CC BY
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ЛИНГВОКУЛЬ ТУРОЛОГИЯ LANGUAGE AND CULTURE STUDIES
УДК 81-25
Глазовский государственный педагогический институт имени В.Г. Короленко кандидат филологических наук, старший преподаватель Кропачева М.А.
Россия, г. Глазов, тел. +79128723125 e-mail: kropacheva.ma@mail.ru
Глазовский государственный педагогический институт имени В.Г. Короленко кандидат филологических наук, старший преподаватель Литвинова Е. С.
Россия, г. Глазов, тел. +79226861346 e-mail: litvinova.es@bk.ru
Glazov State Pedagogical Institute
named after V.G. Korolenko
PhD, senior lecturer
Kropacheva M.A.
Russia, Glazov
tel. +79128723125
e-mail: kropacheva.ma@mail.ru
Glazov State Pedagogical Institute named after V.G. Korolenko PhD, senior lecturer Litvinova E.S. Russia, Glazov tel. +79226861346 e-mail: litvinova.es@bk.ru
М.А. Кропачева, Е.С. Литвинова
ОСОБЕННОСТИ ВНУТРИИГРОВОГО ОБЩЕНИЯ ИГРОКОВ МАССОВЫХ МНОГОПОЛЬЗОВАТЕЛЬСКИХ РОЛЕВЫХ ОНЛАЙН-ИГР
В статье описывается внутриигровое общение участников массовых многопользовательских ролевых он-лайн-игр (ММОРПГ), поскольку этот тип игр стал одним из наиболее популярных в последнее время. Будучи субкультурой, игровое сообщество любителей ММОРПГ пользуется в своей речи особым вокабуляром, который применяется в разговорах об игре, при этом в повседневном общении геймеры пользуются национальным языком, чаще всего общим жаргоном. До сих пор любители видеоигр рассматривались в основном с точки зрения социологии и психологии, в то время как анализу их речи посвящено не так много исследовательских работ. Учитывая распространенность и популярность видеоигр и недостаток достоверной информации об играх и игроках, представляется актуальным изучение лингвистических особенностей геймеров, так как это может предоставить необходимые данные для психологов и социологов. В данном исследовании рассматривается как устная, так и письменная речь геймеров. Делаются выводы о том, что изучать следует не только особый вока-буляр, но и другие особенности коммуникации геймеров, такие как использование опосредованной устной коммуникации и ограниченное в пространстве и времени общение во внутриигровом чате. Все эти особенности определяют весь процесс общения в игре. С одной стороны, большое количество специфической лексики делает речь игроков малопонятной для окружающих; с другой стороны, именно специфичность лексических единиц и большое количество сокращений позволяет эффективно достигать целей, поставленных в игре. Речь игроков ММОРПГ, касающаяся игрового процесса, лаконична, однозначна и носит скорее профессиональный, деловой характер. Результаты данного исследования могут быть в дальнейшем использованы в психологических и социологических исследованиях.
Ключевые слова: субкультура, видеоигра, коммуникация, геймер, ролевая игра, массовая многопользовательская ролевая онлайн-игра (ММОРПГ), голосовой чат, внутриигровой чат, ограниченное коммуникативное пространство.
© Кропачева М.А. Литвинова Е.С., 2020
M.A. Kropacheva, E.S. Litvinova
THE PECULIARITIES OF IN-GAME COMMUNICATIONS OF MASS MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAY GAME PLAYERS
The article describes the MMORPG players' in-game communication as video gaming has become a very popular pastime for modern people. Being a subculture gaming is determined by special vocabulary which is mostly used in communication about games and gaming while all other topics are covered by national language mostly in its common slang variety. Gaming has been studied before by sociologists and psychologists but not many linguistic researches can be found. Considering the number of people involved in gaming and the lack of inside knowledge about gaming it is important to study gamers' speech as it may help to understand people involved in gaming better. Both oral and written communication is analyzed to give a full view on MMORPG players' speech. The conclusions are made that not only special game-induced vocabulary should be paid attention to but other features as well. Those are peculiarities of intermediated oral communication and the tools used for it, limited space and time of written in-game communication. All these features determine the whole process of communication while gaming. On the one hand special vocabulary makes it difficult to understand, on the other hand specific lexical units and a lot of shortenings make it possible to achieve necessary goals in game successfully. MMORPG players' speech in game is precise, business-like and laconic. The results of this survey could help psychologists and sociologists to understand gamers better.
