Browsing by Subject "tabletop role-playing games"

This study focuses on code-switching in a Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing group. The study focuses on the reasons for code-switching, how code-switching is used as a resource in tabletop role-playing games as well as the participants’ perceived attitudes towards it. The position of English as a lingua franca has changed during past decades and the language has grown to be much more than a traditional lingua franca. In addition to being spoken between non-native speakers of English who do not share a language, it is also used in interactions between non-native speakers who share a native tongue. One of the contexts where this happens is tabletop role-playing games. The tabletop role-playing community has seen a large growth in members during recent years and the popularity of the hobby is continuously on the rise. The gaming community is widely international, and a lot of content is only available in English. This research discusses the code-switching habits of a six-person role-playing group where all the participants’ native language is Finnish. The groups language of play is English. This study is an ethnographic qualitative study that uses four different data collection methods: audio recordings, observation and fieldnotes, interviews and a questionnaire. The materials for the study are 10.5 hours of audio recordings (6.5h + 3.5h), fieldnotes, a four-question structured interview, and an online language background questionnaire. The audio data was analysed using applied conversation analysis and Goffman’s participant framework while the interviews were analysed using applied thematic analysis. During the analysis of the audio the data was divided into four sub-sections: word searches, cultural references, asymmetry of knowledge, and out of game talk. The findings show that code-switching was used in a multitude of situations and for a variety of reasons. The most prominent ones being word search and shifting the participant framework. In cases of word search, code-switching was utilised to sustain the flow of the narrative as well as to maintain immersion in the world of the game. In cases where code-switching was used to shift the participant framework, it broke the immersion and signalled that the conversation was no longer happening inside the game world. Code-switching and shifting the participant framework made the conversation move to the foreground and take over the existing mainline. In this context, code-switching was also used as a tool of authority. In addition, in the data code-switching was used as a tool of emphasis and creativity. Different cases of code-switching pointed towards English being the language of the world of fantasy while Finnish was the language of the outside world. It was also found that code-switching was always accompanied by a change in style, tempo or volume. To get more in-depth knowledge about the indexes of code-switching in the contexts of tabletop role-playing games, further study is needed.