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Lajeunesse MA F2018.Pdf “It taught me to hate them all.”: Toxicity through DOTA 2’s Players, Systems, and Media Dispositive Marc Lajeunesse A Thesis In The Department Of Communication Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts (Media Studies) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada July 2018 ©Marc Lajeunesse, 2018 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Marc Lajeunesse Entitled: “It taught me to hate them all.”: Toxicity through DOTA 2’s Players, Systems, and Media Dispositive and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Media Studies) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: ______________________________________ Chair TBA ______________________________________ Examiner Fenwick McKelvey ______________________________________ Examiner Stefanie Duguay ______________________________________ Thesis Supervisor Mia Consalvo Approved by ____________________________________________________ Chair of Department or Graduate Program Director Dean, Date _______________________________________________ iii Abstract “It taught me to hate them all.”: Toxicity through DOTA 2’s Players, Systems, and Media Dispositive Marc Lajeunesse ‘Toxicity’ has become a pervasive term for describing and discussing online game communities, but exactly what constitutes toxicity remains loosely defined. This project seeks to uncover how toxicity is constructed and understood within a game community described from inside and out as toxic. After situating toxicity within prior academic literature on toxicity’s constitutive elements such as griefing, trolling, flaming and racism online, this project focuses on the DOTA 2 community. It examines how the game’s culture operates throughout what Mirko Tobias Schäfer referred to as the media dispositive, or the collection of sites and discourses that the community engages with that overlap with the in-game experience. Throughout the dispositive certain voices are sanctioned by the game’s company, Valve, while others are silenced by the affordances of the dispositive’s sites and game’s culture. The final section of this work explores the in-game experience through ethnographic, interview, and participant observation data, to uncover how players perceive toxicity in-game. This work finds that toxicity is in part reflective of and formed by the broader culture of the game as discovered through an analysis of the dispositive, but that players possess highly subjective ideas about what constitutes toxicity that they tend to universalize, which strengthens toxicity as a rhetorical rather than descriptive term. The impact of toxicity on players and community members is uneven as some players are put into conflict with others while others, particularly women, are erased from the game space and community discussions. In conclusion, this project finds that toxicity in DOTA 2 is constructed by overlapping cultural and mechanical elements and is as much about what players perceive to be toxic as it is about actual player behaviors. iv Dedication I dedicate this work to Larry, Katherine, Théo, Louisette, and Helen. Without your love, support, initiative, encouragement, generosity and wisdom I would never have had the chance to write this at all. Every opportunity I have going forward comes from all of you, and there isn’t a single day where I don’t appreciate that. I love you all very much and I am forever grateful for everything you’ve done and for everything you’ve helped me to be. Thank you. Everyday, always, thank you. Acknowledgements A lot of other people are also great and did a lot of work in order for this thing to get done. I’d like to thank… -Tanya Dean for being very rad for a very long time and always being incredibly supportive of this academic journey. -Mia Consalvo for all the advice, guidance, and opportunities throughout the past two years. -My thesis committee, Stefanie Duguay and Fenwick McKelvey. -The COMS department faculty and administration for their knowledge, dedication and support. -The Media Studies 2016-17 cohort for being a bunch of great colleagues and friends to learn with. -The whole MLab crew. Each of you turn what would ordinarily be an experience into an adventure. - And in no particular order, Caol, Ray, Megan, Juha, Kyoko, Stephen, Jay, Jake, Tsai, Iavana, Nancy, Cecily, Chris, Shiori, Riley, Aoife, Lorraine, Maki, Nate, Natsumi, Masako, Yusuke, Eugene, Hannah, Dana, Tebello, Caroline, Wes, Greg, Kirsten, Matt Pike, Kiley, Kazuki, Hiroe, Miyuh, Emmanuel, and Daniel. My life became unequivocally richer having spent time with all of you and I hope our paths cross again. -My brothers and sisters from the W. -Mom, Dad, and Kim. -Ryan Mitchell. -Big Fudge. v Table of Contents List of Images ............................................................................................................................................... vi Glossary of DOTA 2 Terms ......................................................................................................................... viii Introduction - The First Taste of Toxicity ...................................................................................................... 1 The History of DOTA 2 ............................................................................................................................... 2 Understanding a Match of DOTA 2 ........................................................................................................... 4 Exploring Toxicity in the Context of DOTA 2 ............................................................................................. 6 Chapter 1 - Developing a Toxicity Framework .............................................................................................. 8 The Pillars of Toxicity ................................................................................................................................ 9 Discriminatory Online Space and Game Culture..................................................................................... 15 Negotiating, Managing, and Suffering the Play Space ............................................................................ 21 Getting the Toxic Party Started ............................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2 - Toxicity and the DOTA 2 Media Dispositive ............................................................................. 31 The Media Dispositive ............................................................................................................................. 31 Reddit ...................................................................................................................................................... 32 Twitch.Tv ................................................................................................................................................. 33 YouTube .................................................................................................................................................. 34 OpenDota and DotaBuff ......................................................................................................................... 37 Other Games ........................................................................................................................................... 39 Games Journalism ................................................................................................................................... 40 Broader Media and Cultural Landscapes ................................................................................................ 42 Flowing Through the Dispositive in Three Phenomena .......................................................................... 43 Sir Action Slacks and ‘Punta Madre’ ....................................................................................................... 44 “James is an Ass” and the Legitimization of the DOTA 2 Subreddit ....................................................... 48 The Meta Game, New Players, and Torte De Lini ................................................................................... 51 What the DOTA 2 Media Dispositive Means for Toxicity ........................................................................ 57 Chapter 3 – DOTA 2 Systems, Experiences, and Player Interpretations of Toxicity ................................... 59 FragileShep Frolics into the Toxic Swamp ............................................................................................... 60 FetaKing and Me, a Buddy Tragicomedy ................................................................................................ 69 Toxicity from the Inside-Out ................................................................................................................... 80 The Toxic Swamp in Review .................................................................................................................... 87 Conclusion - The End is Just a Toxic Beginning ........................................................................................... 89 Limitations .............................................................................................................................................. 92 Towards the Toxic Future ......................................................................................................................
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