2025
Carrera, Julián Gutiérrez
Fictional Videogames as Framing Devices: Suicide Communication in MMOs Journal Article
In: ELUDAMOS, vol. 16, iss. 1, 2025, ISSN: 1866-6124.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Fictional games, Framing devices, MMO, Suicide
@article{nokey,
title = {Fictional Videogames as Framing Devices: Suicide Communication in MMOs},
author = {Julián Gutiérrez Carrera },
url = {https://doi.org/10.7557/23.7894},
doi = {10.7557/23.7894},
issn = {1866-6124},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-06-26},
journal = {ELUDAMOS},
volume = {16},
issue = {1},
abstract = {In this paper, I argue that the use of fictional Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) as framing devices serves as a reflexive narrative tool that suggests an understanding of MMOs as spaces with their own internal rules of communication. To do this, I conduct a close reading of Agony of a Dying MMO, a singleplayer demo game that depicts the final hours of service of a fictional MMO through a series of semi-explorable vignettes showing the activities of fictional players. In order to analyse how MMOs are represented as spaces with internal rules of communication, I focus my analysis on three instances of direct suicide communication—communicative acts directly referring to past, present, or future suicidal intent. As suicide communication is often indirect, I focus on how the social logic and rules of MMOs enable direct suicide communication. Through the close readings, I found that MMOs alter, enable, and restrict specific types of communication through a combination of their game design features, their user interfaces, and their existence as (and contiguity with) online spaces. In particular, I found that written communication through an MMO’s chat box can provide an alibi by turning seemingly serious statements into jokes; that acts embedded in the process of engaging with MMOs, like logging out and the consequent disappearance of a character, can serve as a communicative tool denoting finality; and that game design features meant to bring players together, like guilds and factions, can enable player authenticity and openness by attracting like-minded players, for better or for worse. As the use of videogames as framing devices presents a meta-referential commentary on videogames in the real world, these represented social affordances suggest that virtual online spaces provide unique opportunities and alibis for direct suicide communication.},
keywords = {Fictional games, Framing devices, MMO, Suicide},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In this paper, I argue that the use of fictional Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) as framing devices serves as a reflexive narrative tool that suggests an understanding of MMOs as spaces with their own internal rules of communication. To do this, I conduct a close reading of Agony of a Dying MMO, a singleplayer demo game that depicts the final hours of service of a fictional MMO through a series of semi-explorable vignettes showing the activities of fictional players. In order to analyse how MMOs are represented as spaces with internal rules of communication, I focus my analysis on three instances of direct suicide communication—communicative acts directly referring to past, present, or future suicidal intent. As suicide communication is often indirect, I focus on how the social logic and rules of MMOs enable direct suicide communication. Through the close readings, I found that MMOs alter, enable, and restrict specific types of communication through a combination of their game design features, their user interfaces, and their existence as (and contiguity with) online spaces. In particular, I found that written communication through an MMO’s chat box can provide an alibi by turning seemingly serious statements into jokes; that acts embedded in the process of engaging with MMOs, like logging out and the consequent disappearance of a character, can serve as a communicative tool denoting finality; and that game design features meant to bring players together, like guilds and factions, can enable player authenticity and openness by attracting like-minded players, for better or for worse. As the use of videogames as framing devices presents a meta-referential commentary on videogames in the real world, these represented social affordances suggest that virtual online spaces provide unique opportunities and alibis for direct suicide communication.
2022
Välisalo, Tanja; Ruotsalainen, Maria
“Sexuality Does Not Belong to the Game”: Discourses in Overwatch Community and the Privilege of Belonging Journal Article
In: Game Studies: the international journal of computer game research, vol. 22, iss. 3, 2022, ISSN: 1604-7982.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Belonging, Discourse analysis, Homosexuality, MMO, Overwatch, Representation
@article{Välisalo2022b,
title = {“Sexuality Does Not Belong to the Game”: Discourses in Overwatch Community and the Privilege of Belonging},
author = {Tanja Välisalo and Maria Ruotsalainen},
url = {http://gamestudies.org/2203/articles/valisalo_ruotsalainen},
issn = {1604-7982},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-08-31},
urldate = {2022-08-31},
journal = {Game Studies: the international journal of computer game research},
volume = {22},
issue = {3},
abstract = {Players can experience a sense of belonging to videogames and the transmedial worlds surrounding them. There nevertheless exist ongoing negotiations over who has the right to belong to these spaces. Multiple works addressing related issues have highlighted that white heterosexual men still maintain the position of power in the majority of game communities (e.g., Consalvo, 2012; Paul, 2018). This position can translate into an ease of belonging while others can find themselves struggling for the right to belong.
