Grammars of Gaming

Home , Bound and free morphemes, Kill stealing, Leeroy Jenkins, Loot box

Lea Kropfitsch

Grammars of Gaming

A Linguistic Inquiry into the Language and Communicative Practice of Online Multiplayer Video Games

DIPLOMA THESIS

submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Magistra der Philosophie

Programme: Teacher Training Programme Subject: English Subject: History, Social Studies and Political Education

Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt

Evaluator Mag. Dr. Nikola Dobric, M.A. Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik

Klagenfurt, April 2018

Affidavit

I hereby declare in lieu of an oath that

- the submitted academic thesis is entirely my own work and that no auxiliary materials have been used other than those indicated, - I have fully disclosed all assistance received from third parties during the process of writing the thesis, including any significant advice from supervisors, - any contents taken from the works of third parties or my own works that have been included either literally or in spirit have been appropriately marked and the respective source of the information has been clearly identified with precise bibliographical references (e.g. in footnotes), - to date, I have not submitted this thesis to an examining authority either in Austria or abroad and that - when passing on copies of the academic thesis (e.g. in bound, printed or digital form), I will ensure that each copy is fully consistent with the submitted digital version.

I understand that the digital version of the academic thesis submitted will be used for the purpose of conducting a plagiarism assessment.

I am aware that a declaration contrary to the facts will have legal consequences.

Kropfitsch Lea, e.h. Klagenfurt, 09.04.2018

*For reasons linked to data protection it is not necessary to sign the affidavit. Instead, the electronic version should include the abbreviation “e.h.” after the name

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2. FROM THE VERNACULAR TO THE SPECTACULAR: A theoretical introduction to language varieties and new media ...... 6 2.1 Language varieties ...... 6 2.1.1 The pluralization of English and the Internet ...... 9 2.2 Computer-mediated communication ...... 10 2.2.1 Characteristic features of CMC ...... 15 2.3 Gaming jargon ...... 18

3 WORLD OF WORDCRAFT: Word-formation processes in gaming jargon 26 3.1 Compounds ...... 29 3.2 Affixation ...... 31 3.2.1 Prefixes ...... 32 3.2.2 Suffixes ...... 33 3.3 Conversion ...... 36 3.4 Abbreviations ...... 38 3.4.1 Clippings ...... 39 3.4.2 Acronyms and initialisms ...... 40 3.4.3 Blends ...... 42 3.5 Loans and neologisms ...... 43

4 METAMORPHOSIS OF MEANINGS: Semantic shifting and metaphoric expression in gaming discourse ...... 49 4.1 Semantic shifts ...... 50 4.2 Linguistic metaphors in gaming communication ...... 52

5 CORPUS LUDORUM: Keywords and linguistic co-text across video game genres ...... 56 5.1 Case study 1: Keywords and collocations in MMORPGs ...... 58 5.2 Case study 2: Keywords and collocations in MOBAs ...... 62

5.3 Case study 3: Keywords and collocations in FPS ...... 65 5.4 Commonalities and particularities across genres ...... 67 5.5 Game developers’ language in patch notes ...... 69 5.6 “Player” vs “Gamer”: Self-referencing and group identity in games ...... 71

6 CONTEXTUALIZING COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICE: Pragmatic and grammatical features of in-game discourse ...... 74 6.1 The pragmatic grammar of gaming ...... 76 6.2 Deixis and contextual information ...... 78 6.3 Conceptions of appropriateness ...... 78 6.3.1 Flaming ...... 80

7 APPLICATION OF ANGLICISMS: English gaming terminology in non- Anglophone spheres ...... 83

8 CONCLUSION ...... 88

APPENDIX: Gaming Glossary from A to Zerg ...... 93

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 109

iii

1. INTRODUCTION

Video games as the most intricate media existing in contemporary consumer culture represent a means to entertainment innumerable people have grown accustomed to in the past decades. With a continuously growing network of individuals connected through the Internet and technological devices of mass-communication, the community of people engaging in online multiplayer games in their recreational times is prospering. Provoked by the commercialization of video games and an ever-growing, essentially heterogeneous group of aficionados, players have made progressions in establishing a shared linguistic code expressing newly encountered activities and events in the virtual worlds.

When Wittgenstein (1921) declared that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world” (TLP 5.6), a world which he interpreted as the totality of concrete atomic facts, he could not have anticipated that a century after the publication of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, the limits of the world would be expanded to encompass worlds existing parallel to the factual, directed by unconventional truth conditions. These worlds are governed by principles that override our general understanding of the laws of nature, enabling traverse of time and space, from exploring the deep sea to orbiting distant planets. The realistically impossible is experienced in digital spheres where giant apes launch barrels at intruders, geometrical building blocks descend from the skies, and mounting mythical creatures or futuristic vehicles is no less ordinary than using hi-tech weapons or performing magic. The technologically generated realms are inhabited by real-life agents who navigate their physically enhanced digitalized self through spheres created in approximation to the actual world or science-fictional universes. Players of video games interact with the computer-mediated ecosphere by permanently interpreting and reacting to audiovisual inputs, translating their commands to in-game actions, and finally, communicating experiences and events to fellow explorers. Simultaneously, previously not yet encountered happenings and actions need to be lexicalized as foundations enabling mutual understanding and effective interpersonal communication of information. As the digital landscapes exceed the limits of reality, participants are compelled to extend their linguistic repertoire in response to novel and ever-expanding possibilities encountered in video games.

Players collectively experience in-game phenomena, display great creativity in coining novel words to refer to game-inherent meanings, and adapt their communicative strategies to the designated settings of distinct video games. This thesis aims to analyze the language variety emerging with the activity of playing video games as a contextually motivated innovation in linguistic production and reception. The variation elicited by video games will be scrutinized as a highly specific form of language understood specifically by insiders. Hence, we will conceive of literacy in gaming language as a principal signal of identification with the distinct community of practice. To provide an overview of the linguistic dimension of gaming and define the variety’s idiosyncrasies, the thesis’ main chapters will target lexical, morphological, and semantic features of gaming jargon separately, while grammatical implications are studied in relation to collocational structures and pragmatic considerations of in-game discourse.

The theoretical foundations for the practical investigations on the distinct language variety emerging in the gaming context will be laid in chapter 2. To determine what kind of language gaming jargon is, an examination of the parameters whereby language variations can be defined and distinguished is inevitable. Furthermore, constitutive elements such as communicative purpose and speech community are put under scrutiny to identify factors prompting linguistic innovation. Additionally, the treatment of gaming language will be premised on its categorization as a form of computer-mediated communication. Thus, we will inquire research on such specified forms of communicative interaction to uncover general tendencies of language use in online contexts. The theoretical introduction of this thesis will span from a general investigation of language varieties to a specific consideration of the English language and its transformation in the context of computer-mediated communication. The discussion will include an evaluation of critical and deterministic echoes to communicative change propelled by new media. Outlining different perspectives on language use through the means of the Internet and devices of mass-communication, the chapter is concluded with an examination of the distinct context of video games as environments of linguistic interaction. Until now, a lack of attention has been paid to this specific discursive context in the field of linguistics. Resulting from this academic void, the theoretical framework of this thesis is an assembly of assumptions on language varieties and computer-mediated communication. In sum, the examination of the social and media-dependent communicative context will serve as a starting point for the subsequent practical analyses of morphological, semantic, collocational, and pragmatic features of gaming language.

Beginning at the word level, the focus of chapter 3 lies on a micro-linguistic investigation of lexical items linked to gaming jargon and their morphological properties. This way, it will be clarified how concepts inherent to gameplay are lexicalized in the community of players. Furthermore, the restructuring of old words and the composition of novel words will be illustrated with distinct lexical expressions exemplifying different processes of word-formation of the English language. The strategies employed in the creation of new words will reveal that language variation on a micro-linguistic level is highly productive in the context of gaming. A consideration of morphological processes of addition and reduction, adaptation and adoption will demonstrate that even though there are definite grammatical constraints and rules, word- formation provides speakers with potential to lexicalize infinite amounts of concepts. Establishing how individual words are created and how lexical innovation is motivated furthermore leads to a discussion of semantic shifts in gaming terminology. In chapter 4, the adoption of existing lexemes and adaptation of their meanings will be tackled. An illustration of processes of semantic shifting will exemplify the transfer of existing linguistic forms and specific senses of their designated original meanings to denote game-specific concepts. A further investigation of metaphor use in gaming language will demonstrate how complex semantic concepts are linguistically expressed through other, more concrete concepts.

Moving from the meanings of single lexemes to a larger level of phrases, a quantitative evaluation of language use in the community of video game players offers opportunities to identify significantly used lexemes and their relation to and usage with other words. For this purpose, a corpus of 783 texts has been compiled to provide evidence for authentic language use, commonly recurring word clusters, and syntactic relations. Hence, chapter 5 discusses the lexical items most strikingly used in addition to frequently occurring collocations. The corpus consists of written texts gathered from official fora of three distinct multiplayer video game genres to illustrate linguistic particularities that are presumably characteristic for sub-groups of so-called gamers. Note that the lexemes GAMER and PLAYER are used interchangeably in this thesis; however, an analysis of their usages in the small corpus designed for this thesis and their occurrence in the Corpus of Contemporary American English will reveal that putting the lexeme

GAMER inside quotation marks can be justified. Discussing particularities and commonalities present in players’ written comments on distinct games and how experience is linguistically expressed, there will furthermore be a brief shift from language produced by players to language 3 input they receive from game developers. An inspection of written game update notes published by game corporations sheds light on how developers communicate information to players. On the whole, the use of language-processing software enables the determination of significantly used lexical items and their commonly identified linguistic co-text. The examination of high- frequency words and collocations in authentic textual data serves as yet another puzzle piece in trying to grasp the overarching linguistic dynamics present in this distinct community of practice.

The inspection of gaming language from word to phrase level naturally demands a consideration of linguistic expressions beyond their description in isolation. Thus, a last step will be taken from linguistic co-text to discursive context as chapter 6 targets the pragmatic features of in-game communication and their grammatical appearance. Furthermore, a consideration of deictic features will highlight the greatly contextualized and dynamic nature of communication during gameplay. Additionally, an illustration of the communicative framework and the conceptions of appropriateness that influence interpersonal social and linguistic behavior leads to a discussion on a distinct discursive strategy in video game communication, namely flaming. To conclude this thesis’ investigation on the language features exposed by players of video games, the final chapter will reinforce the claim that we can indeed identify a common linguistic code that players utilize to communicate. To illustrate, a peek in non-Anglophone gaming contexts provides insights into how English gaming terminology is used by participants of other linguistic backgrounds.

The focus of this thesis lies on the language produced by playing speakers, how they express themselves during gameplay, and how they talk about their experiences with other adept players. Whereas computer-mediated communication has been extensively scrutinized in the field of linguistics, research on features of in-game discourse and lexical particularities remains sparse with only one comprehensive publication targeting the language variety used in gaming contexts from the perspective of linguistics. With her book The Language of Gaming (2012), Astrid Ensslin has pioneered linguistic examination of the language variety arising in video game contexts, and thus, her work will serve as a theoretical basis for this thesis. However, examinations that go beyond Ensslin’s discussions are driven by an inspection of authentic empirical samples gathered to exemplify linguistic particularities and communicative conduct. Firstly, the quantitative evaluation of language features in chapter 5 draws on a corpus of 783 4 texts written by players and developers discussing individual games. Secondly, numerous passionate players offered to contribute to this endeavor by disclosing their experience and expertise in interviews. Furthermore, I received permission to note striking elements of written exchanges in group-chats and to record and transcribe oral in-game conversations to get a firmer grip of pragmatic features of speech. Lastly, the items listed in the appended gaming glossary where manually selected from the generated data and reconciled with online resources. The empirical samples serve to complement the theoretical assumptions put forward in the individual chapters and draw inferences from textual evidence about common linguistic tendencies. Even though I take the position that we cannot conceive of all players speaking a unified language, I will argue that participants make use of an established set of English items that appear to be intricately related to the video game experience. Language will be conceived as dynamic and continuously subjected to change, however, I will provide confirmatory evidence that linguistic innovation follows structural patterns and that, despite the heterogeneity of the speech community, we can identify collectively shared, peculiar features of linguistic expression and interpersonal communication.

2. FROM THE VERNACULAR TO THE SPECTACULAR: A theoretical introduction to language varieties and new media

Before examining particularities of the language used in the community of online video game players, we will try to define this specific kind of language we are dealing with in the first place. To begin with, language varieties and the contexts of their formation will be analyzed to determine who speaks a language, and which factors condition varieties in natural language. Identifying why and where linguistic transformation occurs, the importance of newly constituted social environments and communities will be highlighted. As this thesis is concerned with the language spoken by players of online video games, a deeper inquiry into the linguistic possibilities and restrictions of computer-mediated communication is inevitable. Thus, the adaptation of language to the conditions of the Internet will be discussed, examining why which particular linguistic changes generally emerge in computer-mediated communication. The discussions on varieties of the English language and the motivation of linguistic change in the sphere of virtual communities will lead to a specification on the language emerging in the context of the gaming experience. Lastly, a consideration of the video game industry and the factors prompting the emergence of a variety in the world of gaming preludes this thesis’ examination of characteristics of gaming language from word to sentence level.

2.1 Language varieties

Languages are intrinsically changeable and looking into the history of languages, it is made apparent that linguistic alteration and adaptation through time and space is an ineluctable procedure. According to McMahon (1994), expert in historical linguistics, continuous variation can affect the entire grammar system of languages; their phonologic, morphologic, syntactic, and semantic structures. However, “whole languages do not change wholesale” and should not be perceived as monolithic entities but rather as “amorphous masses made up of accents, dialects and ultimately individual idiolects” (McMahon 1994, 8). We can furthermore accentuate, that all languages are subjected to dynamic processes, embedded in distinct sociocultural and spatiotemporal contexts. Variation is produced by individual speakers at different times and places, carrying the potential to transcend to other speech communities. Whereas the term idiolect is used to denote the individual speaker’s language, dialect refers to the language

6 spoken by a group of people who are regionally affiliated (Lipka 1992, 16). In addition, the term sociolect is interpreted as a social variation appearing in distinct social groups (Quirk et al. 1999, 16). Sociolects are hence defined by the socioeconomic environments or ethnic groups they are spoken in. Furthermore, sociolects are perceived as varieties of standardly distributed forms of a language that are contingent on educational and social status (Lipka 1992, 19). Both dialects and sociolects are spoken by groups of regionally or socially affiliated people, and linguistic innovation transcends from individual speakers to larger speech communities. However, both regional and social variations are never random, but are expressing contextually motivated, structural change (McMahon 1994, 233).

When trying to define what kind of variety gaming language is, we must consider which group of speakers uses it. The distinct context of video games stimulates the playing speakers to create language variations that are meaningful to a community that is in essence heterogeneous. “There is no country or society where games would not be played and enjoyed” (Mäyra 2008, 11), and hence, the community constituted by video game aficionados is neither confined by nationality nor age, and players come from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. The activity of gaming transformed from being pervasively associated to the group of young males to being enjoyed by a diversified demographic of individuals (Hjorth 2011, 147). However, economic conditions are to be considered as relevant factors in the constitution of the community since high-end gaming hardware is costly and collective play prevalently requires access to the Internet. Nevertheless, gaming-related language is not confined regionally, ethnically, or socially (in terms of age, gender, or education), and we will thus refrain from calling it a sociolect.

Varieties are not only emerging in confined geographical or social spheres but can furthermore occur in connection with specific subject-matters, as speakers choose suitable varieties according to communicative purpose and contextual setting (Quirk et at. 1999, 16). Such specific subject-matters can be discussed through established jargons or slangs, whose boundaries are fluid as both terms are used “for special languages of specific groups, eg in army slang, public school slang, navy slang, RAF slang” (Lipka 1992, 11). What these specialized languages, or jargons, have in common is the use of particular lexical items that are idiosyncratic elements in their discursive field (ibid, 19). Even though the speech community of players is highly diversified, all players share a passion for video games, and thus, 7 commonality is established by a collective experience of virtual worlds. “To negotiate their culture of consumption” (Ensslin 2012, 6), players have produced language variations that lexicalize distinct meanings inherent to gameplay. Generally, jargons are used in distinct professional or recreational contexts and develop in relation to newly generated frames of action which may themselves become wide-spread. As Nash (1993) emphasized,

“Every activity has its occupational terms, many of which cross the bounds of technical usage and enter into common parlance. We may speak of a ‘standard’ language, but the history of English is full of examples of the common idiom drawing on the resources of technical or occupational varieties” (p. 4)

Thus, any emergent transformation of language that is initially bound to a specific context may sooner or later come into general linguistic usage and not be considered irregular anymore. As will be demonstrated at a later point, gaming jargon itself adopts concepts and lexemes associated to other occupational jargons and distinct semantic fields. Whereas gaming jargon is a very specific linguistic variety spoken within a distinct context, it can generally be stated that languages have unlimited potential to develop and move “from the vernacular to the spectacular” (Nash 1993, 54).

Chaika (1980) claims that jargons emerge as echoes to particular activities and serve to establish identity and interpersonal bond, striving for communicative efficiency through mutual understanding (p. 77). First and foremost, the usage of jargon serves as a means of signalizing identification with a designated group. Positioning oneself inside a group to establish a sense of identity naturally entails a process of othering those who are outside the group “by virtue of their not understanding” (ibid, 79). Therefore, the simultaneously inclusive and exclusive function of jargon is to establish a linguistic bond between group members. This membership is communicated through the usage of a collectively shared set of words and phrases that arise within the context of a specific activity or experience all affiliates engage in. However, speakers’ language is not affected entirely, and communicative efficiency is achieved through the usage of “single words encoding events” that are experienced during the specialized “activity eliciting the jargon” (ibid, 80). The new meanings arising in the context of distinct activities and events can only be expressed periphrastically by non-insiders but are lexicalized within a community of experts. Extending theses notions to the language variety that emerges in the context of online gaming, we can infer that the jargon of video games relates directly to the highly specialized nature of the activity players engage in. Hence, language used in online video games can be defined as a variety that essentially developed to denote particular digital 8 activities, lexicalize distinct concepts of gameplay, and communicate experience unambiguously to fellow players. Ultimately, usage of jargon does not only facilitate efficient and unequivocal in-group communication but simultaneously functions as an identity marker that signalizes membership.

2.1.1 The pluralization of English and the Internet

Having established distinctions between idiolects, dialects, and varieties elicited by specific activities, it is important to note that different speakers draw from the same “set of grammatical and other characteristics common to all variety classes” (Lipka 1992, 17) of a language, namely its standard. In the case of gaming jargon, the language utilized is predominantly English. Considering all native, second- and foreign-language speakers, English is estimated to be used by 1.5 to 2 Billion people world-wide (Noack and Gamio, 2015) and is thus also the language largely spoken on the Internet. Hence, both the online and offline expansion of English render the language especially susceptible to change (Crystal 1999, 13). Media-dependent linguistic transformations arise as context-specific varieties and entail the consolidation of specific technical jargons, the usage of informal language, and a continuous expansion and adaptation of specialized lexicons. The pluralization of English propelled by new media is oftentimes criticized and viewed with anguish, as negative implications on a language’s standard or the entirety of human communicative interaction and social behavior are presumed. However, “complaints by native speakers that English is deteriorating or being corrupted reflect in the main a conservative resistance to change” (Quirk et at. 1999, 10) and are highly subjective notions. In fact, both diachronic transformation of language and synchronic change in different contexts exemplify the human propensity to creatively adapt and further develop linguistic expression in miscellaneous communicative situations. The most monumental change affecting interpersonal communication and thus boosting new language varieties was indubitably the global commercialization and expansion of the Internet. Going online and connecting with the world demanded the formation of a collective linguistic code that catered to the new mediums’ conditions and its users’ needs.

The Internet paved the way to unrestricted interpersonal interaction and the status of English as a global lingua franca was furthermore consolidated. English is not only used by Anglophone

9 natives, but is the prime language of transnational online communication. Speaking of computer-mediated English, Danet and Herring (2007) discuss the position of the language in online spheres and argue that the World Wide Web significantly propels the global usage of English (p. 27). Moreover, the scholars reinforce the claim that language use is involved in the formation of individual and collective identities. In computer-mediated communication, belonging to a virtual community can most overtly be expressed through usage of distinct languages that bridge geographical or social distances digitally. It is thus not surprising that English is the language predominantly used in the global network as it is spoken across nationally confined linguistic borders. However, online communication is also essentially multilingual, and “hundreds of millions of people are already participating online today in languages other than English, in some form of nonnative English, or in a mixture of languages, and this trend is projected to continue in the years to come” (ibid, 4). Plurilingual speakers switch between languages, use Anglicism in non-Anglophone communicative contexts, and adapt non-native linguistic features to the language system of their mother tongue. Yet, “English has a historical advantage in relation to the Internet and continues to dominate many online contexts” (ibid, 22). English as one of the languages prevalently spoken on the Internet is transformed and adapted most prominently in computer-mediated communication, both by native and second-language speakers. While this thesis aims to reveal idiosyncratic linguistic features of English gaming jargon and in-game communication in specific, the status of gaming related English terms and the adaptation and utilization of Anglicisms in non-Anglophone gaming discourse will be tackled in chapter 7. Before examining the specific context of gaming and the idiosyncrasies of its respective jargon, we will turn to the general characteristics of computer-mediated communication and investigate what drives language variation, how linguistic transformation is manifested, and which purpose it fulfils. A consideration of the “extra-linguistic factors, and the specification of these factors may help us account for change” (McMahon 1994, 226) before we will inquire the explicit linguistic features of the language used by players in this thesis’ main chapters.

2.2 Computer-mediated communication

The advent of the Internet as a medium enabling transnational interaction in virtual spaces has not only changed our handling of everyday life, but has affected our sense of time and space, and most importantly, communication. The transformations propelled by the medium have

10 fostered a societal angst emerging as an echo to new technologies of mass-communication (Crystal 2001, 2). Similarly, moral panic arose with the introduction of film, television, or radio, as at some point, “virtually any medium of communication that relies on technology” found itself “deemed to be causing a ‘revolution’” (Jones 1997, 7). Two decades ago, when computers and the World Wide Web started to enter the average household, Steven Jones (1997) was commenting on the beginning of what would soon constitute the biggest communicative network across the globe; a communicative revolution indeed. At the time Jones discussed the foundations of virtual culture, the Internet and the communicative behavior it fostered were widely received critically. The medium was conceived as a force driving the deviation of language, making direct interpersonal communication futile, and affecting behavior with its alleged addictive potential (ibid, 7). However, Jones acknowledged the importance of communication technologies in the formation of groups of people striving for the same goals (ibid, 10). Such collectives are created through a sense of connectedness, “a kind which reassures that between ‘us’ and ‘them’ there may be some common ground after all” (ibid, 17). Thus, the Internet was recognized as a medium that fosters the creation of digital communities, transcending spatial and temporal distances. Furthermore, Jones explored the significance of languages spoken online and pointed out that becoming literate in these lexically and syntactically reduced varieties is of prime importance in any virtual culture (ibid, 2). Although the Internet as a means of mass-communication was received controversially at that time, Jones conceded that new media technologies promote the creation of social landscapes constituted by members sharing similar interests and exposing distinct social and linguistic behavior. As hardware and software continued to develop further, languages used in digital societies gradually transformed and were adapted to new communicative settings.

Much has changed since the controversially received beginnings of the Internet’s global commercialization. A whole generation of so-called digital natives has come of age, and having experienced a digital turn, spatial distances were vanquished, and new communicative strategies emerged. In the past two decades, the World Wide Web has risen to become one of the main vehicles for interpersonal communication and has thus propelled the emergence of language variations in respond to technological change. The linguistic flexibility and creativity exposed by speakers “represent the inherently ludic character of language use on the Internet” (Herring et al. 2013, 8) and in general as languages are inherently adaptable and prone to change. Specified languages and communicative features that appear in Internet discourse are

11 termed numerous ways, being called netspeak, cyberspeak, electronic or Internet language, and are often summarized by the notion of computer-mediated communication (CMC). As online communication changes constantly because of its “adherence to the fluid practices of both social convention and technological development” (Van Dreunen 2008, 4), transformation becomes tangible especially in linguistic spheres. Language serves as the main vehicle of interaction in CMC, as speakers communicate with each other without the ability to interpret and respond to their interlocutors’ physical signals. As pointed out by Avgerinakou (2003), the nature of CMC compels users to “invent textual signs to compensate for the lack of reminders of social context and of body-language in their network interactions” (p. 284). Unambiguous and effective communication can thus only be achieved through linguistic exchange, language being

“the ultimate carrier of humanness into the disembodied (though not entirely so) realms of the digital. As we send linguistic material through them, computers become vehicles of interpersonal interaction and all that it entails: social change, identity formation, teamwork, and community creation, along with the very human tendencies toward exclusion, harassment, and misunderstanding” (Squires 2016, 3) In other words, language is the prime foundation of interpersonal online communication as it opens doors to understanding and lexicalizing the digital experience while being used to create membership to distinct communities of practice. New media are gradually getting more complex and with their transformation, speakers adapt to new experiences and communicative conditions while co-creating rules for social and linguistic exchange.

