Politics at Play: Analyzing discussions on political protests in Animal Crossing - New Horizons
(2023) TKAM02 20231Division of Ethnology
- Abstract
- Executing and performing political protests is not just for the streets. A number of political protests have been held in video games, using the features of the game to convey political messages. In a world where there is ample possibility to communicate online, players are able to discuss these protests in online communities.
In 2020, two political protests were held in the Nintendo game Animal Crossing – New Horizons. In this thesis, I study the reception of these protests amongst users of online forums related to the game. Online communities have been studied and the discussions on the two protests have been juxtaposed. The standpoints of users have been presented using a discourse analytical method called positioning. Then, they... (More) - Executing and performing political protests is not just for the streets. A number of political protests have been held in video games, using the features of the game to convey political messages. In a world where there is ample possibility to communicate online, players are able to discuss these protests in online communities.
In 2020, two political protests were held in the Nintendo game Animal Crossing – New Horizons. In this thesis, I study the reception of these protests amongst users of online forums related to the game. Online communities have been studied and the discussions on the two protests have been juxtaposed. The standpoints of users have been presented using a discourse analytical method called positioning. Then, they have been analyzed using theories on power by Michel Foucualt.
The two protests are being discussed differently. There seems to be an idea that politics have no place in these communities, but there is an apparent disagreement on what constitutes as politics. My analysis shows power relations at play; both in the discussions present and in the discussions not present. One protest is discussed far more frequently than the other, which affects the possibility to spread knowledge of the cause of the protest. From here, I conclude that the (in)ability to spread knowledge affects which protest is acceptable to discuss.
The findings of this thesis say a lot of the contemporary gamers’ approach to politics and their belonging in video games or forums related to video games. This, in turn, is important knowledge for various kinds of actors. (Less) - Popular Abstract (Swedish)
- Att verkställa och genomföra politiska protester sker inte bara utomhus. Ett antal politiska protester har hållits i tv-spel, där spelare använder funktioner i spelet för att förmedla politiska budskap. I en värld där det finns stora möjligheter att kommunicera online, finns också möjligheter för spelare diskutera dessa protester i onlineforum.
2020 hölls två politiska protester i Nintendo-spelet Animal Crossing – New Horizons. I den här uppsatsen studerar jag mottagandet av dessa protester bland användare av onlineforum relaterade till spelet. Onlineforum har studerats och diskussionerna kring de två protesterna har jämförts med varandra. Användarnas ståndpunkter har presenterats med hjälp av en diskursanalytisk metod kallad... (More) - Att verkställa och genomföra politiska protester sker inte bara utomhus. Ett antal politiska protester har hållits i tv-spel, där spelare använder funktioner i spelet för att förmedla politiska budskap. I en värld där det finns stora möjligheter att kommunicera online, finns också möjligheter för spelare diskutera dessa protester i onlineforum.
2020 hölls två politiska protester i Nintendo-spelet Animal Crossing – New Horizons. I den här uppsatsen studerar jag mottagandet av dessa protester bland användare av onlineforum relaterade till spelet. Onlineforum har studerats och diskussionerna kring de två protesterna har jämförts med varandra. Användarnas ståndpunkter har presenterats med hjälp av en diskursanalytisk metod kallad positionering. Sedan har de analyserats med hjälp av teorier om makt av Michel Foucualt.
De två protesterna diskuteras olika. Det verkar finnas en idé om att politik inte har någon plats i dessa forum, men det finns en uppenbar oenighet om vad som räknas som politik. Min analys visar att maktförhållanden spelar in; både i de diskussioner som är närvarande och i de diskussioner som inte är närvarande. Den ena protesten diskuteras betydligt oftare än den andra, vilket påverkar möjligheten att sprida kunskap om orsaken till protesten. Härifrån drar jag slutsatsen att (o)förmågan att sprida kunskap i sin tur påverkar vilken protest som blir acceptabel att diskutera.
Resultaten av denna uppsats säger mycket om samtida spelares inställning till politik och politikens tillhörighet i tv-spel eller forum relaterade till tv-spel. Detta är i sin tur viktig kunskap för olika slags aktörer. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9119850
- author
- Lundström, Cecilia LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- TKAM02 20231
- year
- 2023
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Foucault, political discourse, protesting, video games, Animal Crossing, ludology, online communication, politisk diskurs, protester, tv-spel, ludologi, onlineforum
- language
- English
- id
- 9119850
- date added to LUP
- 2023-06-07 10:05:57
- date last changed
- 2023-06-07 10:05:57
@misc{9119850,
abstract = {{Executing and performing political protests is not just for the streets. A number of political protests have been held in video games, using the features of the game to convey political messages. In a world where there is ample possibility to communicate online, players are able to discuss these protests in online communities.
In 2020, two political protests were held in the Nintendo game Animal Crossing – New Horizons. In this thesis, I study the reception of these protests amongst users of online forums related to the game. Online communities have been studied and the discussions on the two protests have been juxtaposed. The standpoints of users have been presented using a discourse analytical method called positioning. Then, they have been analyzed using theories on power by Michel Foucualt.
The two protests are being discussed differently. There seems to be an idea that politics have no place in these communities, but there is an apparent disagreement on what constitutes as politics. My analysis shows power relations at play; both in the discussions present and in the discussions not present. One protest is discussed far more frequently than the other, which affects the possibility to spread knowledge of the cause of the protest. From here, I conclude that the (in)ability to spread knowledge affects which protest is acceptable to discuss.
The findings of this thesis say a lot of the contemporary gamers’ approach to politics and their belonging in video games or forums related to video games. This, in turn, is important knowledge for various kinds of actors.}},
author = {{Lundström, Cecilia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Politics at Play: Analyzing discussions on political protests in Animal Crossing - New Horizons}},
year = {{2023}},
}