So far, we have only seen gamer identities emerge in separate practices, including the participation in and reactions to them. Each LoL player is considered more or less belonging to the community based on his/her tendencies to take part in the practices that are rich in ideologies; negotiation of identities has been shown in cut-short exchanges of talk that simply mean to exemplify the social consequences of the identity practices. Because an individual could engage in multiple identity practices simultaneously, and they may choose to engage in one practice more than the others, it is crucial that we put our eyes on the full chat logs of the
58
matches of games, where repetitive choices of identity practices are revealed, to better
contribute to the community of practice framework. It is by doing so that the emergence of linguistic styles and the participants’ production of personas can really be visible to us. Since
it would be impossible and unnecessary to detail all of the interactions among the LoL players, for discussion I have chosen five matches of the game where some typical, ethnographically specific identity categories emerge through in-game chatting. Note that the first four excerpts of game chat will be cut into meaningful chunks for discussion, on account of their great lengths. Excerpt 48 below presents only an initial part of the chat log of Game No. 40.
(48) Game No. 40 (recorded on September 6, 2015) 1 伊莉絲要求隊友盡速支援
yilisi fa chu xunhao gaozhi duiyou zheng zailushang
‘Elise is on the way.’
‘I will start jungling from the red buff.’
8 伊莉絲要求隊友盡速支援
yilisi yaoqiu duiyou jinsu zhiyuan
‘Elise is asking for assistance.’
9 伊莉絲要求隊友盡速支援 yilisi yaoqiu duiyou jinsu zhiyuan
‘Elise is asking for assistance.’
10 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 石像對 shixiang dui
‘Krugs, Yes.’
A major difference between the chats in the virtual world of LoL and those happening in real
life or other MMOGs (especially MMORPGs) is that the former are seldom initiated or intended for what we normally consider to be “chats.” That is, LoL players rarely use the chat channel to “socialize” with others through greetings, casual talks about themselves with
regard to their daily experiences, personal interests, etc. As we have already seen in the last section, about their communicative practices, almost all of the message posts are responses to what has been going on in the games, no matter whether they are for tactical or emotional use.
Because of this, the conversational topics in the game chat are usually inconsistent, each of which may be regarding different events occurring during gaming.
Excerpt 48 here, for example, revolves around the team’s preparation for the start of the game, before minions spawn. The earliest lines of player messages are given off when the players are on their ways to the key passages on the map to keep themselves aware of early-game jungle invasions from the enemy team (see Figure 7). The team’s jungler 伊莉絲 rings the Assist Me ping twice and performs a directive to ask the top laner 菲歐拉 to help
her ward the other side of the jungle (Lines 1-3). She expresses thanks and states the reason for the request in the following, that she wants to start jungling at Red Brambleback (hong), instead of Blue Sentinel, which is located in the opposite direction on Summoner’s Rift. In Lines 8-10, 伊莉絲 tries to direct other teammates, this time AD and Support, to finish up the neutral monsters Ancient Krug and Krug (shixiang) before going to the bot lane (see Figure 8).
Figure 7. A screenshot of the team getting ready for the game by positioning themselves in
the key passages on the map.Figure 8. A screenshot of the bottom laners helping the jungler kill the Krugs.
The series of directives show that 伊莉絲 has had a high degree of confidence in how to progress through the game as a jungler. She alludes to the identity relation of
AUTHENTICATION where she aligns herself with those professional or experienced players who she learns from about jungling. Intermingled with 伊莉絲’s incessant requests is 菲歐 拉’s question, y4ru3283??, which would mean ziji da?? (自己打??) if 菲歐拉 has switched
the input language from English to Chinese. She is asking whether 伊莉絲 is able to jungle without any help from her teammates. This genuine information-seeking question also suggests that 菲歐拉 historicizes her own identity as a LoL gamer because only when a player has had similar gaming experiences or studied about the game – that junglers usually start jungling with the help from allies – could he/she have such a doubt. Excerpt 49 below
continues with another issue raised up in the game; it shows how 伊莉絲 would blatantly criticize her teammates and how people react to her attacks:
(49) Game No. 40 (recorded on September 6, 2015) (continued) 11 伊莉絲發出訊號告知所有人敵人消失
yilisi fa chu xunhao gaozhi suoyouren diren xiaoshi
‘Elise signals that enemies are missing.’
