From Team Play to Squad Play: The Militarisation of Interactions in Multiplayer FPS Video Games

Authors

  • Adam Duell Keele University

Keywords:

Multiplayer, FPS, Interactions, Militarisation

Abstract

Since the onset of E-sports we have seen the development from casual players to professional players who push the boundary of game mastery to new heights via coordinated team play. In this short paper I explore how a group of video game players adopt military-style communication methods and strategies to coordinate their actions in the popular tactical First Person Shooter (FPS) video game DayZ (Bohemia Interactive, 2014).  Utilising the key components of team interaction in the context of distributed and ad-hoc military teams (Pascual et al., 1997), I show how a group of players evolved their interactions from team play to squad play. I argue that squad play is an advancement of the strategic and tactical thinking embodied in team play through the adoption of real-world military interaction and communication strategies.

Author Biography

  • Adam Duell, Keele University
    I am a doctoral researcher in the School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy (SPIRE) at Keele University. My thesis is centred on Local Enterprise Partnerships and local governance architectures in England. I am also interested in videogame research, in particular player (and audience) interactions.

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Published

2014-11-21

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2014)

Section

Articles

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