'You cannot mute that someone walks under a turret and dies': : Exploring League of Legends-players' perception, definitions of toxicity and their effect on everyday life

Abstract: This study explores the phenomenon of toxicity in the multiplayer online battle arenagame, League of Legends, from a player point of view. It also explores how time andspace is experienced through gaming related actions to better understand the contextualfactors. Along with that this study also aims at understanding how toxicity is perceived byplayers and how toxicity affects their everyday life in regards to time and space.A mixed phenomenological framework is applied to explore taken-for-grantedexperiences and most importantly, to understand how toxicity is perceived by the players.Along with this framework the concepts of time and space are used to analyse thepractices of everyday life, gaming practices and routines as well as to gain a betterunderstanding of how toxic behaviours in League of Legends affect everyday life.This study utilises in-depth semi-structured interviews with 13 participants togather data in the form of lived experience to better understand how toxicity is perceivedby regular players of the game. Results from this study indicate that players performpreparatory routine actions which helps establish a gaming space which alters how spaceand time is perceived. Within this space other actions are made to make space ‘feel right’.Other findings indicate that toxicity is perceived to be of different grades of seriousness,where the lowest grade consists of behaviours that are deemed as normalised and part ofthe game and the highest grade invokes feelings of hopelessness and frustration. Thisstudy claims that toxic behaviour in League of Legends does not affect everyday lifeactivities but instead can lead to intense frustration and destruction in the constructedgaming space. Finally, this thesis suggests that, due to the complexity of games, toxicityis studied along with corresponding contextual factors to be successfully explored.