Sociolinguistics and Cephalopod Sub-Cultures.

Recently, on just another average morning, while I was drinking my tea, there was a sensational feature on the popular game Fortnite blaring on the telly. Admittedly, I have never actually played Fortnite, and therefore I cannot contribute to the conversation about the game, or complain about it! However, I am a fan of shooters… well, one in particular: Nintendo’s cute and surprisingly deep offering to the shooter game genre Splatoon 2. This game subverts the violence and realism of most shooting games by creating an innocuous world where battles are held for fun by anthropomorphic squids (and recently, octopods) with weapons filled with brightly coloured ink.

Therefore, in this post I will be discussing a video game, drawing on topics from both LCN639 and LCN638 (Sociolinguistics).

'Splatoon 2' Box art and Title Screen on a Nintendo Switch Console in handheld mode.

Video Games in General

I am actually quite nervous to discuss a video game, especially as I am introducing one I enjoy and play regularly. I often hide the fact that I like video games to most people as I am worried that they will be judgemental for a range of reasons. First, video games seem to be intrinsically coded as something that only younger people engage in. However, this is not necessarily true. In a recent survey of American gamers, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reported that the average gamer is about 35 years old (2016). The audience of digital games is much wider than just children, teens, and young adults, the number of adults picking up controllers is ever increasing (De Schutter, 2011). The game that I am analysing, however, is targeted at younger audiences, with the background story that frames the game suggesting that the playable characters are around fourteen years old.

The next stereotype I face is my gender. Video games have long been associated with men, with women gamers considered a small and insignificant minority (Paaßen, Morgenroth & Statenmeyer, 2017). However, the ESA reported in 2015 that men make up 58% of the demographic, while women account for a relatively high 44% of gamers. But women cannot be 'true gamers' because they play ‘inferior’ games. This means mobile or smartphone games such as Candy Crush, but can even extend to Nintendo’s cheerful and colourful games. It’s almost as if there is a high culture and a low culture within the gaming community. The elitism and snobbery among gamers is referred to as ‘toxic’, with women often being a target of ‘toxicity’. Toxicity is mostly verbal harassment which occurs through in-game voice channels that allow bad eggs to hurl nasty abuse easily. You don't even need to imagine what sort of verbal abuse some people suffer. There are many videos on YouTube depicting toxicity and verbal abuse in video games with voice chat...

Another hurdle for video games to vault over is public perception, especially the perception that video games inherently cause violence. After major tragedies, video games often stand trial for real-world acts of destruction and murder. Major gaming news outlet Polygon recently outlined the history of video games being blamed for mass-shootings (Campbell, 2018).

The final hurdle is the stigma shrouding the analysis of video games as viable and meaningful texts. This might be a result of their novelty. They are a new and mysterious art form that are unable to be analysed with the traditional formulas used for literature and film (Gee, 2006, p. 58). Gee further stresses that referring to games as art can be quite controversial because of the lack of knowledge and research into the topic. This lack of knowledge is seemingly what spurs the tacky and scaremongering features on news and current affairs programs.

Therefore, the game being analysed needs to be introduced and characterised quite thoroughly, especially as it does not suffer from the same popularity and exposure as Fortnite. Splatoon 2 is a third person shooter (this means that the camera is mostly behind the player) published by Nintendo in July 2017 on the Nintendo Switch console. Unsurprisingly, it is a sequel to Splatoon, released on Nintendo’s previous console Wii U in May 2015.

Splatoon 2's Gameplay in a Nutshell

The premise of the game carries over from the original game, which is to cover the ground with as much of the player’s coloured ink as possible in online matches. These matches, or ‘Turf Wars’ as it is labelled in the game, last for three minutes and consist of two opposing teams of four players. The main gimmick of the game is employed heavily here, that the player can turn into a squid/octopus and swim or hide in their ink, or refill their ink tanks (replenish ammunition). The characters cannot travel very well through the ink of the enemy team. It also should be noted that there is a rather eclectic approach to weapons, with classic gun-like weapons (these are often styled like water pistols or real-life objects like the ballpoint pen minigun). But there are also unexpected weapons like giant paint rollers, paintbrushes, and buckets. These weapons are supported by ‘sub weapons’ such as bombs, and chargeable powerful ‘special weapons’ such as a battery of missiles. The final main feature, or lack thereof, is communication. Players cannot actually talk to each other with microphones like in other online shooters such as Overwatch, instead there are a few commands that can be used in a basic communication system. This will be elaborated later.