Key words: subculture, video game, communication, gamer, role-play game, MMORPG, voice chat, in-game chat, limited communication space.
The Internet plays a significant part in the life of modern people. They use it for work and study as well as to communicate with family, friends, to practice their hobbies, etc. In the Internet you can search for information, communicate, read books, listen to music, watch movies, play games, buy and sell various goods and services. This cannot but give rise to appearance or development of special subcultures, connected with the virtual space in different ways [1]. Representatives of such subcultures communicate with their like-minded people mainly on the Internet, although sometimes they meet in real life (not always, since the Internet allows you to maintain some anonymity, which disappears with personal contact).
The development of information technologies has given rise to a certain type of culture that is called a virtual culture since it exists mostly or fully in the Internet. Just as the real-life world has some dominant culture known practically to all people and copied by most and several subcultures that differ from it, the virtual world also has dominant virtual culture and subcultures [2, 3, 4]. The dominant virtual culture is expressed mainly in general rules of behavior on the web. Some of the subcultures were transformed from real-life subcultures practically with no change except for the means of communication, because the Internet offers quicker communication and is aimed at wider audience. It also supplies an easier way to exchange all types of information not only in text form. Such subcultures include online trade and dating sites, which only slightly differ from trade and dating in real life or by means of printed media.
Many other subcultures appeared in the Internet seemingly on their own, regardless of real life, but in fact they are also caused by real-life human behaviour and they are more difficult to trace without special studies. These subcultures use chats, forums, Internet surfing, social networks for many different purposes including professional communication, education, entertainment (watching movies, listening to music, chatting), hobbies etc. Due to modern technologies a person can communicate practically everywhere and any time of the day without the necessity to meet personally or even sit at home near the PC. This also makes it possible to communicate with more than one person at a time, moreover it can be not only face-to-face or group communication but also "talking" to the whole world.
One of the most widespread entertainments especially among younger generation nowadays is playing videogames. They can be of different types according to what device is used for playing, for
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example, there are games for computers, smartphones, tabs, consoles etc. They can be played online and/or offline, alone or with companions. There are also different genres of videogames such as adventure, action, strategy, economic simulators, role-play games and many others [5].
The more game technologies and 3D graphics develop, the more people are involved in playing videogames, and one of the most popular of them is MMORPG, which is short for massively multiplayer online role-play game. Such games offer players not only entertainment while fulfilling the mission but also communication with a lot of people at the same time. Only recently this field of entertainment got proper attention from researchers, there appeared some kind of detailed classification of videogames in general and of different genres in particular. Such classification may have existed long before for game-developers but only recently people who are not involved in game production are getting acquainted with the process of game-making. The analysis of players' or game-makers' speech has also been scarce and not always systematic but there is one peculiarity that has been mentioned by most of the researchers and that is about gamers' speech being different from their casual speech in real life [6].
Videogames in all their variability play more and more important role in a modern person's life and they have become an essential part of everyday routine for many people, especially young. They cannot imagine their day without playing their favourite games. Researchers, mostly psychologists and sociologists, are alarmed with the amount and the severity of some people's videogame addiction. Unfortunately, the number of linguistic researches in the sphere of videogames is less than that in psychology and sociology though such researches might have helped to solve some problems which are relevant nowadays. The aim of our research is to describe gamers' speech patterns and peculiarities in gaming surrounding and in connection with their subculture on the example of MMORPG gamers. To achieve this goal it is necessary to distinguish between different types of role-play games in the Internet, define them as virtual subcultures and describe their speech behaviour.
