research-article

The player's parasocial interaction with digital entities

Author:

Katrine KavliAuthors Info & Claims

MindTrek '12: Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference

Pages 83 - 89

https://doi.org/10.1145/2393132.2393150

Published: 03 October 2012 Publication History

Abstract

This paper looks into how modern digital game theory uses the theory of parasocial interaction and parasocial relationships to describe the relationship between the player and digital entities such as bots, the avatar, the player character and other players' digital representations. First, the original definition of parasocial interaction by Horton and Wohl from 1956 will be defined and compared to the various uses of the theory in the field of digital games theories. In the following analysis it will be established that it is possible to enter into a parasocial relationship with many different constructs of digital entities, if they live up to the requirements for a constructed persona as established by Horton and Wohl. However, parasocial interaction in relation to the player's own digital representation might only be experienced in a digital game context when the player experiences himself as being separate from the character of the avatar.

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Cited By

Söğütlüler T(2025)A Quantitative Research on Video Streaming Series and Audiences' Forms of Parasocial InteractionErciyes İletişim Dergisi10.17680/erciyesiletisim.152884612:1(1-27)Online publication date: 30-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.17680/erciyesiletisim.1528846
Gao HGuo RYou Q(2024)Parasocial Interactions in Otome Games: Emotional Engagement and Parasocial Intimacy Among Chinese Female PlayersMedia and Communication10.17645/mac.866213Online publication date: 19-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8662
Li E(2024)The effect of game playability on avatar identification for mobile role-playing gamesUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-024-01161-8Online publication date: 9-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-024-01161-8
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The player's parasocial interaction with digital entities

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cover image ACM Other conferences

MindTrek '12: Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference

October 2012

278 pages

ISBN:9781450316378

DOI:10.1145/2393132

Conference Chair:
Artur Lugmayr
Tampere University of Technology, Finland

Copyright © 2012 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 03 October 2012

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AcademicMindTrek '12

AcademicMindTrek '12: International Conference on Media of the Future

October 3 - 5, 2012

Tampere, Finland

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MindTrek '12 Paper Acceptance Rate 19 of 43 submissions, 44%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 110 of 207 submissions, 53%

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Cited By

Söğütlüler T(2025)A Quantitative Research on Video Streaming Series and Audiences' Forms of Parasocial InteractionErciyes İletişim Dergisi10.17680/erciyesiletisim.152884612:1(1-27)Online publication date: 30-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.17680/erciyesiletisim.1528846
Gao HGuo RYou Q(2024)Parasocial Interactions in Otome Games: Emotional Engagement and Parasocial Intimacy Among Chinese Female PlayersMedia and Communication10.17645/mac.866213Online publication date: 19-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8662
Li E(2024)The effect of game playability on avatar identification for mobile role-playing gamesUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-024-01161-8Online publication date: 9-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-024-01161-8
Elvery G(2024)Parasocial Phenomena in Video GamesEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_463(1327-1332)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_463
Que Y(2023)Love in Imagination: A Comparative Analysis Between Chinese K-pop Fans and Esports Fans Regarding Their Parasocial Interaction and Relationship Towards the Virtual Idol Group K/DAEsports in the Asia-Pacific10.1007/978-981-99-3796-7_6(115-136)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3796-7_6
Elvery G(2022) Undertale’s Loveable Monsters: Investigating Parasocial Relationships with Non-Player Characters Games and Culture10.1177/1555412022110546418:4(475-497)Online publication date: 29-May-2022
https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120221105464
Possler DCarnol NKlimmt CWeber-Hoffmann IRaney A(2022)A Matter of Closeness: Player-Avatar Relationships as Degree of Including Avatars in the SelfEntertainment Computing – ICEC 202210.1007/978-3-031-20212-4_14(171-182)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20212-4_14
Elvery G(2021)Parasocial Phenomena in Video GamesEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_463-1(1-6)Online publication date: 23-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_463-1
Tyack AWyeth PBrereton M(2017)Exploring relatedness in single-player video game playProceedings of the 29th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/3152771.3156149(422-427)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3152771.3156149
Heron MBelford P(2014)‘It’s only a game’ — ethics, empathy and identification in game morality systemsThe Computer Games Journal10.1007/BF033923563:1(34-53)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392356

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