Conversing in massive multiplayer online (MMO) games: a discourse analysis of chat interactions in World of Warcraft and League of Legends

Abstract

More and more people are becoming interested in videogames not only in terms of leisure, but also because of their research potential. Videogames are being used as test sites for acquiring social, linguistic, psychological, and other types of data from millions of players every day. The present study aims at comparing the discourses of chat interactions of two largest gaming communities of World of Warcraft and League of Legends. The study employs mixed-method approach to data collection: observations and questionnaires. Gee’s discourse analysis toolkit is used as a research method to process data acquired through observations (screenshots of chat logs) to elicit what social activities are performed with the help of the language used in the MMO discourses of two games. The findings of the present study are in line with the previous research on videogames as “third places”, in that the interactions found within the analyzed games reflect specific social activities found outside of game worlds with the producers of the interactions manifesting multiple social identities simultaneously.