A Serious Study of Fun: an Investigation of Narrative and Role-playing Activities in Online Communication Environments

A Serious Study of Fun. Why do serious people become more playful when they are interviewed by a teddy-bear? Do some people have a stronger tendency towards engaging with narrative than others? If so can this be measured, and can it be used to predict how an individual might respond to an experience? This study investigates particular aspects of role-playing and narrative activities in online communicationenvironments, looking particularly at individual predispositions, different communicationenvironments, and individual responses to activities that encourage a level of playful engagement. It fits broadly into the engagement agenda, and in particularencompasses narrative and game-like activity which are of interest to many areas of the telecommunicationsand computer games industries.