The Language Used in MOBA Games through Mobile Legends

Abstract-Nowadays, games has developed and many people playing it. Usually, the
player has a communication with another when they are playing the game. The player
population is more than 32 million. All the players are a combination of countries and
cultures, but most of the players still use lingua franca–English as default
communication channel. Nonetheless, despite the two languages that vary from player
to player and the conversational demands of online games differ from those of ordinary
English, some linguistic changes take place. The aim of this study is to explain how the
increasing online community incorporates such improvements into the language and to
address the significance as one of the most critical means of communication for millions
of people everyday. The subject is also important for the writer because he has
contributed hundreds of hours himself to the game and his voice is now a part of his
daily lives.
Keywords-moba games; language used; mobile legends

I. INTRODUCTION
At almost 2 billion users worldwide, English is the world's culture (Crystal
2003: 109). The bulk of the speakers are non-Native (Crystal 2003; 109), but, because
the fast-growing Web and digital networks enable knowledge and opinions to be
exchanged by people around the world at rate which is never seen before it is in
continual flux. The Internet is increasing even more exponentially. These new media
include online gaming-a type of entertainment that has grown in popularity since the
early millennia, particularly as titles like Counter-Strike, Diablo II, StarCraft, World
warcrafts and Battlefield have succeeded in attracting thousands of players, and the
connection quality has improved considerably. Nevertheless, in the last few years, a
new type of online games has begun to reach a wider audience that is separate from the
commonly popular multiplayer formats such as real-time tactics, first person shooters
and massive multiplayer online role play game. This genre is the Multiplayer Online
Battle Arenas, "Dotalikes Sure or MOBA. Their increase began with DotA, a
modification for WarCraft III, a cartoon that started out in combination with only a
handful of modderers and developed to such an extent that it was recognized for many
years at the largest and largest cyber gaming competition, inspiring the development of
several popular games, including the most successful one in Indonesia at present –
Mobile Legends. Initially I am presenting the English versions which affect the
language of MOBA games, including the literature on the internet, the dialect, the
Registry, the Language, Slang, Jargon and. Secondly, The main MOBA Games
principle should be presented to readers and a short characteristic of the genre should be
introduced, since the author feels it is necessary to fully understand the creation of
language processes within a language group. Finally, I'm mainly concerned with
addressing Mobile Legends ' language mechanisms, describing the most frequently
changed type, and justifying their importance based on in-game interactions and
researchers ' understanding..
This paper has a three related research question. 1.) What are the Multiplayer
Online Battle arenas examples of expression? 2.) Which type of language in Mobile
Legends impacts the vocabulary? 3.) What is the community's impact on language by
the pro-player? The following explanations are the supporting theories for this study and
research question
1. Factors affecting the language
Language is not an unchanging established object, The location and people who
use it are constantly changing, and (Jean Aitchison, 2001:3) has shown that nowadays a
medium user would not understand English used daily only 100 years ago. The
objective of this study is to examine a language variant used by an online gaming
audience in order to enable researchers to fully understand the player experience
transition while playing. The author believes that the mechanisms affecting the regular
language version must be described.
a. Dialect
Dialect is one of the main language varieties. Dialect is defined as a particular
form of a language peculiar to a given area or social group. Dialectology is called the
language industry which aims to explore this form of language variance and deals with
spatially and geographical variations in the different language aspects of the world.
(Nooyen, 1999). The dialectal variations are most often seen and heard in vocabulary.
For dialectology, the scientific method involves field work to collect data that is then
applied with different language variants. The idea of sociolect is often mistaken as
dialect. As stated in the section above, the major factor of development of Dialect is the
geographical background which in the case of sociolect does not apply. The division of
characteristic facets of this type, such as the absence of the possessive, was present
among the representatives of the African American community throughout the region,
according to William Labov in his text on African American Vernacular English
(AAVE) (Labov, 2012: 49). This describes a language because of its distribution.
Another factor is gender, however. A sociolect is a set of languages having the same
sociological profile of people: whether it be race, gender, sex or being in the same
socioeconomic groups.
b. Style and Register
Style is another element that affects the expression. In any given situation the
definition governs the necessary and socially acceptable degree of formality. Barbara
Johnstone says that repetitive gestures will arise from fairly stable repertories, often
called forms, styles, circumstances or social identities, whereas 5 roles have been
commonly known to be linked to the tools, linguistic and other for communicating with
and signalizing connections with the propositions they communicate and with
(Johnstone, 2009: 30-31). Another species is register, Ronald Wardhaugh says that the
register is a "set of language items related to discreet occupational or social groups."
