The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity Paperback – April 20, 2010

I purchased this book to explore the concepts around role-play, identity formation, and community development. The comparison of participation in TTRPGs comparable to a modern ritual activity is interesting. Recommend.

(Full disclosure: The author is a friend of mine, we discuss subjects from the contents of this book so I thought I'd give it a read to catch up on her theories and have more enlightened discussions)This book is an excellent, well thought out dive into the minds behind roleplaying games.It does a great job of explaining the background of the subject to bring uninitiated readers up to speed. I'm not a huge reader of non-fiction, and especially not something this in-depth into something I am a huge participant in (I've been roleplaying nearly my entire life). But I never found this book boring or too dry for my liking.I came away with a much better understanding of the different things that attract different types of people to roleplaying, rather than just understanding my own stance. And as something of a hobbyist roleplaying scholar, I believe this book is a great addition to my references.

In this book, the author shares her research and experiences with role playing games and explores how such games can be used to explore different identities. I found this to be an intriguing exploration of role-playing games and how people use them to explore their identities as well as how they are used by society in general for problem solving. The author does an excellent job of showing the breadth of role-playing games, and the various uses they are put to. This is an excellent book to read to understand identity alteration and how the assumption of different roles allows people to explore who they are in relationship to the characters they create and become. The author also provides some useful insights via Jungian theory on archetypes and identity that can be helpful for understanding the psychology of role playing games.

There are too many grammatical errors to overlook. I don’t understand how this version made it to print, but it’s hard to focus on the integrity of the research when the writing trips over itself every other page.The content is excellent, but can be somewhat superficial in the most compelling topics, relying on citations and references to other sources. The book could have been twice the length and elaborated on numerous subjects, but it was written in an academic context and probably served its purpose as is.With a little development, this could have been a fantastic resource. Maybe a second edition will improve on these issues, but it’s still worth a read if you have an interest in RPGs. I’ll keep it on my shelf as a reference.

Mostly useful of researchers, but expanded and written in a way for this ebook that someone looking for an introduction to the topic will also be able to get up to speed. In all the different RPG types, the history and range is well covered, with the core of the research focused on how players engage with the roles of RPGs.

Very insightful and helpful to my therapy practice.

This book is easy to read and understand. Sarah gets her point across in each chapter by introducing what she is about to talk about and then ends with a nice short summary on what she just wrote about. Role Playing is something i am not to entirely interested, in the physical realm, but she does touch base on the internet world and how MMO's have made a great impact on our culture.

Easy-to-read study on role-playing games. Contains useful theoretical content, in a manner that is digestible and considered. Pleasantly laid out, and relatable.