The document discusses intercultural challenges faced by members of a global gaming community. It identifies language barriers, different gaming perspectives, and gender stereotypes as key challenges. Members can overcome these by learning the language and culture of the community, having a positive mindset, and building connections with other players. Intercultural competence developed includes cognitive knowledge of other cultures, affective ability to deal with intercultural stress, and behavioral skills like effective intercultural interaction. Respecting differences and finding common ground is important for building understanding between cultural groups in the global community.
4. Being in a gaming community is surely exciting for
everyone as it provides a platform for all to experience
a variety of wonderful journeys that helps in mitigating
worries, stresses, and strains towards life.
5. Nowadays, there are many games with different
genres that have been exposed extensively to all
people around the world, and one example is
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena or known as (MOBA),
which is a game genre that has become famous
among individuals regardless of differences.
6. Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB)
is a (MOBA) game that most people
from different countries play; and in
this context, many intercultural
relationships are involved between
the players in the community.
8. Language barrier is often the issue that takes place
within intercultural contexts in the gaming community.
Intercultural communication in it can be challenging for
some people who do not share a mutually intelligible
language for the purpose of exchanging their thoughts
to one another effectively.
9. Given that, English has always been the medium of
communication between the individuals who involve in
MLBB especially when the situation takes place
globally.
10. However, based on our experience, we have watched
a video of a Malaysian who represented the country in
a MLBB global competition. As he has won in one of
the matches during the competition, it was found out
that the player was not able to respond to an
interviewer’s questions who asked him in English.
11. This eventually led him to respond
with only saying, “I don’t know”.
Luckily, this situation was handled well
when another Malaysian appeared and
became his translator for the interview.
12. In a different situation, most individuals who are new
to the gaming community might confront with a
language barrier that can make them become clueless
as they will potentially encounter expressions that are
articulated in the structures of short forms or
acronyms among the ones who are literate in the field.
13. These short forms or acronyms are classified as
jargons that are specially used by the veteran MLBB
players which include good game (GG), well played
(WP), away from keyboard (AFK), cooldown (CD), and
so forth.
14. Certainly, these expressions essentially have their own
functions according to different situations in order for
all MLBB players to convey meanings quickly as well
as successfully to one another.
15. Being in the MLBB community also deals with certain
words that are thrown by particular groups of people
from different parts of the world. From our experience,
Indonesian players are the ones who mostly are found
to have their own positive and negative words used
towards other players in the game.
16. Examples of positive words include mabar, hoki, and
mantol, whereas examples of negative or profanity
words include bocah, bacot, kontol, lonte, and joki.
Knowing these words is important for everyone in the
community in order to understand what they actually
mean whether it is good or the opposite.
17. Secondly, having different gaming perspectives
among the MLBB players also has its spot as one of
the intercultural challenges in the gaming community.
18. For example, Malaysian and Indonesian players tend
to have their respective viewpoints in playing the
game such as making use of different gaming
strategies that sometimes leads to misconception and
misunderstanding among both of the parties.
19. In addition to this, newcomers who join the community
with lack of familiarity about this culture can also feel
threatened which eventually affects them negatively as
most of the time they will immediately get criticised by
the others who have had long experience in the game.
20. On the other hand, the community in MLBB also
commits gender stereotyping which can be
demotivating for some people. For example, female
players who randomly take part in a match with other
public players are often being generalised as weak
and problematic especially by the opposite gender.
21. This will mostly happen when a female player in the
game is found to contribute to many disadvantages to
her team in one particular match which in the end
brings the whole team to lose.
22. How do they overcome the
challenges while being part of
the global community?
23. Dealing with language barrier, different gaming
perspectives, and gender stereotypes can be
overcome by the individuals who partake in MLBB
through familiarising themselves by learning the
language, words, and culture that mostly link to the
community accordingly.
24. Everyone should have a positive mindset to play the
game while at the same time grab any possible
opportunities to learn on how they can possibly
surround themselves in the community comfortably.
25. For example, newcomers can learn what are the do’s and
don’ts in the game and try their best to adapt within the
norms. Besides, they can also communicate with other
experienced players to help with their unfamiliarity about
the game and learn one or two tips from them.
26. Building connections in this manner can be done
among everyone in the community by being friendly in
which helps in creating a better experience for both
the newcomers and also the veteran players.
