player’s demonstration of feminized ASCII-betical communication and high-pitched voice
breaks the norm of masculine Counter-Strike player.
As some players struggle to cope with the presence of a non-masculine killer within the
game space, others perform maleness by making sexual advances upon [_||Pointer||_|c>-.
Meanwhile, yet other players normatively police these flirtations, articulating discursive power
by assaulting the faggotry of online courtship.
Discourse may play a stronger role in the construction of gender for gamers than the
schoolboys de Klerk (1997) studied, particularly because of the Cartesian dualism imposed in
digital play. While macho can be accomplished both physically and socially in face-to-face
interaction, it is more difficult to demonstrate physicality in games. Slaughtering other players is
only marginally macho, because one need not be macho to accomplish the task. World-champion
chess players are not made macho by their accomplishments precisely because one may be
emasculated and still manage the task. Furthermore, it is perhaps even more difficult to achieve
femininity in a game that features all-male characters partaking in endless violent conflict.
It is through discursive interaction that gamers achieve femininity, masculinity and
sexuality in digital play. It is in the display of the mental or social attributes that gender is
articulated in cyberspaces where the physical body is abstracted and only the movement of the
eyes and hands externally marks the difference between 733T and n00b.
Theoretical Rationale
This paper looks at how players of the popular online computer game Counter-Strike
make use of Socio-discursive practices to negotiate gendered social identities and norms. More
than simply chatter, talk in the game involves the sharing of ideas, values and evaluations within
a tortuous system of game mechanics, digital traditions, and wider cultural constraints.
Gamer culture, while not exclusively a youth culture, may seem as confusing as teen
culture, and twice as fast changing. Perhaps the most recent example of one such particularity
within this speech community is “L33T SP43K,†(‘elite speak’); an ASCII-betical argot created
by mixing cyberculture references, Internet acronyms and popular slang while replacing letters
alphanumeric characters. For instance, the word “suck†might become “suxxor,†“suXX0r†or
“SuXx0|2.†L33T SP43K also flew in the face of common ‘Net lingo tradition in that instead of
offering increased economy of communication, it actually tends to take longer to both write and
decipher. In fact, for many, L33T SP43K became a way to both demonstrate creativity and
Convention