Joking, Irony and Word Play
Creative game talk is also best viewed in the use of humor, word play and online joking while playing. Joking and humor about game action is common and present in all of the talk categories examined. Word play and puns were used extensively in many of the game sessions we examined, along with naming talk and popular culture references. Performing in the game is, therefore, not merely about kills and deaths, but also about the ability to joke, release tension and to express a sense of humor. Expressions such as, laughing out loud (LOL), and variations like, rolling on the floor laughing (ROFL), were some of the most common expressions resulting from game action. Humor served also to diffuse tensions that developed due to misunderstandings and mistakes. More than once we witnessed players typing "lol" after enduring a series of insults or taunts.
Irony and creative word use also abounds in virtual combat. In the following exchange, the player Toast complains of doing poorly, of receiving a low score, ("I am doing pretty crappy"), meaning that he has a high death to kill ratio. Miller's response to Toast was, "you'll be ok once ya get a couple rounds in ya." This comment was used as a basis for joking and word play by Toast who said, "I have had a couple rounds in me, mostly from a certain person's AK 47." Since, each map cycle in the game lasts for 20 minutes, and each round, within that cycle, lasts for 5 minutes, two meanings of round can be used to make a joke. Rounds in a map cycle are played off against rounds fired from a weapon.
Joking can also involve performing actions that take advantage of the special qualities of specific game maps. These actions may have little to do with the supposed rules of the game - of counter-terrorists pursuing terrorists - and relate more to "playing" with the specifics of the map design. For example, on one game map of an incomplete high-rise building (named Vertigo), players would take turns jumping off the edge of building committing virtual suicide, just so that they could hear the scream and resultant thud of their virtual character.
One player, Miller, for example, jumped off the building in this map, prompting a comment from another player, Scanner, "That's a great noise," and then Miller's response, "i love that fargin scream." The novelty of the action and its association with cartoon violence forms the basis of this humor. In addition, the thought of professional counter-terrorists or terrorists jumping off tall buildings to a virtual death contradicts the mission of catching the "bad" guys or killing the "good guys." This type of creative innovation of game action is one, which while possible in the game, is not intended by the producers. This type of virtual suicide can also work against the combat nature of the game by giving a player another way to die other than being "killed" by an opponent. For example, the player Mot jumped off the building killing himself as a way of exiting the game, attracting a joking response from, Gone and Toast. Gone says, "ha ha yaaa," followed by Mot's, "weee." This, in turn, prompted a joking reply from Toast, "Mot, even though you failed, suicide isn't the answer." As Mot exits the game he says, "okay cya later everyone." And is answered by Toast, "later Tom."
Mot's exit through virtual suicide was a novel way to leave the game, after a string of low performances in the game (high death to kill ratio). Toast's comments were an ironic commentary on the nature of suicide as a consequence of failed performance, recognition of a player leaving the game and a playing with the game map. Other types of joking behavior, of "playing with the map," occurred on other game maps.
