Digital game is an open symbolic field and playing digital game is a creative signifying practice. By focusing on the self-presentation and emotional narrative of gamer who is the main
action subject of meaning construction in the game world and through semiotic analysis and semi- structured interviews, it is suggested that the gamer trend to establish the “transitional self” by avatar identification and objectification as well as construct the interactive subjectivity of “social self ” by interactive action and meaning sharing. Furthermore, they can shape collective identity and “cultural self ”by community symbol co-creation and interaction rituals and form a “right-subjectivity” to resist digital capitalism in the real-time or indirect symbolic struggle and feedback. By using and creating symbols, gamers not only promote the development of the game world, but also construct and evolve their self-concepts , social relations, and group identity.
LI Junxin.
The Subjectivity Construction of Digital Gamer in Symbolic Interactionism. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2024, 46(7): 95-113