Firstly it is important to define the subculture of role-players in general. The subculture of role-playing games is one of quite noticeable and developed subcultures, both in the real world and in the Internet, and it should be noted that both in real life and in the Internet there are several options for this subculture. In real-life world two types of role-playing games can be distinguished: a board-based role-playing game, where players sit together in the same room and verbally describe the actions of their character, and those where the performance itself (similar to theatrical) takes place, in costumes with appropriate household items, weapons and etc.
There are also two versions of the game in the Internet, one of which is close to a board role-playing game in real life but is carried out in a form of forums posts or with the help of instant messengers etc. Participants in such games also provide only a textual description of their character's actions, however they have more time to think about them, they can edit their messages, their reaction to the actions of other players is usually delayed in time, since it is necessary to read the texts of other players. The second version of the role-playing game in the Internet is a computer multiplayer online game [7]. The player in such a game is offered a variety of characters which they could play either customizable or semi-customizable. They can make their character look like them in real life or like their favourite hero. Along with customizable appearance which is rather attractive to players they are supplied with a special mission that they are supposed to fulfil together with other players. When this mission is fulfilled the player gets another one, so all in all the game never ends. As a rule, in such a game one player has more than one character, and in some cases they can even be online at the same time. The character of the game is limited by its conventions and rules, which are created by developers and cannot be changed at the request of the player.
In both versions of real-life role-play games and in forum ones it matters for every new player what happened in the game before, what other players had said and done but in virtual MMORPG every new player starts their own existence from a scrap, no matter how many other players there are and what they have already done. Real-life role-play games and forum games also let a player
communicate with limited number of people at a time (not more then 200-300 for costume role-play games and about 10-20 for board games and forum games) whereas in MMORPGs players can communicate with either a small number of people or a big group, sometimes to the whole server which may contain thousands of players. Thus virtual MMORPGs give players freedom in their behaviour and speech.
Secondly, it is important to define MMORPG players as representatives of a certain subculture because it also influences their behaviour and speech. Traditionally, there are 3 groups of signs of subculture: symbolic, social and behavioral. In addition, it should be remembered that the inherent characteristic of any subculture is the presence of a special vocabulary [8, 9, 10].
The first common point for every role-player is that they depict and live not their own life, but the life of another creature, and sometimes this creature is an idealized image of the player himself, and sometimes has little to do with the real person. MMORPG players have practically no opportunity to "decorate" their character with any symbols other than belonging to a guild or having some titles, but in real life they can create or buy things with the symbols of their favourite game.
The social characteristics of players can be very diverse and have a significant impact both on the game process and on the attitude to it. Traditionally, role-players are rather young people and as a rule, they have not yet decided on their lives, have more free time, and are usually not burdened with work and family responsibilities. For the MMORPG players in particular the possession of technical means is necessary. This situation is more common in Russia, while for the international servers the age span is bigger and elderly people actively play MMORPGs as well as younger ones.
It was long assumed that most MMORPG players are male nevertheless nowadays there are a lot of female role-players as well. Compared to costume RPG where the player should physically meet the requirements of the character such as gender, stature, voice and the like, virtual MMORPGs don't require any special appearance, clothes, attributes from the player. Moreover about half of MMORPG players choose to make a character of the opposite gender and it is not considered abnormal [11].
Another factor affecting role-playing games may be the player's education, and if both a schoolchild and a scholar can play computer games in the modern world equally well, therefore the level of education is practically not important in that case, it is very important for text games because few people would like to read a poorly written story, while in MMORPG players may laugh at mistakes in other players' language but it won't affect the process of the game unless it makes the meaning unclear.
