This multi-phased study is a a part of my work as Doctoral Researcher at Centre of Excellency in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University.

An experimental, explorative and experiential study of emotions when larping.

How can we explore new understandings of sexual emotions with an interdisciplinary and interactive approach through facilitated role-playing experiences?

This multi-phase study addresses make-believe sex in role-playing games, and about how playing sexual arousal and being in character are experienced. Playing on sexuality has important implications, not only for recreational purposes, but for sexual health.

The article will be a part of my doctoral research which investigate how erotic role-play may have beneficial effects for the gaming experience, for education of sexologist, and for the development of the players’ sexuality. There are very few examples of sexology included as a main part of a game study.

Background

The object of the study is new and understudied: In subcultures outside the bedroom, adults play in fictional worlds to be aroused, while pretending to be someone else. Through larp (live action role-play) players are living in fictional worlds for hours or days at a time, embodying a character. These players may engage in erotic and amorous interaction, in character, in different ways (Stenros 2013).

There is a trend in Nordic larp to focus on designing games with erotic themes, with more larpers willing to admit interest in sexual themes and create systems around it (preliminary findings, Grasmo 2021). This emerging culture of erotic larp in the Nordics has not been addressed in research. These larps provide an opportunity to explore the knowledge of sexual arousal. Similar kind of embodied, and sometimes transgressive, erotic role-play are also found in BDSM role-play (erotic power play) (Harviainen & Sihvonen 2019). To research the complexity of sexual emotions, this study will use immersive role-playing experiences (two workshops) to investigate sexual arousal in a completely new way, in the intersection of game studies and sexology.

Donald Mosher (1980) describes three forms of human sexual involvement: one of these he calls “sexual role enactment” or role-play. Immersion into a character, with the intense attention in a designed game (Järvelä 2019), can be a way of dealing with our multiple selves (Bowman 2016/2018) or roles.  We enter into another world of “make-believe”, into the magic circle (Stenros 2012).  While sexual role-playing has been addressed in Nordic larp (Montola & Stenros 2010) for decennials (Brown & Schrier 2018), “sex in games”-studies has been named “awkward” and immature (Harviainen, Brown & Suominen, 2016), and are often limited to online games. Larps use representational techniques for playing out sexual scenes and arousal (Grasmo 1998, Stenros 2013, Grasmo 2019, 2021).

The sexology field is moving away from diagnosis and sexual dysfunction towards pleasure and interactions (Ford & Coleman et al 2019). Many researchers and clinicians are asking for a more interactive focus in the research on pleasure (Medico, 2019, Jansen 2019). Sexual arousal is a complex phenomena that this study will regard as an emotion, consisting of three subcomponents: feelings, expressions, and physiological states (Järvelä et al 2016).

The main research question is: How do players experience sexual arousal in embodied erotic role-play? Subquestions are: What is sexual arousal for the Character compared to the Player?

Is it possible to get added understanding of sexual emotions in role-play, through filming and psychophysiological data? How will the data (from video and biosignals) support the players stories, and how will they give contradictory information? We are also interested in how role-playing with sexual content may give pain or gain outside of the magic circle (Stenros & Bowman 2018), whether role-play can give empathy with other sexualities and identities, or transform the players in other ways?

Methods

To explore the whole specter of emotion, the study will be cross-methodical, combining experiential thematic analysis of players stories of Nordic erotic larping (anonymous text gathered online), content analysis of facilitated role-play experience/workshop (video footage and psychophysiological measuring) and case focused (erotic scenes) interviews in small-groups (2-4 respondents) adjacent to the erotic role-play experiences.

Data about the feelings will be collected through player stories and player interviews. Data about expressions from video footage and player interviews. Data about physical states: Video footage and bio-signals from wear-able bracelets.

The main part of this explorative research is the facilitated role-play experiences with a purposive sample of experienced Nordic erotic larpers and BDSMers. To make sure there is a wide sample, the reqruitment will both happen as part of the story-gathering (mark if they want to be a part of it) and through organisations and networks. To make sure the group feels safe, to have time to prepare together, run three different role-play scenarios, and conduct interviews inbetween, we need three days gathered at the same place (hence the travel costs). Workshop A will have three larp designers who run their own larps, and 15 erotic larpers. Workshop B will have two group-role-play facilitators and 10 BDSMers.

The facilitated workshop experiences will be conducted in collaboration with experienced game scholars in two very different fields: Simo Järvelä is a cognitive scientist and a gamification researcher (Tampere University) currently studying simulation training of emotion skills and affective synchronicity. He has specialized in using psychophysiological methods to study experiences in roleplaying games.  Professor in Human-Technology-Interface Annika Waern is an academic in research-through-design (Uppsala University), who has used video in her research of proximity.

