How do role-playing games foster parasocial identification? A dual-pathway analysis of player reviews

This study investigates parasocial identification (PSID) within the interactive context of the globally successful role-playing game Genshin Impact. Moving beyond traditional theories of character and avatar identification, this study argues that player identification in contemporary video games has shifted towards a negotiated process. Specifically, players treat virtual characters as interactive ‘partners’ and co-construct identity-related meanings with them. This identity negotiation process is conceptualised as PSID. To analyse this process, the study derives a dual-pathway analytical framework from character and avatar identification: a deductive, character-driven path and an inductive, self-driven path. Given the virtual setting, parasocial interaction and parasocial relationship are integrated into the dual-pathway analytical framework to capture the relational dynamics between players and virtual characters. Through LDA topic modelling and VADER sentiment analysis of 58,801 U.S. player reviews, interpreted through the MDA framework and triangulated against the walkthrough method, this study identifies four key influencing factors, representation, media rituals, technology, and capital, that may reinforce, or constrain PSID. Based on these findings, this study proposes TC-MDA, an extension of MDA that incorporates technology and capital. Together, PSID and TC-MDA offer a useful analytical framework for future research on role-playing games and identity-related discourse.