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Symbolic Severgence Theory

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Zanin, Hoelscher, and Kramer (2016) utilized a unique methodological framework to examine a life enrichment group or a non-controlling volunteer organization to better understand symbolic convergence theory. Symbolic convergence theory focuses on dramatic messages that result in rhetorical visions. Messages that are reiterated emerge as a fantasy chain. Fantasy chains that continue shape fantasy themes; similar fantasy themes shape fantasy types. Fantasy types that are created develop a rhetorical vision for the group that allows the members to have a broader sense of the purpose and direction of the group. The researchers posited three questions in regards to what would chain, what would contribute or inhibit, and how tensions could change …show more content…

The author did not operate in a traditional theoretical framework, but rather operated under the assumptions that fantasy games meet real world interaction needs and that the best fantasy games are role-playing games. The literature review section deals more with justifying the need of studying these types of games than it does on explaining any theoretical background or history. The author talks about the differences between individuals that tend to play these games and the general population in an attempt to suggest that need effects will be more prevalent in this study. The author examined one group that played this game over a three-year campaign. The study included nine participants of whom the age ranged from 15-28 and eight self-identified as White with one identifying as Asian. There was a mixture of sexual orientations as five participants identified as straight and four as gay. In the conclusion, the author states that two participants were married, two were dating, and the others were family members. The author utilized fantasy theme analysis to examine two sets of archived documents. One was posts in the groups Facebook page and the other was the adventure log that the dungeon master kept as a record of what happened in the game. The researcher simply asked what themes would emerge in this setting as the sole research question. The

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