This video is a brief snapshot of the core gameplay of Splatoon 2's Turf Wars. I am the player labelled Jenny. This video was captured using the Nintendo Switch's social sharing function and edited hastily in iMovie, and therefore may not be the best quality! I'd also like to apologise if you find the camera a bit wobbly, the game uses motion controls!

Inking the ground is very important in Turf Wars. You do not really have to kill (called 'splatting' in the game) the opponent. The pink team in this picture went on an all-out splatting offensive forgot to ink the top of the map! They lost the match.

Who won this match? It was the purple team, much to my surprise, and dismay being on the green team!

The maps in Turf Wars are often styled on public places such as museums, theme parks, and shopping malls, but also might be work related like an office or a mine.

There are many other styles of gameplay with rotating ‘ranked’ modes such as Splat Zones, Tower Control, Rainmaker, and Clam Blitz. Some of these modes bear the hallmarks of games like Capture the Flag and even American Football. As these modes are ranked and there is something at stake (players are graded from C- through to the highest rank X), the matches are intense. I personally rarely play ranked as I feel like I’m going to have a heart-attack each time I play it!

The last of the online game modes is Salmon Run. This is easily described as a ‘horde mode’, where four Inklings or Octolings have to fight three waves of enemies based on salmon (Salmonids), while collecting golden fish eggs for a demanding employer. As an added twist, the player is not able to customise their outfit or even choose their own weapon. This mode is a new addition to Splatoon 2.

However, the content does not stop there! There is also a single-player (offline) campaign that perpetuates the story from the first game, and a recent additional paid extra downloadable content (DLC) story campaign with major 80s, 90s, and 00s popular culture influences and references. These modes help to contextualise the game by creating an interesting canon and lore. The DLC is called Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion and was released in late July 2018. This campaign is infamous for being quite difficult and a little bit unfair!

I tried to keep the description of the core game elements as brief as possible as the main concern of this post is not the actual gameplay features, but the world that the game has constructed.

The Characterisation of Splatoon 2

The game hints that it takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth, where humans are long extinct and sea creatures have become sentient. These sea creatures have evolved so much that they cannot swim in water anymore, and will combust if they even touch it! There is also a rather quiet war raging with the octopus-based characters the Octarians/Octolings, but the Inklings are often depicted as being too self-absorbed to notice. I, myself will gloss over this fact due to time restraints!

Yes, the middle picture is avocado on toast... 

So then, Let's create a character. It should be noted that this is not locked in and can be changed freely.

If the DLC has been bought and completed the player can even choose their species!

Skin tone and eye colour are important, for representation and make-believe purposes. Lisa Patti (2017) draws great attention to how players present themselves in games through avatars, or digital portraits. Players can either create an image of themselves or create character that is entirely different from themselves. I am the sort of person that tries to recreate myself in video games if given the opportunity. However, the character's hair colour is dictated by the colour of ink that was last used in battle. This is randomly assigned unless played in colourblind mode where it is usually set to orange or royal blue.

Then, the next important step is getting kitted out. Fashion is very important in the world of Splatoon. The Inklings/Octolings have a deeply rooted desire to be as 'fresh' as possible. This means stylish in the context of the game, and it is also a joke. The freshest seafood is the best after all. Much of the in-game clothing is inspired by real fashion.

I own a pair of these boots in real life! They look exactly like 'Docs'.

