The Information Worlds of Online Role-Players

국문 초록 (Abstract)

전세계 수백만 명의 이용자가 대규모 멀티 플레이어 온라인 롤 플레잉 게임(MMORPG: Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games)을 즐긴다. MMORPG 내에서 롤 플레이어(역할 참여자)는 다양한 정보사용과 정보행동에 가담하면서 게임을 탐색하고, 미스터리를 해결하거나, 게임 속 아이템을 만들거나, 괴물이나 보스와의 전투에 참여하며 다른 플레이어와 경쟁하거나 협력한다. 또한, 롤 플레이어는 자신의 캐릭터 정체성을 개발하고 다른 롤 플레이어와 함께 대화형 스토리텔링에 참여한다. 이 연구는 정보세계이론을 통해 롤 플레이어의 사회적 정보 행동을 탐구하고 기술하기 위해, 광범위한 참여자 관찰 데이터, 반구조화 면담 데이터, 위키페이지나 토론게시판의 글과 같은 참여자의 커뮤니티 활동을 보여주는 사회적 데이터를 결합한 민족지학적 접근법을 사용했다. 과학 판타지를 주제로 한 MMORPG인 와일드스타(WildStar)의 롤플레잉 커뮤니티에서 두드러지는 사회적 역할 유형은 게임 속에서 허용되는 캐릭터, 이야기, 캐릭터의 행동 등을 지시하는 사회적 규범과 정보가치와 밀접하게 연관되고 차별화되는 동시에, 그 안에서 게임 속 캐릭터로서와 게임 밖 이용자로서의 정보세계 사이의 경계를 위반하지 않고 롤플레잉을 지속하는 방법들과 관련이 깊었다. 롤 플레이어는 특정한 정보 행동에 가담하며 게임 속 캐릭터와 게임 밖 이용자의 정보세계를 분리해서 유지함으로써, 롤 플레잉 게임을 더욱 참여적이고 몰입적으로 만들었다. 정보세계이론을 활용한 분석의 의미와 롤 플레잉 및 MMORPG을 적용한 디지털 리터러시 교육에 대한 가능성도 논의된다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are played by millions of people around the world. Within MMORPGs, players explore, solve mysteries, craft items, battle against dungeon or raid bosses, or compete against other players, all while using a variety of information and information behaviors. Role-players in MMORPGs develop identities and engage in interactive storytelling with other role-players as their characters. An ethnographic approach combining overt participant observation and engagement, semi-structured interviews, and artifact collection was used to explore and describe the social information behaviors of role-players through the lens of the theory of information worlds. The social types evident in the role-playing community in WildStar, a science fantasy-themed MMORPG, are closely interrelated to and differentiated by social norms and information values that dictate acceptable characters, stories, character actions, and appropriate lore sources as well as how to role-play without violating the boundary between in- and out-of-character information worlds. Role-players maintained the in-character and out-of-character boundary using a set of specific information behaviors to enable engaging and immersive role-playing experiences. Implications of the findings for the theory of information worlds as well as potential applications of role-playing and MMORPGs are also discussed.

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