If we consider the behavioral signs of the role culture subculture, we can note the heterogeneity of their manifestation. For example, the stereotypes of behavior of different types of players are very different depending on the type of RPG. So for the costume role-players appearing on the game without the appropriate costume and accessories is unacceptable and is criticized by other players. For a board role-playing game, the obligatory appearance at each session of the game is considered a stereotype of behavior, since the absence of any character at a certain point in time violates the entire game process. About the same thing can be said about forum text games, where the game process will be disrupted if one of the players does not write their remarks for a long enough time. Players in MMORPG are less dependent on the presence of other players, but they also prefer to join groups to achieve common goals, since it is difficult to achieve much in a multiplayer game being alone. Thus, the common stereotype for all role-players is the desire to interact with each other, however, the degree and necessity of this interaction is different.
The norm for any type of role-playing game is the presence of a master, but for role-playing games in real life it is a living person who is personally present at the site of the game simultaneously with all the other players and manages the process. In forum text games, the master is also present in the game personally however their online time does not always coincide with the time of the players. In all these cases, you can personally communicate with the master, agree, discuss the
game process and the plot or even argue. In MMORPGs, the game development company plays the role of a master, and the players have practically no opportunity to convey their opinions to them or enter into a dispute.
Another manifestation of the behavioral norm is the language that is used while playing. In both costume and board role-play games as well as in forum ones player's speech should be consistent with the character. In MMORPGs it is the players who communicate, not the characters, and their speech directly depends on the personal characteristics and education of the player. Thus, in MMORPGs speech has a more practical purpose that is the need to achieve a result together with other players. It is important to note that gamers' speech follows the same general rules of the language the player speaks. For a person who is not a gamer the difficulty in understanding may be caused mostly by special game related vocabulary. If players discuss something common, not directly connected with the process of gaming, they use common vocabulary not related to gaming. On the other hand while communicating about game matters they use a lot of special vocabulary which is not easily understood by outsiders. Mostly game related communication is close to business-like or professional communication in terms of its shortness, preciseness and determination to fulfil the objective.
The speech in MMORPG may be observed in two forms, oral and written (typed). Oral speech is more difficult to make a research on though it could be done with the help of a digital recorder. It should be noted that oral speech used in MMORPGs has all features of casual oral speech with a number of thematically referred words included.
Oral speech can be observed in two cases, either a group of people sitting in one room and playing the same game or some players using special voice chat software. In both cases it differs from normal oral face-to-face communications because the players don't look at each other but at their computer screen. Even when sitting in the same room they don't have an opportunity to watch mimics and gestures of the other player because their attention is turned to the game process. Therefore the intonation is the only feature that can be monitored without seeing the peer's face and it is very important in such conversation. There can be also a problem with recognizing voices when there are many people in chat simultaneously. Without looking in the chat list one cannot see who is speaking at the moment and sometimes it is hard to define even the gender of the person speaking. There are overlays for the voice chat that show the name of the speaker in the corner of the game window but when there are some people talking simultaneously it is still confusing.
Voice chat software is used mostly when immediate reaction is needed and when the player acting in a team does not have time and opportunity to write messages in game chat due to the fact that some time is required for the server to connect with the player's PC and also due to the situation when the player should press other buttons to perform some actions in game. Usually players use this kind of software to coordinate the actions of many players at the same time or when they need to discuss some new content in game that they are trying to process and master. It is common for every guild on the server to have some special channel in any of voice chat software and often there is also a channel for the whole server. Guild channel usually contains several rooms for different purposes and events where people can gather either in small groups or rather large ones. The example of voice chat software TeamSpeak 3 channels can be seen in Picture 1.
It can be seen in the picture that it is a guild voice chat software interface where there are six big sections each containing a number of rooms. Every section or room is used for a particular purpose such as Territory Wars and Dragon Conquest events, Officer Channel and more. There are also rooms for casual chatting in The Fortday section. It is visible that some rooms are not open for all players with the help of a lock icon. On the other hand the officers of the guild have a possibility to bind all channels together and speak to all users in all rooms and sections at the same time which ordinary users cannot do.
