Negotiating masculinities through the game of distinction - a case study of MOBA gamers at a Chinese university

Abstract

MOBA games – a major site for male bonding – have gained wide popularity in Chinese universities. However, college gamers in general suffer from stigmatization as game addicts and this challenges their senses of masculinity. Based on four months of field study, this article investigates the formation of MOBA gamers’ masculinities through diverse game-related practices and discourses, with a particular focus on its intersection with class. Building on Tony Coles’ theoretical model of “a field of masculinity,” the article concludes that MOBA games constitute an arena where performances of social class, and recognition of class entitlements, are enacted and coded in a highly gendered way. Arguing that the masculine hierarchy in MOBA gaming culture is not so much about the MOBA games themselves but rather a “game of social distinction,” this article gives insight into how masculine culture in contemporary China is informed by increasing materialism and social stratification.

Keywords:

• digital gaming
• dominant masculinity
• hegemonic masculinity
• social class
• China

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo for this research. My special thanks go to my supervisor Mette Halskov Hansen and co-supervisor Chow Yiu Fai for their constant and insightful guidance.

Notes

1. All interviews and observations have been conducted with the informed consent of participants. Still, I have encountered significant ethical dilemmas in the course of conducting this research. In order to protect informants’ personal information as much as possible, I have chosen to leave out some cases involving ethical complexity. For the same reason, the university and all informants are under pseudonyms, and some unimportant personal information about informants has been changed purposively.

2. Created by IceFrog as a custom scenario for Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, DotA is a multi-player real-time strategy game. With five gamers on each team, two teams compete with each other, and each player selects or is assigned a hero character.

3. As one of the seven earliest key universities in national defense, DZU enjoys an outstanding reputation in electronics and information technology. According to a China Discipline Ranking (CDR) 2012 conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Education, it ranked near the top in Electronic Science and Technology and in Information and Communication Engineering nationwide.

4. 559 out of 1185 informants (47.2%) claimed to play DotA1, DotA2 and League of Legends regularly, making them the largest group among the gamers I surveyed at DZU.

5. The meaning of “male bonding” in this article aligns with Joanna Bourke’s definition, which refers to the “intimate, emotional interaction between men in which the individual identifies himself as an integral part of an all-male group” (Bourke 1996, 127).

6. According to the report by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC 2014), in the year 2013, 63.5% of college students in China were engaged in online games.

7. The official website of DZU claims that its graduates’ employment rate has always been above 95 percent.

8. Both watching Korean TV dramas and doing cross-stitching are regarded as typically feminine activities.

9. There is no formal ranking among the gamers, but there are occasionally some campus tournaments, and the winners are generally highly regarded in the gamer community.

10. This term refers to the offspring of the Chinese nouveau riche in the early years of China's economic reform.

11. With a heavy course load (around 8-10 hours per day), students at DZU have little spare time. For those who play MOBA games at least four hours per day, their gaming activities almost take up all their leisure time, and therefore they are defined as “heavy gamers” in my study.