The factors encouraging linguistic change and communicative particularities in CMC have been investigated by numerous scholars and following Herring et al. (2013), notions of technological determinism drive many academic inquiries of CMC. When exploring the relations between the Internet, technologies of mass-communication, and linguistic particularities occurring in CMC, technological determinists view online linguistic behavior as entirely conditioned by the medium alone. Even though the nature of the medium does influence new shapes of languages and encourages distinct behavioral norms to some degree, technological determinism fosters ideas of universality and homogeneity in CMC. However, there is no unified language users apply and a perspective of universality neglects a myriad of factors that shape linguistic varieties and interpersonal manners in online discourses (Herring et al. 2013, 7). Variations are propelled not only by the electronic media themselves, but are molded by the speakers in relation to the CMC-mode and genre they engage in. To clarify, technologically mediated

12 speech can either be of written or oral form, be synchronous or asynchronous, and entail only two or multiple interlocutors. Sending an e-Mail in a professional context exemplifies written, asynchronous, and formal CMC. In contrast, multiuser conversations mediated by so-called Voice over Internet Protocol technologies (VoIP, e.g. Skype, TeamSpeak, Discord) are characterized as synchronous, oral, and informal forms of CMC. Specifying, users of online multiplayer video games can engage in both written and oral communication by using synchronous voice-chat software to speak to fellow players and by using written language in global, group, or private in-game chats. Thus, players are continuously switching between different conversations with different interlocutors and have to keep track of multiple incoming messages. Having to control their character within a virtual environment and simultaneously manage linguistic in- and output, the multimodal nature of video games demands players to multitask permanently. In sum, computer-mediated communication is not solely shaped by technological conditions as determinist’ perspectives suggest, but online conversations are crucially shaped by the speakers themselves and language is adapted contextually.

Adding to the claims put forward by Herring et al., Squires (2010) reinforces that perceptions of CMC as determined by the medium are superficial and oversimplifying since they disregard varying contexts of language use and the agency of individual speaking personae (p. 479). In fact, languages used in online discourse are not only shaped by the constraints imposed by the medium and the possibilities it offers, but are adapted to genre, social setting, and the conventions negotiated by the participants themselves. In the article “Enregistering Internet Language”, Squires furthermore takes a deeper look at the continuous debate on the implications of CMC on communicative behavior and language development. Oftentimes, discussions on Internet language tend to be ideological evaluations, fueling the idea of languages as technologically determined and contrasting them to linguistic correctness and social acceptability of a standard. Squires tackles the issue of English protectionism as she claims that the language associated to the World Wide Web is placed in antagonism to Standard English (ibid, 475). The negative conception of CMC as a force driving nonconformity thus results from “ideologies that privilege ‘Standard English’, value linguistic or grammatical ‘correctness’, and cast negative judgement on speakers for deviance from these perceived norms” (ibid, 460). Such ideologies are contrasted by positive perceptions of CMC, which present online discourse as a confirmation of the human potential to flexibly adapt to communicative settings. Irrespective of the ideological attitude to CMC, analyses of Internet

13 discourse tend to idealize language systems to make general inferences about the language variety and its features.

Squires furthermore accentuates that Internet language has undergone a process of enregisterment, in which communicative practices and structural language features are perceived as distinctive registers associated to a distinct group. In other words, the process of enregisterment describes the strengthened association of distinct linguistic features as “imbued with social meaning linked to social personae, and linked to what are perceived as distinct varieties of language” (Squires 2010, 459). This means, that linguistic practices become inextricably connected to a designated field of action and are thus imagined as specific registers within a language. Hence, speakers engaging in online discussion fora, writing e-Mails or glossaries, blogging, chatting etc. are presumed to employ distinguishable linguistic structures that are in turn perceived as belonging to the variety spoken by a community of practice (ibid, 460). The process of enregisterment thus reflects on an ideologically created tie between language variation and the environment of its occurrence that ultimately leads to notions of group-specific registers. Furthermore, the pluralism of languages results from the heterogeneity of speakers engaging in different forms of CMC, which in turn renders the Internet a fuzzy place of linguistic exchange whose population cannot be determined explicitly (ibid, 461). Intelligibly, a pluralistic perspective on CMC reveals that language “glosses over many different patterns of variation in an extremely large sphere of discourse with many different types of speakers” (ibid, 483). However, the identification of general tendencies in linguistic expression serves to further classify registers as linked to distinct online groups, for whom language variety is of social significance as it signalizes membership.

Language varieties are spread and consolidated within and across different virtual communities. Both language and social behavior in distinct groups undergo processes of conventionalization while members negotiate new rules of conduct that suit their needs and the medium’s conditions. As distinct virtual communities (e.g. on social media or in video games) and sub- groups share particular goals and interest, linguistic heterogeneity across different digital landscapes is inevitable (Squires 2016, 6). Varying from mode to mode, interpersonal communication and social behavior is aligned with the conventions established within distinct speech communities. In digital spheres, speakers engage in “new kinds of participation, new kinds of fragmentation, and new ways of co-constructing meaning that transcend traditional 14 notions of conversation, narrative, exposition, and so forth” (Herring et al. 2013, 9). Thus, different computer-mediated contexts exhibit multiple novel social practices, and variations in language usage mirror the users’ adaptation to the respective virtual environment. As mentioned before, such transformations of linguistic and interpersonal customs are presumed to result in a deterioration of language and social values. However, we may not think of CMC as a deviation from a standard, as it “is not so much impoverished relative to speech and writing as different in nature from them” (ibid, 8). As such, languages in CMC are not to be perceived as diverging from generalized conventions but as a means of establishing convergence within a community that is essentially heterogeneous.

In this thesis, I will argue that communicative practices in gaming are in fact different from hegemonic standards of linguistic and social interaction, and that video game discourse is dynamically shaped and plural in nature. Despite the heterogeneity of the gaming community and the variability of language use, I will show that there are structural frameworks governing linguistic and social conventions and that players of video games effectively speak a distinct register. Thus, the formation of lexical items and related semantic concepts, as well as interpersonal behavior will be analyzed with regard to structural patterns exhibited. In this respect, I will describe idiosyncratic linguistic features to exemplify how language varieties are collectively shaped by speakers. These transformations of language and communicative strategies in video game discourse will be presented as echoes to new communicative set-ups and specialized digital activities.

2.2.1 Characteristic features of CMC

To begin with, a general examination of textual features in written CMC and the motivation for their usage simultaneously helps to account for the conversational contexts of video games. According to Crystal, language variety in written discourse becomes tangible especially with regard to (Crystal 2001, 7f)

 graphic features  orthographic features  grammatical features

 lexical features  discourse features

Having identified these five stylistic elements of written language, we can infer how these features are affected in informal written CMC. Firstly, text organization and presentation vary from platform to platform. For example, designs of texts may be predefined or can be customized, and messages may or may not be limited to contain a certain amount of characters. Secondly, CMC exposes orthographic features that evidently diverge from Standard English spelling. Exemplifying, the usage of numbers instead of similar-looking letters and the substitution of characters by any other non-linguistic symbol is called leet speak (L33T 5P34K). Leet speak makes use of “typographical similarities between letters and numbers” (Flamand 2008, 24), e.g. the number 3 is interpreted as an inverted E. Furthermore, capitalization is used to highlight importance orthographically or to convey screaming, and the consecutive repetition of one and the same vowel (e.g.: “aaaaa”) serves to exemplify elongated oral emphasis. Thirdly, CMC drives variation with regard to grammatical, syntactic, and morphological features. As CMC is often linguistically very condensed, utterances are mostly kept short with contractions and abbreviations, while extensive and grammatically intricate formulations will scarcely be used in immediate written interaction (e.g.: instant messaging, chatting). Moreover, CMC exposes distinct lexical features and idioms suiting the demands of the medium in meaning and form. Depending on the communicative context and the speaking interlocutors, lexis may become more specific and less accessible to the general public. Finally, informal CMC stimulates the usage of certain discourse features such as directives and exclamations, “often reducible to formulaic utterances which make very limited use of grammatical structure” (Quirk et at. 1999, 88). However, the stylistic make-up of online discourse changes in different communicative contexts, and degrees of linguistic appropriateness are defined by the participating speakers. The Internet as a means of communication encourages stylistic transformation of written language, and users of specific platforms, programs, or video games are internalizing the “grammatical rule” of the specific medium and its respective jargon, or medialect (Van Dreunen 2008, 5).

A medialect – be it the language of film, the Internet, or video games – reflects “the dynamic exchange between technology and communicative expression” as the “popularization of a new syntax builds upon the existing ones and in the process eclipses them” (Van Dreunen 2008, 5). With regard to the language used on the Internet, there are three potential explanations for one 16 idiosyncratic linguistic particularity occurring in CMC, namely the emergence of substantially reduced language styles. According to Durant and Lambrou, one factor fostering the reduction of lexical items in CMC were the originally frequently limited typing spaces provided in chatrooms and by short messaging services. Therefore, vowels were omitted, and numbers were inserted to represent sounds in order to convey more meaning within a limited space for written text. A second assumption prioritizes the writers’ convenience (Durant and Lambrou 2009, 181). Despite the circumstance that the formal appearance of abbreviated CMC can be conceived as a random assembly of characters by outsiders, the linguistic reduction of utterances to a minimum can convey the intended message to knowledgeable recipients. By condensing language, written communication can happen faster, with less effort put into typing. The final assumption on the emergence of abbreviated language used in CMC deems the variety to operate as an anti-language used to linguistically distinguish the speakers from the hegemonic standard (ibid). In conclusion, the reduction of language can be identified as an integral part of CMC, being time-efficient and convenient to the users, and simultaneously serving as a linguistic display of identity. Despite having a conspicuously abbreviated and conceivably encrypted appearance, lexical items that are used to construct utterances in CMC are more complex and carry more meaning than their form may give away. In fact, an utterance containing very few abbreviated lexical items and symbols can be understood in its complexity predominantly by in-group members familiar with the jargon. Such heavily abbreviated communication can only be effective if there is a considerable “degree of common interests and shared knowledge among the participants” (Collot and Belmore 1996, 26).

Written discourse online in large virtual communities, such as in online video games, is complex due to the numerous speakers who are concurrently sending messages. In online communication spaces, “independent speech acts are simply juxtaposed, and different topics interwoven” (Werry 1996, 51). Users will shift topics and be involved in separate conversation simultaneously. Additionally, CMC provides the speakers with possibilities to use commands, emoticons (emotion icons such as , *-* or XD), or emotes (emotive gestures and actions shown with commands such as /sad, /laugh, /cry, or /dance) to symbolically supplement their utterances. Moreover, “a combination of spatial, temporal, and social constraints act as important limiting conditions that influence the size and shape of communication” (ibid, 53). Speakers have to consider the time it takes to type a message and will tend to use abbreviations in order to respond quickly. With numerous participants communicating simultaneously,

17 speakers will furthermore have to compete for attention within the virtual communication space. Thus, the adherence to expected communication patterns will define the speaker as an in-group member and distinguish them from outsiders or novice users not familiar with the jargon and the means by which information is communicated (Werry 1996, 53). CMC in general and video game-related jargon in specific are both purpose-oriented and highly persuasive (Collot and Belmore 1996, 26). The knowledge of idiosyncratic lexical features and discursive strategies enables experienced users to communicate distinct notions while linguistically representing their belonging to a group of practice. The distinct language variety that is gaming jargon is a domain „where research has as yet only scratched the surface of understanding“ (Herring et al. 2013, 23). Thus, we will inquire some general notions on the activity of gaming and how the experience of virtual worlds is expressed linguistically before immersing in a morphological, collocational, semantic, and pragmatic analysis of language used in in-game environments.

2.3 Gaming jargon

“For a long time […] the image of the lazy gamer who sits in the dark all day without social contact has been very wide spread. But it seems as if gaming got more and more accepted in the past years, and the activity is getting vindicated especially by the popularization of professional e-Sports. The gaming sector is no longer an industry for “weird nerds” only but reaches out to both female and male, old and young players. It seems as if gaming has become accepted, even “cool”” (schraegstrich 16.05.2017) As stated in the previous discussion on the emergence of the Internet as a medium initially received critically, video games experienced, and still do, a similar stigmatization. Allegedly, video games may stimulate the aggression potential of players, have an addictive effect, and foster a feared transformation of language and social interaction. Video games “have served as a convenient scapegoat for larger social problems” (Williams and Smith 2007, 6) and gaming as a polarizing leisure activity has entered the discourse of general public, with respective news no longer being discussed by expert groups only. Most recently, the “loot box” system in video games, which enables minors to engage in virtual gambling with real currencies, has been debated by political authorities in Belgium, Germany, and the UK (Christopher Knaus, 24.11.2017). Furthermore, professional gaming has been considered to become recognized as an official sport by the International Olympic Committee (Reuters, 28.10.2017). Though the status of so-called e-Sports within the framework of official athletic competitions has not yet been determined, the growing popularization and simultaneous polarization of video games 18 suggest that gaming is no longer of marginal interest. On the contrary, the video game industry has grown to become the currently most significant creative industry sector in Europe, Asia, and the United States (Ensslin 2012, 1). Thus, the industry has reached out not only to adept gamers, but has gained entrance to the average household. According to the most recent survey conducted by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), consumers from the US alone have invested 30,4 Billion USD in the video game industry. From 2009 to 2016, profits of the gaming sector have tripled and have rendered the industry more financially viable than any other entertainment branch, surpassing the revenues of both the music and film industry (ESA 2017, 4 and Ensslin 2012, 1; 33). In the 4,000 American households surveyed, 67% possess a device or platform that runs video games and within these households, there is at least one individual who dedicates more than three hours a week to gaming (ESA 2017, 4). Of those people, who are considered frequent players (i.e. playing at least 3 hours a week), 53% enjoy playing multiplayer games with their friends or family, with Shooters currently being the most played video game genre (ibid, 8). Video games have become a major leisure activity enjoyed by people of all nations, ages, social and cultural backgrounds and have likewise started to gain scientific relevance in diverse academic areas. As digital games are gradually being recognized as “the most complex and multifaceted media that exist in our contemporary media ecology” (Ensslin 2012, 5), multiple academic disciplines, such as cultural, social, and economic studies, are intensifying the research on video games.

The virtual worlds players immerse in “new spaces for collaborative activity” (Keating and Sunakawa 2010, 331), and the adaptation to these environments encompasses an adjustment of linguistic expression and conversational habits. Video games epitomize the most complex form of computer-mediated communication, as stakeholders are given the possibility to engage in oral and/or written synchronous conversations. However, it is not only linguistic production and reception that players have to manage. Video games differ from other media in “being the first to combine real-time game play with a navigable, onscreen diegetic space; the first to feature avatars and player-controlled surrogates that could influence onscreen events; and the first to require hand-eye coordination skills” (Wolf and Perron 2003, 11). The act of playing video games demands an incessant interpretation and reaction to in-game cues which are in substance multimodal. To elucidate, players have to process auditory and visual signals, decode numeral information, predict and respond to virtual actions. Furthermore, “space and action on and off screen must be managed, including how tactility or the use of a keyboard or mouse with

19 one’s hands can “translate” into action in another space or another modality” (Keating and Sunakawa 2010, 338). Hence, participation in video games implies a perpetual processing of complex stimuli, and language functions as a vehicle to express unique concepts pertinent to gameplay and communicate the digital experience. Speakers use words and phrases that are imbued with game-related meanings, adapt communicative practices to game-specific parameters, and construe conventions of interpersonal behavior. Like in any form of CMC, interlocutors in video game contexts are located in geographically separate spaces, they are however re-embodied in virtual worlds and encounter other spatially dispersed players in a coalescing sphere. In video games, relationships to time and space are transformed as the players’ in-game “bodies” have augmented physical powers and can defy general laws of nature. Hence, a shifting conceptualization of body, time, space, and interpersonal dealings compel players to “decide how to convey complex actions and spatial reference plans in limited time” (ibid, 339). The formation of collectively validated linguistic in-group codes denoting distinct in-game phenomena is a necessity resulting from the highly specialized activity players engage in. Thus, language is a gateway to mutual understanding and the jargon elicited is not only tightly associated (i.e. enregistered) to the community of gamers, but its usage reflects identification with the group.

Gamers are continuously contributing to the compilation of numerous online gaming glossaries and foster the distribution of a common language as they recognize the importance of perspicuous communication to achieve successful cooperative gameplay. The formation of novel expressions in the context of video games was inevitable, as “new words or the new use of words were needed for a new kind of human experience in the digital worlds” (Tini Bubbles 27.03.2017). Players have gradually established group- and activity-specific terminology and phrases, have adapted their conversational customs to community and video game frameworks, and negotiate meanings that are significant primarily in the context that propels the formation of the jargon. Whereas there has been a longer tradition of scrutinizing general linguistic tendencies in CMC and its various modes, the implications of the specific CMC context of video games and their discourse have yet to be inquired more extensively. So far, investigations relating to video games and language have tackled the construction and representation of gender in video game discourse or the beneficial effects of video games in second language classrooms (Sierra 2016, 2019). However, Astrid Ensslin’s publication The Language of Gaming (2012) is the only comprehensive linguistic examination of gaming language so far that inquires the

20 multifaceted language-related aspects of video games. Ensslin investigates linguistic particularities of the gaming sector, looking into the language used by players, industry professionals, press, as well as the linguistic material provided by interfaces and instruction manuals. Speaking of the language of gaming, it has to be clear that there is no unified language used by gamers and the gaming industry. On the contrary, the professor in Digital Humanities and Game Studies Ensslin highlights that there is no single language of gaming but rather a plurality of languages, since every game presents a distinct communicative world with specific vocabulary and pragmatic rules. As in natural language use, there are diverse dialects and registers that are being used, “and communication happens by activating select sets of such varieties depending on specific communicative contexts” (Ensslin 2012, 6f). Nonetheless, Ensslin classifies gaming as a distinct human activity with a specific radius of action that players agree on and thus argues that a common code can be identified. Hence, the scholar sheds light upon the “idiosyncratic ways in which gamers communicate […] and how the discourses they engage with help them construct identities and group membership” (ibid, 158).

In her publication, Ensslin provides a broad overview of the most salient linguistic features detectable in gaming discourse and aims to encourage other scholars to intensify linguistic research into this distinct environment. First and foremost, Ensslin highlights the structural affinity between games and language, both being essentially rule-driven systems, and both demanding their users to adhere to the given parameters and regulations (ibid). Whereas ignorance of a language’s rules or the unwillingness or ineptitude to follow their conventions may or may not lead to a breakdown in communication, flouting the rules of a video game is considered cheating and yields consequences for the cheater. Even though video games are often perceived as being a means of escaping from real-world obligations, they are governed by strict principles and the infringement of a games’ rules presents a punishable offense (ibid, 26f). Secondly, Ensslin defines video games as highly complex semiotic artifacts enabling their consumers to psychologically immerse in online worlds through participatory, haptic, and audiovisual interaction. Even though video games represent potentially highly immersive fictional worlds, players are always aware of their actual corporeality in the real world and constantly switch between deictic frames of reference (ibid, 125). Moreover, users experience a permanent interchange of challenge and performance, failure and accomplishment, entertainment and frustration when playing video games (ibid, 151). Thirdly, Ensslin is devoted to analyzing the language of gaming from a micro-linguistic perspective and gives a compact

21 overview on word-formation processes. The scholar interprets the lexical particularities emerging in the gaming context as a means to establishing identity and belonging to the group. According to Ensslin, the language used by players of online video games can be defined a ludolect that is constituted by in-group codes, created and agreed on by the community. Hence, the use of gaming jargon is a fundamental aspect constituting the community of players and may even serve to “exclude outsiders and unmask or mock newbies” while creating “asymmetrical power relationships between the initiated and those who are not” (Ensslin 2012, 68). Ensslin furthermore addresses the pragmatic features of in-game discourse and focusses on the standards of appropriateness and politeness prevailing in interpersonal communication. Another core theme in Ensslin’s publication is the multimodal nature of video games and their narrative setup. Investigating typical patterns in the design of plots, characters, and interfaces, Ensslin concludes her examination on the language of gaming with a note on linguistically conveyed constructions of gender in video games.

As Ensslin is the first scholar ever to provide a comprehensive overview of the language of gaming, some aspects are tackled only briefly or remain opaque. Thus, this thesis aims to extend investigations in lexis and morphology, collocation, semantics, and pragmatics of in-game discourse. While Ensslin incorporates the language of players and developers, interfaces, narratives and meta-discourse, the focal point of this paper lies on the production and reception of linguistic particularities by the gaming speakers. I draw on the research conducted by Ensslin, aim to supplement her insights with an extensive structural analysis of language use, and make generalizing inferences from the written and oral data assembled for this investigation. Furthermore, it has been stated that the countless players who interact with each other in online multiplayer video games all come from different social, national, and cultural backgrounds, and represent all age-groups and genders. Thus, the jargon employed by users will be illustrated as a contextually motivated variety of English that is used not only by native speakers of English but also by gamers with other linguistic backgrounds.

Video games transport players to spaces where death is not eternal, teleporting through space is ubiquitous, and where fantasies of flying, taming imaginary creatures, and operating with magic become digital reality. Players are digitally manifested in virtual worlds, some being spheres analogous to the real world, others being realms filled with fantasy and science-fiction elements. It is thus not surprising, that such distinct experiences require a language that 22 articulates them. Crystal argues that there is “probably no other domain within the Internet” that provides users with such vast “possibilities for creative, idiosyncratic, imaginative expressions” (Crystal 2001, 179). Lexical inventiveness in video game-related language is limitless as users continuously expand, reduce, and combine words to create new ones that meet the mediums’ demands and the players’ interests. Video games therefore “provide a fascinating example of the way in which the medium can foster a fresh strand of linguistic creativity” (ibid).

The term GAMING itself is a newly coined lexeme used to denote the act of playing (particularly video-)games, and the derivative lexeme GAMER has been used to denote people who are avid players of video games (more on the concept of GAMER in chapter 5.6). The commonality diverse players share is their interest and enthusiasm for video games, and their distinct way of communicating while playing them. Indeed, jargon may be a challenge for any novice to an online video game or game genre, as language becomes more specialized the deeper one delves into distinct virtual worlds. The conceptual complexity of video games results in lexical diversity and language will specify according to virtual context and gameplay. As has been stated before, variation does not affect the whole language repertoire of the speakers but includes partial changes and adaptations. In fact, many actions and events encountered in video games are referred to with generally accessible terms. Therefore, a non-gaming native speaker of English may be capable to understand individual lexical items or deduce their meanings. However, I will claim that gamers using English as a second or foreign language have a vast understanding of specific English gaming terms and habitually apply them in first language gaming conversations. Thus, understanding and utilizing English gaming jargon is not depending on standard language proficiency but is based on the activity that elicits the variety and is transferred through interaction with fellow players. The degree to which lexical items are accessible to non-specialists is called lexical specificity, e.g.: the term download is lexically less specific and thus accessible to a general audience; the term XP [experience points] is more specific but known to people experienced with video games; the term texture mapping is used in developer jargon and is thus highly specialized and lexically not accessible to lay people (Ensslin 2012, 67).