12 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 87
‘Idiot.’
13 伊瑞莉雅（敵人）正在大殺特殺！
yiruiliya zhengzai dashatesha
‘Enemy Irelia is on a killing spree.’
14 李星（敵人）正在大殺特殺！
lixing zhengzai dashatesha
‘Enemy Lee Sin is on a killing spree.’
15 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 87TOP
‘Your item build right now is useless.’
[…]
‘Your build cannot give you enough damage output.’
22 艾希 (AD Carry)： …
23 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 你不出無盡就是爪養
ni bu chu wujin jiushi zhuayang
‘You will not deal much damage if you do not build yourself with Infinity Edge.’
24 艾希 (AD Carry)： 再出了好ㄇ zai chu le hao me
‘I am on the way of building that item, okay?’
Starting from Line 11, in response to 菲歐拉’s death from a one-on-one fight with the enemy top laner, 伊莉絲 yells out 87 and xinshou to call 菲歐拉. As part of 伊莉絲’s negative appraisal against 菲 歐 拉 ’s performance in the engagement, 87 and xinshou are two derogatory names that have the effect of threatening 菲歐拉’s face need of not being viewed as unintelligent or unskillful. Adding that the skill at playing LoL is the symbolic capital within the community, the name-calling could also threaten her social standing in the group of players, an enactment of DE-AUTHENTICATION. Moreover, with the label of xinshou, 伊莉 絲 also resorts to the tactic of DISTINCTION to mark 菲歐拉 as an out-group or peripheral
member, given xinshou’s associative power of recalling the actual minority group of newbies in the virtual society. After a while, 伊莉絲 redirects her attention to the itemization of the AD Carry. She uses a rhetoric question to challenge 艾希’s thinking about her item build (Line 17). Here 伊莉絲 can be seen as taking an accusatory stance toward 艾希’s play so far, just as she does toward 菲歐拉. However, 伊莉絲 actually makes a point why she thinks 艾希’s build is not okay – that 艾希 will not be able to deal much damage for her
team with such a set of items (zhuayang, mistyped as 爪養) (Lines 20-21). In Line 23, 伊莉 絲 further gives 艾希 advice about item choices, but with a threatening tone – that 艾希
should purchase Infinity Edge earlier in the game, or her damage output will be too low to become a threat to the enemy team. By the face-threatening acts of both negative appraisal (Lines 17 and 19) and a suggestion of a plan for improvement (Line 23), 伊莉絲 is enacting not only DE-AUTHENTICATION against 艾希’s core membership in the community but also
AUTHENTICATION of her own claim to an experienced gamer identity. Now turn to 艾希’s
uptake of 伊莉絲’s stance. In Line 18, 艾希 employs a question marker ? to respond to 伊 莉絲’s first attack. The use of a question marker and nothing else gives the recipients a sense of nonchalance and the sender’s confidence about him/herself. As 伊莉絲 strengthens her
point more clearly by further justifications for her attack, 艾希 expresses her feeling with …, which symbolizes her speechlessness and helplessness toward the situation (i.e. where 伊莉 絲 keeps picking on 艾希 for her wrong build). When 伊莉絲 furthermore performs a directive (Line 23) that damages 艾希’s face want to be free from imposition of the choice of an item, 艾希 finally defends herself by saying that she has been on the way to the build of Infinity Edge (Line 24). From easy choices of words (? and …) to a bold retort in the responses, 艾希 seems to become more and more impatient about 伊莉絲’s nagging. 艾 希’s last retort about the subject has the effect of saving her face and, more importantly,
re-AUTHENTICATING her gamer identity; it shows that she knows vividly how to build her
champion, and it is needless for 伊莉絲 to remind her of that. Later on in the game (Lines 25-35), a turn of events seems to undermine 伊莉絲’s superior stance:
(50) Game No. 40 (recorded on September 6, 2015) (continued) 25 伊莉絲擊殺犽宿（敵人）完成雙殺！
yilisi jisha yasu wancheng shuangsha
‘Elise has slain Enemy Yasuo for a double kill!’
26 伊莉絲擊殺蒙多醫生（敵人）完成三連殺！
yilisi jisha mengduoyisheng wancheng san liansha
‘Elise has slain Enemy Dr. Mundo for a triple kill!’
