Ludic Taunting: Does Taunting Work Differently in Video Games?

Abstract

Studies on taunting in video game context tend to mull over around how players taunt other players via online chat features. Studies on how taunting works in games with in-game taunt features are under investigated. Examining twenty-seven gamestory-wise and gameplay-wise games, we argue, through this sociolinguistic study, that taunting designed for game characters is better termed ludic taunting since it has different functions from that of taunting in games with online chat feature and in real life. Ludic taunting has two major functions namely narrative and mechanical. The former which refers to taunting for game story-bound purposes is classified into archetyping, cameoing, and mythopoesing. The latter, for game play-bound purposes, is classified into buffing, cosmeticizing, cueing, debuffing, hinting, and rewarding. Game designers and scholars could employ this study as a reference in designing games with in-game taunt features.

Gender bias in video game dialogue

“…Specifically, we need to obtain three key measures of the distribution in terms of who speaks (and whether this is changing over time), who they speak to, and whether there are differences in what is said. This approach builds on work in 'ludolinguistics', the application of linguistic methods to many types of games [44][45][46][47] and the discourses that surround them [48][49][50][51], particularly the application of corpus linguistic methods to the content of video games [52][53][54][55][56][57]. However, existing data sources are limited due to non-standardized formats, a limited number of games [58], or a lack of mapping between dialogue and characters [59,60].…”