“I jigglyfucked you with Luigi!”: Person deixis in local multiplayer combat video game play

Abstract

This study investigates person deixis in local multiplayer combat video game play. Unlike online gaming, local multiplayer game play supports multiple points of reference as players are mutually and simultaneously embodied within three deictic fields: the realworld (physical environment), gameworld (virtual environment), and playworld (interface between the two). The interplay between these fields is examined in talk that occurs during recorded sessions of two brothers playing Super Smash Bros. Using an interactional sociolinguistic framework, the analysis demonstrates (1) that deictic shifts correlate with frame shifts and (2) that patterns in complex person deixis correlate with different types of frame lamination. In this way, it is argued that deictic fields are constituents of interactive frames, offering insight into the dynamics of person, time, and space in local video game play in particular and co-present gaming in general. This finding contributes to a broader understanding of the strategies by which interactants navigate and build emergent worlds through the activity of playing together.