Why Do Players Misuse Emotes in Hearthstone? : Negotiating the Use of Communicative Affordances in an Online Multiplayer Game

Abstract

This paper examines player-to-player interaction in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004). The game designers have attempted to limit what they see as negative interaction by forcibly limiting player-to-player social interaction. Based on an analysis of forum discussions, this empirical study illustrates how players utilize Hearthstone's restricted communication affordances for negative and insulting purposes, and how players negotiate their shared symbolic reality concerning this type of interaction, labeled "Bad Manner(s)" or "BM". The continuous debate over an issue which ultimately cannot be solved shows that players care deeply about the game and the surrounding culture. This study contributes to our understanding of player-to-player communication, and offers insight into game design from a social interaction point-of-view. By doing so, it connects with the larger questions of emergent negotiations of meaning related to human communication behavior in technology-mediated settings with designed limitations on communicative affordances.