Emotional Energy And Cultural Capital:Study On Interactive Ritual Chain In Play-killing Game Groups

In recent years,script-killing games have increasingly become a new way for young people to socialize casually,and the game world constructed by them provides a third space for players to speak freely.Script killing not only links the sensory,action,language communication and thinking between players in the game,but also promotes the intersection and coupling between people of different occupations,ages and experiences in life.This study focuses on the internal groups of play-killing players,and explores how interactive rituals are constructed in play-killing games and how emotional and social relationships between play-killing players are formed and deepened on the basis of Collins’ interactive ritual chain theory.During the study,20 players with more than one year’s experience in script-killing games were selected to conduct in-depth interviews in a semi-structured way to explore their social motivation,emotional engagement,interaction process,and emotional experience and benefits from the group.It is found that the composition elements of the interactive ritual of script killing are mainly composed of four aspects: the presence of multiple people,the limitation of game participation,the deepening of common concern,and the real-time sharing of feelings.At the same time,play-killing game members in the same situation need to pay emotional energy and cultural capital as the cost of investment in the interaction ceremony within the group,the group will interact selectively according to the status of members,members with high emotional energy will choose to interact with group members with the same level of emotional energy,in order to form the maximum return of emotional energy.In the long run,the transformation of short-term emotional energy brought by an encounter into long-term stable emotional energy depends on the sense of trust given by group members,the sense of belonging and the frequency of stable activity organization within the group.As the ritual becomes more stable,the internal symbols that distinguish the group from other groups will be extended to achieve the purpose of strengthening the collective presence and emotional connection.In addition,interactive rituals in play-kill games are not always successful,and the absence of the components of interactive rituals and the lack of identity within the group can lead to the loss of individual emotional energy and further lead to the failure of interactive rituals.From the perspective of the internal interaction of the script killing group,although the script killing game is born in a small minority and has strong cohesion,resulting in the script killing game may only stay in the circle of communication that excludes novices and external groups,the study of script killing game is still an important form to explore the spiritual world of the minority group.