Below the list of sections and rooms there is also a small box for written messages (not presented in Picture 1) but such messages are rarely used, mostly in cases when some of the participants have no microphone.
Tea m Speak 3
Connections Bookmarks Self Permissions To
a ^x «ix ^ Ai **
Vindicate Lobby 9 Gale
Rellesca y^t Sam a el Guest Hlouse Room 69 ^ Room 401 9 AFK Room
Donn Elanba ** Territory Wa r / Draqon Conquest Replacements 9 Squad 1
Squad 2 (United Canada of Da) 9 Squad 3 9 Squad A Squad 5 Squad 6 Squad 7 SquadS ^ "The Fortday
the Hangout BraveOnes Ttie PK Pit Living Room Movi e "Tt^eater Games Room (Events) "TT^e Stri p Tea se Apples Dead Orchid the Bedroom —p Cleo's MahJcng Club —Snizel's Mental Hospital ^ Officer Channel
TW Coordinators Meeti n g Interview Dome
Picture 1. Voice chat software channels
Sometimes people use voice chats to communicate on casual matters not just for gaming. In that case their speech may have no indication of their being gamers but when they participate in some in-game event a lot of special lexical units are used. Most big player groups prefer to use voice chats not to lose time writing some important information for every player. When there is a voice chat opened players will hear what is said even if they do something else at that moment but when the information is written in game chat it may soon move too far covered by other messages and will not be seen by the player who is currently away from the computer.
Gamers' speech can also be observed in written form which is represented in either in-game chat or in forums, guides and social networks. This article will deal mostly with in-game chat. Ingame written speech is easier to analyze than oral as one can always screenshot it for later rereading. It is also easier in terms of installation; one does not need any additional software for this as the game supplies the players with the elaborate system of in-game chats. This research with deal with a popular MMORPG called Perfect World, both Russian and International versions [12, 13]. The ingame chats are usually divided into several channels which are usually colour-coded and can be switched among. There are usually channels for trading, for guilds, for groups, for private conversa-
tion and for all server communication. Some games offer cross-server communication as well. If at some point players do not want to see the messages in particular channel they can usually turn them off. The example of colour-coded in-game chat channels in Perfect World game can be observed in Picture 2.
woriS xVessy: any fsj?
|Woria| Locxz: LOL Ty DHD Squad for old MBH
[Ten Million Big Note! world xVessy: xD gz gz Worid | LocxrThankies Lol
[world] Amenhoteplll: MBH IU LF CLERIC , LAST SPOT. PM
[* * * Cutting Moonbeam) EyshielArc is online, [private] T° EyshielArc you say: =) Team EyshielArc: tyty *Guil5'j SamaelArc: hi all
StellaG StellaG is offline
-Büna1] TankingBOSSII: hey there ^gTjii'SJJ TankingBOSSII: any ep for iu?
Picture 2. In-game chat channels in Perfect World game
The yellow text in the picture shows the world chat channel which can be seen by all players if they don't turn it off. The pink colour is used for private chats with people in player's friendlist. The dark blue colour shows private messages with people who are not in friendlist. Private messages can be seen only the two players engaged in communication. The green colour shows messages in group chat, they are visible only for the players united in ne group (not more than 10 characters in Perfect World). The cyan colour shows the guild communication and all characters in the guild can see it if they are online (up to 200 characters in Perfect World). There can be also white colour chat seen only by those around the speaker and orange colour chat for system messages produced by the game itself.
The space for a message in game chat is always limited and the length of it is usually about 100-110 symbols and the space for messages usually takes from one tenth to one sixth of the game interface. That space is called a chat box. Combined with the fact that a server may have some hundreds players online and wishing to write something at the same time which makes the chat flooded with different messages, a player has to look constantly and attentively at the chat box where messages follow each other quickly and disappear from the view similar to scrolling text on TV. Once it scrolls away it is hard to find it again and one should scroll back for some time to see the necessary piece of information. Sometimes chat box clears and old messages disappear forever. Having several channels helps to look for the type of information the person is interested in at the moment.
