Speech Act In Online Game Chat: A Gender-Based Analysis In Minecraft

This study investigated the speech acts used by male and female players in Minecraft chatrooms and examined whether and how these speech acts were associated with inclusivity during gameplay. The study employed a qualitative discourse-analytic approach supported by Interactional Sociolinguistics and Speech Act Theory. The participants consisted of ten university students, comprising five male and five female players, who were divided into two mixed-gender teams. Data were collected from in-game text chatlogs produced during Survival Mode and Creative Mode gameplay sessions. A total of 368 utterances produced by active players were analysed and classified according to Searle's five categories of illocutionary acts: assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, and declarations. Linguistic realization features were also considered as supporting elements of the speech-act analysis. For the analysis of inclusivity, selected interactional sequences were examined in relation to participation and contribution, recognition and uptake, access to collaborative activity, and exclusionary or gender- biased treatment. The findings showed that directives were the most frequent speech act overall, followed by assertives, expressives, and commissives, while no declarations were identified. Male players showed a higher proportional use of directives, whereas female players showed higher proportions of assertives and commissives, while expressives were relatively similar between the two groups. The interactional analysis further showed that speech acts contributed to inclusivity when they enabled participation, elicited relevant responses, supported collaborative activity, and made players' contributions consequential within interaction. The data provided little evidence of exclusion and no clear evidence of gender-based bias. Overall, the findings indicate that gender-based differences in speech-act use were contextual and interactional rather than fixed characteristics of male and female communication.