27 艾希 (AD Carry)： …
sOR wo hai yiwei hui 4 liansha
‘Sorry. I thought that I would get a quadra kill bonus.’
32 艾希 (AD Carry)： 傻眼ㄟ shayan ei
‘Shocking.’
33 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 好啦等等給你 hao la dengdeng gei ni
‘Don’t be angry. I will let you get the kills later.’
34 艾希 (AD Carry)： 全都給你
In a winning engagement with 艾希, 伊莉絲 picks up four kills (Lines 25, 26, and 29).
Judging from 艾希’s reaction to this result, the emotive stance of …, again, we can see that 艾希 is unhappy about it. The source of 艾希’s annoyance is the fact that, instead of letting her get the kills, 伊莉絲 last hit on all of the dying enemies and received all of the bonuses from them. According to the team position responsibilities I organize in the previous section, the majority in the community frowns upon this deed because AD Carries should be the best investment of getting gold and strong items for a team to head toward the victory. In Lines 30 and 34, 艾希 expresses her displeasure in an ironic way. She performs the directive dou gei
ni to claim that she will give up all the kills to 伊莉絲, which is sarcastic considering the
community value placed on an AD Carry’s development throughout the game. This line of
speech is an instance of the use of DENATURALIZATION as it creates a deliberate discontinuity within 艾希’s self-presentation as a LoL gamer. It is unlikely that 艾希, as a formerly authentic gamer (judged from her previous performance in the game), would all of a sudden say things like that, unless the statement is understood as a playful use of language. In the following lines, 艾希 also expresses her feeling of being shocked (shayan) by what 伊 莉絲 did in the earlier play (Line 32). So far, this is the first time when 伊莉絲’s LoL gamer membership is challenged, as 伊莉絲’s play in the engagement is clearly a negative identity practice in the community. Upon noting this social setback of her gamer identity, 伊莉絲 tries to excuse herself for the wrongdoing; in Line 31, she performs the self-effacing act of
apology (sOR, a typo for sor) and continues with an explanation – that she thought she would be rewarded with a Quadra Kill bonus. (However, because the fourth kill in Line 29 occurs a while later than the first three kills, the game does not consider it a four-kill streak.) Afterwards, 伊莉絲 even promises kills to 艾希 using a softened tone (Line 33), with the modal particle la, instead of her used-to-be strict voice. With both of the acts of apology and commissive to take an action which reduces one’s own face, 伊莉絲 for the first time sets her ego aside and agrees that she does not play like a pro all the time. Despite this, in the rest of the game chat among the group of LoL players, 伊莉絲 still holds onto her tough stance towards her allies’ plays that could potentially cause her losing the game:
(51) Game No. 40 (recorded on September 6, 2015) (continued) 36 伊莉絲發出訊號告知隊友正在路上
yilisi fa chu xunhao gaozhi duiyou zheng zailushang
‘Elise is on the way.’
37 伊莉絲發出訊號告知所有人警戒
yilisi fa chu xunhao gaozhi suoyouren jingjie
‘Elise signals to be careful.’
38 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 清兵完再打 qingbing wan zai da
‘Get into the fight after we clear up all the minions.’
39 伊莉絲發出訊號要求卡特蓮娜撤退 yilisi fa chu xunhao yaoqiu katelianna chetui
‘Elise signals Katarina to fall back.’
40 伊莉絲發出訊號告知所有人警戒
yilisi fa chu xunhao gaozhi suoyouren jingjie
‘Elise signals to be careful.’
41 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 退到塔下 tui dao ta xia
‘Back off to the turret.’
yilisi fa chu xunhao gaozhi suoyouren jingjie
‘Elise signals to be careful.’
44 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 幹手上 gan shou shang
‘Fuck. Go defend the turret at the top lane.’
45 卡特蓮娜發出訊號告知隊友正在路上
katelianna fa chu xunhao gaozhi duiyou zheng zailushang
‘Katarina is on the way.’
46 伊莉絲發出訊號要求艾希撤退 yilisi fa chu xunhao yaoqiu aixi chetui
‘Elise signals Ashe to fall back.’