We examine the transmedial world of Overwatch, an online game, as a place of belonging and non-belonging. Since the game’s launch, two characters have been revealed as queer. In contrast, a third character is considered a gay icon by fans, even though there is no official narrative supporting this. We analyze discussions around these cases using rhetoric-performative discourse analysis (Palonen & Saresma, 2017), an approach originally developed for research of political populism. In addition to similar affective and persuasive rhetoric in both contexts, politics have become an inherent part of online and fan communities (Dean, 2017), making this approach even more apt.
Our analysis makes visible how belonging and non-belonging are constructed in Overwatch communities in relation to gender, sexuality, their intersections and also to identities such as “player” and “fan.” We take into account ongoing design choices in the game’s development and analyze how the complex structures of production and reception interact with these discourses. Discussions analyzed here expand beyond Overwatch, touching upon highly politicized issues of gender and sexuality in games, the right to be represented and the current political climate in Western countries, and reenact divisions present more broadly in media discussions. Our findings also show how characters function as a nexus for these political debates and as limits and horizons for belonging.},
keywords = {Belonging, Discourse analysis, Homosexuality, MMO, Overwatch, Representation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Players can experience a sense of belonging to videogames and the transmedial worlds surrounding them. There nevertheless exist ongoing negotiations over who has the right to belong to these spaces. Multiple works addressing related issues have highlighted that white heterosexual men still maintain the position of power in the majority of game communities (e.g., Consalvo, 2012; Paul, 2018). This position can translate into an ease of belonging while others can find themselves struggling for the right to belong.
We examine the transmedial world of Overwatch, an online game, as a place of belonging and non-belonging. Since the game’s launch, two characters have been revealed as queer. In contrast, a third character is considered a gay icon by fans, even though there is no official narrative supporting this. We analyze discussions around these cases using rhetoric-performative discourse analysis (Palonen & Saresma, 2017), an approach originally developed for research of political populism. In addition to similar affective and persuasive rhetoric in both contexts, politics have become an inherent part of online and fan communities (Dean, 2017), making this approach even more apt.
Our analysis makes visible how belonging and non-belonging are constructed in Overwatch communities in relation to gender, sexuality, their intersections and also to identities such as “player” and “fan.” We take into account ongoing design choices in the game’s development and analyze how the complex structures of production and reception interact with these discourses. Discussions analyzed here expand beyond Overwatch, touching upon highly politicized issues of gender and sexuality in games, the right to be represented and the current political climate in Western countries, and reenact divisions present more broadly in media discussions. Our findings also show how characters function as a nexus for these political debates and as limits and horizons for belonging.
We examine the transmedial world of Overwatch, an online game, as a place of belonging and non-belonging. Since the game’s launch, two characters have been revealed as queer. In contrast, a third character is considered a gay icon by fans, even though there is no official narrative supporting this. We analyze discussions around these cases using rhetoric-performative discourse analysis (Palonen & Saresma, 2017), an approach originally developed for research of political populism. In addition to similar affective and persuasive rhetoric in both contexts, politics have become an inherent part of online and fan communities (Dean, 2017), making this approach even more apt.
Our analysis makes visible how belonging and non-belonging are constructed in Overwatch communities in relation to gender, sexuality, their intersections and also to identities such as “player” and “fan.” We take into account ongoing design choices in the game’s development and analyze how the complex structures of production and reception interact with these discourses. Discussions analyzed here expand beyond Overwatch, touching upon highly politicized issues of gender and sexuality in games, the right to be represented and the current political climate in Western countries, and reenact divisions present more broadly in media discussions. Our findings also show how characters function as a nexus for these political debates and as limits and horizons for belonging.