近年来，我国电子竞技在整体向好发展的政策环境和舆论氛围中快速发展。作为电竞领域的核心群体，职业选手既享受着电子竞技的发展红利，亦面临着来自社会公众的认知偏差。与此同时，国内外学界对电竞职业选手的既有研究成果多是以外部视角呈现此一群体的职业生涯和媒介形象，而鲜有从内部视角解读其在从业过程中对自我身份认同的建构。 本研究以建构型扎根理论作为方法论指导，选取我国电竞职业选手作为访谈对象，依循数据收集和数据分析迭代进行直至理论饱和的基本要求，剖析了电竞职业选手对自我身份认同建构的影响因素及其意义的认知和理解，进而据此呈现了电竞职业选手自我身份认同的建构路径。 研究发现：1）从历时性视角出发，电竞职业选手对自我身份认同的建构经历了早期过渡、核心发展、拓展延伸和消退重构四个发展阶段，并在此过程中形塑了游戏玩家身份、职业选手身份和公众人物身份三类具有典型意义的身份认同。2）从共时性视角深入，自我身份认同的建构过程受到“外部环境感知”和“内部要素释义”两个核心类属的影响。前者作为客观影响因素，需经由电竞职业选手的识别、理解和赋意，进而产生影响。后者作为主观影响因素，根据电竞职业选手所处发展阶段的不同而表现出多样性和流动性特征。 研究认为，电竞职业选手对自我身份认同的建构实质上是个体通过与外部环境因素的横向互动、推动内部身份要素纵向发展的流动过程。“社会公众态度”“电竞从业生态”和“关键他者意见”三类外部环境因素既限制、又促进了自我身份认同的建构过程，“电竞热爱”和“竞技能力”两个内部身份要素的阶段性变化更成为串联电竞职业选手自我身份认同建构的关键线索。此外，部分研究结果亦在实践层面为电子竞技的传播、职业选手的发展提供了启示和建议。
Professional eSports players are the main stakeholders in the rapid burgeoning eSports industry, which has enjoyed remarkable development in China in recent years. Despite a great number of current studies that focus on the careers and media images of professional eSports players, there is limited investigation and understanding of their self-identity construction. Drawing on the constructivist grounded theory, this study aims to elucidate the influential factors of self-identity construction of Chinese professional eSports players and the ways in which their interpretations of these factors work, through interrogating qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews with eight players. The research findings include: 1) from the diachronic perspective, the construction of self-identity of Chinese professional eSports players consists of four stages, i.e., the early-transitional stage, the core-developmental stage, the stretching stage, and the slumping stage. Through these four stages, Chinese professional eSports players construct three typical identities, i.e., a hardcore gamer, a professional player, and a public figure. 2) from the synchronic perspective, the influential factors of the self-identity construction could be classified into ‘the perception of extrinsic environments’ and ‘the interpretation of intrinsic elements’. The former involves external factors that are identified and interpreted by Chinese professional eSports players, while the latter embraces internal factors that vary from one stage to another. It is argued that the self-identity of Chinese professional eSports players is constructed through the interaction between actors and extrinsic environments and subsequently reinforce their interpretation of identity characteristics. Specifically speaking, ‘the public opinions’, ‘the eSports domain’ and ‘the attitude of key persons’ both constrain and facilitate the self-identity construction. Besides, the variation of ‘passions for eSports’ and ‘competitive ability’ becomes two main indications for exploring the aforementioned construction. This study also provides suggestions for improving the development of eSports and professional eSports players in China.