27. Undoubtedly, it takes two to tango; hence, the players
who have had long experience in the game should
also be supportive towards the newcomers by being
more open-minded with giving them chances to learn
and adapt with the situation.
28. Not to forget, all participants in MLBB must also
earnestly minimise the use of negative words and
actions that can completely hinder the process of
achieving a harmonious environment that is hoped to
be cultivated within the gaming community.
29. Even if there is a need for criticism or comment
towards somebody’s performance in the game, one
could do it by applying different strategies of
politeness that may prevent the other person from
feeling offended or demotivated.
31. Intercultural competence involves awareness of the
differences between cultures, knowledge about the
beliefs, values, and practices of other cultures, and
the skill to apply that knowledge effortlessly and
effectively in interpersonal interactions.
33. Cognitive
Cognitive
The cognitive dimension is about the knowledge acquired
about cultural norms, values, behaviors, and issues. This
surrounds how individuals perceive other cultures or
information from outside their own cultural worlds. Those
who are interculturally competent exhibit positive attitudes
toward intercultural contact and are open to other
perspectives.
34. Affective
Affective
The affective dimension refers to enduring personal
characteristics that determine an individual’s typical
behaviors as well as their motivations to engage in
intercultural situations. Those who are interculturally
competent are able to deal with stress and ambiguity in
intercultural encounters.
35. Behavioral
Behavioral
The behavioral dimension focuses on one’s ability to
showcase problem-solving skills, and culturally-appropriate
skills. This emphasizes what a person can do to be effective
in intercultural interactions. Those who are interculturally
competent are able to work effectively in a culturally diverse
setting.
36. Answer: Ability to understand
differences between cultures
and find a common ground.
37. Every player needs to be aware of the other culture by
respecting and understanding other cultures. The players
can learn about the other culture which can make the
other player feel accepted in this community.
38. For example, when Malaysian players are on a
team with Indonesian players, both players
need to respect each other culture by engaging
with each other without causing any non-
behavioral scene (e.g: insulting others' culture)
during the game.
39. Therefore, they need to find a
Therefore, they need to find a
common ground during the game
common ground during the game
Changing their attitudes
towards culturally different
people by treating the
other players as their own
members. For example, be
friendly with strangers so
that they do not feel left
out during the game.
Manage your stress well by
avoiding using harsh words
that could trigger the other
players' culture which can
lead to a negative gaming
environment and find a better
solution to win the game
together.
RULE 01
RULE 02
42. A global event is an organized event
involving people from countries
around the world. There are many
different types of global events and
they can attract a lot of media
attention.
43. Nowadays, there are many global events
that happened around the world and have
been exposed extensively to all people
around the world. One example is
Re:Connect, which is a global event that we
have attended and were organized by the
ELS students from UKM.
45. This global event involves students from
different countries such as Thailand,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, etc. All
of the countries that were involved in this
event were Asian countries.
46. Based on our own experience, we
found that Asians are typically shy to
participate in public involvement.
47. A few students from the
Philipines were reluctant to
express their ideas and
opinions during the global
event. This is because they are
very shy and afraid to blend in
with the other students from
different countries.
Forexample:
48. Other than that, we noticed
that every culture has different
reactions to global events.
49. We noticed that Indonesian
and Thailand students are
more accepting and more
energetic compared to other
countries. All of them are very
friendly and they were easily
adapting to the situations
without taking too much time
to make new friends.
Forexample:
50. This will give a huge impact on the other
cultures and they could simply
misinterpret the other culture because of
the different perspectives that they had
during the global event.
52. Breaking the gap in between cultures
Engaging into conversations between students of different cultural
background. During this session, there were many
misunderstanding in terms of the way they talk and react to
different situations. However, by participating into all the group
activities, students were able to develop deeper understanding
towards each other's cullture.
54. While engaging in the group
activities, students of all
different cultural backgrounds
have constantly exchange
each other's cultural aspects
and language.
Ethnorelativestagesofdevelopment
55. Example
Students were sharing the things that makes their culture
unique, along with words that may sound weird to other
culture. With that, they incorporate the language and
action into their group slogan and gestures while chanting
the slogan.
57. Joining a global event means that you should
have an open mind, willing to accept and learn
things that are totally out of your own culture.
While the students are joining this program,
not only they have gain multiple valuable
experience with people from different cultures,
but they are also able to have a mutual
understanding towards each other's culture,
and find a common ground in between them.