A Thesis entitled Usage of Emotes and Emoticons in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game by Leanna Marie Diaz Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in English with Concentration in ESL _________________________________________ Dr. Douglas W. Coleman, Committee Chair _________________________________________ Dr. Anthony Edgington, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Kasumi Yamazaki, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo August 2018 Copyright 2018, Leanna Marie Diaz This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of Usage of Emotes and Emoticons in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game by Leanna Diaz Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in English with Concentration in ESL The University of Toledo August 2018 When playing a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), methods of communication are more restricted in comparison to real life. Although methods of communicating through voice chat are commonly provided or are readily available through third party software, players of MMORPGs are often faced with the inability to express real-life body language, facial expressions and other non-verbal cues. To compensate for this, players are offered a variety of in-game emotes which allows them to be able to make their in-game character perform predetermined actions such as dancing or hugging. A string of text may also narrate the action. In other words, it is possible to have a player’s character actually hug another character within the game. In addition, players may communicate through text, either privately or publicly, and are free to use text-based emoticons. This study examines the usage of these emotes and text- based emoticons in the MMORPG Final Fantasy® XIV, how players apply these in-game communication methods to express themselves and what factors determine how and why a player chooses to communicate with other players. iii I would not be where I am today if not for the passion shown to me by the educators at the University of Toledo. To Kristi Pawlak, who instilled within me a confidence to pursue my love for the Japanese language and culture; to Dr. Hara and Dr. Yamazaki, for always supporting me in my endeavors and giving me so many wonderful opportunities; to Dr. Reichelt who taught me the foundations of linguistics and treated the TAs like her children; to Dr. Coleman and Dr. Edgington, who always went above and beyond their expected duties: from the bottom of my heart, thank you. To my friends, who listened to me and supported me outside of my educational endeavors, who always had my back: thank you. I hope you all know how much you mean to me. LeeAnn, Kristen, Lindsay and Stephen, you helped me get through life and I will always be grateful for that. There are no words that could express my gratitude adequately. Table of Contents Abstract iii Table of Contents v List of Tables vii List of Figures ix List of Abbreviations x I. Literature Review 1 A. Introduction 1 B. Structural Framework of Communication 3 C. Impact of Roles and Discourse Communities 9 D. Perceived Prestige 14 E. Neonateness 15 F. Task-based vs Social-based 16 II. Methodology 19 A. Methodology Roadmap 19 B. Participants 19 C. Apparatus and Materials 25 a. Online questionnaire 25 b. Text-based interview 24 c. Participant observation 25 D. Procedure 28 III. Results and Discussion 31 A. Results and Discussion 31 v B. Results and Discussion Roadmap 31 C. Online Questionnaire Results 31 a. Geography 31 b. Player characters 32 c. Sex and gender 36 d. Roles 39 e. In-game investment 42 D. In-game Text-based Interview Results 44 E. Participant Observation Results 47 F. Limitations and Future Research 52 G. Conclusion 52 References 55 Appendices A. Online Questionnaire Questions 56 B. Semi-Structured Interview Questions 63 C. Measurement of Neonateness 64 D. Final Fantasy XIV Experience 70 a. Character Creation 70 b. Roles 77 c. Communities 78 d. Terms and Mechanics 79 vi List of Tables Table 1 Comparisons between HSL terminology and examples of their counterparts within the context of Final Fantasy® XIV.........................................................4 Table 2 List of participants based on their main data center. ......................................19 Table 3 List of participants, broken down by where they live. ....................................20 Table 4 Attributes of the players organized by their real life sex and their real life gender. ..............................................................................................................21 Table 5 List of participants, broken down by age. ........................................................21 Table 6 List of communication channels, their purpose and who can see them. .........27 Table 7 Participant data separated by race and clan. ...................................................32 Table 8 Ranking of races based on neonateness using criteria from Baudouin, and Tiberghien (2004). ...........................................................................................34 Table 9 List of races and their associated perceived frequency of emotes and emoticons. ........................................................................................................35 Table 10 List of participant’s in-game characters, broken down by “gender” as described by Final Fantasy® XIV. .................................................................36 Table 11 List of key questions and responses sorted by player’s real life sex. .............38 Table 12 List of roles and the number of participants who play that role as a main role. ..................................................................................................................40 Table 13 In-game race and in-game gender of interview participants. ...........................45 Table 14 List of the rate of recorded shorthands, emotes and emoticons. <P> stands as a substitute for the player’s name. ..............................................................50 Table 15 Breakdown of occurrences of shorthands, emotes and emoticons by race. ....51 vii Table 16 Ranking of races based on the rate of shorthands, emote and emoticon usage. ...............................................................................................................51 viii List of Figures Figure 1 The “social” menu expanded in-game. .............................................................7 Figure 2 The “emotes” menu expanded in-game. ...........................................................7 Figure 3 The result of either clicking the “blush” emote icon or typing “/blush” into the chat box with no target selected. .................................................................9 Figure 4 Example of a symmetrical female face from Baudouin and Tiberghien (2004). .............................................................................................................17 Figure 5 The default female appearances of the six available races a player may choose from when creating a character in Final Fantasy® XIV. ....................18 Figure 6 A sample from a log file. ................................................................................28 Figure 7 Distribution of the player’s main character race, distributed by sex and gender. .............................................................................................................37 Figure 8 The distribution of roles by sex and gender. ...................................................42 Figure 9 Sample from a log of greeting an in-game interview participant. ..................45 Figure 10 Sample of a participant not responding with o/ ...............................................46 Figure 11 Interaction between party members inside of a dungeon. ...............................48 . ix List of Abbreviations DPS ............................Damage Per Second FFXIV ........................Final Fantasy® XIV MMO..........................Massively Multiplayer Online (Game) MMORPG ..................Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game RPG .......................... Role-Playing Game x Chapter One Literature Review Introduction Two individuals stand side-by-side after completing an arduous task. The one on the left wears mismatched plated armor and has brightly colored hair while the one on the right wears a matching set of armor and sports a more realistic hairstyle. In celebration of completing their task, the mismatched individual dances in place. It’s a dance they learned as a member of their clan. The other individual also dances, choosing instead to perform a dance they learned in their travels, ending the dance by jumping in circles. Then, moments later, the mismatched individual snatches the item those two and six others had journeyed for, laughs, and disappears out of sight. The matching individual says nothing and disappears shortly after. In reality, the above scenario is what might happen after a group of eight players from various parts of the world join together to fell an enemy in a dungeon of a video game. The player whose character is wearing brightly colored clothes represents the player’s newness to the game; they do not have all the