DEGREE OF LEXICAL SPECIFICITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF GAMING TERMINOLOGY

very specialized very accessible

GENRE-SPECIFIC GENERAL GAMING COMPUTER-MEDIATED NON-EXPERTS GAMING JARGON JARGON COMMUNICATION First blood XP LOL hero zerg melee WTF character fragging GG XD potion Smurf account HP server ability MMR mob tag bomb RNGsus AFK C U L8R quest ganking boss lag mission AOE GLHF STFU weapon Table 1 Lexical specificity and accessibility of gaming terminology

Table 1 displays specific lexical items that are idiosyncratic for gaming jargon and their degree of lexical specificity and accessibility to average English speakers. Their degree of specificity increases to the left, the degree of accessibility increases to the right. To illustrate, the terms in the right column are accessible to the non-gaming ordinary English native speaker and to proficient second-language speakers of English. The column left of it entails expressions used in different modes of CMC which are likewise used in gaming conversations. Taking a further step, the terms and abbreviated phrases listed in the adjoining column are expressions that are used in various different video game genres and comprise rather straight-forward concepts relevant to gameplay. The left-hand list encompasses more specific lexemes denoting meanings that are encountered in distinct genres or game-modes. To clarify, the expression GG [good game] is less specific than the item MMR [match making rating]. Whereas GG is called to compliment other players on their gameplay in any video game genre or mode, MMR is meaningful mostly in PVP [player versus player]-games where users are ranked in a system to ensure that similarly capable players will be matched with each other, and balance will be maintained within a game. To conclude, language used in video games is varying vastly in specificity and morphological complexity. Newly coined lexemes enter common parlance of video games and transcend from native English players to non-English gamers, crossing borders of separate games or genres.

The language of gaming is highly varied and dynamic in its transfer, and while players start to learn the mechanics of a game itself, they also start to acquire the respective language (Wizzl 03.08.2017). The subsequent chapters strive to analyze the language used by video game aficionados from a micro-linguistic perspective to further investigations of collocational patterns and discursive features. Thus, we will move from word- to utterance-level and identify the most salient linguistic elements constituting in-game jargon and communication.

3 WORLD OF WORDCRAFT: Word-formation processes in gaming jargon

Micro-linguistic features of computer-mediated communication have been of academic interest for over 20 years. The characteristics of language use in CMC have been scrutinized and scholars have highlighted the pluralisms of languages in different modes of online discourse. Even though we cannot conceive of and describe CMC language as unified or spoken by a homogenous group of speakers, “the absence of several communication channels, such as the auditory and the gestural” has been identified as “a force that has shaped certain of its [CMC’s] linguistic features” (Bieswanger 2013, 463). Video games, which constitute a yet to be linguistically inquired platform for CMC, are multimodal, demanding the players to decode both auditory and visual cues. Speakers in online multiplayer video games communicate with each other both in written and spoken form, and communicative settings change relative to the situational contexts of the game and its players. However, the advent of video games has created a vast amount of new digital activities and hence a need for a range of words that would make the virtual experience verbally expressible – especially, when being connected with hundreds and thousands of other players around the globe. Therefore, in-group codes have been established to denote what is being experienced in the digital world. Players have successively come up with new terms carrying specific meanings, and ideas “that could previously be discussed only in sentences and periphrases which varied from person to person” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1526) have undergone the process of lexicalization, i.e. creating a word for X. Communication between online video game players is filled with newly formed words denoting specific game-related meanings. In fact, it is crucial for any novice player to learn these particular items to understand gameplay, signalize belonging to the group of practice, and communicate with fellow players unambiguously and time-efficiently

In this chapter, we will examine the patters that govern the formation of new words in English gaming jargon and illustrate morphological processes with lexical items that are distinctively used in video game communication. The process of lexicalization itself is unpredictable and even though there are “finite resources for lexicalization” (ibid, 1527), possibilities of word creation seem endless. Nevertheless, there are structural patterns that are being followed in the formation of gaming-related terms which correspond to standard morphological processes in the English language.

Figure 1 Classification of morphemes (Lipka 1992, 71)

In the field of morphology, we explore the internal structure of words and are concerned with the patterns of word-formation inherent to languages. In this field of linguistic study, the smallest meaningful unit is the morpheme, e.g. PLAY, which “cannot be subdivided any further into meaningful parts” (Plag et al. 2009, 70). However, a single word can be constructed by more than one morpheme, i.e. a polymorphemic word, containing one free morpheme and one or more bound morphemes, e.g. PLAY-ING, PLAY-FUL, PLAY-ER, UN-PLAY-ABLE. While a free morpheme can meaningfully occur on its own, bound morphemes can only occur in attachment to free morphemes (ibid, 76). Furthermore, the grammatical change of words through conjugation and declension is referred to as inflection, whereby only the grammatical form of a lexeme is altered, but not its word class. On the other hand, the morphological process of derivation may or may not change word class, but the results are “morphologically complex forms” (McMahon 1994, 194) of entirely new lexemes that require a individual entry in a lexicon. One derivational process in which bound morphemes are attached to bases in order to create new meanings is called affixation. When two (or more) mono- or polymorphemic lexemes are joined, like in VIDEO GAME, the process of compounding is exemplified. The morphological processes of “affixation and compounding are undoubtedly the most common techniques” (ibid, 196) in the construction of new lexemes. However, gaming jargon also exposes a great amount of reductive processes in the formation of new words, such as clippings 27 and abbreviations. Finally, there are only a few instances of entirely new word creations in gaming jargon that do not relate to any known etymon, a word or morpheme serving as a base to new compositions.

“RL INC, SEC AFK!”

The instance above may appear to be a gibberish of random letters, but will make sense to many online gamers as it communicates precisely that a real-life interruption will demand the player to suspend gameplay temporarily. In fact, the encrypted utterance is an excellent example for the illustration of numerous processes of word formation relevant in the creation of gaming terminology, such as compounding, clipping, initialism, and conversion. First and foremost, RL is an initialism of real life and refers to the actual world as opposed to the virtual world (of a video game). It is furthermore combined with the clipped term INC, an abbreviation for incoming, which can operate as a noun, adjective, or gerund verb in different contexts and is thus simultaneously an example of conversion. Hence, the three abbreviated constituents real, life, and incoming are compounded to create a new word denoting an imminent intrusion from outside the virtual world. The second part of the utterance above is constituted by the clipped form of second, referring to the unit of time and represented as SEC. Finally, the statement is concluded with AFK, an initialism of the adverb phrase away from keyboard, which refers to the player being physically absent from the computer while still being displayed as online.

Drawing from generally known etyma, morphological processes of combination and reduction can be identified as one of the most substantial linguistic particularities in the formation of gaming terminology. The following chapter takes an in-depth look into the internal structure of words used in gamer slang and attempts to outline the processes of the formation of new words that make up the vocabulary used by players of video games. As will be demonstrated, habitually used lexical items that constitute the language used in gaming are constructed in adherence to standard word formation processes of the English language. Predominantly, the vocabulary items used by players derive from English bases varying in lexical specificity and are rarely entirely new creations. Through morphological addition, reduction, adoption and adaption, etyma are altered in form and meaning (Ensslin 2012, 69). These various procedures will be depicted with isolated language samples to provide confirmatory evidence that word 28 formation in gaming language is not arbitrary but reflects “form-meaning relationships” (Hamawad 2011, 1f). Take notice, that Anglophone non-gamers might be capable to deduce meanings of the lexical items but may never grasp their full implications, whereas non- Anglophone gamers will very likely be familiar with the English expressions and their designated meanings.

Before examining different word-formation processes in gaming jargon in this chapter, we have to clarify that the formation of new words is subjected to constraints regardless of its productivity. As illustrated in the Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language by Quirk et al., there are phonological, syntagmatic, and pragmatic constraints that define what is acceptable and what is not. Firstly, the authors clarify that creating a new word like “mroogol” is unthinkable as the sound /mr/ as an initial cluster is generally not used English. Secondly, the authors show syntagmatic constraints by evoking the idea of “a machine for transporting dodos”, dodos being an extinct bird species. Imaginably, such a machine “might be lexicalized as a dodo-car but not as a car-dodo” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1531). Similarly, “the absence of dodos might be lexicalized as dodofree or dodoless but not as freedodo or lessdodo” (ibid). Thirdly, pragmatic constraints depend on real-world limitations, meaning that we cannot form a word like doorleg simply because doors do not have legs (as opposed to chairs which do actually have chair legs) (ibid). Thus, the composition of new words from free and bound morphemes cannot be arbitrary but has to follow distinct patterns in order to lexicalize distinct meanings.

3.1 Compounds

Compounds are created by combining two or more mono- or polymorphemic words, spelled either separately, hyphenated, or as single words (e.g.: video game | video-game | videogame). The combination of two lexemes, either of same or different word-class, results in the formation of a new lexical word with a specified meaning (Dixon 2014, 12). Thus, the process of compounding makes the specification of concepts possible, giving more information on what kind of X is denoted. The “Righthand Head Rule” postulated by Williams in 1981 proposes that in English compounds, the right-hand element can mostly be identified as the word’s head and thus defines the compound’s word-class, while the left-hand constituents are the compound’s modifiers (Bauer et al. 2013, 635). Usually, the process of compounding in the English language

29 does not change the word-class of the head word but rather specifies its meaning. In the process of standardization, separately spelled words are disposed to transform into compounds spelled as one single word (Ensslin 2012, 73). For the purpose of clear depiction of the constituents forming the sampled compounds, separate spelling will be used to distinguish them clearly from the hyphenated depiction of affixation processes in the subsequent chapter.

GLASS CANON SMURF ACCOUNT

RAID LEADER RAGE QUIT

EXPERIENCE POINTS SPEED RUN

FIRST BLOOD LAST HIT

The nominal compound GLASS CANON is a perfect example of how creatively words are combined by the gaming community in order to produce new, often metaphoric, expressions describing a certain aspect of their digital experience. The compound is used to denote a character’s constitution with regard to their attack power and health points. Whereas the word

CANON implies great firepower, the seemingly incompatible modifier GLASS is associated with fragility. In this respect, a GLASS CANON is a character who is capable of dealing great damage but is simultaneously vulnerable and may easily fall to bits when attacked. Therefore, the nominal compound GLASS CANON is highly metaphorical and nearly poetical in its juxtaposition of vulnerability and force, creating a word that “expresses the sensation of playing a character that can deal loads of damage but is extremely squishy at the same time” (Wizzl 03.08.2017).

As the process of compounding is one of the most productive sectors in the formation of new words, gaming jargon is filled with nominal and verbal compounds. As a matter of fact, the process of conversion, or zero-affixation ( see chapter 3.3), renders multiple compounds hard to identify as verbal or nominal without linguistic co-text that can help identify the grammatical form and function of the right-hand constituent. Considering the term RAGE QUIT, we are able to identify that the left-hand constituent rage can be both noun and verb, and the right-hand constituent is mostly used as a verb (to quit). Even though QUIT as a verb should consequently define the word-class of RAGE QUIT as a being a verb, it can in fact serve both as a verbal and a nominal compound. This instance illustrates the process of conversion, in which there is a

30 change of word-class from the generally used verb to quit to a rather unconventional noun a quit without changing the original form.

“These noobs are gonna make me rage quit!”

“He rage quits mostly cause of the lags”

“After a few rage quits, my stats have gone down”

While RAGE QUIT has a verbal function in the first two examples, it is a nominal compound in the last sentence. To express grammatical information, the inflectional suffix –s is added to the verbal compound RAGE QUIT to form the third person singular and to compose the regular plural of a nominal compound RAGE QUIT.

3.2 Affixation

Having established the process of combining mono- or polymorphemic words, we will turn to examples of joining bound and free morphemes to create new meanings. This development is achieved by adding linguistic material in the form of affixes, i.e. prefixes and suffixes, to a base. “The creation of new lexemes by affixation is called derivation”, while “the morphological expression of grammatical information and categories is termed inflection” (Plag et al.2009, 90). In other words, inflectional affixation is limited to suffixes that indicate person, possession, or tense of an existing lexeme, while derivation makes use of both prefixes and suffixes to create a new lexeme. Affixation is a word-formation process “in which a base is typically altered in terms of certain very broad semantic or grammatical categories by the use of an effectively closed set of items” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1567). Thus, affixes are chosen from a finite pool of options that extend or alter meanings, or add grammatical material. Even though Quirk et al. describe affixes as a close-set of morphemic items that is strictly confined especially with regard to inflection, derivational affixes are used in ineffable extent to create new lexemes belonging to open word-classes. According to an investigation on English affixes by Dixon (2014), the English language makes use of around 200 derivational affixes, each carrying the potential to produce new lexemes (p. 11). These affixes are either etymologically Germanic and have been used in Old English already, or derive from other languages such as French, Latin, or Greek. We can thus infer that linguistic exchange, adaptation and adoption over time and space resonates even in the smallest meaningful units of a language. Just as in Standard English,

31 derivational affixation is one of the most productive processes in the formation of new lexemes in gaming jargon. If a derivational affix is, “from time to time, used with a new form to create a stem not previously encountered” (Dixon 2014, 27), it can be deemed productive. However, newly created items have to become established, and

“this must happen naturally, in the regular course of language use, without any particular thought being given to the matter. The new usage may begin with just one speaker, or perhaps with several people each producing the new stem separately and at more-or-less the same time. This new employment of an established affix must then gradually and imperceptibly come into general use, as an accepted item in the inventory of the language” (ibid)

As will be demonstrated, the formation of new lexemes through the process of affixation is highly productive and regularly detectable in gaming language. New constructions that denote distinct gaming-related meanings and concepts are gradually being integrated into common gaming parlance when players interact with each other in online multiplayer video games. In gaming jargon, affixes are used to create multiple context-specific new lexemes, which are constructed along the lines of the standard affixation processes of the English language (Ensslin 2012, 71) in order to change the original grammatical form, word class, or meaning of bases.

3.2.1 Prefixes

Prefixes are bound morphemes preceding the base they are attached to and “primarily effect a semantic modification of the base” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1546). The lexemes below are morphemically constructed by ubiquitously used types of prefixes, and the derivatives formed with these prefixes denote specific meanings in the context of gaming.

Negative prefixes DE-buff, DE-spawn

Reversative prefixes DIS-connect, DIS-engage

IM-ba(lanced)

MIS-click, MIS-match

Positive prefixes RE-spawn

Prefixes of size MINI-map, MINI-game, MINI-dungeon

Prefixes of degree MEGA-server

OVER-powered [OP],

Prefixes of time PRE-event

RETRO-gaming

Prefixes of numbers SOLO-queue

MULTI-player

In addition to the prefixes depicted above, there are numerous other prefixes used to modify or specify the meanings of a base. Among the most commonly used prefixes in gaming jargon is

AUTO-, regularly added to denote that something happens “on its own”, “by itself”, or

“automatically”. One of the most commonly known instances of this prefixation is AUTO-attack, describing a mostly weak, but automatically activated attack. Furthermore, the prefix AUTO- is used in AUTO-save, AUTO-loot, AUTO-cast, AUTO-load, AUTO-repeat, AUTO-target. Any process in a game that is lexicalized through a prefixation with AUTO will mostly make gameplay more convenient for the player. The Greek prefix TELE- is used in combination with port, giving meaning to a regularly found action that can be exercised in video games, namely to teleport, which is used when characters travel from one location to another without having to walk the distance in-game. Thus, the in-game character will traverse the digital space in the blink of an eye. The act of teleporting is often abbreviated as TP, or is subjected to the process of clipping, in which the initial letters (in this case the entire prefix) are omitted, creating the regularly used to port.

3.2.2 Suffixes

Suffixes are bound morphemes that are added at the end of free morphemes. These suffixes can be divided into two groups, namely derivational and inflectional suffixes. Generally, “suffixes have [….] a small semantic role, their primary function being to change the grammatical function (for example the word class) of the base” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1546). Inflectional suffixes are involved in creating different word-forms of one and the same lexeme. Thus, inflectional suffixes are morphological markers that give grammatical information rather than 33 altering meaning or word-class. As it has been postulated that the affixation process detected in gamer terms corresponds to standard word-formation processes of English, we can propose that change of grammatical form likewise proceeds along the patterns of inflection in English.

 the inflectional suffixes –s and –’s are used to form plurals and genitives of nouns

A NOOB – NOOBS, NOOB’S AN NPC – NPCS, NPC’S

 the inflectional suffixes –s, –ed , and –ing are used to conjugate and form different tenses of verbs

TO NERF – NERFS, NERFED, NERFING TO PWN – PWNS, PWN[E]D, PWNING TO FRAG – FRAGS, FRAGGED, FRAGGING

 the inflectional suffixes –er and –est are used to form the comparatives and superlatives of adjectives

SQUISHY – SQUISHIER, THE SQUISHIEST TANKY –TANKIER, THE TANKIEST

The aforementioned instances display how lexemes found in gamer jargon are altered in grammatical form through inflectional suffixes. However, no new lexemes are constructed with inflectional suffixes, and thus, the patterns above will primarily be followed by speakers who can or want to adhere to the grammar of Standard English. Inflection can thus be regarded as a pattern that is applied to convey grammatical information about existing lexemes as opposed to derivation, which creates new lexemes. At a later point, we will return to the question of adhering to grammar and adapting structural patterns when we will take a look at how non- Anglophone players use English gaming terms in their own language systems (chapter 7).

Turning to derivational suffixes, it can be stated that formation of new lexemes can be achieved through suffixes which are noun-, verb-, adjective-, or adverb-forming. Derivational suffixes possess the ability to create new lexemes, often accompanied by a change of word-class. These word-ending affixes can be categorized into nominal, verbal, adjectival, or adverbial, which enable the alteration of the original meaning and word-class and are therefore creating derivatives. As the creation of verbs in gaming jargon is more commonly achieved through conversion, we will focus on noun- and adjective-forming suffixes as being important tools in

34 word-formation for players of video games. The following examples illustrate the processes with lexical items that can be ascribed to the community of gamers and are specifically used and considered meaningful by players.

Change of word-class from verb to noun using the agentive suffixes –ER:

 feed-ER – person „feeding“ the opposing team XP and gold by dying frequently and thus

giving them reward and supporting them. The nominalizing suffix –ER is used to designate the agent of an action, “someone who X”, and is habitually added to verbs (Dixon 2014, 15).

Change of word-class from adjective to noun with the noun suffix -IST:

 elemental-IST – a character able to control elemental forces, indicated by the suffix –IST to denote that someone is “skilled in” something.

Change of word-class from noun to adjective using the derivational suffix –ish:

 noob-ISH – the state of being a noob, i.e. being inexperienced. The suffix –ISH indicates a negative “quality associated with the noun to which it is attached” (ibid, 14).

Derivational suffixes can, but do not have to make any changes to the word-class of their base.

The instance of solo-ABLE depicts the extension of the adjective/adverb solo (i.e. done alone) into the adjective SOLOABLE to express the possibility of being done without help. SOLOABLE is often used to describe specific contents (dungeons, raids, or other instances) which have been designed for more than one player but can be done alone by a skilled player.

“Is the final boss soloable?”

“content becomes soloable for max-level players”

Another example for the usage of derivational suffixes that do not change the word-class of their base is the term GRIEFER. Adding the agentive suffix –ER to the noun grief, which signifies great sadness, a lexeme denoting a person who gives others grief is created. However, the base grief is not understood as emotional melancholy but rather as a state of digitally provoked mental frustration. This grief is induced by a GRIEFER who will intentionally try to annoy and irritate other players by disturbing their gameplay in various different ways, e.g. they may use friendly fire, kill stealing, camping, or smurfing, and additional methods to infuriate their fellow

35 players (Moeller et al., 2009). “Grief play is when a player sets out to cause discomfort to another player or group through either ludic of verbal harassment” (ibid) and being the victim of these exasperating trolling techniques may cause a player to rage quit or to report the

GRIEFER.

A: “omg that dude just pulled a huge mob group to my spot and then logged out! WTH???”

B: “griefers r everywhere bro… Dont let dem trolls get u down”

In sum, we can state that derivational suffixes are applied in the fashion of regular English affixation. Having demonstrated how suffixes are used to create new derivatives and meanings from etymologically well-known English bases, the examples above do not include instances of verbal suffixes as being used to create novel lexemes. However, verbs which have been formed with derivational suffixes and are generally used in Anglophone contexts are obviously also used by Anglophone players (e.g. modify, qualify, customize, localize, immobilize,). As this chapter is dedicated to explore the patterns of the formation of new words used particularly in gamer jargon, we can thus conclude that verb-forming suffixes are not readily detectable in the creation of gaming-specific lexemes. This is the case because most of the verbs adopted in gaming language are created through conversion, which will be illustrated in the next section. Even though we have not encountered the creation of distinct gaming-related lexemes through verbal suffixes, the potential to do so by adding –EN, -IZE, or -IFY to already lexemes in order to alter word-classes and create new meanings is undoubtedly present.

3.3 Conversion

Besides the concatenative processes of compounding and affixation which are based on the visible addition of morphemic material to an already existing morpheme in order to change its grammatical form, word-class, or meaning, the process of conversion can be identified as another idiosyncratic method of word formation practices in gaming jargon. “Conversion is the derivational process whereby an item is adapted or converted to a new word class” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1558) without noticeable linguistic changes to its form. To illustrate, we can derive the verb to paint (to decorate with paint; to make pictures with paint) from the noun paint by conversion (ibid, 1528). Without the addition of any affixes, conversion of nouns to verbs “is

36 the lexicalization of an action that is related to one specific sense of the noun, the sense concerned being selected on purely pragmatic grounds” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1527f). Exemplifying, the utterance “John has papered the bedroom” formed with the transitive verb to paper relates to a sense of paper as denoted by the noun wallpaper (ibid, 1528). The process of conversion (also zero-affixation or zero-derivation) in English can be seen as a “process now available for extending the lexical resources of the language” (ibid, 1558) and is divided into four significant types, namely:

 Conversion from noun to verb

A TANK – TO TANK

A JUNGLE – TO JUNGLE

A KITE – TO KITE

 Conversion from verb to noun

TO ASSIST – AN ASSIST

TO CARRY – A CARRY

TO WIPE – A WIPE

 Conversion from adjective to noun

RANDOM – A RANDOM

 Conversion from adjective to verb

MAIN – TO MAIN

As depicted, word-classes are changed without morphological alterations of the base forms. In all instances, conversion creates derivatives that “are usually less frequently used in language because they are semantically more complex, hence more specialized, and therefore less versatile in usage” (Plag et al. 2009, 105).

The examples of conversion that have been semantically adapted for the gaming experience can be identified as new derivatives when examining their frequency of occurrence in the original word-class in contrast to their occurrence as a different word-class. To illustrate, the conversion of the adjective main into a verb has only been identified in gaming-related context and has not entered general speech yet. Checking the Corpus of Contemporary American English and 37 searching for the base MAIN as an adjective without inflectional forms and furthermore searching for the verb TO MAIN with all possible inflectional suffixes, we find that main as an adjective is detected 62064 times while no single instance of any inflected forms of the verb to main (mains, mained, maining) can be identified. Most definitely, main has only been used as an adjective in Standard English until now but numerous instances of it being used as a verb have been detected in the data gathered from and compiled with experienced gamers. Examples for the usage of main as a verb are:

“Which class should I main?”

“I’m maining Warrior, good choice for beginners!”

“I have always mained mages in other MMOs, I feel like playing something else for a change”

As “conversion shows lexicalization having specific sense-orientation, in that only a particular sense of a word may be converted to another word class” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1529), MAIN as a verb is used to express the act of mainly playing X. MAINING therefore denotes that a player spends most of his in-game time playing one specific character or class. What can furthermore be observed in the usage of MAIN as a verb is, that it functions as a transitive in all instances. In addition, all objects are nouns referring to specific in-game professions.

3.4 Abbreviations

By now, we have established that new words can be formed either by adding linguistic material (compounding and affixation) or by changing a word’s function or meaning without linguistic changes to its original form (conversion). In the subsequent chapter, we will focus on word- formation processes that lead to the creation of a considerable amount of gaming-related vocabulary items – namely processes of reduction. The abbreviation of lengthy and complex items leads to the formation of new lexemes that are regarded as single units conveying specific meaning. In fact, “it is not the constituents of the word in combination that are seen as conveying this meaning but its individuality as a whole” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1580). Before voice-chat software has added the possibility to communicate with fellow players orally, computer- mediated communication in video games was originally based on written chatting solely. Thus, gaming vocabulary is constituted by an astounding amount of abbreviated lexical items,

38 resulting from the multitasking players’ need for quick and precise communication in order to perform well. As typing whole sentences and words on the keyboard is often regarded as being too time-consuming, abbreviations have become an integral part of both written and oral gaming jargon. Being idiosyncratic strategies of word-formation in many modes of CMC, different kinds of abbreviations result in “lexical forms that are made up by fewer characters than the full form of a word or a combination of words” (Bieswanger 2013, 474). What may seem as an arbitrary combination of letters to lay people, expresses clear meanings to the players familiar with the linguistic in-game codes. As a matter of fact, the reduction of lengthy lexical items and phrases is propelled for convenience and, most importantly, for quick and accurate communication. For deeper examination, these processes of reduction in gaming jargon will be illustrated with select samples from an ever-expanding list of abbreviations used by players.

