From Identity To Role:Relationship Reproduction In LARP Social Game

In recent years,the desktop game LARP with strong social attributes,which integrates multiple attributes such as role playing,interactive socializing,entertainment,and suspense reasoning,has quickly swept the country,ranking among the top three offline social and entertainment activities favored by young people.The reasons behind its popularity and its impact on social relationships among young people need to be studied.However,through summarizing the literature,the author finds that the current domestic research on LARP is mostly conducted from the perspectives of economics,communication,and education,while the research conducted from the perspective of sociology is relatively rare,especially from the perspective of cultural production.Based on Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory,this article investigates LARP stores through interviews and participatory observation methods,with LARP players and DM as the research objects.It fully understands LARP social scenes,LARP game mechanisms,game experiences from the perspective of DM and players,and social interactions between players.It also collects relevant interview materials,and reads and sorts out relevant literature on LARP,Then analyze and explore why youth groups like to socialize in the social field built by LARP,and how such social forms have affected the social relationships of youth groups.On this basis,the author uses Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory to summarize that offline LARP games isolate the real world from the game world,and build a new and equal social field.In this field,there are three advantageous characteristics: a decentralized confined space structure,a liberal role selection,and a de marginalised regular field.These characteristics attract a large number of young groups with weak social skills,transforming the social relationships of young groups in the field from identity to role socialization,and having a positive impact on the personal identity of young groups.This article believes that,on the one hand,LARP has established an equal social field,which makes young groups with weak social skills more suitable for socializing through games.On the other hand,its strong logical reasoning and immersive experience have also attracted young groups with strong social skills to participate in game socializing,which has a positive impact on the social relationships between players and the self-identity of players.However,LARP games also have drawbacks such as accidental social interaction,transient social interaction,and instrumental social interaction,which may bring related negative impacts to young people.This issue needs further research and discussion.