Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Michael Hom
5 December 2016
Online video game culture, much like the larger internet culture from which it is derived,
has a history of having ironic countercultural elements in the way people act towards each other
and talk to each other. This pervasive sense of irony often turns interactions that might normally
have negative implications into having positive ones. For example, while acting arrogant and
disrespectful in a social context outside of video games might be considered rude and abrasive,
inside the culture this can be considered very formidable and commanding of respect, although
not at all insulting. In the same sense, the word dirty is a common slang used in video game
culture that has a counterintuitive meaning compared to its dictionary definition, which reflects
the dissonance between the standard and slang definitions of some words that are used in video
game culture. Through interviews and personal experiences, I will be examining what makes
something dirty, and what it shows about the video game culture that it is used in.
In everyday conversation, the term dirty is used to describe something unclean, impure,
interesting context in which dirty can be used is in physical sports, where dirty describes
unsportsmanlike conduct. A dirty play in sports could be any action such as intentionally
someone in baseball, and so on. Similarly, a dirty player can describe anyone who conducts in
an unsportsmanlike or dangerous way. The way it is used in the context of sports is interesting
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because video game culture is both a counterculture to physical sports, yet it is also a culture that
tries to legitimize itself as a pastime with equal standing and respect as physical sports, referring
to itself as e-sports. Even though video game culture strives to be as equally respected as sports
culture, it is a counterculture and can perhaps even be called a satire of sports culture, and thus
the terms used in video game culture often have completely different meanings than their usage
in sports. While dirty can retain the meaning of unsportsmanlike, it can also have a positive
connotation when used in video game culture. Its exact meaning, however, is hard to define
without more elaboration into the context of what it is describing. Generally, it is used to when
something that is highly entertaining and exciting has happened, but it is ambiguous because of
its subjectivity. Dirty is used as a way of praising someone or something, but the criteria to be
worthy of this praise varies among individuals, meaning the consensus regarding the definition is
very loose. Because this ostensibly negative word is being used as praise in video game culture,
we can see how the things people value within the culture might be different from what people
outside of the culture value. It is this ambiguity between positive and negative that piqued my
interest in the word dirty as a rich point of video game culture, because the word is used so
often that the negative and positive meanings have become less distinguishable in context. In
other words, when video game players describe something as dirty, are they praising it for
community on campus for the game Super Smash Bros, using their tags or usernames as
identification. I asked players to elaborate on their definitions for what dirty means, as well as
giving their criteria for what a dirty play is and what a dirty player is in the Super Smash
Bros community. Because many members of UW Smash, including myself, are also part of the
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larger Super Smash Bros community in Washington State, and more importantly, other online
video game communities, I presumed it was reasonable to extrapolate their answers to apply to
the general video game community and its culture. Through the various interviews I had with
these video game players, I was ultimately looking for a baseline definition for what the word
dirty meant that everyone generally could agree upon. Although I found that many people had
shared agreement on some aspects of the word and its usage, I began to realize half way through
my interviews the subjective nature of dirtiness. Because of this, I branched out my interview
questions based on what their responses were to get a better understanding of what they define
dirty as.
For the most part, the interviewees attributed a positive connotation to the word as I
expected, but from there, many could not give a solid definition; it took more questions to get a
narrower answer for the definition. Preliminary answers for the first question were generally
more about what the word did not mean rather than what it did mean. One interviewee by the tag
Blue said that In Smash, dirty has a positive connotation for sure, whereas most people think
dirty is just like messy or unclean, while another interviewee called Renil said that To do
something dirty is to do something really well, its actually not lackluster or something bad. To
go more in depth into the meaning beyond the fact that it has a positive connotation rather than
normal negative connotation, I asked for the traits of a dirty play, because it is how dirty is
most commonly used in video game culture. For many people, this did not help to produce a
more precise response, so I clarified further by asking how a dirty play differs from a clean
play. While dirty and clean are antonyms based on their standard definitions, they also tend
to have distinct meanings in video game culture as well, and fortunately, this question generated
more refined answers. An interviewee by the tag Atychi responded, Clean implies good
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fundamentals and execution, while dirty means something out of the ordinary, but not
necessarily sloppy execution or the lack of fundamentals. Other players such as Mowyang
and Alex described examples in the game where both a dirty play and a clean play would
flow well and be executed without error, but a dirty play would be more exciting and creative,
and would go above and beyond the necessary actions to win the match. Renils response
summarized what many other responses stated: To me as a player, dirtiness means something
exceptional and beyond a simple thing that everyone can do and everyone has seen. Its not
worse than being clean; its like going beyond simply playing clean. I call something dirty
when Ive never seen that kind of shit before, and it was hype as hell.