3.4.1 Clippings

The word-formation procedure of clipping entails the reduction of relatively long words by omitting the initial, middle, or final syllables that usually constitute a word (Ensslin 2012, 72). Hence, polysyllabic words are shortened to become mono- or disyllabic. There is a myriad of abbreviations used in gaming that derive from polysyllabic or disyllabic words and are used as monosyllabic clippings most prominently. Among these are:

MOD [ification] INC [oming]

PRO [fessional] [tele] PORT

CAP [ture] RES [surect]

[ro] BOT STAT [istics]

BOT [tom] STRAT [egy]

CRIT [ical hit]

Another particular pattern of clipping can be identified when examining the three very commonly used terms AGGRO (reduction of aggression), AMMO (shortening of ammunition), and COMBO (abbreviation for combination). Evidently, the initially polysyllabic lexemes are clipped by eliminating suffixes and thus turn into disyllabic words, sharing a finalizing –o. The familiarity marker –o is added as the vowel obligatory in the structuring of a syllable,

39 characterizing a “type of slang developed in close social groups” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1584). Other disyllabic clippings frequently used by players are:

COOP [eration]

IMBA [lanced]

INVIS [ibility]

ULTI [mate]

Furthermore, the disyllabic clipped adjectives INSTA (instant) and PERMA (permanent) are used in the modification of nouns habitually. When an in-game character dies very quickly, they are referred to as being an INSTA-kill. Furthermore, being able to participate in a game or new match without waiting time is expressed with the word INSTA-join. The clipping INSTA is thus attached to denote that something occurs immediately. In contrast, the clipped term PERMA is attached to signify the long duration of an action or effect. In the case of PERMA-ban, which refers to being everlastingly banned from a game, PERMA denotes the literally eternal extent of the ban. As opposed to the connotation of permanent as being never-ending, the clipping is more commonly used to exaggerate something that is rather long-lasting as compared to experiences usually made during gameplay (PERMA-stun, PERMA-invis[ibility]). Most definitely, clipped words constitute a large part of gaming vocabulary. Having to be as time-efficient and unambiguous as possible, players are very productive in creating easily pronounceable reductions of polysyllabic words which can likewise be typed quickly

3.4.2 Acronyms and initialisms

A different type of shortening is the formation of acronyms and initialisms, “involving multi- word combinations” (Plag et al. 2009, 107) whose initial letters are used to form new words. Generally, there are two types of abbreviations derived from initial letters, acronyms on one side, and initialisms on the other side.

Acronyms are formed with the initial letters of compound lexemes and are pronounced as regular words. An example for the usage of acronyms in gaming jargon is the word MMORPG, an abbreviation for massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, “where the two ‘M’s at the beginning are pronounced as one and the ‘P’ remains unpronounced and the result is

40 homophonic to ‘morgue’” (Ensslin 2012, 71). Pronounced as /mɔːrɡ/, the acronym MMORPG denotes a genre of video game that combines elements of role-playing games with large-scale player interaction. Generally, MMORPGs invite players to evolve and personalize their characters, explore the digital world, go on quests together with other players, and are fostering the creation of social communities. Another genre of video games that is mostly known by and referred to with its acronym are MOBA video games. The acronym formed from multiplayer online battle arena is pronounced /moʊ.bɑ/ and denotes a genre of real-time strategy games, such as the title DOTA which is itself an acronym for Defense of the Ancients, simply pronounced as /doʊ.tɑ/. A different title that is popularly referred to by its acronym is Call of Duty, “pronounced like the homonymic fish” (ibid), the /kɑːd/. Furthermore, World of Warcraft is pronounced like the exclamation /waʊ/. Evidently, genres and game titles are often referred to with an acronym, phonetically instantiated as a monosyllabic or disyllabic words.

As opposed to acronyms, initialisms are characterized by the individual pronunciation of each initial letter of multi-word compounds and phrases. Thus, separate pronunciation of individual letters “in the way in which you spell the letters in the alphabet” (Plag et al. 2009, 108) is yet another method of creating new lexemes through reduction. Usage of initialisms is just as common in gaming jargon as usage of acronyms and may even be deemed more productive (Ensslin 2012, 71). Initialisms can be identified as idiosyncratic elements of gamer jargon as many of them are used across genres and could be added to a list of generally used gaming expressions, e.g.:

PVP – player versus player MMR – match making rating /piː.viː.pi:/ /əm.əm.ɑr/

PVE – player versus environment AOE – area of effect /piː.viː.i:/ /eɪ.oʊ.i:/

NPC – non-player character KD – kill to death ratio /ɛn.pi:.si:/ /keɪ.di:/

The abbreviated lexemes created specifically for the gaming context are spreading virally in communities of specific games, eventually being used in other games or genres too. It fact, it

41 can be stated that the usage of initialisms and acronyms is often preferred over fully spelling compound lexemes or phrases.

3.4.3 Blends

In addition to the formation of acronyms, initialisms, and clippings, we can identify yet another method of linguistic reduction and combination, namely blending. Blends are created by fusing two words in two distinct processes, clipping in the first step, and blending in the second step. Hence, new words are created by reducing bases – clipping either one base or both bases used – and then mixing them together to form a word denoting “phenomena that are distinct from, or significantly more specific than, the meanings of their constituent parts” (Ensslin 2012, 72). Known also as portmanteau words, blends are lexemes that combine forms and meanings of more than one word. Usually, “enough of each [constituent part] is normally retained so that the complex whole remains fairly readily analyzable” (Quirk et al. 1999, 1583). To illustrate, the expression COSPLAY is constituted by blending the two clipped words costume and roleplay. Additional gaming-related terms exemplifying the process of blending as mentioned by Game

Studies and Digital Humanities professor Astrid Ensslin are KINECT and WIIMOTE. Giving name to input devices tracking movement available for Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, KINECT is a blend formed from the clipped words kinetic (i.e. referring to movement, motion) and connect.

The latter example WIIMOTE combines the name of the Nintendo Wii with mote, the clipped version of remote control, and designates the console’s controller (Ensslin 2012, 72).

Another – merely presumed – instantiation of blending is GANK, though it cannot be identified as a blend with certainty as the etymology of the term itself is unclear and is being continuously discussed in different forums and game wikis. Arguably, the term GANK is a blend of gang and kill, though this claim cannot be verified due to the numerous differing definitions and usages of the word detected in gamer jargon (especially in different genres). Additionally, gank as a transitive verb is known in informal American English and is defined as “take or steal

(something) | defraud or rob (someone)” (English Oxford Living Dictionaries online: GANK).

Hence, the assumption that GANK is a blend of gang and kill could be refuted with reference to the existing slang verb to gank. However, the definition of GANK provided in World of Warcraft Wiki as implying “an overwhelmingly large group or much higher leveled player killing you 42 and/or your group” (WoW Wiki: GANK) gives the claim of GANK as a blend some viability. Assuming that a “large group” of players is synonymous with the noun gang and is killing outnumbered or less experienced players, GANK could potentially be viewed as a blend.

Following this presumption, the two bases GANG and KILL enter the blend after they have been subjected to the process of clipping.

3.5 Loans and neologisms

So far, we have investigated the formation of new gaming-related words that are combinations, expansions, or reductions of generally known English etyma, altered in form, function, or meaning. The application of Standard English word-formation processes was demonstrated with the formation of frequently used compounds, patterns of affixation, and types of shortenings. However, there are some lexical items that do not have any etymological affiliation with the English language. Such words can be categorized as loans or neologisms. Whereas loan words are borrowed from languages other than English, neologisms do not correspond to or derive from any hitherto existing word.

Even though loans are the rare exception when examining the lexical repertoire of gaming, two regularly used words are conspicuous, one borrowed from French and one, geographically even more distant and thus especially striking, etymologically rooted in Oceania. Used in multiple genres and sub-genres, MELEE and MANA are examples of words adopted from languages other than English.

 MELEE /mɛ.leɪ/

The French noun MÊLÉE derives from the “Old French medlee, variant of meslee ‘melee’, based on the medieval Latin misculare ‘to mix’” (Oxford English Dictionary 2010, 1101: MEDLEY) and translates to hand-to-hand combat. Denoting the “mixing” of opponents in close combat, the etymologically French word MELEE is also used to refer to a chaotic crowd of people. Melee is used in Anglophone military contexts but is most prominently known from its usage in gaming discourse. Investigating the frequency of usage in gaming-related versus general contexts, there is a statistically significant overuse of MELEE in the corpus compiled especially

43 for this thesis as opposed to its frequency in COCA. The Corpus of Contemporary American

English displays only 457 occurrences of MELEE in relation to the over 520-million-words long corpus, while the corpus of gaming texts exhibits 72 hits for MELEE in relation to its size of 222.387 tokens. The disproportionate occurrences of the lexeme relative to the size of the corpora suggests that MELEE is used distinctly in gaming contexts, where melee combat is an integral part of numerous fighting games and is used as the antonym of ranged combat. Melee attacks are performed with low-ranged melee weapons, such as swords, axes, and daggers, or are executed with the digital bare hands.

“Melee attacks now miss if the target is farther away than […]” (Dota 2 patch note, April 2015)

“I have the option to go melee, but prefer to play ranged”

“That boss is quite easy, just stack in melee all the time”

 MANA /mɑ.nə/ The term MANA “is common to all Melanesian languages proper and also to the majority of Polynesian languages” (Mauss 2001, 133) and has been adopted as a central concept in gaming jargon. The Austronesian term was first described by French sociologist and anthropologist Marcel Mauss in his General Theory of Magic [1902] as a symbolic representation of power, efficiency, experience, and wisdom. According to Mauss, the etymon MANA “covers a host of ideas which we would designate by phrases such as a sorcerer’s power, the magical quality of an object,[…] to be magical, to possess magical powers, to be under a spell, to act magically”

(ibid, 133f). The series of interrelated notions expressed by MANA are narrowed down in gaming jargon, making MANA synonymous with magic or defining it as the source of magic. In the digital world, the concept of MANA has been adopted to express the ability to cast magical spells, each ability consuming different amounts of mana [points]. Being out of mana prevents the player from using any spell, compelling the user to restore mana (e.g. by consuming a mana potion). Keeping an eye on mana costs in magical fights propels the continuous regeneration of mana.

To summarize, the loans MANA and MELEE are etymologically rooted in languages other than English and have been adopted by members of the gaming community to designate two very significant fighting mechanics found in games, physical close combat on one side, and magical (commonly ranged) combat on the other side. Apart from these loans that derive from foreign

44 etyma, there are lexical items that do not draw from any well-known etyma, namely neologisms. This composition of entirely new words that do not derive from any known etymon can rarely be identified in gaming jargon. Even if one could expect video games to propel the formation of neologisms due to the highly specific digital activities that have to be denoted, only three entirely novel words could actually be detected.

 ZERG /zɜrɡ/

The term ZERG first appeared as the proper name of a race of controllable units in the game

StarCraft, released in 1998. In the sci-fi real-time strategy game, the ZERG are “named ‘the Swarm’ per their ability to rapidly create strains, and the relentless assaults they employ to overwhelm their foes” (StarCraft Wiki: ZERG). As the ZERG’s power lies in their swarm-like formation, the term ZERG was spreading to other video games and became synonymous with a “swarm” or very large group of players. Especially in MMOs, big groups of players are zerging through a digital world and can annihilate any enemy due to player quantity, but not necessarily player quality. Zerg as a proper name in StarCraft has thus transcended the game’s borders and is now being used in other genres either as a noun or verb.

“We zerged him [a boss] down brainlessly”

“Most people that get into zerg battles […] will need to turn down graphic settings, just to stop the massive in-game lag”

“A whole zerg’s been wiped in seconds!”

 NERF /nɜrf/

The word NERF is used to refer to the adjustment of “the tangible effects of a virtual world element downward” (Bartle 2003, 305). In other words, nerfing is the decrease of any game element (e.g. skills, classes, objects, damage, duration, health points, etc.) that is implemented by game developers in order to make a game more balanced. Occasionally, specific elements in games become imba[lanced] or OP [overpowered], giving an advantage to players who use them as opposed to other players who do not. Especially when new features enter a game in an updating patch, they frequently have to be adjusted at a later point as they may unexpectedly affect gameplay and its equilibrium. The term NERF has no etymological roots in any language but is the proper name of an American toy brand that has been producing safe-play foam

45 weaponry since the late 1960s. Apparently, the term was adopted in the game Ultima Online, where power of close combat weapons was decreased and players felt as if they were fighting with “Nerf” weapons (Bartle 2003, 305). Used to express the discontent about reduced damage output initially, to nerf is being used synonymously with to decrease or to reduce by players and game developers. Furthermore, NERF acts as an antonym of BUFF, which denotes a beneficial increase of an element.

“He [a particular hero] was buffed too much lately and will have to get nerfed again”

“[…] there was a 10% nerf to adrenal health”

Both ZERG and NERF exemplify the integration of rather unfamiliar terms as new lexemes in gamer jargon. Firstly, the chosen items are both proper names and thus do not contain any familiar linguistic information denoting a certain meaning. Obviously, the terms did not occur ex nihilo but have their origin in a toy production firm and a playable race of a video game.

Secondly, NERF as the specific name of a generic trademark becoming synonymous with decrease involves semantic expansion. A digitally decreased performance of video game elements is metaphorically expressed with reference to ineffective foam-weapons. Likewise, the term ZERG was adopted into gaming jargon and is understood through one quality that distinguished the Zerg race in StarCraft, namely their acting as a swarm. This semantic quality and name of the powerful insectoid swarm have been embraced figuratively in multiple games as ZERG is used to designate large players groups who excel through coordinated formation and motion.

 LEEROY /li:rɔɪ/ A third neologism derives from the proper name of a well-known player and evokes a whole scene that has turned from an inside joke to being used as a verb especially in World of Warcraft. The incident that stimulated the formation of the lexeme involved a WoW-player and his character named Leeroy Jenkins who, pathetically screaming his name in voice chat, thoughtlessly jumped into battle without waiting for his strategizing party members and consequently causing his whole group to fail. The video of the scene went “viral” after its publication in 2005 within the World of Warcraft community and beyond, presumably becoming the first video game meme. Developing to become iconic among many adept players and outside the gaming community, the incident motivated the formation of a verb, TO LEEROY

INTO SOMETHING, which “means to rush headlong into a situation of extreme danger with no

46 regard to the potential consequences” (Blizzard Entertainment 2014, “World of Warcraft:

Looking for Group”). Besides its verbal usage, “LEEEEEEROY JENKIS!” is used humorously as a theatrical war cry. Just as the items ZERG and NERF, the case of LEEROY exemplifies how linguistic innovations are sparked in small speech communities and then transcend to be used by larger networks of people. Ultimately, all three highlighted terms must be defined as neologisms since they are not alterations (combinations, reductions, extensions) of known etyma but linguistic adaptation of proper names. Being metaphorically linked to aspects of the name-giving sources, the terms NERF, ZERG, and LEEROY have been used in small environments of particular game titles first and have then evolved to become widely used in other gaming- related discourses.

Concluding this chapter, we can state that word-formation in gaming jargon proceeds according to typical processes of English morphology and is productive in the sense that it lexicalizes numerous distinct aspects of the digital gaming experience and is being used uniquely by the gaming community. Most importantly, all of the select items “serve to convey particular meanings” and “are attributed semantic value which motivate their morphological behavior” (Hamawad 2011, 5). In his cognitive theory of language and morphology, Hamawad argues that morphological expressions are not incorporated arbitrarily and entail semantic values which stimulate their usage (ibid, 18). Therefore, he defines structures as inherently symbolic, morphological arrangements carrying meaning in the context in which they are applied. Furthermore, the lexical items created to fit the gaming experience mostly involve word- formation processes that derive new lexical items from already existing etyma. Even though the creation of new expressions proceeds along the lines of conventional word-formation processes, there is no constraint in creativity when coining “a novel expression from a conventional expression” or interpreting “the same situation in alternate ways using different linguistic expressions” (ibid, 21f). As nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are the word-classes that can be subjected to change, their alteration – combination or reduction – can lexicalize concepts encountered in the world of online gaming. Hence, new expressions are not constructed randomly but rather by following particular schemas and by transforming conventional expressions into semantically more complex ones (ibid, 18ff). Loans and neologisms have to be treated differently, as meaning cannot be deduced from morphological information or inferred from generally accessible semantic knowledge. Instead, they exemplify the adoption of a form, such as a proper name, and the adaptation of a particular sense of

47 meanings related. In the following chapter, the alteration of semantic meanings will be presented as another linguistic conspicuity of gaming language, and an investigation of form- meaning relations and metaphor use will shed light on how speakers conceptualize and verbalize the gaming experience.

4 METAMORPHOSIS OF MEANINGS: Semantic shifting and metaphoric expression in gaming discourse

Having examined the internal structure of lexemes and the formation of new items in gaming jargon, we will investigate how semantic meanings are conveyed through linguistic expressions and which concepts they represent. In addition to word-formation as a prime source for extending the players’ lexicon, semantic transfer is yet another device for the implementation of new word-meaning relations lexicalizing extra-linguistic concepts. The “human propensity for retaining old stock for new purposes rather than completely inventing something new” (Chaika 1980, 89) has been demonstrated in the preceding section with new lexemes being derived from known etyma and affixes in standard processes of word-formation. In the subsequent chapter, individual lexical items will serve to illustrate how known meanings are adapted in response to the new experiences players encounter in-game. Adding to an inspection of semantic shifting on the level of single lexemes, an inquiry into metaphor use in video game communication will depict how meanings are convey through figures of speech and what they tell us about the conceptualization of video games themselves.

Semantics studies the meanings of words, phrases, and sentences with a focus on the structure of meaning and its linguistic expression. Meanings are mental descriptions for entities that are denoted by a word. The conceptualization of such entities, or categories, entails information on available visual properties or behavioral patterns and becomes linked to a distinct linguistic configuration, i.e. a word (Löbner 2013, 20). Based on the premise that words are used to express cognitive concepts (nonlinguistic categories), semantics inquires “the relation between a linguistic expression and a mental category that is used to classify objects, i.e. a concept” (Plag et al. 2009, 145). Such concepts are expressed linguistically by morphological and phonological construction and are combined into phrases and sentences which are compositional in meaning. Concerned with the description of how meanings are structured, combined, and altered to express more complicated concepts, semantic considerations of language highlight the interconnectedness of linguistic expression and extra-linguistic categories. From the perspective of cognitive semantics, language is entrenched with cognition and reflects on the speakers’ mental conceptualization and structure of epistemic knowledge. Indeed, language is interpreted as a mental ability maintained by and expressing non-linguistic information (Saeed 2003, 342). Both linguistic and encyclopedic knowledge are structured in a 49 so-called mental lexicon (Aitchison 1987), where meanings are organized in relation to other meanings, mapping associations, experience, and knowledge into the mind. This intricate correlation between language, meanings, and thought, and its manifestation in gaming environments will be depicted in the considerations of metaphors, while the passage on semantic shifting serves to illustrate how alternative form–meaning relations are composed.

4.1 Semantic shifts

Having examined functional shifting (i.e. conversion) as an idiosyncratic, morphologically invisible word evolution in gaming jargon, we will turn to semantic shifting as another vital process in the creation of lexemes that deviate from their original meaning in Standard English while maintaining their linguistic form. In this process, speakers “select one [word] they already do know and extend its meaning” (Chaika 1980, 88). Such changes in meaning are realized through semantic narrowing or widening, pejoration or amelioration, and are instantiations of a reciprocal relation between meanings and culture (McMahon 1994, 175). In other words, comprehension of the sociocultural environment in which a semantic shift occurs is indispensable when trying to grasp a change of meaning.

A semantic shift through the process of narrowing, also referred to as specialization or restriction, “paradoxically also involves an increase in information conveyed, since a restricted form is applicable to fewer situations but tells us more about each one” (ibid, 178). To illustrate, the word TANK, which was used in the previous section to illustrate noun-to-verb conversion, exemplifies semantic change in which there is an evolution of an original meaning to a more narrow and specific one. The noun TANK generally denotes any armored military vehicle, but is used by players to refer to a specific category of character who is very resilient and can endure a great amount of damage. Through processes of narrowing and anthropomorphization, one semantic sense of TANK, namely that of resilience and endurance, is transferred to a similarly resilient in-game hero (Ensslin 2012, 73). TANK becomes a highly specific lexeme, restricted to be used for a particular type of character only, namely those characters who are most sustainable and are thus the main target of opponents’ damage, consequently ensuring that fellow teammates can exercise their attacks more safely. In conclusion, the instance TANK demonstrates semantic change by creating more specific and restricted meanings derived from originally rather general meanings. 50

Another type of semantic shifting is widening, also referred to as generalization, extension, or broadening, which “increases the number of contexts in which a word can be used, although again, paradoxically, reducing the amount of information conveyed about each one” (McMahon 1994, 178f). Thus, words with an originally very specific and restricted meaning become broader, creating more general meanings. For example, the lexeme EASTER EGG generally denotes a specific type of egg that is associated with Easter holidays, hidden to ultimately be found on an Easter egg hunt. However, the usually very restricted meaning of EASTER EGG is semantically expanded in the context of media, denoting any kind of hidden feature implemented in movies, computer programs, DVDs, or video games for consumers to discover (often by chance). Thus, the originally very restricted meaning for a specific object, namely an egg hidden and found during Easter time, evolves into a wider and general term used for any kind of clandestine feature in any kind of media.

Yet another type of semantic shifting is pejoration, in which meaning evolves into being more negative. Whereas the word NEWBIE can be used neutrally to refer to a novice of a specific activity, it has a rather negative connotation in the context of gaming. Essentially, NEWBIE’s more commonly found orthographic form NOOB/N00B is used as an insult to refer to inexperienced newcomers or perceived unskilled players. Pejoration entails a “downward move in evaluative attitude” (ibid, 179), and thus, the meaning of NEWBIE has evolved to become worse, as it is used primarily to denote inexperienced and presumably incompetent players. A rather conspicuous example of pejoration is TEABAGGING, which is mostly used in the context of First-person Shooters as a euphemism for “rubbing one’s digital testicles into someone’s digital face” (Puebloman 14.09.2017), i.e. crouching on a defeated opponent to humiliate them. In contrast to pejoration, amelioration is a positive change of meaning which endows a concept with a favorable connotation. The clipped term PRO[fessional] evokes more positive associations in the context of gaming than its rather neutral meaning relating to a particular profession or person qualified for a profession. Even though PRO is also used to refer to players who actually make a living from their career in gaming and thus corresponds to the general meaning of a professional, it is more commonly used as a compliment in in-game conversation.

In fact, being referred to as a PRO in the context of online gaming is rather flattering, and consequently, the ameliorative PRO can be identified as an antonym to the pejorative NOOB.

However, the semantic value of both NOOB and PRO may change in context, allowing a neutral, positive, or negative connotation.

When “a word tends to acquire a new meaning due to its use by a particular social group, or a word used in a specific sense by some group comes into common currency with an extended meaning” (McMahon 1994, 180), we speak of semantic shifts. As illustrated, players of video games recycle known concepts and transfer their linguistic form and partial semantic meanings to new concepts, endowing them with more general or specified, more positive or negative qualities. In fact, meanings and functions of expressions vary and recurrently diverge from their commonly accepted or literal meaning (Ensslin 2012, 87). However, the alteration of meanings in the context of gaming is not the only linguistic particularity that can be analyzed from a semantic perspective.

