GG, EZ - Strategic Interaction Within "League of Legends" Ranked Games : A virtual ethnography of temporary teams from the "League of Legends" community

Abstract: Online gaming communities have met a well-deserved rise in academic interest in recent years, yet the focus seems to linger or long-term or permanent communities; virtual temporary teams are a subject which leaves room for rich interpretations still. In this spirit, this thesis addresses the question of how strangers collaborate in solving complex tasks together, by way of analysing temporary teams in the “League of Legends” community. The focus of the study are the communicative and strategic practices that players employ during ranked games in their attempt to defeat the opposing team, as well as what might determine them to engage in such endeavours. The thesis sets off by presenting relevant information about the competitive League of Legends community, in the spirit of introducing the reader to a League-specific culture that will hopefully become familiar by the end of the study. This is followed by an account of related research on this matter, in terms of how previous studies connect to the one at hand. The theoretical foundation that follows is essential to the discussion of the findings. The methodological approach is essentially a cyber-ethnography, with a focus on two methods: textual analysis and semi-structured interviews. The main findings show a surprising level of complexity in what communicative and strategic patterns are concerned, which also points towards the interdependency between them. Moreover, the results show a clear connection between in-game social strata and player motivation in competitive communities. This study aims not only to update the knowledge we have on how social interactions are shaping and evolving in the context of online gaming, but also to provide results that are transferable and applicable in other fields of research; from culture and society to more particular areas such as management training and learning at work, a multitude of academic fields can benefit from and hopefully expand on the outcome of this thesis.