In the following cross-data analysis about sexual emotions and play, we are interested in exploring how the experience of sexual arousal is described, expressed and eventually results in physically altered states. Especially where the different social frames overlap: on the brink of the magic circle between characters and players, between power play and shared pleasure, between an erotic narrative and experiencing bodily reactions and between the normative and the taboo for the players. It will also address critiques of playing intensely on sexuality: The blurring of the magic circle, the safety perspectives and investigate possible negative, and/or positive, out-of-game effects. 

Due to the sensitive nature of the research topic, ethical reflection, respectful treatment of
informants, and secure handling of research material are given particular consideration. My insider position can be useful in ethnographic, qualitative methods, but I will need to design my interviews and observations carefully. I believe my close connection with the communities from which I aim to collect data will give me an exceptionally access to do recruitment and dive deeply into the personal experiences of participants, but the selection and design will have to address the ethical challenges. RtD will provide distance to the respondents, as well as a useful way to contribute with my knowledge.

 EXPECTED RESULTS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO EARLIER RESEARCH

The aim of this dissertation is to explain the combined processes of Sexual arousal and Immersion in Embodied Erotic Role-playing Games, to position “role-playing sex” both in the field of game studies and the field of sexual science and to discuss out-of-game effects.

Key references

Bowman, Sarah Lynne (2018) Immersion and Shared Imagination in Role-Playing Games. Chapter 22 in Role-playing Game Studies A Transmedia Approach. José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding (eds). Routledgde

Ford, J.  with E. Corona Vargas, I. Finotelli Jr., J. D. Fortenberry, E. Kismödi, A. Philpott, E Rubio-Aurioles & Eli Coleman (2019) Why Pleasure Matters: Its Global Relevance for Sexual Health, Sexual Rights and Wellbeing, International Journal of Sexual Health, 31:3, 217-230.

Grasmo, Hanne (2019). Arousal in Character. Embodied Erotic Role-play in larp and bdsm. Poster presented at WAS Mexico.

– (1998) “Levende rollespill –LAIV” 1998. Gyldendal Fakta, Oslo. ISBN 82-05-25171

Harviainen,  J. Tuomas: (2019) with Tania Sihvonen: My Games are… “Unconventional” – A Literary Cross-examination of Game and BDSM Studies Paper presented at 3^rd Sexual Conference: Play, Turku

– (2016) with Brown, Ashley M.L. & Suominen, Jaakkoo: “Three Waves of Awkwardness: A Meta- Analysis of Sex in Game Studies.” Game and Culture Volume: 13 issue: 6, p 605- 623. (Sage Journalis); September 1, 2018.

Jansen, Eric (2019) “From individuals to dyads and beyond: Paradigm Shifts in the study of Desire, Arousal, and Satisfaction”, Presentation at WAS 19:

Järvelä, Simo (2019), “How real is Larp?” in Koljonen, Stenros, Grove, Skjønnsfjell & Nilsen (editors) “Larp Design”, Bifrost, Copenhagen. ISBN: 978-87-971140-0-1

Medico Denise (2019): “Orientation toward Eroticism: A critically based proposition for sex therapists (WAS Lecture 11, Mexico City 14.10.2019.

Stenros, Jaakko (2014) In Defence of a Magic Circle: The Social, Mental and Cultural Boundaries of Play, in Proceedings from DIGRA  DOI:10.26503/todigra.v1i2.10

– (2013): “Amorous Bodies in Play. Sexuality in Nordic Live Action Role-Playing Games” Grensfurthnerm, Johannes, Friesnger, Günther & Fabry. Daniels (eds): Arse Elektronika Anthology #4 (2013) ISBN-10: 3902796162

Mosher, Donald L (1980/ online published 2001) Three dimensions of depth of involvement in human sexual response. In The Journal of Sex Research volume 16, 1980, p 1-42.

Paasonen, Susanna (2017) Many splendor things: Sexuality, Playfulness and Play in Sexualities. Stenroos, Jaakko (2010) with Montola, Markus: Essay: The Paradox of Nordic Larp Culture p 12 in “Nordic Larp”

-(2018) with Tanja Sihvonen: Queering Games, Play and Culture through transgressive role-playing games. in Transgressions in games and play – Kristine Jørgensen (ed)

-(2018) with Sarah Lynne Bowman: Transgressive Role-Play, chapter 24 in Role-playing Game Studies. A Transmedia Approach. José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding (eds). Routledgde

Waern, Annika (2011) “I’m in love with someone who doesn’t exist!” Bleed in the context of a computer game. Journal of gaming and virtual worlds