It is noteworthy that the necessity to convey the message in severely limited space and to react to other people's messages in the shortest time not to be outrun by others determines the peculiarities of gamers' written speech. To express the wish to find someone particular to help fulfil the mission one should write an extended complex sentence using both main and auxiliary parts of speech to point where exactly the help is needed and what type of character with what characteristics is required. For example a chat message like this bm cleric sin seek(def) +1ddfor IU19+ means that the person needs characters of particular classes (bm 'blademaster', cleric, sin 'assassin', seek 'seeker') and one more character of any class able to deal a lot of damage (dd 'damage dealer') to help them with the quest in a dungeon called IU (short for 'Icebound Underworld'). Moreover one of the characters in question (seeker) should meet special requirements concerning their def 'defence levels'. The message also tells that the dungeon will be passed till the last 19th boss respawn-ing several times (for which + is added after 19), which is more than the quest requires. In Russian
version of the game the same meaning would be conveyed like this в ЛА на фул вар прист син сик(пз) 1дд, where ЛА is the same as 'Icebound Underworld' ('Ледяной Ад' in Russian), фул means 19, вар stands for 'blademaster', прист is 'cleric', син is 'assassin', сик(пз) is 'seeker(def)', дд is 'damage dealer'. These two examples show that a lot of shortenings are used in gamers' written speech to compress the message ad fit it into 100-110 symbols. It is also important to note that such messages are very business-like precise and emotionless. With all the differences between English and Russian as modern languages in general there seems to be the same tendency of omitting verbs and pronouns and minimalizing prepositions and endings. English text also is devoid of articles which are important for the language in general.
There is one more point about game chat messages, which is the fact that particular patterns are used practically by all players though there are not any special rules or restrictions about the way of shortening. These patterns differ in Russian and English versions of the game but within the same version they are followed. For example in English version if players want to sell, buy or trade some item or service they usually write it like WTS 'I want to sell', WTB 'I want to buy' and WTT 'I want to trade' respectively, though 'I' is omitted from the shortening. In Russian version the messages about trading options usually feature either full words продам 'I want to sell'/ куплю 'I want to buy'/ поменяю'Х want to trade' or phrases like кружевное платье цены в пм 'I want to sell a courtesan dress, write your bid in a private message', where the verb is omitted.
Another way of shortening the length of the in-game message is using in-game links that show detailed information about the linked object. In some cases the game also shows if the person who clicks the link has a similar object equipped. It is a convenient way which allows to show the object's characteristics without writing anything or to understand if a character is suitable for some mission. Picture 3 shows an example of a detailed link in Perfect World game.
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will cost Earning Tirm Your remaining Earnii You've entered an Ea will cost Earning Tirm f^^l xVessy: any
★ ★★Cutting Moonbeam |2socket<s)) +12 Bound X
Saber
Lv. 16
Attack Rate(Atks/sec) 1.11
Range 3.00
Physical Attack 1998-2631
Durability 338/380
Requires Level 101
Requires 55 Strength
Requires 300000 Reputation
God of Frenzy: Your attacks have a chance t deal double damage, at the
cost of 5% of your Maximum Health.
Atk. Level +40
Atk. Level +22
Critical Hit Rate +6%
Dexterity +11
Range +2.00
HP: +205
Drakeflame Stone Phy. Atk. +100
Drakeflame Stone Phy. Atk. +100
Pricel 78,064 Silver Coin(s)
Manufactured by Amenhoteplll
Doesn't drop on death.
Unable to be discarded
Unable to be sold
Unable to be traded
Unable to be put into Account Stash
Limitless Rank IX Gear.
Cannot be decomposed.