4.2 Linguistic metaphors in gaming communication

Complex concepts and meanings are typically expressed through metaphors that are not only ubiquitous in language, but can in fact reveal how concepts are organized in the human mind. In the chapter concerned with the internal structure of gaming words, we have established that the processes of creating novel terms in gaming jargon do not deviate from Standard English word-formation. Likewise, metaphors detected in gaming language are structured corresponding to commonly used linguistic metaphors. As players immerse into the dimensions of video games, they draw from diverse semantic fields to refer to gameplay and mechanics through literal or figurative speech (Ensslin 2012, 75). The more complex in-game experiences get, the more likely players will use metaphor to describe them. In fact, video games themselves can be perceived as metaphoric in nature, since experiences are made in a different world.

From a cognitivist perspective, metaphors’ function does not primarily lie in the purpose of “adding rhetorical or poetical flourishes to their [the speakers’] language” (Saeed 2003, 348), but reveals and expresses our conceptions of the non-linguistic world. As we organize knowledge in the mind, conceptual constructs become grounded on our experiences with the mind-external reality and metaphors facilitate the understanding of abstract notions. In their 52 most prominent publication Metaphors We Live By (1980), Lakoff and Johnson postulated that our conceptual system is essentially metaphorical even though we are rarely aware of it. As “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 5), metaphors are used to render abstract concepts more comprehensible. In fact, metaphoric linguistic expressions are merely a reflection of the structure of mental concepts, as “human thought processes are largely metaphorical” (ibid, 6). To illustrate, orientational metaphors are frequently detected in everyday speech and reflect on our bodily experience in the physical world and our spatial orientation within it (ibid, 14). We conceive of specific concepts through spatial positioning such as up and down, in and out, front and back, etc. Most commonly, positive experiences are metaphorically linked to being UP whereas negatively connoted experiences are conceptualized as being DOWN. In gaming-related communication, such metaphors are abundant, as they “are rooted in physical and cultural experience” (ibid, 18) and are thus by no means used arbitrarily. In gaming discourse, spatial metaphors employed are:

 CONTROL IS UP | HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP | FORCE IS UP | HIGH STATUS IS UP | GOOD IS UP (ibid, 15f) top player to level up, to rank up “he’s a few ranks above me” “I finally got high-end gear”

 SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN | BEING SUBJECTED TO CONTROL OR FORCE IS DOWN | LOW STATUS IS DOWN | BAD IS DOWN (ibid) “they got our camp under control” “only low-level trash loot in here….” “downed here, res[urrect] please” “I dropped instantly…”

Metaphors express one concept referred to as TARGET DOMAIN through a different concept, called SOURCE DOMAIN. Thus, metaphors are structured as TARGET DOMAIN = SOURCE DOMAIN, e.g. TIME is MONEY (to spend time, to buy time). According to Lakoff and Johnson, we express the concept of TIME through the concept of MONEY as we conceive of TIME being a valuable and limited resource that has to be quantified (ibid, 8). The target domain is “a concept that is similar to the original concept of the source domain in that it contains certain elements, although not

53 all, of the source concept” (Löbner 2013, 50). Generally, source domains entail rather concrete concepts such as the human body, animals, plants, buildings, machines, etc. (Kövecses 2010, 18-23) and serve to understand abstract, more complex concepts. These complex target domains range from emotion to morality, from society to politics, from life to death (ibid, 23-28) and are made intelligible through other concepts in linguistic metaphors. Consulting the index of Lakoff’s Metaphors, also known as the Master Metaphor List, there are numerous metaphors that are commonly used in everyday language but are also regularly detected in gaming-related communication, such as:

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IS A PLANT – “the gaming community is flourishing”

WORDS ARE WEAPONS – “I was bombarded with trash-talk”

PEOPLE ARE BATTERIES – “pls wait till I’m charged up, got everything on CD [cool down]”

OBLIGATIONS ARE POSSESSIONS – “the tank bears responsibility for success at this stage”

MONEY IS A LIQUID – “don’t pour all of your gold down the mystic forge, it’s mostly not worth it.”

MACHINES ARE PEOPLE – “[…] and then my PC died”

INTERPERSONAL HARMONY IS MUSICAL HARMONY – “Your attacks have to be perfectly in synch with your teammates”

The concept of GAME itself is one that we use as a source domain in everyday metaphor to describe common target domains such as POLITICS, LOVE, or LIFE (Möring 2013, 91). Acting as a source domain, the concept of GAME serves to metaphorically illustrate playing by the rules or creating an even playing field (Kövecses 2010, 20). Being a conventional source domain,

GAME has not yet been treated as a target domain itself. However, we can observe that the concept of GAME very frequently functions as a target domain in gaming metaphors. Due to the inherent complexity of video games, their multimodality, and ever-extending meanings created through new digital experiences, the concept of GAME is rendered a highly abstract one and is expressed in its complexity through other, more tangible concepts. As “speakers can create new linguistic metaphors by drawing on conventional conceptual metaphors” (ibid, 35), we can detect linguistic instantiations of GAME as a newly used target domain in video game discourse. For example, games can be metaphorically represented as systems, stories, and movements

(Möring 2013, 97), but they are also expressed through numerous other source domains, such as:

GAME IS A WORLD | GAMES ARE LOCATIONS – “get ready to journey to Tyria”, “I’m travelling to the next map now” – “Embark on epic quests, delve into perilous dungeons, and begin exploring a vast and ever-changing world.” (World of Warcraft online description)

GAMES ARE PATHS - “I’ll just start my way here and then move on to the next area”

GAMES ARE LIQUIDS/BODIES OF WATER – “my game just froze”, “soooo ready to dive into the expansion!!!” – “you just immerse in it [the game]”

GAMES ARE PHYSICAL WORK – “This game is all about farming and grinding”

In addition to the depicted usage of GAME as a target domain in gaming metaphors, the concept is mentally linked to notions of war and violence, e.g. playing against each other, defeating a foe, killing another player, beating an opposing team (Ensslin 2010, 75). In this chapter, we have investigated how distinct gaming-related concepts are conveyed through other meanings. Occasionally, a distinct meaning is referred to with a signifier that was previously used to denote a different, but conceptually linked, meaning. In addition to the semantic change of linguistically preexisting forms, metaphors were identified as a means to visualize complex concepts mentally. Moreover, abstract ideas can oftentimes not be expressed by a single word only, but are best understood in a figurative way. Consequently, conceptual metaphors are as omnipresent in the discourse of gaming as they are in general linguistic usage because they can render complex in-game meanings and digital experiences more concrete and comprehensible.

5 CORPUS LUDORUM: Keywords and linguistic co-text across video game genres

In the previous sections, we have put focus on the morphological structure of individual words and have explored how meanings are reinterpreted and conveyed figuratively in gaming language. Taking a further step, we will move on to examine how these individual words are grammatically combined with other words. The analysis of collocational patterns will thus indicate “which members of a set of roughly synonymous words co-occur with other words and how they combine syntactically (Smadja and McKeown 1990, 252). Fundamentally, collocations may include a varying amount of content and functional words. These collocating words, which take divergent syntactic functions, can either occur contiguously or in greater distances from each other, separated by other items. According to Smadja and McKeown, there are three distinct types of collocations that can be identified in textual data:

 OPEN COMPOUNDS are adjacent multi-word clusters that act as a single constituent within a sentence, e.g.: RAID LEADER is a nominal compound and functions as a single noun.

 PREDICATIVE RELATIONS are used flexibly and “consist of two (or several) words repeatedly used together in a similar syntactic relation” (p. 253), e.g.: GAIN XP, GET XP, EARN XP all exemplify frequently occurring verb-object relations.

 PHRASAL TEMPLATES are used idiomatically and can contain empty slots that are filled with different grammatically permitted words, e.g.: the phrasal template [NOUN] WAS [reduced | increased] FROM [NUMBER] TO [NUMBER] is recurrently used in game update notes.

Having determined how words can co-occur in text, it can be inferred that “the co-selection of syntax and lexis often involves not just one word, but a series of them” and that “each choice systematically constrains choices in the immediate context and in the development of the discourse as a whole” (Francis 1993, 143). Thus, investigating collocations in “authentic untampered-with examples” (ibid, 138) may pave the way for deeper understanding of linguistic behavior. To reveal the most strikingly used lexical items and collocations in gaming context, a corpus has been compiled to give evidence for recurrent linguistic patterns in natural language production. Taking a quantitative look at language, we may be capable to infer general tendencies in gaming phraseology as central keywords will be examined with regard to their linguistic co-text and context. So far, we have established which lexical items are part of gaming jargon’s inventory and have inquired which patterns of word-formation are used to lexicalize 56 gaming-related experiences. Having acknowledged how players speak in games, we will furthermore investigate how they speak about the gaming experience. For this purpose, texts gathered from online fora relating to three distinct video game genres will be scrutinized separately in order to reveal textual particularities and any potential lexical differences between genres. As mentioned before, the nonconcatenative process of conversion renders multiple items hard to classify as verbal or nominal. Thus, potential cases of conversion will be indicated in the lists of nominal keywords. The transformation of verbs into nouns and vice versa and the usage of such items will be discussed in more detail in each section.

The largest part of the corpus consists of 600 texts gathered from six different game forums and game titles. An inspection of these authentic written text samples will disclose which lexical items are idiosyncratically used in relation to specific genres and which words are commonly co-occurring. The focus of the examination will lie mainly on content words, while grammatical words will only be addressed marginally. Firstly, the genre of MMORPGs will be examined through the analysis of keywords and collocations featured in texts posted on the official forums of World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) and Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet). While World of Warcraft has constantly remained the most played MMORPG ever since its launch in 2005, Guild Wars 2 ranks among the top 5 most played MMMORPGs with around 7 million players worldwide (Peden 2017). In a second case study, two of the most popular MOBAs, Dota 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2, Valve Corporation) and LoL (League of Legends, Riot Games), will be scrutinized in depth with regard to commonly used lexical items and how they collocate with other words. In March 2017, Dota 2 was the most played game downloadable off Steam, a highly popular platform distributing video games digitally to over 8 million users who regularly log in (Steam Game Statistics, March 2017). Thirdly, Steam’s second most played video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will serve to exemplify the language used in the genre of Shooters alongside with texts relating to the FPS franchise Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

Examining linguistic particularities and habitually co-occurring word clusters relating to three distinct genres, the empirical data gathered for this thesis will furthermore reflect on linguistic commonalities across the boundaries of individual game titles and particularities used by sub- groups. As the three genres differ gravely in their gameplay mechanics, group dynamics, objectives and themes, the language used in their respective context is likely divergent. In 57 addition, it has been established that there is no unified language of gaming, and thus, different game dynamics and communicative settings may encourage particular collocational behavior.

In sum, the corpus has been generated from 783 texts, with over 220.000 word tokens and more than 75% of the texts being written output produced by players. Players communicate with each other and with games’ developers regularly in written form, with discussion and exchange of information happening on authorized websites’ official fora and game support. The forum entries and patch notes collected for written text analysis stem from such official websites of different games and were posted between spring 2015 and spring 2017. The analysis serves to uncover tendencies in collocational patterns on a general level and is limited to an inspection of minimal word clusters only.

Game title Number of texts Game fora Game update notes

World of Warcraft 100 Guild Wars 2 100 53

Dota 2 100 68 League of Legends 100

Counterstrike: Global Offensive 100 62 Call of Duty: Black Ops III 100

TOTAL 600 183 = 783

Table 2 Number of texts gathered from different genres and game titles

5.1 Case study 1: Keywords and collocations in MMORPGs

Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games are vivid virtual worlds in which thousands of players from around the globe come together to cooperatively experience a fictional open- world. MMORPGs “are the first persistent (twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week) worlds, and the first instance of individualized mediated experiences within a mass audience (each

58 player’s experience is unique despite the large number of simultaneous participants)” (Wolf and Perron 2003, 11). Destined to gain experiences in mythical realms and join forces with fellow players, real-world individuals embark on digital journeys to individually mold their characters, collaborate or compete with others, and make advances against various representations of “the evil”. In the following passage, 200 texts posted in the official MMORPG forums (Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and Arenanet’s Guild Wars 2) will be analyzed with regard to the most frequently used lexical items and their combination with other words. Thus, the sub-corpus of texts serves to intensify research on the usage of lexical items that are typically used in this distinct genre. The 200 texts contain a total of 4419 word types and 38.172 word tokens while having a mean average of 190 words per text.

TOP 20 nouns in MMORPGs (number of occurrences) 1. PLAYERS (122) 11. CONTENT (56) 2. GAME (120) 12. *SPEC (54) 3. TIME (104) 13. SYSTEM (52) 4. PEOPLE (96) 14. *LOOT (50) THING (50) *SKILL (50) 5. POWER (87) 15. RAIDS (48) *PLAY (87) CHARACTER (48) 6. PVP (84) 16. GEAR (47) GROUP (47) 7. *LEVEL (79) 17. THINGS (46) CLASSES (46) DUNGEONS (46) 8. *DAMAGE (74) 18. *RAID (44) PVE (74) 9. CLASS (72) 19. BOSS (42) PLAYER (42) 10. WORLD (57) 20. DUNGEON (41) SKILLS (41) MELEE (41) Table 3 Most frequently used nouns across 200 MMORPG texts [* indicates possibility of noun to verb conversion]

Examining the list of keywords, the most commonly used nouns ostensibly represent key concepts pertinent to MMORPGs, where PLAYERS control specific CLASSES of CHARACTERs, each having different SKILLS and distinct GEAR. Playing in either PVP or PVE mode, PEOPLE experience a digital WORLD as a part of a GROUP or guild. Prevalently, players embark on quests, gather in large groups to face RAIDS or DUNGEONS, hoping for good LOOT to drop from BOSSES.

The SPEC, which is the statistical composition of a character, determines an avatar’s POWER and source of DAMAGE, and ultimately influences its DPS [damage per second]. Finally, GAMES of the MMORPG genre require TIME to experience vast amounts of CONTENT. Indeed, the predominantly used nouns cover idiosyncratic elements of the players’ experiences on the level of their individual character as well as in cooperation within a collective of players and the virtual challenges that have to be faced. Thus, the nominal keywords predominantly used in MMORPG online fora are reflecting on the most important features of the genre as perceived by the players.

Counting bare frequency numbers, the plural and singular of PLAYER occurs 164 times and can thus be identified as the most frequently used nominal lexeme across all 200 texts. The examination of the linguistic co-text of these instantiations of PLAYER and its prevalently used plural form PLAYERS indicates that the lexeme serves to refer to the real-life playing people as opposed to their in-game characters. The noun is predominantly preceded by adjectives such as

NEW, OLD, BAD, GOOD, EXPERIENCED, OTHER, or is compounded with the modifier PvE or PvP, denoting the preferred play mode. Being the most prominently used noun in both games’ fora threads, the PLAYER on an individual level and PLAYERS on the collective level experience a game and express their similarities and differences verbally by establishing dichotomous ideas of new vs. old players, good vs. bad players, PvE vs. PvP players. In fact, there is “an often aggressively communicated culture of difference between PROs and NOOBs” (BattleTombo, 14.09.2017), where some experienced players will demonstrate their expertise verbally by either flaming or trolling unexperienced players (see chapter 6.3). The concept of PLAYER is thus versatile, habitually preceded by a modifier denoting one element of a binary opposition.

Thus, the converse concepts of new vs old | good vs. bad | PvE vs. PvP PLAYERS expressed linguistically serve to locate the individual player within a group of other players, all being differently skilled and interested.

The most frequently appearing collocations of the top ranking items across all texts in MMORPG fora are:

 PvP: PvP skill, open-PvP, balanced PvP  LEVEL: high/low level, item level, level scaling, player level, character level, to increase level, to reach a level, to gain a level, low-/high-level map, level cap

 DAMAGE: melee damage, ranged damage, to reduce/increase damage, damage over time [DoT], burst damage  CLASS: to play a class, a main class, to main a class  CONTENT: solo content, group content  LOOT: to get loot (from), to drop loot, good/nice loot, bad/trash loot  MELEE: to be in melee, to fight in melee, to go melee, to melee, melee damage

The examples above are instances of conspicuously reoccurring word clusters, exemplifying the word-formation process of compounding on one side, and the functional usage of nouns as objects to transitive verbs on the other side. Thus, usage of open compounds is ubiquitous, verb- object relations are common, and adjectives are used as premodifications in noun phrases. We can furthermore identify the process of conversion when examining the item BUILD and its inflected form BUILDS. The lexeme appears 58 times [BUILD (33) BUILDS (25)] in text gathered from Guild Wars 2 fora and is used as a verb only in 3 of the cases registered. All other appearances of BUILD are instantiations of a newly coined noun denoting the statistical structure of a character. The lexeme frequently collocates with the preceding nouns POWER,

HEALING, DAMAGE, CONDITION. The so-formed nominal compounds with the head BUILD are thus further specifying the composition of a character, its abilities, and prevalent role in the setup of a group. The noun BUILD with its most frequently collocating modifiers is only detectable in Guild Wars 2 forums, while a more commonly-known synonym used in both games is the lexeme SPEC|S. The singular and plural of SPEC [specialization] occurs 73 times and occurrence is distributed equally between both games. Most regularly detected collocations are ELITE SPEC,

NEW SPEC, OTHER SPEC, DPS SPEC, PVP SPEC, and DEFAULT SPEC.

Another instance of conversion is detectable in the instance of LEVEL, which can act both as a noun or verb derived by conversion, e.g. a level, a level-up, to level, to level something, to level up. Likewise, the items TANK, RAID, SKILL, and MELEE can either take a nominal or verbal function. Taking a look at the most frequently occurring verbs, it becomes more apparent that conversion is very commonly used. To exemplify, the collocations of PLAY are formed following two distinct patterns. On one hand, PLAY is used as a transitive verb syntactically related to an object, usually occurring in the clusters to play a game, to play content, to play a character, to play a class. On the other hand, the item PLAY is used as a nominal head creating distinct compounds such as GAME PLAY, TEAM PLAY, ROLE PLAY. Thus, the numerous examples reassure the assumption that conversion is a prevailing method of word-formation in gaming 61 jargon. The verbification of nouns and nominalization of verbs without morphological alteration often serves to lexicalize a word metaphor that can evoke “a whole prototypical scene” (Lipka 1992, 163). As has been shown in the previous chapters, the item TANK is subjected to both a semantic and a functional shift with zero alteration to form. A further example of conversion that entails semantic change and has been registered in the MMORPG sub-corpus is the item KITE. The verb to kite derives from the noun kite by conversion, lexicalizing the concept of “pulling” an enemy behind oneself like a kite. The transitive verb

KITE draws on the image of flying a kite and refers to the metaphorical “dragging” of an opponent to and from certain locations by keeping its aggro.

Aside from primary verbs (i.e. be, do, have), the verb GET ranks among the most regularly used verbal items. Most conventionally, it is used as a transitive verb in the collocational patterns

GET LOOT, GET ITEM, GET LEVEL, GET RANK, and GET BUFFS. Furthermore, GET acts as a linking verb in the collocations GET STUNNED, GET NERFED and GET BUFFED. Other reoccurring collocations with verbs are: TO FARM XP | GOLD | A MAP | DUNGEONS (transitive V), TO LEVEL UP

(phrasal V), TO PULL AGGRO | MOBS (transitive V), TO GIVE REWARD | XP (transitive V).

5.2 Case study 2: Keywords and collocations in MOBAs

To examine keywords and concepts associated to the genre of MOBAs, 100 texts from the official Steam forum for Dota 2 and 100 texts written by players of LoL were gathered to identify linguistic keywords in the discourse of the designated genre and reoccurring word clusters. Defense of the Ancients, initially created as a customized map to Blizzard’s Warcraft III, “defined the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre, a multimillion-dollar industry that bolstered a global rise in e-Sports popularity and legitimized gaming as a spectator sport” (Cheng/Xu 2017, 34). In fact, the crowd-funded prize pool of the Dota 2 International Championship 2017, to which players from around the world contributed over 23 million USD

(Dota 2 Wiki: THE INTERNATIONAL 2017), mirrors the immense popularity of the video game genre. The gameplay of MOBAs is based on collaboration and accentuates team play and coordination. The sub-corpus compiled to scrutinize these strategic video games consists of a

62 total of 200 written texts, with 3727 word types, 31.993 word tokens, and mean average of 160 words per text.

In the genre of MOBAs, two opposing TEAMS of players face each other in individual MATCHES, choosing one of the numerous predesigned HEROES or champions available in a GAME. Each hero commands specific abilities and takes a designated role in the set-up of the team, e.g. playing a CARRY or a SUPPORT. Both teams have a base where they spawn or respawn after being killed. The opposing teams’ base can be reached by traversing one of the three connection

LANES or the so-called JUNGLE. The ultimate goal is to weaken the ENEMY and push forward to destroy the structures of the enemy’s base, located in two diagonally opposed corners of the map. The main structure is called “the Ancient” in Dota 2 and “Nexus” in LoL.

TOP 20 nouns in MOBAs (number of occurrences) 1. GAME (282) 11. HERO (50) 2. TEAM (147) 12. ENEMY (48)

3. DAMAGE (120) 13. *FARM (46) 4. PEOPLE (105) 14. *LEVEL (45) 5. LANE (102) 15. HEROES (42) *JUNGLE (42) 6. TIME (79) 16. GOLD (39) 7. GAMES (74) 17. PLAYER (38) 8. *SUPPORT (70) 18. THINGS (32) 9. PLAYERS (58) 19. ITEMS (30) 10. *CARRY (54) 20. WARDS (29) ITEM (29) Table 4 Most frequently used nouns across 200 MOBA texts [* indicates possibility of noun to verb conversion]

MOBAs belong to the genre of strategy video games, or more specifically, the genre of Action Real-Time Strategy (ARTS) games. Requiring a high degree of cooperation, fast reflexes, and map awareness, teams have to communicate their individual strategy, align it with the team, and flexibly adjust their position to plan advances. Ranking among the top 5 of the most used nouns, the lexeme LANE and the specification of what kind of LANE are integral when communicating positioning. The item’s prevalently used collocations are:

 TOP LANE, MID[DLE] LANE, BOT[TOM] LANE

 OFF-LANE

 TO PUSH A LANE; LANE PUSH

 TO SUPPORT A LANE; LANE SUPPORT

Similar to the first instance in which the noun LANE is premodified with reference to location, players may also call their position in the TOP or BOTTOM JUNGLE. Terming distinct spatial sections of the game’s map is essential in team communication as players need to stay aware of their colleagues’ locations and direction of movement at all times. By communicating positions and motions, players can navigate through the playing field more systematically, offer support when needed, or target enfeebled opponents. Thus, sectioning the mental diagram of the game’s map linguistically facilitates spatial orientation and organization. Another form or mental and verbal organization is related to the temporal dimension of a MOBA games. GAME, the lexeme leading the ranking of the most commonly arising nouns, regularly co-occurs with the premodifiers EARLY, MID, and LATE, conceptually splitting one match into three temporal stages that may be marked by different strategies such as LANING; FARMING; or PUSHING.

Moreover, the examination of the highest ranking lexical items across all texts yet again demonstrates that lexical items derived by conversion are used abundantly. To illustrate, the item PUSH is used as a noun in equal measure to its usage as a verb, e.g.: to push - a push, push strat[egy], push lineup, to go for a push, to push a wave - a wave push, to push a lane - a lane push, to push mid | top | bot. Further examples of conversion frequently occurring throughout the texts are A SUPPORT – TO SUPPORT, A CARRY – TO CARRY (transitive verb requiring object, e.g. to carry a team), A GANK – TO GANK, A HEAL – TO HEAL, A KILL – TO KILL, etc. Items that function either as nouns or verbs are omnipresent in the textual data and provide confirmatory evidence for the conventionalized use of conversion to form new lexemes in video game jargon.

Another conspicuously occurring item is the noun JUNGLE, which serves as a base for the formation of two newly derived lexemes. The noun itself refers to an off-lane forested area on the map in-between the three lanes, a jungle indeed. Through conversion, the verb TO JUNGLE denotes a player’s movement and action inside this designated area. Furthermore, a hero who jungles inside the jungle is very plausibly lexicalized as a JUNGLER by adding the agentive suffix –er.