47 伊莉絲發出訊號要求布里茨撤退 yilisi fa chu xunhao yaoqiu bulici chetui
‘Elise signals Blitzcrank to fall back.’ yilisi fa chu xunhao yaoqiu bulici chetui
‘Elise signals Blitzcrank to fall back.’
51 艾希發出訊號要求布里茨撤退 aixi fa chu xunhao yaoqiu bulici chetui
‘Ashe signals Blitzcrank to fall back.’
‘Clear up the minions at the top lane, first.’
54 菲歐拉 (Top)： 插演 chayan
‘Ward.’
55 伊莉絲發出訊號要求菲歐拉撤退 yilisi fa chu xunhao yaoqiu feioula chetui
‘Elise signals Fiora to fall back.’
56 伊莉絲發出訊號告知所有人警戒
yilisi fa chu xunhao gaozhi suoyouren jingjie
‘Elise signals to be careful.’
57 菲歐拉發出訊號告知所有人警戒
faioula fa chu xunhao gaozhi suoyouren jingjie
‘Fiora signals to be careful.’
58 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 一群白癡嗎?說先打 TOP 不董?
yiqun baichi ma shou xian da TOP bu dong
‘Are you idiots? Do you not understand my words? Eliminate their top laner first.’
59 菲歐拉 (Top)： 那時診部打?
na shi zhen bu da
‘Why didn’t we get into the fight at the moment?’
60 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： ]
61 菲歐拉 (Top)： 被抓了還不打??
bei zhua le hai bu da
‘Why didn’t we get into the fight when one of our teammates was caught?’
‘Later we should all push the mid lane.’
64 伊莉絲發出訊號告知隊友正在路上
yilisi fa chu xunhao gaozhi duiyou zheng zailushang
‘Elise is on the way.’
65 伊莉絲 (Jungle)： 等等 dengdeng
‘Wait.’
66 我先爸是路兵推出去
wo xian ba shilu bing tui chuqu
‘Let me clear up the enemy minions first.’
伊莉絲 makes good use of the built-in alert pings and directives to tell her teammates what to
do at different points of the remaining game, such as starting a fight after cleaning up all of the enemy minions (Line 38), retreating to the turret (Line 41), defending the structures at the top lane (Line 44), not chasing after the enemies (Line 48), etc. She even makes a negative comment on the rest of others (Line 58), calling them idiots (baichi) who do not get the importance of taking down the enemy top laner in a team fight. Each of the face threatening acts shows her clinging to the social position at the core and indirectly suggests her teammates peripheral standing in the community, as if she were the coach of the team. Within this process of construction of her persona, the top laner 菲歐拉 has tried to compete for the core position with 伊莉絲, as shown in her performance of a directive (Line 54, an order that tells others to ward) and questions as to whether 伊莉絲 is right about when to initiate the fight (Lines 59 and 61). Nevertheless, 伊莉絲 deems 菲歐拉’s challenges ridiculous by a
simple counter question, wen ni a, which suggests that it is 菲歐拉 who should be responsible for the team’s loss in the particular team fight. In other words, 菲歐拉’s
enactment of DE-AUTHENTICATION against 伊莉絲 is cancelled immediately by the rhetoric question which suggests a counter identity relation of DE-AUTHENTICATION against 菲歐拉 herself. Figure 9 shows what is going on in the game after the losing team fight; the enemy
champions have invaded the team’s home base and started to tear down inner structures.
Figure 9. A screenshot of the enemy champions invading the team’s home base after the
losing team fight.In this example, we discover an ethnographically specific identity category of LoL players who like to direct others to take actions according to what they or most of the experienced players want out of particular team positions or champion roles. 伊莉絲, in Game No. 40, seems to take this idiosyncratic cultural position emerging from the LoL game chat. It is a type of LoL gamer identity which I will call directors, as if they were in the film-making business; they tend to historicize their identities through claims of how to play the game, most of which impede the addressed players’ wishes to play in their own styles,
plays. In other words, the persona of a director is constructed mainly through repeated use of the interactional stance of transmitting information about what is the best ways to win the game and accusing other players of not doing their jobs as particular champions. He/she
usually enacts the tactics of AUTHENTICATION of his/her claims and DE-AUTHENTICATION
against others’ to the gamer identity to show their relative social power in the community.
From the above exchange of talk, we can also note that the concept of an identity category is
From the above exchange of talk, we can also note that the concept of an identity category is