Online Game-Self-identity And Group-identity In The Virtual Space

Self-identity is the core issue of the youth in the growing process.Today’s society shape the typical characters as the mainstream value, for they wantto give a unified role expectation to the youth. However, when the youth do notreach the “role expectation” of their schools, parents or bosses, they will feel identityanxiety or identity crisis in the real world. Online game’s virtuality and anonymityprovide a stage for the youth to release pressure and show the real side of themselves.Mainstream society in the real world causes the youth to revolt and conflict, thiskind of phenomenon forms the youth subculture with characteristic of contemporary.Unlike the past, the youth’s subculture in the online game’s era does not have fierceconflict with the mainstream value and the parent culture. Instead， people use ironyand Kuso (from Japanese) to change the fate of being content with the status quo,and this phenomenon has become a unique scenery in the cyberspace. The youthseek for the control and discourse power in the online game, and they form groupsand share the same feelings with solitary people like themselves. Besides, they canobtain interaction, respect, identity and self-actualization from this “cyber carnival”.In this paper, I will try to use the Psychoanalysis and Social Psychology to analysethe internal structure of the online game. From the standpoint of the youth, Iresearched the game players’ seeking of self-identity and group-identity in the virtualgame. From the game players’ perspective, taking a detailed analysis ofInterpersonal communication and explaining the cultural phenomenon in terms ofcultural interaction, is the meaning of writing this essay.