As established, an ad-hoc classification of lexical items as nouns or verbs when examined in isolation is impossible due to the innumerous instances of conversion present in the texts. To

64 identify the most commonly used verbs, linguistic co-text has to be scrutinized to provide evidence for which function an item performs within an utterance. Doing so, the TOP 15 full verbs (including all inflected forms) used prevalently across all texts are: to play, to farm, to push, to pick, to kill, to know, to lose, to keep, to stun, to freeze, to win, to jungle, to buff, to deny. Additionally, a high amount of ostensibly consolidated collocations appear with the verb

GET, acting either as a transitive verb with an object or as a linking verb. Reoccurring clusters are: to get gold, to get XP, to get runes, to get a kill, to get countered, to get ganked, to get buffed, to get stunned, and to get nerfed. While the adjectives mostly used are evaluative (e.g.

GOOD, BAD, STRONG, WEAK), other adjectives are acting as modifiers in different recurring compounds, such as FIRST BLOOD, LAST HIT, or FREE FARM.

5.3 Case study 3: Keywords and collocations in FPS

In this sequence, texts associated to the genre of First-person Shooters (FPS) will be analyzed with respect to reoccurrence of lexical items and repeatedly used collocations. For this purpose, two popular game titles of the genre were inspected through the compilation of a sub-corpus containing 100 texts from authorized forums of Call of Duty: Black Ops III and another 100 written texts gathered from official Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fora. In total, the written texts comprise 3121 word types and 24.029 tokens with a mean average of 120 words per text. Even though the texts are strikingly shorter than the texts relating to the MMORPG and MOBA genres, they are lexically no less varied with a type-to-token ratio of 13%.

Shooter games are platforms for displaying “human performance in a mock combat setting. But, all is not combat or simply shooting a virtual enemies. And, as in any human performance, creativity of execution is the norm” (Wright et al. 2002). Like in the previous case studies, the ranking of the most prominently used nouns mirrors core elements associated with the genre.

PLAYERS act in opposing TEAMS and try to win a MATCH which may be subdivided into several

ROUNDS. As the name of the genres suggests, shooting is the primary task and WEAPONS are often models of real-life equivalents, requiring the player to make precise SHOTS in order to

KILL the ENEMY, who has to resume gameplay from the SPAWN. Oftentimes, opponents continuously remaining in an advantageous position on the MAP will be labeled as campers.

TOP 20 nouns in FPSs (number of occurrences) 1. GAME (261) 11. *SPAWN (35) 2. PEOPLE (124) 12. WEAPONS (31)

3. TEAM (83) 13. *AIM (30) WEAPON (30) 4. TIME (72) 14. GUN (24) 5. PLAYERS (54) 15. GUYS (23) MAP (23) THING (23) 6. *KILL (53) 16. FUN (22) PROBLEM (22) RANGE (22) REASON (22) 7. GAMES (52) 17. ENEMY (21) ROUND (21) 8. PLAYER (40) 18. MAPS (20) SERVERS (20) 9. MATCH (37) 19. GUNS (19) RANK (19) 10. *KILLS (36) 20. HEAD (17) SHOT (17) Table 5 Most frequently used nouns across 200 FPS texts [* indicates possibility of noun to verb conversion]

The inspection of individual items gives evidence for consolidated collocations with nouns such as:

 MATCH: find a match, competitive match, death match  SPAWN: spawn camping, enemy spawn, to respawn, get spawned  AIM: sniper aim, aim bot, aim assist, good/bad aim, head aim, aim for  MAP: custom map, mini-map  RANGE: short range, close range, wide range, long range, mid range  ENEMY: enemy players, enemy team, enemy lines, enemy location  HEAD: head shot, head aim

Without regard to function, the item KILL would rank among the top five most used content words in the texts with a total of 109 appearances. Scanning the linguistic co-text of the item,

KILL is used as a verb with all its inflected forms 38 times, while it is used as the plural or singular of the noun 71 times. The item appears most notably in the patterns to kill, get kills, to farm kills, instant kill (or insta kill), one hit kill, one shot kill, team kill, and finally kill streak.

The concept of KILLING is worth being examined in depth as it is a driving element in numerous 66 video game genres, especially in PvP-games. Player-versus-Player games are essentially competitive and often feature classic mission schemas, such as capturing and defending areas, destroying enemy units and structures, escorting or defeating NPCs, and, most importantly, killing opposing players’ characters. Naturally, in-game killing only affects the physical player metaphorically, the killer gaining numeral reward for defeating the killed player. The digital act of killing, e.g. defeating a character by leaving him with zero HP [health points], may resemble an actual scene of murder and is a literal happening in the virtual game – but as opposed to an actual demise, digital death is fleeting. The player whose in-game character has been killed is compelled to watch their inanimate character before they can respawn and rejoin the match with a full pool of HP. The killer is awarded points and the killed experiences a short-time pause before being able to resume gameplay in the base of their team, i.e. the spawn. GETTING KILLS is thus synonymous with getting points for metaphorically defeating another player by virtually killing the opponent’s character in-game. In the genre of First-person Shooters, digital killing is frequently depicted more realistically as game themes often draw on scenarios of authentic warfare and are furthermore experienced from a first-person perspective.

5.4 Commonalities and particularities across genres

Joining the sub-corpora, functional words are among the top ranking items across all genres. Firstly, these functional words are predominantly primary, auxiliary, or modal verbs “indicating player choice, possibility and agency” (Ensslin 2012, 88). They are among the most prominent grammatical elements used equally across all different fora. Secondly, the pronouns I, you, we, and they represent the mostly used deictic expressions throughout the texts. In addition to references to person, temporal and spatial relations are created with the words here and there, now and then. In online video games, real-life players are represented as in-game characters, which is why they move between two distinct frames of reference. To illustrate, players will deictically refer to person, location, or time either from their actual perspective as real-world individuals or from the perspective of their in-game character. The pronoun I can thus point to both the player and their character. Ensslin confirms that the pronoun is used to denote the embodied self [I as an actual person, I as a player] or the re-embodied self [I as an in-game alter ego] (ibid, 101). As the player interacts with technology, their motoric interaction with mouse and keyboard is implemented as digital action performed by their character. Conspicuously, there is no reference to an avatar, character, hero, or champion in the texts assigned to the genre 67 of Shooters and thus no denomination of a digital unit or instance controlled by the player. The first-person perspective in Shooters eliminates the in-game character from the player’s field of view and therefore indirectly removes a controllable character as a bridging instance between player and game (Hitchens 2011). Hence, there are also no linguistic instantiations of an intermediate digital agent in the evidence present. On the contrary, the third-person perspective in the two MOBAs and two MMORPGs establishes psychological distance and is captured linguistically through the frequent usage of the terms character, class, hero, or champion.

Comparing the lists of the most frequently detected content words, evidence suggests that players of all online video game genres make concurrent use of the lexemes GAME, PLAYER|S,

PEOPLE, and TIME. These four lexemes can be viewed as the pillars of the players’ perception of the gaming experience, namely the exchange between the GAME as the medium and the real-life playing self (i.e. the PLAYER). Players are instantiated as in-game characters and interact with other PEOPLE online while investing TIME and effort to become adept and advance in the digital spheres. The prevalently used content words ostensibly reflect on the themes, mechanics, and objectives driving each of the three selected genres. The genre of Shooter games exposed high frequency of words associated to warfare and military, as using weaponry and the act of shooting are the essence of playing the genre. It is thus not surprising that items such as GUN,

WEAPON, SHOT, AIM, and AMMO are used recurrently. Whereas communication in Shooter games is dominated by subjects such as weapons and fighting, the top ranking lexemes in MMORPG fora exhibit a very different focus, namely the genre-defining immersion into a digital character by playing a distinct role in a fictional universe. The texts target diverse subjects such as character development (SPEC|BUILD, SKILL, CHARACTER, CLASS, GEAR) and varieties of gameplay and content (PVE, PVP, DUNGEON, RAID). Contrasting, MOBAs are games of momentum, in which accuracy, speed, foreshadowing, team play, and creativity are the elements required for success (Valve Corp. 2014, “Free to Play”). Hence, communicating spatial motion is essential in MOBAs, and the assignment of specific strategical roles to suitable types of heroes/champions [SUPPORT, CARRY, JUNGLER] is concurrently discussed.

Across all 600 texts related to different genres, there is ample evidence of conversion and compounding on the level of word-formation. Without change to the base form, distinct concepts associated to the playing experience are lexicalized and used flexibly as nouns or verbs. The inspection of content words was pervasively limited to verbs and nouns as adjectives 68 are used scarcely in the sub-corpora. Nevertheless, some adjectives conspicuously appear in all game forums, namely NEW and OLD, GOOD and BAD, EXPERIENCED and UNEXPERIENCED, STRONG and WEAK, SQUISHY and TANKY. These prevalently used adjectival items denote two opposing elements constituting antonymic pairs. A rather strikingly used adjective is TOXIC, recurring in two distinct collocational patterns across all genres. Although a multiplayer video game “can rapidly create trust and cooperation among team members, it can just as readily create conflict since matches and practices are intense and serious” (Cheng/Xu 2017, 35). Investigating the linguistic co-text of the adjective TOXIC, it is revealed to recurrently collocate with the lexemes

PLAYER and COMMUNITY. This toxicity is ascribed to players who are disturbing the atmosphere of a game by explicit, often targeted flaming of other players, making the playing experience less enjoyable (see chapter 6.3.1.). In conclusion, all texts focus on distinct subject-matters associated to the respective video games and are consequently exposing genre-specific lexical items. Simultaneously, distinct lexemes [GAME, PLAYER, TIME] appear in balanced measure across all genres. Furthermore, all genres expose recurring instances of open compounds, either of nominal or verbal function. Additionally, verb-object relations are used abundantly by players of all genres, e.g. get loot, make gold, earn XP.

5.5 Game developers’ language in patch notes

Having established which lexical items players prevalently use in discussions about video games and how these words are combined with others, this chapter examines a separate corpus of textual data, compiled from writings published by game developers themselves. In so-called patch notes, or game update notes, developers communicate important update information. The target audience for these update notes are the players, needing to be informed about any alterations that have been implemented in a PATCH. The expression PATCH denotes a software update, designated to introduce novel elements or eliminate emergent computing problems. A total of 183 texts issued as update patches relating to three games were analyzed to reveal how producers communicate information to the consumers of their game. The corpus contains 62 texts related to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, 68 texts from the producers of Dota 2, and 53 published by developers of Guild Wars 2. All game titles represent different categories of genre, however, the examination of patch notes illustrates that the language describing processes in computing and programming does not vary across genres. If anything, language clusters are continuously applied throughout all writings, indicating that developers make use 69 of the same collocational patterns to denote specific programming interventions. In fact, a type- to-token ratio of 6% suggests that the texts are lexically not very varied despite having a mean average of 700 words per text.

Ranking as the predominantly used content word, the item FIX occurs 1592 times as both verb and noun, including all inflected forms. It is used equally across genres and in most collocational clusters, it appears as a transitive verb requiring an object. Almost half of the instances of FIX collocate with the noun BUG, which is thus the most established and pervasively used phrase across all game update notes of different genres. TO FIX A BUG turns out to be the number one collocation used by developers, who are primarily dedicated to ameliorating the gaming experience and eliminating any emergent programming errors (i.e. bugs) that curb smooth gameplay, e.g.:

 GW2: “Fixed a bug in which the attack targets of some bosses could not be hit by melee or ground-targeted attacks.” (Patch note, July 2015)  DOTA2: “Fixed a bug where the custom game would not automatically launch when full.” (Patch note, June 2015)  CS:GO: “Fixed a bug where players would not be able to uncrouch in the air.” (Patch note, September 2016)

The prerequisite for the players to understand these notes is being familiar with game-specific terminology, basic programming features, and the context the bug arose in. The item BUG furthermore appears in the compound noun BUG FIX or is postmodified by a clause, e.g.:

 a bug causing X  a bug preventing X from Y  a bug allowing X

Game developers perpetually have to reprogram, optimize, and balance a game to maintain a satisfied player base. To create an even playing field for all players, specific game elements are adapted, preventing single aspect from becoming too powerful or too inefficient. Therefore,

FIXING denotes the adaptation of unbalanced or defective features and the process is being explained with a set of recurring lexical items and phrasal patterns.

Following the item FIX, the most frequently used content words (in descending order) are:

SECONDS (805), INCREASED (769), BUG (723), DAMAGE (718), ADDED (701), REDUCED (620), NEW (538), SKILL (525), PLAYERS (472), LONGER (464), LEVEL (445), TIME (323), PLAYER (312), DURATION (308), COOLDOWN (286), ABILITY (270), TRAIT (266), GAME (265), ITEMS (263)

The texts precisely communicate changes made in different updates, and even though they are related to different games, the same lexical items are used across all writings in balanced measure. In fact, recurring clauses and phrases indicate that the language used by game developers speaking to their target audience is rather standardized and does not diverge in the context of different genres. Besides FIX A BUG as the most prominent collocation in a verb-object relation, one particularly often occurring phrasal template constituted by the highest ranking terms is:

REDUCED | INCREASED + DAMAGE | TIME | DURATION | COOLDOWN + of X [from #1 to #2]

The adjustments made by developers communicate a concurrent work on a game’s balance. Creating an equilibrium between specific game elements is key in multiplayer video games as players should interact with each other on a level playing field. In other words, every character, weapon, or strategy will necessarily have strengths and weaknesses. This way, developers are trying to approximate to egalitarian conditions especially in PvP modes. When elements are becoming OVERPOWERED, they are consequently being NERFED, and, conversely, relatively weak elements are being BUFFED.

5.6 Player vs Gamer: Self-referencing and group identity in games

The analysis of all written texts exposed the concept of PLAYER as being central in gaming discourse. The nouns GAMER and PLAYER have so far been used synonymously in this paper, however, the contexts of their usage reveal a subtle semantic difference between the two. To disclose their divergent connotation from the perspective of the people concerned, usage of

GAMER and PLAYER in the specified corpus compiled for this thesis has been compared to their usage in less specific discursive fields.

In the Corpus of Contemporary American English, which contains more than 560 million words, the noun PLAYER appears 116.207 times in its singular and plural form, whereas the singular and plural of GAMER is detected only 956 times. In the corpus compiled for this thesis, there are only 4 instances of the lexeme GAMER, while there is a stupendous usage of the singular and plural of PLAYER, appearing 354 times across all texts written by players, with another 784 appearances in the game update notes. Examining the appearances of GAMER and PLAYER in COCA and the game fora corpus, an overwhelming disproportion in usage can be detected. In both corpora, the occurrence of the lexeme GAMER seem negligible in comparison to the highly frequent usage of the item PLAYER. However, the video game corpus serves to inspect a highly specific context, while COCA displays innumerable amounts of written and spoken texts associated to different registers and subject-matters. When inspecting the context of appearances in COCA, the rather infrequently detected GAMER is prevalently used in newspapers and magazines. In media discourse, the lexeme has become a ubiquitous label for individuals with a fondness for video games. On the contrary, the lexeme PLAYER is polysemous, commonly used in different contexts, and denoting multiple concepts. The item

PLAYER prominently appears in the context of sports, denotes a political agent, or even refers to a person engaging in several amorous adventures without commitment to a relationship. Due to the various meanings of PLAYER, it is therefore no surprise that the item appears strikingly more often in COCA than the more explicit expression GAMER. In the Corpus of Contemporary

American English, the term GAMER appears as a label for a specific group of people, lexicalized by adding the agentive suffix –er to the base game and used to denote a person who plays games.

Concluding, the group denoted as PLAYERS in COCA is heterogeneous regarding their

(play)field of action, while the group of GAMERS is constituted by individuals with a specific interest in (video) games. The term GAMER thus lexically distinguishes players of video games from players in sports or politics, is used predominantly in media discourse, and is classifying insiders of the gaming community as a distinct group. We can consequently infer that news, scientists, educators, and the gaming industry itself have promoted the construction of GAMERS as a group of “others” that are perceived to be different from mainstream culture (Ensslin 2012, 105).

In game forums, platforms providing authentic texts written by individuals sharing the same interest, players of video games rarely refer to themselves or other players with the label GAMER.

Evidently, the plural and singular of GAMER only appears 4 times in the small gaming corpus as

72 opposed to the lexeme PLAYER, occurring 1.138 times across all texts. Senders and receivers of messages in-game or in online fora all share the same interest and speak in the context of playing video games. As no other kinds of players are involved in written exchange in gaming fora, there is no need to label oneself or fellow players as GAMERS to verbally distinguish oneself from other groups or people potentially being referred to as players. Acting in and communicating about a video game entails the actual engagement with their contexts, which is why all participants in online game discussions could be labeled as GAMERS in more general communicative situations. However, the hegemonic lexeme playing individuals use to refer to themselves and their fellows within a confined speaking environment is PLAYER. We can thus infer that in in-group communication, video game aficionados perceive and refer to themselves as PLAYERS and refrain from using the lexeme GAMER. GAMER is used to project belonging to a group in non-gaming contexts, and, acting as an ascription constructing “the other”, it is not being used in conversations between insiders.

6 CONTEXTUALIZING COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICE: Pragmatic and grammatical features of in-game discourse

In the previous chapter, the written language about the video game experience was analyzed with a focus on particular lexical items and their linguistic co-text. Having extended the analysis from word to phrase level, we will now turn to the examination of whole utterances. To examine the pragmatic features of in-game discourse and linguistic context in depth, language used in games will be discussed with regard to the communicative conditions imposed by the medium that define how “speakers and hearers determine the context- and use-dependent utterance meanings” (Searle et al. 1980, X). Furthermore, the grammatical manifestation of context- dependent utterances will be depicted with regard to their production, reception, and function. The analysis of grammatical features of in-game discourse will serve as a means to unveil the pragmatic foundations of gaming communication. The “way in which the interpretation of syntactically defined expressions depends on the particular conditions of their use in context” (ibid, IX) will be illustrated by an analysis of a conversation’s discourse features. Finally, the usage of explicit and abusive language as a conspicuous communicative strategy will be scrutinized in-depth. Serving to exemplify context-dependent levels of appropriateness, the discussion on flaming will broach the issue of the collective creation of new social and interpersonal linguistic conventions and customs. Finally, the inquiry into pragmatic and syntactic features of in-game conversations will highlight most commonly detected ways of expression that are shared within this specific community of practice.

In the context of gameplay, interlocutors make use of words and phrases whose contextualized meanings go “beyond lexical denotation and connotation” (Ensslin 2012, 87). When examining the virtual world as a distinctive communicative sphere, it always has to be analyzed as defined by consented customs created by the interacting players and the possibilities offered by the channel of communication. According to Avgerinakou, computer-mediated communication is always context-dependent, resulting from the varying conditions of different online media and devices utilized. Most importantly, virtual spaces “undermine the significance of physical presence as a prerequisite for social interaction” (Avgerinakou 2003, 277). As there is no face- to-face interaction, speakers are thus adapting their communicational strategies to the medium with regard to language production and reception. Due to the physical barrier between the speakers, participants are incapable to foresee or evaluate other interlocutors’ bodily behavior

74 and reactions, frequently leading to misinterpretations (Avgerinakou 2003, 285). Secondly, computer-mediated communication often happens on a large scale, involving a considerable amount of participating speakers competing for attention. Furthermore, the setting of communication in chats is public, and interlocutors are granted power to “unrestrained free expression” (ibid, 288). A third condition of online discourse which speakers have to adapt to, is the management of both written and spoken output. Speech is produced faster than writing, and typing orthographically and syntactically immaculate messages is not of prime importance. Moreover, the linguistic forcefulness of players results from a lowered inhibition threshold as players find themselves “at a safe and often anonymous electronic distance from each other” (Crystal 2001, 55). Not being confronted with their partners in action and communication directly is thus a substantial factor influencing the readiness to engage in linguistic exchange.

Depending on who their conversational partners are, players will use specific communicative codes that vary in lexical specificity, formulate different types of sentences in diverging contexts, and even adapt the tone of their utterances. For example, players that play and communicate with each other on a regular basis or are connected through friendships develop specified buddylects (Ensslin 2012, 97). When speaking with members of a particular (secluded) group, players may use lexical items and phrases known only to insiders. Such items may transcend the borders of the group and enter other communicative circles, eventually even becoming widely known and used (see chapter 3.5). In addition, specified language is likely to be applied in non-gaming conversations to display belonging to a group. A study conducted by Sierra revealed that conversations in friendships that are cultivated both online and offline expose reference to video games in serious, real-life speech. This way, video game references facilitate epistemic management and are used to linguistically reinterpret everyday issues in terms of the gaming experience (Sierra 2016, 218). In addition, “friends use videogame texts as intertextual resources in their everyday conversations […], shifting the epistemic access required to participate in the conversation, so that different speakers can talk and demonstrate solidarity and shared group identity” (ibid, 240). Moreover, communication among playing insiders is informal with significant utilization of slang and curse words that do not only serve as insults but aim to ridicule the target. When speaking with their friends, initiating a conversation with “What’s up, fuckers” may not be perceived as offensively as it would be by a group of strangers. Generally, a rude tone and the usage of curse words are received differently within the entire gaming community as the rules of politeness diverge from those commonly accepted as appropriate (Ensslin 2012, 97). As “the attitude expressed through language is 75 conditioned by the relationship of the participants in the particular situation” (Quirk et at. 1999, 16), the language used in our distinct insider groups does not always comply with the expectations of appropriateness valid in face-to-face communication.

6.1 The pragmatic grammar of gaming

In order to investigate the grammatical features of in-game speech and their respective pragmatic implications, oral conversations taking place during gameplay have been recorded to exemplify the most salient discourse features of gaming communication. Players gave permission to document their oral conversations on TeamSpeak, a software allowing multiple users to use voice-chat while interacting with each other in-game. The following extract involves three playing and simultaneously communicating interlocutors that are fighting a boss in a dungeon.

P3: stack here, I’ll pull him (1) P1: …………………………. Sure (2) P3: got him (3) […] P1: more CC guys (4) P2: break bar down (5) P3: ………………..max DPS now (6) […] P1: umm [..] what the hell is that guy doing? (7) P3: just focus on the boss (8) P1: oh for fuck’s sake! […] is he auto-running? (9) P2: Hehehe no speed run after all (10) P1: ………………………………holy shit! (11) P2: awesome [..] now we got the adds on us too (12) P3: This is great [...] aa (13) P2: heal! (14)

fig. 1 Extract of oral in-game conversation, recorded 19.12.2017

The playing team has five members, with only three of them being connected orally via the software. As the dungeon is most efficiently done with a full group of five, the three connected players, who are in a real-life relation of friendship, teamed up with two so-called RANDOMS. Denoting other playing strangers, the randoms can communicate in written form only as they are not using the voice-chat software.

As proposed by Quirk et al., sentences and clauses can be typified as declaratives, interrogatives, imperatives, or exclamatives, and are instantiated by statements, questions, directives, or exclamations in conversations (Quirk et al. 1999, 78). They appear in distinct syntactic forms and fulfil different functions. Declarative sentences express statements and opinions [(1), (2), or (3)], instantiated as assertions, descriptions, or conclusions (Ensslin 2012, 89). Interrogative sentences are presented in (7) and (9), though they are of rhetoric nature as (7) does not request an objective response and (9) expresses a contextually apparent happening. Most importantly, one prominent pragmatic feature of gaming discourse is an overuse of directives and exclamations, which may be perceived inappropriate in outsider spheres. Such ubiquitously uttered sentences “relate specifically to the hearer’s and the speaker’s participation in the act of communication” (Quirk et al. 1999, 88). Directives are hearer-oriented [(4), (6), and (8)] and are aimed at a recipient that participates in the context and can comprehend and respond to instructions and demands in linguistic and game-related terms. When a player says or types the message “heal!” (14), a request for health regeneration is communicated, requiring those recipients capable of healing to act on the demand. The request is instantiated by an imperative verb only, and given that players are multi-tasking and have to stay focused on gameplay, it is more time-efficient and clear to use imperatives rather than uttering a polite sentence like “would you mind giving me a heal?”. Another prevalent type of syntactically reduced utterances are exclamations which act as speaker-oriented expressions of the speaker’s emotional state and are habitually immediate verbal reactions to the experienced happenings. Such expressive speech acts are uttered impulsively and articulate strong sentiments from joy to frustration (Ensslin 2012, 96). One of the interlocutors uses a spill cry in (13), two expletive threat startles appear in (9) and (11), and laughter is expressed in (10). Both directives and exclamations “are often reducible to formulaic utterances which make very limited use of grammatical structure” (Quirk et at. 1999, 88), communicating commands and affective experience in respective contexts.

