PROFANITY WORDS USED IN ONLINE MOBILE GAMES AMONG YOUNG ADULTS DURING COVID19

Abstract

Most industries are still impacted by the COVID19 epidemic, which was spreading around the globe. Since then, mobile online gaming has become a dominant leisure for young adults as it amuses millions of players. Along with this progress, profanity words are used without restrictions among them. It is an obscene language that at times can be useful to convey strong emotions. However, profanity words used may cause a conflict that cost more than what its usefulness is worth for. This qualitative study is conducted to explore profanity words used in an online mobile game, to find out why players use profanity and to see to what extent does the online mobile game itself is involved in causing profanity. The study utilized a semi-structured interview based on Saarinen’s interview guide. The data were collected from seven respondents and analysed using the conventional content analysis approach. The result of the study reveals that the respondents consider words with sexual, derogatory terms, animal’s name, family, nationality and religion topics as profanity. The study also confirms that how the game works could also influence the use of profanity by overvaluing a certain aspect of the game, access to other players’ profile and role-playing.