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Lars-Erik Berg
Aspects of Identification in Computer Gaming
Affiliation: University College of Skövde
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Keywords: action, computer games, anticipatory identification, identity, meaning, psychology
Abstract:
This article relates computer gaming to the social psychology of identity, focusing the notion that identity
construction has a reflected character not only in virtual reality but also in real life. This
gives a tight correspondence between the two, although the screen construction of identity goes on
in greater independence of real other persons. Gaming has the trait that it contracts several
events at one point in space and time. This provides for two extremes of identification: functional
and existential identification, which are tightly coupled in gaming, but also for the element of
meaning creation in gaming, where the step from concrete action to mental act is short, as well as
for the processes of anticipatory identification that are found in it. This gives a high emotional
intensity to it. The analysis is based on a theoretical sketch of stages in the act, building on
the work of G. H. Mead.
The article may be referenced as
Berg, Lars-Erik.
“Aspects of Identification in Computer Gaming.”
Human IT
9.3 (2008):
37–61. <http://www.hb.se/bhs/ith/3-9/leb.pdf>
