Vučković, Tanja: "ROLE PLAYING GAMES (RPG) SUBCULTURE" (pdf)
Slightly revised version of the article published in Croatian in Students' Journal for Humanities Diskrepancija, Vol. 4 (7/8), Zagreb: prosinac 2003, 31-42
ABSTRACT:
The author attempts to give a short introduction to the role-playing games (RPG) subculture, which she claims is a specific subculture, in many aspects different from what is usually dubbed subculture. First, she presents the sociological development of the concept "subculture" followed by an attempt to give a working definition of "subculture". Then she gives a short description of the emergence of the RPG and the five types of the RPG: tabletop RPG, computer RPG, Multiple-User Dungeons/Dimensions (MUD), Live-Action Role-Playing (LARP) and Trading Card Games (TCG). In the second part of the paper she uses Phil Cohen’s classification of four subsystems of subculture lifestyles (dress, music, argot, ritual) and his concept of "territoriality" in order to examine subcultural characteristics of the RPG community. Finally, she discusses the subcultural actors.
Key words: subculture, role-playing games, dress, music, argot, ritual, territoriality, subcultural actors