Digital playmerchant: Exploring how gamers navigate hybrid identity in transaction communities

Although trading practices in contemporary games are deeply intertwined with gameplay, how gamers reconcile their hybrid identities as both game participants and trading actors remains underexplored. This study examines how such a hybrid gamer identity emerges through participation in a gamer-created trading community. We focus on a unique game community where gaming value and transactional functions converge: the “Jiao Ba” community within the popular multiplayer game Identity V . Drawing on digital ethnography and in-depth interviews, we identify a composite identity formed through the intertwining of gameplay and trading. We term this identity the digital playmerchant —an individual who simultaneously embodies “player” attributes (e.g., skill mastery, emotional investment in gameplay, and community belonging) and “merchant” characteristics (e.g., profit-seeking, market awareness, and transactional credibility). By introducing the digital playmerchant , this study shows how contemporary gamer identities are shaped through the blurring of play and commerce.