On a side note, the sarcasm in (12) and (13) could easily be overlooked without the possession of further contextual knowledge. Especially in written communication, sarcasm is “likely to be misunderstood […] as it involves deciphering a meaning that is often the opposite of what is said” (Thompson and Filik 2016, 107). Only when aware of the situation the interlocutors are in, all subtle nuances of meaning can be fully comprehended.

6.2 Deixis and contextual information

Deixis has been addressed in the corpus analysis of text about the gaming experiences as has been determined as two-sided in the context of video games. In their conversations, playing speakers continuously switch between referring to their real-life self and their gaming self, commonly manifested as an in-game character that is being controlled by the player. Furthermore, reference is established through deictic expressions whose denoted referents can only be understood in context. In the examples (1) and (3) presented in figure 2, the third person pronoun HIM refers to an opposing NPC with above-average strength or resilience, a so-called boss. However, the pronoun HE in (9) denotes a specific team member [that guy (7)] whose actions seem to impair smooth progress. Likewise, deictic expressions pointing to place and time (e.g. here and there, now and then) can only be interpreted meaningfully by participants of the specific frame of action. Video games in whole are changing the interactants’ understanding of person, place and time. Even though players find themselves in “contiguous virtual spaces” they differentiate between ““here in ‘my’ space” or “there in ‘your’ space (which is on ‘my’ screen)”, or in the case of gaming […] where ‘our’ space is in play.” (Keating and Sunakawa 2010, 333). Despite their real-life selves being physically separate from each other, players collectively experience dimensions of time and space as they “imaginatively join together” (ibid, 334) in the online here and now.

6.3 Conceptions of appropriateness

The players that constitute the gaming community agree on the communicative parameters that govern the linguistic exchange during gameplay. Most prominently, players utilize a set of collectively endorsed words that lexicalize particular concepts inherent in gameplay [see fig. 2

(4), (6), or (12)]. Therefore, any novice player will have to become familiarized with game- specific vocabulary in order to understand individual meanings and thus grasp their composed meanings in conversational utterances. Being able to relate semantic meanings to their respective linguistic form, interlocutors will convey these meanings through different types of utterances. Most relevantly, usage of imperatives and exclamatives is characteristic in in-game conversations and is perfectly acceptable in the context of gameplay. Thus, meanings are conventionally conveyed through syntactically compressed utterances, generally having “no subject of operator” but consisting of “a predication with an imperative verb” (Quirk et al. 1999, 87) solely. In fact, sending syntactically inverted or fragmented messages is preferred among players as they have to coordinate multiple actions and communicate concisely. Hence, the usage of heavily contracted language and imperative speech is omnipresent in gaming-related discourse, both in written and spoken output.

On the other hand, oral gaming conversations are marked by “a rapid speed of talk, often with extensive repetition” to cue “team participation around avatars encountering threats in space” (Keating and Sunakawa 2010, 339). Being concentrated on gameplay and communicating with their teammates, players take turns in conversations and are continuously giving instructions, coordinating actions, and reacting to other participants’ speech acts (Ensslin 2012, 97f). Multiplayer video games entail the “contiguous communication of two of more people” either in written or oral form and the interpersonal customs are influenced by the individual game’s “technological affordances and constraints” (Jenks and Firth 2013, 217). As opposed to face- to-face communication, interlocutors cannot interpret and react to the corporal signals of their partners in conversation. Thus, the lack of physical cues significantly influences oral communication (ibid, 226). As seen in the conversation extract presented in figure 2, users interrupt each other on TeamSpeak or speak simultaneously because they have no means to decipher the communication partner’s physical expressions. Passages of overlapping speech are thus common in oral CMC, occurring just as extensive pauses in speech, when the players focus on their performance in gameplay (Ensslin 2012, 99).

Interlocutors in conversations will follow a cooperative principle in communication, i.e. the collectively agreed on expectations in the composition of messages that will facilitate unambiguous understanding. However, these expectations and norms change in the context of gaming, and thus, an analysis of both oral and written discourse with regard to Grice’s 79 conversational maxims reveals that some features of in-game discourse expose neglect of the agreements on communicative cooperation. The maxim of quality is commonly flouted in gaming discourse, as players deal flexibly with notions of truth, “ranging from outright lying through mutually aware pretence to playful trickery” (Crystal 2001, 51). In this respect, online

TROLLING and SCAMMING are phenomena that defy an objective truth. Another violation of

Grice’s cooperative principle concerns the act of SPAMMING, the continuous sending of lengthy and unwelcome text messages (ibid, 53). On the contrary, players usually act on the maxim of quantity and manner as “brevity is certainly a recognized desideratum in all Netspeak interactions, in terms of sentence length, the number of sentences in a turn, or the amount of text on a screen” (ibid, 57). Whereas briefness in general CMC is often a result of limited typing spaces, using contracted but meaningful language is key in contexts of concentrated, active gameplay. In such situations, players will most likely act on all four of Grice’s maxims, communicating relevant, objectively true information in an unambiguous and concise way. However, the maxim of relevance is habitually flouted through rapid topic shifts or purpose- free trash-talk, and so-called FLAMING contravenes the maximum of manner (ibid, 56). Thus, gamers frequently disregard the normative cooperative principles as their perceptions of conventional, polite interpersonal behavior are context-dependent and definitions of appropriateness are modified situationally.

6.3.1 Flaming

The world of video games is governed by “rules and social conventions that often appear invisible to outsiders and may well remain invisible to new insiders until conflicts arise between players” (Wright et al. 2002). The unconventional standards of appropriateness within the gaming community result from the fact that the computer and the game itself function as intermediate entities, establishing distance between the interlocutors. It is thus not surprising, that players will more likely express criticism, ridicule other players, or provoke their opponents (Ensslin 2012, 104). In computer-mediated communication, the term flaming denotes the usage of abusive language online and has emerged to lexicalize a distinct linguistic phenomenon of the virtual world. Flaming has to be analyzed as “a context-dependent phenomenon […] related to the social norms which are made salient within each forum and at each given moment by the particular group of interactants” (Avgerinakou 2003, 285). In video games, targets of flames may serve as scapegoats to the flaming players in the event of a collective failure in-game. 80

Furthermore, players may express their impatience with novice or unexperienced players through focused flaming. Commonly, the flamers will use name-calling to address the subject of anger directly as flames “are always aggressive, related to a specific topic, and directed at an individual recipient“(Crystal 2001, 55). Especially in competitive encounters between players, the linguistic inhibition threshold seems to drop in the face of failure. In such situations of in- game pressure, flamers may either target their own teammates when losing or harass the opposing team verbally. However, flaming “is not solely a matter of one person who unilaterally chooses to challenge or contradict another, but also depends on the reception of this challenge or contradiction by other interlocutors and on his/her consecutive course of action” (Avgerinakou 2003, 280). The recipient may either choose to ignore the flamer or engage in so- called flame wars, where more than one interlocutor participate in linguistic combat (Crystal 2001, 55). Nevertheless, politeness and impoliteness are received and interpreted differently in different contexts, and every speaker will react individualistically. Thus, “one should focus not only on the impoliteness of individual contributions but on negotiation regarding impolite behavior over time” (Danet 2013, 640). Finally, players of video games have defined their own rules of appropriateness and are thus collectively endorsing the pragmatic frameworks for linguistic exchange.

The appropriateness of language is always contextualized, varies across different registers, and depending on the communicative situation, degrees of acceptability are modified and adjusted (Ensslin 2012, 87). In-game discourse is of informal register and politeness is commonly neglected as linguistic rudeness „constitutes part of accepted behavior in the community of practice that gamers are embedded in“ (ibid, 103). Players adapt communication strategies to varying settings, and in-game behavior may deviate from real-life conversational conventions. Even though in-game actions often mirror occurrences of the real world, acts performed in the virtual world are perceived separately (ibid, 99). Being physically detached from the in-game happenings and not being involved in face-to-face interactions, players flout common rules of communicative cooperation and are regularly using expletives (i.e. bad language) as reactions to in-game events or flaming other players (ibid, 100). Such a communicative behavior is referred to with the adjective TOXIC, with flamers being denoted as TOXIC PLAYERS and whole social groups that expose inflammatory behavior being perceived as TOXIC COMMUNITIES (see chapter 5.4). While playing, agents must adhere to the rules of the individual game as acting against them (e.g. cheating, hacking, spamming, etc.) may lead to a suspension or permanent

81 ban of the player’s account. Compelled to abide by a game’s rules, players are not complying with socially accepted rules of linguistic exchange. Hence, the idiosyncratic use of directives is preferred over lengthy and well-mannered formulations, and targeted insults are no rare sight in gaming conversations (Ensslin 2012, 103). Common rules of politeness are constantly being broken linguistically as correctness is modified in the context of gaming, and thus, utterances containing overstatements, emotional or aggressive language are commonly featured in gaming discourse (ibid, 112). Notably, three of the five interviewed informants put forward the assumption that competitive play fosters linguistic aggression more than cooperative gameplay, and that “toxicity will be higher in PvP modes than in PvE” (Tini Bubbles 27.03.2017).

The occasional linguistic aggressiveness of players results from a lowered inhibition threshold as players find themselves at a secluded and safe place in front of their screens. Not being confronted with their partners in action and communication directly is thus a substantial factor influencing the readiness to use expletives and participate in verbal fights. However, another notable feature of in-game discourse is that aggressive speech can quickly be extenuated through the addition of positively connoted symbols and emoticons, or by orthographic expression of laughter (Ensslin 2012, 104). Emoticons mitigate the tone of an utterance and “tend to communicate pragmatic meaning, rather than emotion; for example, the inclusion of certain emoticons may make a request less forceful” (Thompson and Filik 2016, 106). Modifying the intended purpose of an utterance, emoticons can either indicate sarcasm or attenuate refusals, demands, or criticism that may potentially be received negatively by the recipient (ibid, 106f). Significantly, in-game conversations are not dominated by verbal harassments, but are also rife with expressions linked to the discourse of fun and appreciation (Ensslin 2012, 111f). As video games are primarily viewed as a medium of entertainment, verbal signs denoting laughter and enjoyment [haha, lol] as well as appreciation [gg, ty] are omnipresent in video game chatting. To illustrate, calling GG [good game] after PvP encounters expresses acknowledgement of players’ actions. Like in athletic competitions, players are expected to accept the outcome of the game and gaming etiquette stipulates utterance of compliments (Bareither 2012, 65).

7 APPLICATION OF ANGLICISMS: English gaming terminology in non- Anglophone spheres

So far, we have inquired English gaming jargon in Anglophone contexts. These English- speaking environments do however not consist of native speakers solely, but entail L2-speakers as well. The commercialization and spread of online technologies of mass-communication has reinforced the status of the English language as the language dominating transnational discourse, equally online and offline. Likewise, both native speakers and second-language- speakers participate in English gaming conversations on international servers. Moreover, numerous participants will employ designated English vocabulary items and exhibit the communicative strategies previously outlined. Thus, English has undoubtedly become the common language spoken in the cosmopolitan virtual worlds, with grammatical correctness being secondary in such settings, and degrees of language proficiency varying greatly. Irrespective of their mother tongue, players of different games have adapted to the Anglophone nature of in-game chatting.

In most online multiplayer games, players can state their national affiliations and are given the option to choose a preferred linguistic environment. This way, speakers of Russian, Spanish, French, or German may play with other speakers of their mother tongue, facilitating group communication. Nonetheless, in-game communication in non-Anglophone spheres is marked by usage of English gaming vocabulary. The English terms lexicalizing gaming concepts are seamlessly integrated into non-Anglophone conversations, and are, most strikingly, structurally assimilated to the individual languages’ grammatical rules. Onysko (2004, 62f) determines six motivational factors that stimulate usage of Anglicisms in non-English German environments, which are however similarly relevant in any other environment of non-Anglophone video game interaction. First, technical jargons are typically dominated by English terminology. The particular jargon of gaming is motivated by the interaction of players with technology and since hardware and software terminologies are predominantly referred to in English (e.g. homepage, display, server, or motherboard), it is not surprising that non-Anglophone players experience semantic motivation for the usage of Anglicisms. A second motivation for the usage of Anglicisms is of stylistic natures, as “English words are used as a means of variation” (ibid, 62). Thus, English lexemes and phrases are integrated as synonyms to diversify the speakers’ speech. Thirdly, players will often prefer using English expletives over native swear words.

English items have a euphemistic character in non-Anglophone environments and are conceived less forcefully than their L1-pendants. The euphemistic motivation for the usage of English expletives is linked to the emotive and social motivations fostering Anglicisms in non- Anglophone spheres. This way, usage of Anglicisms serves to signalize belonging to a distinct social group and characterizes the formation of in-group codes. Therefore, players use English terminology and phrases “to establish sense of group identity” (Onysko 2004, 62), only insiders being able to fully grasp the meanings conveyed. Furthermore, English is generally viewed as being THE lingua franca and its knowledge is perceived as a linguistic asset to any non-native English speaker. Having “the image of being modern, hip, and educated” (ibid), another motivation for the usage of Anglicism is that of speaker convenience, and orthographically short English terms are preferred over lengthy L1 lexemes. In conclusion, there are various reasons motivating the usage of Anglicisms in non-Anglophone gaming environments. Most significantly, English terminology is inherent to technological discourse in general and thus also dominates the international playing scene. Furthermore, Anglicisms possess a group- and identity-marking quality, signaling belonging to the community. Finally, usage of Anglicism serves to produce compact speech or to mitigate effects of verbal obscenities.

Especially in German-speaking gaming environments, English terms, phrases, and respective abbreviations are used to achieve brevity and clearness, particularly in written interaction. Being a native speaker of German myself, this integration of English gaming jargon terms into German will be analyzed in depth. Generally, Anglicisms are adapted phonologically, orthographically, and structurally to suit the languages grammatical system (ibid, 60f). To illustrate phonological adaptation, the English initialisms AOE [area of effect] or CC [crowd control], that are pronounced as /eɪ.oʊ.i:/ and /si:.si:/ in English, are pronounced as /a:.o:.e:/ and /tse:.tse:/ by speakers with German background. However, English pronunciation is retained with fully spelled lexemes, especially when there are existing and potentially conflicting German homographs. To elaborate, the English word TANK can refer either to a military vehicle or a container. In German, TANK is used to denote a type of container only, while the military vehicle is referred to as panzer. When occurring in the context of gaming,

TANK denotes a different concept, namely that of a resilient, mostly heavily armored character.

To phonetically distinguish the in-game TANK from the container tank, German speakers will pronounce the first as /tæɳk/ and the latter according to their own phonology /tɑnk/.

The lexical item TANK is also modified structurally in German in-game conversations, as both verb and noun. In such discussions, the English verb TO TANK is conjugated following the patterns of German grammar. Thus, its infinitive form is created with the suffix –en, creating the verb TANKEN. Even though the item is pronounced differently than its German homograph which means to fuel, its conjugation is the same, e.g.: tanken, getankt, ich tanke, du tankst, er/sie/es tankt, wir tanken, ihr tankt, sie tanken, etc. Generally, infinitives are created by attaching the verbal suffix –en (e.g pullen, stunnen, looten, buffen, leechen) to the English root and further conjugation adheres to the rules valid in the German language (Onysko 2004, 62). Nouns are similarly integrated in German in-game discourse, in which plurals and genitive cases are marked with an ending –s (ibid), e.g. ein Tank – mehrere Tanks; der Dungeon – des Dungeons – dem Dungeon – den Dungeon. An exception in plural formation are “virtually all Anglicisms ending in –er” as they “form their plural with zero inflection” (Onysko 2007, 184f).

To illustrate, the plural of the noun FEEDER is formed with –s in English. In German however, the plural remains FEEDER without any changes to form. Despite the rules that German nouns have to be marked with an initial capital letter, this orthographic rule is habitually ignored in written video game communication.

Nouns can furthermore be transformed with “the addition of prepositions and the use of participial affixes” (Onysko 2004, 62), as in:

„da hat sich einer in die Wand reingeBUGGt.“ [someone bugged into the wall]

“Der Elite-mob muss weggeKITEt werden“ [the elite mob has to be kited away]

Especially direction-making prepositions (ab-, weg-, ein-) are frequently used as prefixes in German (Onysko 2007, 242). Furthermore, German adjectives are created by attaching adjective-forming suffixes to English nouns (Onysko 2004, 62), as in:

„[…] deren Gruppe ist sehr DAMAGElastig!“ [their group is heavy on damage]

„Seid gewarnt, ich bin absolut SKILLfrei“ [beware, I am absolutely skill-free]

As depicted, gaming-related Anglicisms are being used in German-speaking environments ubiquitously because “it’s convenient to refer to events in English as there are actually no specifically designed German translations that could be used” (BattleTombo 14.09.2017). 85

However, structural integration of Anglicism can also be identified in other non-Anglophone spheres. In Spanish, anglicistic neologisms “take the form of outright borrowings that, for the most part, have retained their English garb or appear as calques/loan translations” (Dworkin 2012, 226). Furthermore, infinite verbs are formed from English words by adding the verbal suffixes –ar, –er, –ir. However, Spanish-speaking players also form infinitives with the unusual suffix –ear, exhibited in farmear – to farm, and tankear – to tank. Likewise, French-speaking players create infinitive verbs with the ending –er, e.g. tanker, farmer, fraguer (Perron 2012, 81).Verbs used by players of Romance background are constructed of English roots and the respective infinitive-forming suffixes. In contrast, nouns tend to be integrated as loan translations especially in French gaming discourse. Some examples of French equivalents to concepts previously lexicalized in English as listed by Perron (2012) are:

 COSTUMADE – cosplay (p. 68)

 ÉCRAN PARTAGÉ – split screen (p. 75)

 INTRAJEU – in-game (p. 86)

 PERSONAGE NON-JOUEUR [PNJ] – non-player character [NPC] (p. 201)

 JEU DE RÔLE EN LIGNE MASSIVEMENT MULTIJOUEUR [JdRMM] – massively multiplayer online role playing game (p. 121)

As illustrated, players from different linguistic backgrounds transfer lexical items from English gaming jargon to their native languages. In the case of German-speaking gamers, English lexemes are included following grammatical patterns of declension and conjugation, mostly retaining orthographic and phonologic properties of the English etyma. Even though verbs are integrated into the structural systems of French, English nouns appear as calques (i.e. direct translations). Hence, players are adapting Anglicisms to their distinct language system grammatically but may also create native neologisms for particular concepts. In his inquiry into the usage of English terms by Polish players, Mekarski (2014) concludes that “the temptation to avoid a situation in which one has to ‘reinvent the wheel’ […] by coining native equivalents of already existing English vocabulary seems to be the prevailing tendency” (p. 160). Thus, the English lexicon of gaming remains most widely used, and speakers of other languages idiosyncratically draw on English gaming words and phrases in native-language conversations. The flexible incorporation of Anglicism into non-Anglophone language systems is furthermore

86 corroborating the idea that there is in fact a common code that inside-members of the gaming community will use with individual and language-specific variations. Significantly, the cosmopolitan nature of virtual worlds rendered English to be a lingua sine qua non, with players actively shaping and distributing the language variety through large-scale, dynamic interaction.

8 CONCLUSION

This thesis aimed to disclose salient language features of the jargon elicited by the activity of gaming and shed light on communicative practices and linguistic exchange in video game environments. To begin with, an examination of extra-linguistic factors that influence language production and reception revealed a prime function of language varieties and jargons as means of identification. Besides a shared interest and passion in video games, mutual understanding of specified expressions and unconventional social customs is a principal feature involved in establishing membership to an otherwise very heterogeneous group of individuals. The distinct activities and digital landscapes video games entail are collectively experienced by players and motivate the formation of a jargon which is purpose-driven and fulfills both the players’ and the mediums’ needs. Furthermore, the language of gaming has been treated as a form of computer-mediated communication in which language production and reception intertwines with re-embodied experiences, concurrent multitasking, and monitoring incoming and outgoing impetus. Thus, linguistic expression is always embedded in a distinct context and is dynamically adjusted. Rather than conceiving of gaming jargon and in-game communication as a unified and static variety, we should highlight the sheer infinite potential of lexical creativity and the adjustable handling of communicative frameworks displayed in this paper. Yet, linguistic interaction in multiplayer games has been discovered to be grounded on rules of interpersonal linguistic behavior in conversations. However, recognizing that linguistic expression in gaming is indeed rule-driven does not negate the inventiveness and flexibility of speakers. Hence, the language variety should not be misinterpreted as a deviance from Standard English but rather as innovatively different through the context of its use, the purpose of communication, and the diffuse group of speakers. Varying from genre to genre, from game title to game title, from speaker to speaker, language is adapted to in-game action, mode of communication (written/oral, synchronous/asynchronous, private/public), and to participating interlocutors. Most significantly, “mastery of this language, along with strategic playing skill, is a passport to recognition as an adept insider”(Wright et al. 2002), making literacy in gaming terminology and understanding of prevailing social and behavioral conventions indispensable.

The chapter on morphology of players’ lexical repertoire revealed that meanings are lexicalized in compliance with the grammatical rules valid in the English language. In fact, the production of newly coined lexemes is not arbitrary but is pursued with explicit adherence to conventional

88 processes of word-formation. Both derivational and inflectional processes have been illustrated, and the formation of nouns and adjectives by derivation and addition of morphological material was identified a highly productive process. For instance, usage of commonly known bound morphemes in attachment to bases of known etyma expresses distinct meanings in their morphological appearance. Notably, the textual data gathered did not expose any case of verbification by derivation through usage of verbal suffixes (e.g. –ify, -ize, -en). However, the process of conversion, in which word class of an etymon is altered without morphological change, is prevalently employed in the formation of verbs. Even though an overwhelming amount of new lexical items have been created, they are not entirely novel creations but rather extensions, contractions, adaptions, or adoptions of readily available linguistic etyma. It has been demonstrated that the formation of completely new words with unique forms is the exceptional case, and that those lexemes potentially labeled as neologisms are not derived from any accessible etyma but from proper names. The inspection of word-formation in gaming jargon revealed the immense productivity players display in lexicalizing particular game- inherent meanings through resourceful recycling and alteration of existing forms and, most conspicuously, without deviation from conventional procedures.

Having established how words are (re-)structured to convey distinct meanings, the alteration and new interpretation of meanings without changes to word form was tackled to illustrate processes of semantic modification. Furthermore, usage of linguistic metaphor was addressed to exemplify how complex concepts are expressed through more concrete concepts. An examination of how figurative speech is used in gaming discourse revealed that players make use of commonly known metaphors to express distinct in-game phenomena. As usage of metaphors is ubiquitous in common parlance, their omnipresence in gaming discourse is not striking. However, one conspicuity arose in the consideration of the metaphors’ structure as there was ample evidence that the concept GAME itself is being innovatively used as a target domain in the composition of new figures of speech. Usually, GAME serves as a concrete source domain in expressing more abstract concepts. Yet, the concept of video games is gradually developing into a highly complex one, and thus, players restructure common metaphors to make the complex experience comprehensible through other ideas.

Moving beyond the structure of individual words and meanings, the quantitative evaluation of textual data provided evidence for commonly used compounds, repeatedly found predicative 89 relations, and flexibly used phrasal templates across different genres. High-frequency words and their linguistic co-text were scrutinized to determine patterns in authentic speech samples. A juxtaposition of language use in different genres showed that the top-ranking lexical items occurring in all of the multiplayer online games examined encompass the words PLAYER,

PEOPLE, GAME, and TIME, which are perceived as central elements in gameplay. However, language has been demonstrated to become more specific and varied in distinct genres too. This way, players of Shooter games expose frequent usage of words related to the semantic field of warfare; the vocabulary used by MOBA-players exhibits lexicalizations of game-inherent spatiotemporal elements central to strategical advance; and explorers of MMORPGs prominently use lexemes relating to characters’ capabilities and developments. As we delve deeper into distinct genres or individual game titles, the degree of lexical specificity increases and language becomes more varied. Notably, game developers use similar lexemes and their language exhibits comparable usage of the same phrasal templates. In addition to an inquiry of language produced by players and of language produced by developers when communicating information to the playing consumers, the question of how players refer to themselves was tackled. Finally, the inspection of the lexemes GAMER and PLAYER in two corpora exposed subtle nuances in their usage and different connotational meanings. Whereas players refrain from calling themselves GAMERS in in-game conversations and discourse about gaming, they are labelled and referred to as GAMERS in contexts emphasizing belonging to a distinct group or constructing images of players as “others”.