Therefore, people with repeated connections acquire similar language, specific
intonational characteristics, and syntax and phonology characteristics that they use in
these circumstances (Wardhaugh, 2006: 52).
c. Slang
Slang is a kind of language that is perceived to be rather casual and usually
restricted to a given context or groups of people as described by Oxford Dictionary in
words rather than in writing. However it was a continuing topic of language controversy
in the definition of slang despite the nature of the term. (Amari, 2010: 1). Nevertheless,
Connie Eble argued that the Slang is compatible in its classification, which is: more
lexical, rather than phonologically or syntactically, and not grammatically, because
slang items never breach the semanthropic consistency of a phrase and experience the
same morphologic processes as the remainder of the language, such as meaning. (Eble,
1996: 12-24).
d. Jargon
The language "jargon" comes from an old French word "jargon," which means
"twoing and warbling" by the birds as it may communicate as much sense to a listener
who is not acquainted with jargon as the chirping birds do.. It can be defined as a
strange, technical language of a specific profession, class or trade. Although it has some
slang-like characteristics such as being outside the main language, it not just helps to
identify new and essential terms, but also to create relations between representatives of
the incoming party and enforce boundaries for outsiders, as Spolsky concluded
(Spolsky, 1998: 33).
e. The language of the internet
The ‚ Internet language,' also known as netspeak, is a complex language that is
communicated by electronic communication mechanisms (Baron, 2003: 3) as opposed
to internet speech, which contains many programming languages. Internet Language is a
fascinating linguistic problem, as the bulk of the used language is written electronically,
while linguistics focus mainly on the spoken language. According to Bloomfeld, writing
is — by clear signs— simply a means to document speech (Bloumfield 1933:21). At the
moment, the use of natural languages is in two different directions on the Web. Despite
the fact that the online content is being produced as an English-speaking network more
and more, this is not shocking because it is projected that the Chinese is the most
common language on a worldwide scale and by 2050 more than 1.4 trillion native
speakers would speak Chinese as compared to 500 million mothers of English speaking.
In this situation, translators and developers will face a big challenge as there will be a
growing need for code and methods to be interpreted. In another way, the culture franca
of the internet is translated to the English language. The issue with this approach is that
most English speakers are at present non-native, which may contribute to a plurality of
the receivers who do not understand complex grammar systems or vocabulary (Crystal,
1997)
f. Computer mediated communication
To order to include other linguistic aspects into this form of communication, it
must be fully understood to be the basis of all communications within any MOBA or
cooperative game known as computer-media communication.
CMC is loosely defined as any message that you send or receive in a natural
language via a computer interface. The word CMC actually implies a written message
from nature sent via the Internet (Barons, 2003: 10). One-to - one interaction, one-to-
many conversation, can be differentiated by two main categories. Interaction from one
to one involves such ways as 10 e-mails or instant messages whereas web pages,
conversations, and newsgroups are included in a single-to - one conversation.
2. Characteristic of the moba genre
MOBA is a category of real time strategy games established in the latter decade
of the 20th century, abbreviated from the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. The
gameplay of the genre usually revolves around the rivalry of the two groups, whose
primary purpose is to destroy their main structure. Every team is made up of 5
members, every controlled by a single, strong entity, which is often named "champion"
or "fighter.". The field on which a game is played can be broken down into two main
areas: three paths, which include minions generated by each fort, and three lines of
defenses, named turrets and the forest. The map is played. The champions become more
effective over time, acquiring skills and resources needed to fight the enemy and
eventually claim victory. Playing is quick and requires player concentration and
regulation of micro-action. The process usually takes about 20-70 minutes. The genre
itself is increasingly popular with the audience of video games, as fans of the
community will display visuals from the majority of gaming pubs and big competition
competitions by hundreds of thousands of viewers at all times.

II. METHOD
As this study investigates the laguage used in Mobile Legends, the author used
qualitative method through observation and based his experience during playing the
games over 5000 matches. Based on his experience, the author has already meet even
used many game language that never use it before in his daily life. The author starts to
play this game since 2017 until now and has found a many new language from playing
this game. The authors also makes an observation through watching the video or live
streaming from Youtube, Nimo.TV, Facebook gaming and another platform for getting
a data about the study itself since the player usually has a channel or account in any
platform to doing live streaming or just upload a video gameplay. Its easier for
collecting the data since the author seems interested with the terms or content of the
video.
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
1. Examples of Language Used in Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas
The purpose of this result is to identify and present the MOBA terminology.
The chapter is highly practical, with the intention of describing the essence of the
mentioned phenomena in the most precise possible manner.
1.1. Communication Within the Game
The use of the abbreviations and acronyms is often simplified, because fast
gaming allows users to focus on in-game action rather than writing or reading messages.
In this case, the Computer Mediated Communication in any MOBA game is a trend
defined in the introduction of this Article. Including Flaming and ALLCAPS is also
normal, as emosis is an inset.. In contrast, a group of 5 randomly selected players in
every MOBA game will not compete again as many as players online–and potential
team mates are numbered for tens of thousands, reducing the chances of the same team
mates being assigned to a fraction of a per cent, contributing to an ever more
widespread randomization of language.