Some people, however, responded to the first question saying that they defined dirty
with a negative connotation to the word, to mean unsportsmanlike behavior. When given a
negative response to the first question, I gave the interviewees the question, Is there a difference
between a dirty play and a dirty player? To them, a dirty player was someone who played
in a very irritating, cheap, or unsportsmanlike manner. Dirty players camp and wait for easy
baits, said Mowyang while describing players who anger and frustrate their opponents using
unskillful tactics. Another interviewee with the tag TM87 responded, One guy I played would
stand up and I think he watched my hands to know where to throw me, as he described
unsportsmanlike conduct at UW Smash. However, when describing a dirty play, there was a
more positive connotation similarly to how others responded. For these players, the context of
whether they are describing a player or a play changed the connotation of dirtiness, but
nonetheless the positive connotation also applied and made sense to them in context.
From my interviews, I gathered a collective definition that I believe fits most peoples
view of the word. Dirty, means more than just entertaining, exciting, hype, or skilled; the key
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aspect is that it is extraordinary. Already, I was starting to see how the word holds some cultural
value in its meaning, especially after asking the question about the difference between a dirty
play and a clean play. From hearing the responses to that question, I recognized that these
video game players valued the extraordinary aspect of dirtiness, and the individuality it gives
to the player to set themselves apart from others through their gameplay and skill. Much of the
way people described the differences involved talking about the competitive nature and the drive
to make a dirty play, especially when the stakes are raised, such as in an actual tournament
The experience that I had after the interviews with some friends of mine further
emphasized the significance of the word choice of dirty in contrast with the word clean. A
friend of mine who visited my room often was bringing some other people to see what he called
the dirtiest room on campus. When we all went up to my room, the other people were
surprised to find a tidy desk, a made bed, and a clean floor, and began questioning the
description that my friend had given them. To my friend and I, it was equally surprising to find
that they did not understand the description. Even though we were both video game players, and
the other people were not, my friend was not referring to anything related to video game culture;
rather, he was using the word dirty outside of the context to illustrate to our other friends that
my room had creative and unique dcor. Later, when I thought about why my friend chose to use
the word dirty as opposed to clean, or other words that might indicate that he was referring
to the dcor such as cool, fresh, neat, and so on, I realized that while clean means
organized and tidy, it also has the connotation of being straightforward, tame and mild.
Therefore, to call my room clean would be inaccurate because the dcor content was very bold
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and audacious, the lighting was edgy and unique, and the posters were disproportionately large,
covering the entire room. A clean room to him was a bland room with common decorations,
but my room was dirty because it had features that were beyond the basic dcor that one could
In conclusion, video game culture praises extraordinary talent, skill, actions and players
through the use of the word dirty, which emphasizes how the culture values ascending beyond
the norm. Although I believe that originally the meaning was simply a double entendre created as
an ironic expression of admiration rather than disgust, its usage has developed into a virtue of
video game culture. The meanings behind the word, which can be both a negative meaning of
both a reflection of sports culture with their similarly negative usage, but is also its own culture
with its own languaculture. Through my interviews, I concluded that the meaning of dirty can
be understood in relation to its antonym, clean, where dirty depicts a higher sense of skill
and merits more respect than being basic or clean. Thus, dirtiness portrays the ideal of not
being just average, and of not being bland or simple. Rather, people in the culture strive to
achieve something beyond rudimental. More importantly, it is the strive for individuality
setting oneself apart from the crowd of other players by performing extraordinarily, but also by
being outstanding in other ways, such as even having a unique dorm. Ultimately, when video
game players call something dirty, they are not describing something impure, nor simply
uniqueness and creativity that can be recognized in video game culture but might not be easily
Appendix
Interview Format
1. What do you think of when you hear the word dirty when talking about smash bros or
2. Would you agree that dirty is a form of praise? If so, do you think it is different from
2. Is there a difference in the meaning of dirty when I call a play dirty versus when I
3. Would you agree that dirty is a form of praise? If so, do you think it is different from