Expressions of Feelings

Another communicative practice that prevails in the game chat is expressions of feelings. To avoid being confused with the other practices discussed below, expressions of feelings should be more narrowly defined as descriptions about reflex emotions brought up at particular moments. They are expressives (Searle, 1976) that describe the speakers’ mental states only, hardly having to do with their knowledge about the game mechanics and gameplay strategies.

Here are some examples taken out from the 100 matches of game chat; since expressions of feelings have more tendency to arouse responses of evaluations from the co-participants, the examples are raised in interactional context. Again, arrows “” will be used in excerpts to help you identify the speech acts in discussion.

(29) Game No. 3 (recorded on August 7, 2015)

 1 薩科 (Jungle)： ‘幹 gan

‘Fuck.’

 2 你媽針對我 nima zhendui wo

‘Motherfucker. The enemies are totally directed against me.’

(30) Game No. 28 (recorded on August 15, 2015) 1 飛斯（敵人）正在大殺特殺！

feisi zhengzai dashatesha

‘Enemy Fizz is on a killing spree!’

2 飛斯（敵人）擊殺葛雷夫完成雙殺！

feisi jisha geleifu wancheng shuangsha

‘Enemy Fizz has slain Graves for a double kill!’

 3 飛斯 (Support)： @@

 4 葛雷夫 (AD Carry)： @@

 5 飛斯 (Support)： QQ

‘(Crying).’

(31) Game No. 37 (recorded on September 6, 2015) 1 李星（敵人）正在大殺特殺！

lixing zhengzai dashatesha

‘Enemy Lee Sin is on a killing spree!’

 2 蒙多醫生 (Support)： = =

 3 好運姐 (AD Carry)： = =

(32) Game No. 48 (recorded on September 13, 2015) 1 賈克斯（敵人）獲得首殺！

‘Enemy Lee Sin is on a killing spree!’

 2 好運姐 (AD Carry)： 各種痛 gezhong tong

‘The skill shots of the enemy champions cause a lot of pain.’

(34) Game No. 66 (October 10, 2015)

1 犽宿終結了吉茵珂絲（敵人）的三連殺！

yasu zhongjie le jiyinkesi de san liansha

‘Yasuo has ended Enemy Jinx’s killing spree!’

2 崔絲塔娜標記了維克特（敵人）

cuisitana biaoji le weikete

‘Tristana has targeted Enemy Viktor.’

3 犽宿終結了維克特（敵人）的四連殺！

yasu zhongjie le weikete de si liansha

‘Yasuo has ended Enemy Viktor’s killing spree!’

4 崔絲塔娜 (AD Carry)： 1v4 5 索拉卡 (Support)： .

 6 wtf

‘What the hell is going on?’

 7 犽宿 (Mid)： XD

(35) Game No. 67 (recorded on October 11, 2015) 1 李星（敵人）正在大殺特殺！

lixing zhengzai dashatesha

‘Enemy Lee Sin is on a killing spree!’

2 李星 (Support)： GG

cuisitana zhongjie le lixing de liansha jilu

‘Tristana has ended Enemy Lee Sin’s killing spree!’

 6 李星 (Support)： 哈哈 haha

‘(Laughing).’

 7 趙信 (Jungle)： -.-

(36) Game No. 79 (recorded on October 18, 2015) 1 布朗姆 (Support)： 那 Q

These situations are when LoL players project their real-life feelings through the “mouths” of their controlled avatars, the use of character keys to symbolize what they feel as a result of something happening in the game. The combinations of character keys in use may include quasi-nonverbal cues (e.g. 0.0, @@, QQ, = =, …, XD, ><, haha, -.-, www), taboo words (e.g.

gan, nima, wtf), and even game jargons (e.g. tong) that imply the speakers’ emotional states.

(Refer back to Section 4.2 to check how these sets of vocabulary have to do with feelings that one experience.) Player emotions displayed on the messaging channel could be very complicated as we see there are reactions of anger (Excerpt 29), surprise (Excerpt 30), speechlessness (Excerpts 31 and 32), ecstasy (Excerpt 34), etc. One important point to note is that an expression of feeling in the LoL chat console could easily invoke similar reactions on the part of other players who also experience a particular situation. As Excerpts 30, 31, and 32 show, the facts that the enemies get kills have incurred the team members’ displeasure, which are all in the form of collaborative invocation of quasi-nonverbal cues, sent out by more than one player. It is also worth mentioning that the expressives sometimes go hand in hand with representatives that depict the events of concern. For example, in Excerpts 29, 34, and 36, 薩科, 崔絲塔娜, and 布朗姆 state respectively what has just happened while (others) expressing their feelings toward it. 薩科 is angry at the fact that he is targeted (zhendui) by the enemy team in the team fight; 崔絲塔娜 highlights the 1 versus 4 play of 犽宿 that her allies find amazing; 布朗姆 points out the hilarious moment when 拉克絲 dodges an enemy skill shot without even trying to turn away (niu, 扭, typed wrong as 紐) from it.

Just like the representatives performed for tactical reports, expressions of feelings could be analyzed as indirect hints. That is, there might be some intentions of the speakers hidden in those messages. Take Excerpt 33 as an example. The fact that 好運姐 feels that the

enemy champions have been dealing too much damage (tong) could leave her allies a sense of guilt because enemies’ high attack and ability damage is usually gained from allies’ being

slain or incapable of achieving in-game objectives. From this perspective, expressions of feelings potentially have face-threatening effects of reducing some recipients’ face needs of not being pushed to remedy particular situations. The last point to make here is still how this communicative practice can be treated as stancetaking moves and further related to the tactics of intersubjectivity. By expression of feelings, the speakers are taking emotive stances of being either aggressive (when using offensive language like gan and nima) or only suggestive.

In both cases, their expressives show vividly that the speakers are trying to intervene in the situations through the chat channel, even though things could hardly change because of the expressions. Similar to tactical reports, the use of the expressives activates ADEQUATION and

AUTHENTICATION simultaneously. In this case, the LoL players seek to associate with each other with the shared knowledge of the valid forms of communication and the timings when the acts of speech could convey the greatest illocutionary forces in the game world; in the

meantime, the display of the exact knowledge of the emotive vocabulary verifies these speakers’ claims to LoL gamer identities, which are Internet users and modern people in the

twenty-first century, just as the respected LoL players are in professional or high-Elo plays. In addition to this view on the intersubjectivity among the players, it is also interesting to note that the collaborative invocation of quasi-nonverbal cues we discussed earlier is an enactment

of ADEQUATION as well. It shows that the LoL players who repeat others’ emotive stances are inclined to echo with some socially approved community members in terms of their likes and dislikes on gaming experience.