Clothing, accessories, and shoes are bought with in-game currency earned in online battles (no controversial loot-boxes or expensive battle passes here). Each piece of clothing is branded, and some brands bear an uncanny resemblance to real-world brands. Clothing can also affect the player’s performance in the game as they have attributes assigned to them such as ‘Run speed up’, which allows the character to moves faster on foot and ‘Ink Saver’, which improves ink efficiency when using a weapon. There is an eclectic mix of clothing that can be bought and worn by the character.

Cute jumper!

This is how I usually look in the game. I often this hulking great weapon called a 'Dynamo Roller'. It has a swimming speed and ink recharge penalty therefore I looked for an outfit that was cool and mysterious but would help me move better and recharge my ink faster!

The Language and Culture of Splatoon 2- Inkredibly Fascinating

Cool beans and everything, but where are the sociolinguistics that the title promised?

Sociolinguistics is the study of how language is used in everyday life, and aims to show how language and culture are intimately linked (Wardhaugh & Fuller, 2015). The language of Splatoon is 'inkredibly' fascinating. First, it should be mentioned that the game has been translated from Japanese, therefore there are limitations on the text's presentation, but also deliberate language choices. The English used in the game is heavily influenced by youth cultures across multiple eras. This is evidenced by the most common word in the game 'Booyah', a notorious 90's slang word of elation. This is a multi-purpose word that can be used in many different ways: at the start of the match to drum up morale, when a teammate helps you out of a bad situation, when you see a teammate doing something cool, accidental, or brave, and to help activate a teammate’s special weapon are just a few. This is one of the only words that you can send to a player online. This almost completely erases the toxicity I mentioned earlier, as players are not able to interact directly with each other. The other words are 'This way' (Come here or help), and 'Ouch' or 'Help' in Salmon Run (drawing attention to a player's untimely demise). This is evidenced throughout the videos of online play that I showed earlier.

 Octo Expansion: This strange phone is attempting to talk like the Inklings supposedly talk...

The game is also rife with puns:

Professional or ProFRESHional...

The imaginary language used by the Inklings themselves, however, is a garbled aquatic-sounding muddle of what seems to be both Japanese and English mixed together. This is the language that all of the songs in the game uses, which allows for a universal appeal with no need for translation.

There are also references to real-world culture sprinkled in, especially in the story mode and Octo Expansion (without spoiling too much, the DLC takes place on an abandoned underground train line):

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough- Michael Jackson (1979)

Lose Yourself- Eminem (2002) "You only get one shot do not miss your chance to blow..."

This leads me into my next point about Splatoon 2...

Celebrity and the Spectacle- Off the Hook and Splatfests.

As I'm planning to write about K-pop next, I'll only delve briefly into this topic.

The world of Inkopolis also has celebrities! Pearl (left, squid) and Marina (right, octopus) make up the duo 'Off The Hook' and have a myriad of duties in Inkopolis. They present the news (which announces the stages and game modes that are currently in rotation), they work as underground agents in the Octo Expansion, and they host epic battles known as Splatfests!

Splatfests are events where you have to pick a side from two options to represent for 24 hours. These are sometimes quite silly but surprisingly contentious: Do you prefer Mayonnaise or Ketchup? Orange Juice with Pulp or No Pulp? But they can also be tied to real world promotions like favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle? Splatfest battles differ from regular Turf Wars as they take place at night, and all ranked mode rotations are halted.

Off the Hook act as the emcees for the event, and hold a concert that provides the soundtrack for the Turf War battles.

Mayonnaise is obviously better than ketchup.

Recently there was a 48 hour long Splatfest dedicated to Halloween. This is the first time that the theme was so prevalent in the game.

 Pearl (left), and Marina (right) seem to be dressed as each other! Pearl was backing Team Trick and Marina was backing Team Treat.

Inkopolis Square and the lobby were decorated accordingly. All of the characters in the plaza are watching the Off the Hook concert and partying!

In Splatfests, you can be randomly assigned a 10x or 100x battle. Winning these contributes greatly to your chosen team. This is a brand-new mechanic that was introduced very recently. I only got the chance to participate in a 10x battle this time, apparently 100x battles are extremely rare.