Having established which words belong to the lexical inventory of gaming language, how words and meanings are structured, and how they are used with other words to communicate complex meanings, ultimately led to an inspection of whole utterances from a pragmatic perspective. A look at the discursive features of in-game conversations revealed that the conditions imposed by the medium do influence perceptions of linguistically and socially appropriate manners and interpersonal behavior to some extent. Communication is substantially informal, and usage of imperative, exclamative, and expletive speech is situationally legitimized. The appropriateness of such linguistic behavior is embedded into the distinct context of gameplay, where purpose and framework of communication are dynamically changing, and common principles of linguistic exchange are adjusted to altering settings. To illustrate, speakers flout conventions of politeness and conversational principles of cooperation, and speech is generally more straight- forward and blunt than in face-to-face interaction. This is a result of the physical distance

90 between interlocutors which nurtures talkativeness and contemptuous linguistic expression, so- called flaming.

Having addressed the genesis and appearance of English gaming language, the last chapter focused on the implementation of gaming terms in non-Anglophone contexts. Apparently, English lexical items and phrases relating to gaming are integrated into gaming discourse of other languages. Indeed, the influence of English as the global lingua franca is far-reaching especially in computer-mediated exchange. L2 speakers of English seamlessly intertwine Anglicism with native expressions by adapting them to their languages’ structural systems. As exemplified in the discussion on German gaming variety, players of video games ubiquitously employ items from English gaming jargon and incorporate them to suit the grammatical patterns of their native language. Thus, they use English lexemes, alter form and/or function, and apply rules of declension and conjugation to mark cases and modify verb forms. Contrary to the direct inclusion of Anglicism, words lexicalized in English tend to be indirectly included especially in French playing environments, where English terms are used just as their translated French equivalents, specially designed for the context of video games. In sum, English remains the main vehicle of communication in the western gaming sphere since firstly, it is spoken as a first, second, or foreign language by more than 1.5 billion people; secondly, it is the language game developers and technical experts apply; and thirdly, usage of gaming Anglicism in non- English gaming environments discloses identification with the community.

Novel expressions are produced and transcend to become used by many speakers, eventually coming into common linguistic usage in-game. Speakers expand their language repertoire with the synchronously experienced expansion of digital worlds. Though there is no monolithic, unified “language of gaming”, players exhibit usage of an enregistered variety which is grounded on the knowledge of a collectively established lexicon and negotiated way of appropriate linguistic and social conduct. As Ensslin emphasizes, both games and language are based on more or less flexible conventions. This thesis’ findings reinforce the claim that in gaming contexts, novel words are produced in adherence to structural linguistic patterns, and communicative practices mirror the dynamic exchange between the varying frameworks of the medium and the playing agents on an individual and a collective level. Language appears to be indefinitely extendible in the presence of ever-expanding digital worlds, opening gates to new experiences and concepts that require lexicalization. As technology will continue to develop, 91 players will find ways to lexicalize newly encountered events or actions and will dynamically adapt their communicative strategy to further innovations that will be provided by this creative industry sector.

APPENDIX: Gaming Glossary from A to Zerg

This lexicon has been designed with participation of players and reconciled with various online gaming glossaries. It contains open class language items idiosyncratically used in gaming jargon in addition to commonly used (abbreviated) phrases.

I do not claim this glossary to be complete in any way. New lexical items may enter gaming discourse anytime, different genres expose specialized terms, and individual game titles open new incentives for word creation.

Orthography and usage of capital letters may vary. For the purpose of easier legibility, abbreviations (initialisms and acronyms) have been capitalized.

1,2,3,… + 1st-person | First-person game plus. An affirmation; indicates a game in which the player assumes agreement or a player’s willingness the role of a character and sees to perform an action through the eyes of the chosen hero. During gameplay, the character

itself is not visible, while arms and weapons/items used are visible; e.g. - FPS1 minus. A denial, a rejection; indicates disagreement or a player’s unwillingness or ineptitude to 3rd-person | Third-person game perform an action a game in which the player sees the controlled character from a third- person perspective and different camera angles A – Z AA 1337 | l33t | leet abbrev.,  auto-attack. An leet speak. Orthography used online automatically activated, often rather that replaces certain letters with weak attack that has no or a very numbers, e.g. n00b low CD time

ability the player character’s capability to Symbols use weapon skills or  to cast @ spells. The abilities will either at. Used to indicate locations attack a foe or may heal a fellow player or NPC 93

1 active abilities have to be triggered by the target attacks keep focus on one player manually by pressing a button on player, mostly the tank, while the keyboard or clicking AOE attacks may hit multiple 2 passive abilities will affect the character’s players capabilities without the player having to activate them manually alpha

the stage of an early access game achievement that is still in its developing phase a specific action a player can and can thus be played for free or in accomplish to gain reward and exchange for a low price AP2

alt ADC abbrev., alternative [character]. A abbrev., attack damage carry. Role twink assigned to a hero that increasingly grows stronger during a match and ammo deals much damage, designated to abbrev., ammunition. Munitions for carry2 the team arms, such as bullets, grenades, bombs, etc. add1

a  mob that has (un-)intentionally AOE been added to combat or has abbrev., area of effect. An attack spawned during combat that will affect a specific area and

radius of the playing field, capable add2 of hitting numerous targets at once to pull the aggro of a mob and add it to combat AP1 abbrev., ability points. Points that AFK will enable the player to design and abbrev., “away from keyboard”. specify the character’s Signifying that the player is leaving spec|build, skills, passive the gaming space temporarily while and active abilities still being displayed as online, but not being physically present in front of the PC/console AP2 abbrev., achievement points. Points indicating how many aggro achievements a player has abbrev., aggression. When unlocked engaging in combat with an opposing NPC or getting in the vicinity of a foe, the foes’ attacks AP3 (i.e. its aggression) will focus on abbrev., attack points. Points the player. When there is more than indicating how much damage a one player, the mob’s single- character can deal 94 assist1 battle royale a player’s contribution to a PvP-encounter in which all weakening a foe before it is being players play against each other until killed by another player there is only one player left who then wins the game; everyone versus everyone assist2

to help kill a foe without getting the last hit and thus only getting beat’em up statistical credit for supporting the a video game genre in which the teammates but not whole credit for player controls an unarmed the kill character that faces multiple enemies in close combat

attack the act of engaging in combat; beta (version/test) initiated either by a player or a an open or closed test of a game’s mob whose aggro has been version that may still need pulled improvement. Players may explore the game and report all kinds of bugs they detect and give attribute feedback on the game’s status. the strengths and weaknesses of a Devs and programmers can then hero, equipment, or item; fix bugs and implement new e.g. power, toughness, intelligence, features before the game is agility, precision, vitality, etc. officially released auto-attack biome AA, an automatically activated, a region in a game that has distinct often rather weak attack that has no geographical features, flora and or a very low CD time fauna, weather conditions, or even particular physics avatar an in-game character boon1 controlled by a player an effect that temporarily enhances the stats of a skill1, weapon, bannable offense a player, or a team; a buff player action that violates a game’s rules and can be punished by the boon2 game corporation by banning a user a bad player temporarily or permanently. Using bots, hacking, gold selling, verbal abuse, scamming, and booster spamming are generally viewed an item temporarily enhancing as bannable offenses (specific) abilities of a character by 1 granting a boon /buff

95 boss BRB a mob that possesses stronger abbrev., “be right back”. abilities than regular mobs and is Signalizing that a player will be often one of the final encounters AFK and will return to the game players have to face in dungeons, soon raids, or instances

camp bot1 to remain in a relatively safe area a software programmed to partake with a superior position, thus in video game activities instead of a making it hard for the opponents to human player. Bots are often used attack. In FPS1 , camping may be to farm, do repetitive tasks, or considered to display a lack of even study and mimic the skill2, as camping players opponent’s behavior (De Paoli succeed based on their 2015). Such bots are viewed as a advantageous position (e.g. being bannable offense in most games hidden in a sneaky location or being located on a hard to reach spot, being close to their spawn; bot2 being supported by their NPCs) abbrev., robot. A figure controlled

by the game program; an NPC cap1 the maximum amount of a game bot3 element that cannot be surpassed, abbrev., bottom. Referring to a e.g. level cap (level limit set by the map’s southernmost lane game developers beyond which no depicted on the minimap; player can advance their character) especially in MOBAs or player cap (numerally limited

amount of players that can buff1 participate in a specific event or an effect that temporarily enhances action) the stats of a skill1, weapon, a player, or a team; a boon1 cap2

abbrev., to capture. To seize a buff2 certain area of the game’s world to enhance a certain game element and receive numeral reward bug carry1 a programming problem that arises a character that become stronger as and keeps players from smoothly the match evolves and deals much playing a game’s content DPS

build carry2 a set of traits; the stats that to bring a team to victory makes up a character’s spec

96 cast active gameplay and mostly depicts to activate a spell. Frequently a scene of a game’s storyline; a requires specific time to trigger, i.e. cut scene channeling

class caster a “chosen archetype of a character” a character with mostly magical (Jones 2008), e.g. a necromancer, a abilities, casting spells (from paladin, an assassin, etc. range)

combat CC the act of engaging in fight with an abbrev., crowd control. A skill opponent that makes the target lose control 1 close combat, act of facing foes in their over its skills and/or inflicts a vicinity with melee weapons, such as movement-impeding effect, e.g. swords, daggers, hammers, etc. pull, knockback, chill, stun 2 ranged combat, act of facing foes from a larger distance using weapons that have a high attack range, such as bows, rifles, CD sniper guns, staffs, etc. abbrev., cool-down. Recharge time

of a skill during which the ability cannot be activated combo abbrev., combination. A

combination of specific skills that channel results in a more powerful attack to cast a spell that needs a

certain amount of time to charge before actually being able to deal condition | condi damage or heal an attack that deals damage repeatedly over a certain amount of time; a DOT, e.g. bleed, burn, char poison abbrev., character. Virtual

manifestation of the player participating in a game by co-op controlling an in-game figure abbrev., cooperation. Differing from single-player games, co-op games allow more than one player choke to simultaneously participate in a a narrow passage that can be used game against NPCs to fight foes more efficiently, as there is limited space for them to move around craft to produce items (weapons, armor, potions, construction components, cinematic etc.) in-game by gathering and an audiovisual sequence that forging materials temporarily suspends the player’s

97 creep def a friendly or opposing NPC with abbrev., defense low HP and damage output; a relatively weak computer- dev controlled mob abbrev., developer. A

programmer/designer working for a crit game company abbrev., critical hit. An attack that is more powerful than the average DLC DPS abbrev., downloadable content. A

purchasable addition to a computer cut scene game that yields new contents and a  cinematic expansions to the core game damage | DMG DPS the “harm” a character can do abbrev., damage per second. The with his abilities, expressed in amount of damage a character digits can do per second, expressed in digits DD abbrev., damage dealer. Role DOT ascribed to a certain profession abbrev., damage over time. An that can do high damage (high attack that will inflict damage on a DPS) but normally does not have foe repeatedly for a certain amount much health (HP). Thus, a DD of time can be supported by a tank, who

can direct the foe’s damage towards drop1 himself an therefore enable the DD an item reward, loot to focus on doing maximum

damage; a glass canon drop2

to give loot death match

a PvP encounter where everyone plays for himself to kill as many drop3 other players as possible, free for to die in-game all

dungeon debuff a spatially closed environment in a an attack that 1. causes a negative game in which a team of players effect (e.g. a condition) on the have to face numerous enemies and designated target or 2. removes perform certain actions in different positive effects from the designated areas in order to receive XP and target potentially valuable loot

98 early access game fly hack a semi-finished game that can be a computer program that overrides played before being officially a game’s mechanic and enables the released by a game company; a hacker to fly across the map, reach game in its alpha stage unreachable places rapidly, or spy on enemies. Fly hacks are considered to be bannable easter egg offenses a hidden extra feature or item that

can be discovered by players FPS1 abbrev.,  First-person Shooter. A EP game in which players use arms abbrev., experience points;  XP. and ammunition (ammo) to fight Points needed to advance a and kill opponents from a first- character to the next level or person perspective rank

FPS2 equipment abbrev., frames per second. The gear. Armor and weaponry a amount of images displayed in a character has equipped and second, generating the illusion of possesses a certain combination of moving pictures. A drop in FPS is stats that will shape a character’s perceived as lag build/spec/attributes and influence the amount of  APs3, HPs, etc. of a hero frag1 the virtual extermination of an

opponent through the usage of farm explosives [e.g. fragmentation to perpetually repeat an often grenades] (Barry 2013) tedious task, such as killing mobs,

harvesting, or crafting, in order to gain an advantage in the game, e.g. frag2 farming currencies, farming to defeat/kill another player in- materials, farming XP; game grinding free for all | FFA feed a PvP mode in which everyone to handicap the own team’s overall fights for themselves in encounters performance by (un)intentionally against numerous other players, a helping the opponents death match first blood free to play | F2P the first kill made in a game match games that do not have to be acquired financially with real-life money but can be played without

payment 99 gank hack’n’slay game | hack’n’slasher abbrev., gang kill. To fight a video game genre in which the outnumbered opponents with a player controls a character armed larger group of players with a “bladed object, such as a sword or a knife, to kill many enemies” (Barry 2013) gear

equipment healer a character that is “the backbone of GG any group“ (Jones 2008), abbrev., “good game”. Used to specialized on healing teammates compliment gameplay of and supporting the tanks and teammates or opposing players DDs during combat

GL | GLHF hero abbrev., “good luck” | “good luck a character of a specific have fun”. Used in the beginning of profession a game’s match, a dungeon, or

other game content to encourage teammates HP abbrev., health points | hit points. The amount of vitality and health a glass canon character has, expressed in digits. a character whose build|spec The equipment and enables them to do high DPS but build|spec of a character can simultaneously lowers the hero’s influence the amount of HPs HP

imba glitch abbrev., imbalanced. A hero, an unintended error in a video game skill, mob that is considered to that can be (ab)used by players be OP when compared to the

average; imba elements can be griefer nerfed in patches a player who continuously offends, humiliates, or annoys other players inc

abbrev., incoming. An incoming, grind imminent attack of opponents  to farm

in-fight when engaging in combat with guild foes, a hero enters the state of being an alliance of players that complete in-fight. In order to get out of fight actions together again, the hero has to either kill the foe or disengage from combat by escaping the mob’s patrolling 100

radius and losing the mob’s kill-streak aggro. a series of successfully performed encounters against foes; killing a

series of foes in-game

referring to experiences made in the computer-mediated world of a kite game with a character that is being to “pull” foes to a certain location, controlled by a real-life player either to stack and then fight or to distract instance a spatially closed area or sequence L2P of a game that is separated from the abbrev., “learn to play” open-world of a game

lag jump’n’run impaired computer or connection a video game genre in which the functionality often resulting in main action demanded by the playing difficulties player is jumping over obstacles to

advance to the game’s next stage lane

a path leading through a map. In jungle MOBAs, the two opposing teams’ to act within a bordered area called spawns are connected by three the jungle (in MOBAs) and lanes:  top, mid(dle), and engage in farming creeps and bot3(tom) lane ganking enemies

last hit jungler the final attack which terminates a hero with the designated role of the enemy and rewards the executor jungling with full credit for the  kill

KD leech abbrev., kill-to-death ratio. The to benefit from a team’s success amount of a character’s deaths in without contributing to it relation to the amount of kills performed leech | leecher someone who profits from other kill players’ activities without or little the virtual defeat of an opponent by contribution decimation of their HPs; to defeat another player or NPC level | LVL noun in-game a unit of measurement indicating

how experienced a character is

101

LFG mid abbrev., “looking for group.” Phrase abbrev., middle. Spatial reference used to indicate the search for to an area of a map, often a players to team up with lane

LFM mini map abbrev., “looking for member(s)”. a minimized view of the playing Phrase used to indicate the search area, the map, showing the for players to fill the open spots of a geographic elements of a map, party interaction points, and teammates’ locations. Mini maps are mostly located in the corners of a game’s loot interface an item-reward players receive after

successfully performing a certain action. Mostly, items can be looted MMORPG from killed foes abbrev., massively multiplayer online role-playing game. An online game in which multiple mage players can interact with each other abbrev., magician. A character that digitally, each player being uses magic (mana) as its source instantiated by a virtual character. of power The characters can be

individualized by the players who main then interact with others in a large- the character a player plays most scale worlds, dedicated to improve frequently and consequently often their character’s abilities and also controls most effectively appearance, and delve into the world of a game by going on quests, collectively mastering mana dungeons and raids, etc. different term for magic; a character’s magical source of power MMR abbrev., match making rating. A mechanic that matches players with map similar levels of experience into the playing field of a game, a teams/parties. This way, playing area within certain borders experienced players will more likely play with and against players melee of equal skill2. Ultimately, close range combat matches should be as balanced as possible, thus preventing noobs from being pwned by pros meta the objectively most effective strategy currently playable in a game 102 mob the amount of outgoing damage a an opposing NPC, a boss does foe/opponent that is not controlled by another player but is newb | noob | n00b programmed abbrev., newbie. A new player with

no or little playing experience; also MOBA used to insult players perceived as abbrev., multiplayer online battle incapable arena. A strategic game genre in which there are two opposing teams NPC trying to destroy each other’s main abbrev., non-player character. A structures in order to win the game. programmed in-game character The opposing team’s spawns are that can be either friend or foe connected by lanes which the

unique heroes have to traverse in order to reach the foe’s base. OMW Players and their heroes are abbrev., “on my way” supported by computer-controlled units, creeps. OP abbrev., overpowered. Exposing mod more efficient attributes and attacks abbrev., modification. A when compared to the average. modification to the usual game Overpowered elements are mechanic; an addition or alteration considered to make aspects of a to the game that players can game imba and thus should be download and implement nerfed independently in order to modify the game mode, add thematic items or weapons, and tailor the game to open-world (game) the player’s wishes a game environment that allows the player to autonomously discover the digital world and explore the mount maps and story randomly and a digital animal or vehicle that is independently used to traverse in-game maps

party multi-player a small group of players playing on a game or game mode that is the same  team designed for more than one player to participate in the gameplay patch a general game update; an update to nerf a defective file or reparation of a to reduce the efficiency or duration programming problem (a bug) of a game element, preventing it from being imba, e.g.: reducing

103 patch notes proc written summaries of innovations a beneficial effect with a “random added and reparations made that are chance to activate upon striking or published with the release of a being struck” (Jones 2008) patch

profession pay to play the specialization of characters with a game that has to be purchased their distinctive powers and attacks with real-life money in order to be defined by: 1. the armor and played weaponry a character has equipped and his positioning on the playing field (e.g. melee or ranged pay to win combat) 2. the source of the a game that enables players to character’s damage (e.g. physical spend real-life money in order to damage, magical damage through gain advantages over other players mana); 3. the role ascribed to a in a game character (e.g. tank,  DD, healer) physics physical properties of a game that PvE determine the digital movement abbrev., player versus environment. possibilities of characters within the A game mode in which players face game’s space and time. Game NPCs as opponents and do not physics can be similar to real-life fight against other online players conditions on earth (e.g. being bound by gravity, receiving falling- PvP damage, no breathing under water) abbrev., player versus player. A or can deviate from the physical game mode in which players face forces on planet earth and thus other players as opponents enable the player to fly or jump

very high pwn to dominantly annihilate an port opponent [to pwn/own abbrev., teleport someone/something | to be

pwned/owned]. Misspelling of the pro verb “own” (typing error due to abbrev., professional. A very proximity of letters O and P on experienced player who has keyboard) (Ensslin 2012, 64) mastered the mechanics of a game or a special character; a Q professional gamer in e-Sports abbrev., queue

104 rage quit res | rez prematurely leaving a game abbrev., resurrect. To revive a because of frustration with player that has died in-game teammates, opponents, lags, or connection problems respawn

to be resurrected at a certain raid location, thespawn, after having a game instance in which a larger died in-game group of players has to face a series

of challenges, mobs and RL bosses. Raids are mostly abbrev., real life. Referring to the challenging content which requires actual world the players to cooperate intensively but simultaneously reward the players with high amounts of XP RNG and potentially valuable loot abbrev., random number generator. The digital generation of

unpredictable and random number rampage sequences which are manifested the domination of multiple in-game as random loot drops, opponents, mostly achieved with a the random amount of damage kill-streak done, the random chance of

evading an attack or landing a random crit. The RNG controls all game label for an unknown player who elements that are happening by has not yet interacted with another chance and might be perceived as player or group of players before good or bad luck by the players

rank RNGsus | RN-Jesus unit of measurement indicating a personification of the RNG, player’s level of progression, ascribing it a divine and especially in PvP game modes unpredictable force that will determine a player’s luck

RE RPG abbrev., “returned”. Signalizing abbrev., role-playing game. A game that a player has returned from in which the player assumes the being AFK role of a character in a virtual world

and shapes the path of the character recap by making decisions that will affect abbrev., recapture. To reconquer a the further course of the game’s game area narrative

105 scam slack to deceitfully exploit other (often to (willingly) lag behind a group of inexperienced) players players

Shooter smurf account / smurfing a game in which the main activity is when experienced players create a aiming, shooting, and hitting new account for their game, the different targets in order to advance game will recognize them as in the game. Player characters are novices and match them with low- mostly armed with guns which have experience players. Thus, pros to be loaded with ammo creating smurf-accounts can face noobs and pwn them easily single-player a game that is designed for one spam player only to torment other players by repeatedly posting (the same) written comments in chats skill1

an active ability that includes weapon attacks, casts, CCs, spawn1 stuns, AoEs, DoTs, etc. the place of generation of a virtual character; the virtual spot where a player character enters the game skill2

the capability of a player to efficiently control their character. A spawn2 player with low or no skill may be to become manifested in a game as considered a noob a character skin speed run an item altering the outer the most time-efficient and appearance of a character and its simultaneously lucrative way to equipment complete a dungeon or raid by stacking, skipping, making use of chokes or glitches, and skip1 compiling a capable team that is to willingly ignore and pass by a familiar with the entire process group of foes in order to reach a

more significant stage of a game faster spell a magical skill, usually accessible to casters and skip2 mages to fast-forward a cinematic

(cut scene) or dialogue in a game

106 squad support(er) a large group of players who play in a role assigned to a character or a  team profession that focusses on healing and protecting the teammates who are involved in squishy combat more closely not being able to take a lot of

damage before being killed in- game, e.g. a glass canon tag to put a marker on something for

other players to see stack

to gather at the same location with teammates in order to face tank opponents with concentrated force a role ascribed to a hero who is capable of pulling and maintaining

the aggro of a mob or boss, stat1 deflecting damage from other abbrev., statistics. Numbers teammates. Tanks are mostly depicting a character’s or fighting in melee and are usually equipment’s attributes, giving wearing heavy armor, which makes information about the power (attack them very enduring and tough, damage), vitality (life pool, being capable of taking a lot of HP), precision (increased chance damage of crits), intelligence, etc.

teabag stat2 to crouch on a defeated opponent abbrev., statistics. Numeral and humiliate them by “rubbing information on players’ KD in a one’s digital testicles into match someone’s digital face”

(Puebloman 14.09.2017) strat abbrev., strategy. The tactical top1 approach (of a PvP-team) that referring to the map’s has to be determined at the northernmost lane depicted on beginning of a game match the mini map

stun1 top2 a skill impeding movement and the best and most efficient (e.g. top action for a certain amount of time, player) making the character unable to

move or use any abilities trait

an attribute, passive or stun2 active ability, a specialization to make a foe unable to control its motion and skills

107 twink XP a character a player only plays abbrev., experience points (EP) occasionally as opposed to their

chosen main character zerg

a very large group of players UI fighting together as a team abbrev., user interface

ult(i) abbrev., ultimate. In MOBAs and MMOs, most heroes have one special skill, the ult(i), which is more powerful than their other attacks but also has a longer cooldown time (CD) wall hack /walling the usage of a hack that gives the

player the capability to fly through,

see through or spot opponents and

their life-pools through walls built

in a game

WB abbrev., “welcome back”. Used to greet a player who has returned from being AFK

WP abbrev., “well played”. Used to congratulate teammates on success or a very close game

WTB abbrev., “want to buy”

WTS abbrev., “want to sell”

108

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119