This document summarizes a study on communication strategies used in online team-based games. It finds that players use a scale of politeness from neutral to mildly or highly impolite remarks when communicating with teammates. Neutral remarks include imperatives and explanations, while mildly impolite remarks add elements like using all caps. Highly impolite remarks involve name-calling and flaming language. Interviews reveal different player motivations, from winning to having fun by trolling or raging. The study has implications for education, therapy, and gaming companies' customer satisfaction efforts.

1. Communication Strategies of
Politeness and Impoliteness in
Online Team-Based Games
Janet Vong
Faculty Advisor: Mary Bucholtz
Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Barbara
Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR)

2. Online Gaming Language
gertbek (Taric): why not take out ashe
Repriev3 (Shaco): it's called taunt
Repriev3 (Shaco): Retard

3. Communication

4. Politeness and Impoliteness Theories
• Face: the self-image of speakers in face-to-face interaction
• Politeness protects face (Brown & Levinson 1987)
• Impoliteness damages face by causing offense (Culpeper
2011)

5. In-game Chat box
Context
Non-verbal cues
Social conventions
Actions

6. Flaming in Online Gaming
• Flaming: using hostile language toward others
• Trolling: intentionally playing a character in a way that violates
the norms of the game
– Positive Trolling = humorous
– Negative Trolling = decreases fun for others
• Raging: expressing irritation at teammate(s)
• Negative trolling Raging

7. • How and why do team members use strategies of politeness
or impoliteness? What are the consequences of their choices?
• What are effective strategies of maintaining communication
without upsetting teammates?
Research Questions

8. 2012 – #1 Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game
2011 – 4.2 million daily players; 32.5 million registered accounts

9. Playing LoL

10. Loading Screen
Rune Page

11. Dominion
5 vs. 5
20 minute game
Summoner’s Rift
5 vs. 5
30-40 minute game
Twisted Treeline
3 vs. 3
30 minute game
The 3 Maps in LoL

12. Summoner’s Rift Map
Pings
Nexus
Jungle
Bottom Lane
Middle Lane
Turret
Top Lane
River
White Box: Player’s
location on the map
Circles
Green-one’s own team
Red-enemy’s team
Minions
Green-one’s own team
Red-enemy’s team
Purple Team
(enemy’s team)
Blue Team
(one’s own team)
Bottom Lane
Top Lane
Middle Lane

13. 4 females28 males 20 hours
Total: 32 Participants (Ages 18-25)
All participants were experienced and avid players
Data Collection
•Recording and coding of conversations within teams
•7 group interviews and 5 online survey interviews
Methods

14. Characteristics of in-game remarks
Scale of Politeness
Neutral Remarks
Mildly Impolite RemarksMildly Polite Remarks
Impolite Remarks
Polite Impolite
Polite Remarks

15. Neutral Remarks
• Imperatives
• Finding information
• Explanation

16. Mildly Impolite Remarks
• Using all caps for emphasis
• Asking "why" or saying ”(I) don't know why ...” when talking
about a teammate’s past action

17. Neutral and Mildly Impolite Remark
Example
• RizeAgainst1 starts with “don’t know why …” (mildly impolite)
to indicate that he is not satisfied with his teammates’
performance
• Repriev3 gives an explanation (neutral speech)

18. Impolite Remarks
• Using all caps
• Name calling
• Repeated and aggravated imperatives
• Flaming language
• Negative evaluations

19. Impolite Remark Example
• Repriev3 repeats a previous imperative, capitalizes two letters
in “omg” (‘oh my god’), and adds “so clueless” to show that he
is angry at his teammates
• Repreiv3 uses impolite markers when speaking to his
teammates

20. Discussion
Scale of Politeness
Neutral Remarks
Mildly Impolite RemarksMildly Polite Remarks
Impolite Remarks
Polite Impolite
Polite Remarks
Ordinary team communication
Creating positive or negative relationships

21. Sample Interview Questions
• What does trolling mean to you?
• What makes the game fun?
• Do you play “to win” or “to have fun?”

22. Key quotes
• Repriev3: Well like, everyone says, "good luck, have fun" in
the beginning. I just say that as a joke, “bad luck, don’t have
fun.” ... I guess it’s just me having fun with people. It’s fun to
see if you get a reaction out of it or not.
• RizeAgainst1: I don’t know, I used to rage a lot like back, like a
long of time. But overtime, I realized that the less you rage,
the more successful you are. Like, you don’t bring your
teammates down and stuff like that.

23. Discussion
• All players have different expectations and goals
• The definition of “fun” varies from player to player

24. Implications
• Education
– Potential disruptions in educational settings
• Psycho-therapy
– Work on group communication skills
• Gaming Companies
– Improve customer satisfaction

25. References
• Baron, Naomi. (2008). Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World. New York, Oxford
University Press.
• Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language
Usage. New York, Cambridge University Press.
• Crystal, David. (2011). Internet Linguistics. New York, Routledge.
• Culpeper, Jonathan. (2011). Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press.
• Herring, Susan. (1994).“Politeness in computer culture: Why women thank and men flame.”
Cultural Performances: Proceedings of the Third Berkeley Women and Language Conference.
Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group.
• Keating, Elizabeth, and Chiho Sunakawa. (2010). “Participation cues: Coordinating activity and
collaboration in complex online gaming worlds.” Language in Society 39(3): 331-356.

26. Questions?
Contact:
leagueoflegendsproject@gmail.com