Here is a quick gameplay video to demonstrate the differences in Splatfests. At the start my team got a special name as we were all wearing gear from the 'Rockenberg' brand!

Finally, the end is in sight!

This game has so much depth that I have not even covered half of what I wanted to! It is no surprise to me that Tanya Krzywinska argues that games are ‘thick texts’, richly populated with various allusions, references, and connotations (2006, cited in Bradford, 2010).

So, the final point I wanted to make was about the online community or fandom. These days, player engagement with the game does not end when the console is switched off as dedicated fans flock to the internet to post their art and fictions (Burn, 2006, p. 151). Some might even write really long blog posts. 👀

There is even an official Splatoon manga! I saw this the other day in Dymocks. The fact that this exists demonstrates that there is a wide context that extends beyond the culture of video gaming (Muriel & Crawford, 2018).

One major element of video game culture that exists outside of the game is the flourishing Splatoon online community. It can be described as a “vast non-diagetic system of paratexts” (Bradford, 2010, p. 56). There are video walkthroughs (sometimes called Let's Plays on YouTube), Twitch streams, music remixes, and many forums. Nintendo themselves run a Splatoon tumblr page which masquerades as an entity dedicated to researching Inkling culture: The Squid Research Lab. This tumblog regularly posts about updates to the game and tidbits about the lore. 

There is also the opportunity for players to post directly into the game. Naturally, memes are one of the most common things that are posted!

Furthermore, there are other ways to interact with the Inkling world, with the Nintendo Online smartphone app. Here players can track their stats though SplatNet2 , check map rotations, or order exclusive gear.

Conclusion:
In all, Splatoon 2 is an interesting shooter game that is 'inkredibly' deep, both in the in-game world and in the real world. This post barely even scratches the surface of the game! I hope that opening up about one of my favourite forms of text will help to increase your understanding of the intricacies that surround online video games, and show that not all shooters are bad as is reflected in current affairs. Even though I don't like talking about video games, I really enjoyed writing this blog post, even if I wasn't able to cover everything as well as I wanted to!

So, I'm going to sign-off with a couple of questions. What do you think about video games in general? Would you give Splatoon 2 a try if you were able?

References used and perused:

Bradford, C. (2010). Looking for my corpse : video games and player positioning. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 33(1), 54–64.

Burn, A. (2006). Reworking the text: online fandom. In D. Carr (Ed.), Computer games: text, narrative and play (pp. 151-174). Cambridge, UK ;: Polity Press.

Campbell, C. (2018). A brief history of blaming video games for mass murder. Retrieved from https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/10/17101232/a-brief-history-of-video-game-violence-blame

De Schutter, B. (2011). Never Too Old to Play: The Appeal of Digital Games to an Older Audience. Games and Culture, 6(2), 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412010364978

Entertainment Software Association. (2016). Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry. Retrieved from http://www.theesa.com/article/2016-essential-facts-computer-video-game-industry/

Gee, J. (2006). Why Game Studies Now? Video Games: A New Art Form. Games and Culture, 1(1), 58–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412005281788

Muriel, D., & Crawford, G. (2018). Video Games as Culture : Considering the Role and Importance of Video Games in Contemporary Society  (First edition.). London: Taylor and Francis.

Paaßen, B., Morgenroth, T., & Stratemeyer, M. (2017). What is a True Gamer? The Male Gamer Stereotype and the Marginalization of Women in Video Game Culture. Sex Roles., 76(7-8), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0678-y

Patti, L. (2011). Entering the picture: digital portraiture and the aesthetics of video game representation. In J. Malkowski & T. M. Russworm (Eds.), Gaming representation: race, gender, and sexuality in video games (pp. 179-194). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Wardhaugh, R., & Fuller, J. (2015). An introduction to sociolinguistics  (Seventh edition.). West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons.

All pictures and videos are mine. Splatoon 2 however, is owned and distributed by Nintendo.