Trash-talking versus toxicity: An analysis of /all chat exchanges between Southeast Asian players of an online competitive game

With the advent of online gaming becoming such an inherent part of popular culture, the issue of toxicity, particularly in online competitive games, has never been more relevant. On the /all chat, however, where communication between players of opposing teams is expected to be hostile, there have been debates in community forums about whether that type of communication constitutes as toxicity or another form of aggressive discourse, trash-talking. Because both concepts have never been reconciled together in past studies, this study attempts to develop a preliminary framework using categories and definitions from prior studies of each discourse, for the purpose of analyzing instances of toxicity and trash-talking in the /all chat. Thus, a total of 26 /all chat logs from the Southeast Asian server of the online competitive game Dota 2 were procured to determine how these instances are manifested among players in the /all chat with reference to context. It was found that toxic instances occurred rarely in the /all chat and were mostly derived from in-fighting between players of the same team. Trash-talking particularly dominated the /all chat and though the talk appears unpleasant, it is representative of an aggressive discourse with competitive stakes. Finally, in addition to documenting new types and categories found for each discourse, the study also offers ideas on how a ‘fine line’ could be possibly drawn between the two discourses.