Haley Nord

May 6, 2014
English 2030- Final Project

League of Legends: The Female Perspective
League of Legends is a free-to-play online computer game that is comprised of two teams
of five players who are either friends the player joins with or random people that the game
matches you with. Players achieve a ranking based on their cumulative performance (bronze,
silver, gold, platinum). This ranking is what is used to determine who the player will be matched
with. The games objective is to destroy the opposing teams turrets, which will let you take
their base. The matches usually last about forty-five minutes, depending on the game. The game
boasts an impressive 32 million people enrolled, with twelve million of them playing every day.
To add perspective, this would be comparable to the entire population of New York City playing
this game every day! Since the game is so widely played, there is not one specific group that
plays this game. I observed a wide variety of social groups, from college students to
professionals to parents. League of Legends tournaments are also a factor in the community, as
they influence the playing and communication standards played in lower level games. These
tournaments are hosted all over the world, with the top prize-pools numbering in the millions of
dollars. It can truly be said that this game is a catalyst for an entire community of people, with
complex internal social structures influenced by both the online and gaming communities.
Within this structure, gender roles appear to exist in very similar ways to corporate America,
although less subtle due to the anonymity of the internet.
In order to get an inside perspective of the discourse community, I obtained permission to
sit with a friend while he played several League of Legends matches over the course of a week.
The discourse for this takes place over several mediums. There is a chat room within the game
that lets players direct their messages at just their team, or all of the players. Also, teams will
often set up a Skype call and use headsets to communicate verbally with their teammates. On
most occasions, only two or three friends will be in these Skype conversations out of the five teammates.
I observed both the chat room and used a headset to listen to the teams conversation, with their
permission. Teammates use these mediums to discuss strategy, criticize others players
performances, and to talk about their personal lives with their friends. After sitting in on a few of
these games, I noted that most of the aggression observed happens in these calls, and its directed at
people not in the call.
Speech during the games is typically very short and to the point, as not to distract from
the intense game-play. Profanity is very naturalized, and used by seemingly all of the
participants. For example, a typical speech event would look like this:

Player One: We got a ***ing mid silver carry
(Mid denotes their position)
Player Two: I know man! He sucks.
Player One: ****! Hes going to lose the game for us.

In this speech event, Player One is referring to one of their teammates as a silver, which in this
case is a lower level player than the rest of them. Within the team, whoever is ranked the highest
holds most of the power, and typically most of the insults. Also, the insult is directed at someone
not within the call, creating a power structure in which negative communication is very passive
in the sense that a person cannot defend themselves when they are unaware their teammates are
unhappy with their performance.
This excerpt from this match exemplifies another aspect of the discourse: jargon.
Extensive jargon is used to shorten phrases, creating a very exclusive environment that makes it
almost impossible for an outsider to both understand the speech, and to in-group themselves by
using the jargon themselves. There is a specific term used for inexperienced players, who
unknowingly out-group themselves by not using the game jargon- a noob, short for newbie,
meaning new player. This is used as a derogatory term for someone who is new to the game, and
a general insult to compare someone to this skill level. The use of more advanced jargon emerges
as ranks are advanced, this is unknowingly used to separate people as being more
knowledgeable. The power structure within the game follows this guideline: The more
knowledge (displayed by the use of jargon) assumed to be a more skilled playermore
respect from teammates. For example, this exchange was from a League of Legends forum, and
is between very advanced players. In these forums, a players ranking is denoted next to their
name:

Player One: Why would you go damage Nasus when Tank Nasus with good stacks is
literally Ultima Weapon Omega?
Player Two: Riot makes changes so that the games are harder to finish...That is why
Nasus can almost always reach late game.

During exchanges among this level of player, their power is very clearly established through
their pervasive use of jargon, immediately signaling them as players to be respected.
The rules of power through rank and jargon appeared to be very clear cut in the League
of Legends community, until gender comes into play. The following are several insults that were
commonly used both in game chat and Skype conversations:

Player One: What a p***y!
Player Two: Stop being such a b***h!

Insults often contained profanity that was derogatory to either women or homosexuals, such as
fag, or the words in the above example. This illustrated an ideology of these groups of people
being inferior. While not necessarily done on purpose, this ideology appears to have become a
way to in-group teammates through using the naturalized insults. While this type of speech
would not be considered appropriate in the real-world, removing face-to-face interactions
appears to create a culture of acceptability towards this language.
On the other hand, when it was known that a girl was playing on a persons team, the
power structure seemed to shift. This was characterized not by a specific type of dialogue, but
rather the lack of it. A mistake in a game that would cost a player his life when male would be
responded to with insults like the ones already mentioned, here is an exchange when an observed
male player made a mistake:

Player One (Male): *Dies from mistake*
Player Two: That was a noob move!
Player Three: Are you serious?! Get with it!

On the contrary, when a girl player made a similar mistake, no one would say anything, and if
they did, it was something like the following exchange:

Player One (Female): *Dies from mistake*
Player Two: Next time, try to stay closer to the turret
Player One: Okay, sounds good! :)

Male players never used the same insults when talking to girl players, and if they ever did use an
insult, it was more playful and not intended to be mean. More often than not, comments were
flirtatious, even if the girls boyfriend was present. On occasion, the boyfriend was congratulated
for having a gamer girlfriend. With these kind of interactions, it seemed that women were both
idolized and objectified within this community.
The character art in League of Legends (Appendix I) epitomizes this concept that is
found within the discourse. When playing, a character is selected to be the players champion,
which is the character that you play. The female characters are more often than not overly
sexualized with unrealistic body proportions and an amount of armor that probably wouldnt be
very effective. On the flip side, the male champions are portrayed with hefty armor, and the
focus is more on their weapons than their bodies. While this form of discourse is not verbal, it
does affect the way that the players look at both genders.
Overall, the League of Legends community has several naturalized ideologies that are
maintained through the power structures that exist, which can be seen through the discourse. The
advent of communication on the internet whether through forums or vocal chat groups, has
created a place for people to share their interests, but also allows a sense of anonymity that lets its
participants create their own social norms. With a community as extensive as League of
Legends, it is clear that the discourse of one or two individuals can have a large impact on the
way that people view each other, and by extension, how they treat one another.








































Appendix I
League of Legend Character Art