[★★★Cutting Moon
V. Com. Squad Faction Private Trade G Chat World Horn Cross * r. V N A r»<>«
★★ ★Wheel of Divinity (2 sockets)) +12
Equipped
Bound
Glaive
Lv. 16
Attack Rate(Atks/sec) 1.25 Range 3.00
Physical Attack 1835-2113 Magic Attack 2323-2957 Durability 175/190 Required Class: Cleric Requires Level 101 Requires 55 Strength Requires 303 Magic Requires 300000 Reputation
Purify Spell: Your attacks have a chance to remove a movement-impairing effect^frgm^our, grant your immunity to movement-impairing effects, and in^re^se your Speed by 200%%r 5 :
.СП
Atk. Level +40 Atk. Level +20 Channelling -7% Magic +17
Maximum Magic Attack +97 HP: +205
Pricel 84,488 Silver Coin(s)
"WeapOfDoom"
Doesn't drop on death.
Unable to be discarded
Unable to be sold
Unable to be traded
Unable to be put into Account Stash
The guilty shall tremble, for their end is nigh.
Limitless Rank IX Weapon.
Unable to be decomposed.
A @ 10
Ш ? <ГА Ж W&
Picture 3. In-game detailed link in Perfect World game
If a person clicks a link presented in the chat box and put in [ ] symbols (in Picture 3 it is the orange text in the lower left corner) there appear two windows. The left one shows the linked item,
the right one shows the item of a similar kind equipped on a player who clicked the link. All this information gives the player an idea of the qualities of the linked object and its detailed description which could not be written in 100-110 symbols of the in-game message.
In conclusion it should be noted that video games are considered a popular pastime nowadays and a lot of people both young and elderly spend a significant amount of time playing them. One of the most popular types of video games are MMORPGs which allow the player a lot of freedom of choice among many different settings, types of characters, behaviour etc. Such games do not demand much from a player that is why they gain more popularity than older text or face-to-face RPGs.
All gamers may be said to belong to a gaming subculture as playing games takes a lot of their time and influences their worldview. Being a subculture it has some particular features of social, behavioral and symbolic nature. As any subculture in general gaming subculture is heterogeneous and is represented by a number of smaller subcultures which have certain differences. Most characteristic feature defining the type of subculture is its members' speech.
The gamers' speech is determined mostly by special vocabulary concerning gaming and the devices used to play games. Outside of that sphere of communication the speech of gamers does not contradict the norms of the national language. It is important to note that game-induced communication can be described as business-like, precise, full of shortenings and rather emotionless. The reason for such kind of speech is that both time and space for conversation in games is limited and gaming requires quick and well-coordinated actions.
In order to provide gamers with the necessary tools to succeed voice chat software is used. It allows huge groups of people to coordinate their actions in game by means of oral communication which does not require typing and saves time. Gamers' speech in oral form is harder to monitor for research but some peculiarities of it can be still noticeable. It has most characteristics of intermediated oral speech in general. As the players cannot see mimics or gestures of each other the intonation is very important as well as voice recognition. All in all gamers' oral speech is determined by the topic of communication. If the game or gaming process is discussed then a lot of special vocabulary is used and the speech is more difficult to understand for the outsider. Otherwise it is usual oral speech that can be heard from common people not connected with games.
Gamers' written speech in game itself is determined by the limited space and the necessity to react and type quickly. That causes peculiarities; one of them is using a lot of shortenings in ingame chat where the messages should be no longer the 100-110 symbols. Special vocabulary combined with shortenings makes in-game chat speech even less understandable for outsiders than oral speech where players usually use less shortenings. Games try to supply players with a possibility to express their ideas more fully using less chat space by means of in-game linking which gives players detailed information while using only a few symbols.
All in all in-game communication in MMORPG can be described as induced speech which has all the characteristics of speech in general, no matter what the language is. The only peculiarity is its vocabulary and the necessity to shorten most words for the communication to be successful in given circumstances.
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