that they identified themselves as role-players. Furthermore, all informants mention that thanks to role-playing they have developed a skill-set (e.g. creativity, problem-solving, understanding of group dynamics), which has become valuable to them later in life. The informants always believed that role-playing was something positive and meaningful, which also was confirmed once enough research had been done