Written communication in the game environment is primarily functional, as any
inter-human conflict involves contact. In this situation, though, the equation is an
obstacle: 20 senders and receivers need more effort to write. And if player focus is
diverted from action, the effects can be severe: failure to plan one's character to compete
even to the death of the opponent by witnessing a reversal in a special lane game. This
culminated in the development of MOBA-specific slang; a category of slang that does
not only consist of specialized in-game words which provide very little detail for
individuals not familiar with them; the terms were changed still further: clippings and
abbreviations are among the word types in most MOBA games, as outlined in an
illustration below. (all the examples come from the author‘s game experience – he
started playing Mobile Legends in 2017, participated in over 5000 matches and devoted
hundreds of hours into the game)
 Lunox: Selena starts red, top expect gank around 0300
 Lunox: tr ~0702
 Grock: tri warded
 Harith: mid ss
In this conversation, Lunox, squad jungler, tells his group of his enemy, Selena,
Demon-Jester's, a forest path (the command from friendly camps murdered during the
war), which is Elder Lizard camp (root applies both to the beast and to the blessing
(buff) given when he was slaughtered). And the top solo lane player (left) should be
prepared for Selena's sudden lane arrival, which is to click her lane around the third
minute of the match. In fact, the Lunox uses so-called timer–it is possible to tell the
exact time of their arrival on the map because the respawn times of jungle creeps are
fixed. We expect that their red (tr) is about 7 minutes and 2 seconds from the start of the
match. Player Grock says that the so called tribrush–the region on the map which
invisibly renders champions when entering, in this case formed like a triangle, was held,
a ward was put, the sight gate was fixed there, the team's view of the enemy grid was
gritted and all motion of the field was exposed. Harith, the middle lane soloist (mid)
calls a — miss lane to tell the group that his competitor is not on the field, informs the
teammates that their numbers may exceed each other.
1.2. New Players and the Slang Acquisition
Since the use of the in-game jargon transmits many game-related data, it is
important for the new players to get used to the vocabulary quickly. Given this
extremely challenging task, many participants get to know it quite easily as social stress
influences learning rate. Exposure to positive emotions improves learning pace.
Soumaya Chaffar and Claude Frasson have defined this mechanism (Chaffar, Frasson,
2005: 1).
Social pressure is also a variable that affects the acquisition. As mentioned in
chapter one, slang and jargon serve a purpose other than communicatio Slang and
jargon serve a non-communication role as stated in Chapter One: they indicate they are
part of the group. This is the case for MOBA games: players who have no
understanding of vocabulary will have less ability to move and learn how to be a lucky
"noob" or a successful newbie. The desire to avoid it is also a major factor in
developing the learning process.
2. Types of Linguistic Processes Affecting the Language in Mobile Legends
The Mobile Legends language undergoes a major transformation compared to
the Standard English, as described and presented in this section. Cutting, abbreviating
and the use of game jargon are among the most frequent improvements. This chapter of
the paper describes in detail certain unique changes.
2.1. Abbreviations in MOBA Games
Over hundreds of years abbreviations or condensed words or sentences are part
of the written language. We have been used since the Roman Empire.
Surprisingly, nearly 2000 years ago, the aim of the writers did not differ greatly from
today's conditions in MOBAs. In the book, the essence of writing is responsible for
implementing abbreviations: writing within stone or metal was time consuming because
parchment had to be produced out of animal pelt. Today's aim is to save on time and
attention. Since the nature of contact in League is highly informal, it is fair that
abbreviations in game terminology should be used regularly and that there is not a
personal interaction together with the above-mentioned time and attention criteria. Such
abbreviations affect the whole spectrum of words in the game.
Some of the abbreviated names of items include:
 bod: Blade of Despair
 nod: Necklace of Durance
 dhs: Demon Hunter Sword
 cod: Clock of Destiny
 won: Wind of Nature
 immortal: Immortality
 sp: Scarlet Phantom
 hs: Hunter Strike
 rgm: Rose Gold Meteor
 woa: Wings of Appocallypse
Using this short form, teams will organize team work at higher speed (including the use
of a lower case; reducing the time and emphasis added to the text goes so far as not to
retain change, an operation that would otherwise require just a fraction of the second).
An example of use of the said abbreviations in presented below:
 need 100 for dhs
 there is’nt won for 30 seconds
 i got woa, thats ok
 immortal doesnt active yet
The titles of the hero are another class of shortlisted products. Due to the length of some
of the names of the hero, action was taken to reduce the time needed to identify goals.
This was particularly important in the Select hero when draft-pick mode because the
time available is only 30 seconds before the hero picked and can build a roster of team
that is most competitive for the group and adjusted the hero to match the current game.
The following names are shortened
 gs: Gusion
 cyc: Cyclops
 yss: Yi Sun Shin
 lc: Lancelot
 hc: Helcurt
 yz: Yun Zhao
Ultimately, certain reoccurring words are abbreviated. The goal is identical: the total
time needed to relay messages is increasing. The following are among the most
common sentences
 gg/bg: good game/bad game; The term used to convey a feeling of
sportsmanship and respect or demonstrate consternation at the end of the game is
that certain factors (e.g. one participant leaving) have influenced the action.
 oom: Out of mana; informing that our champion is unable to use their abilities
are the required resource, mana, has been spent.
  omw: On my way; information that a player is en route to a certain destination
 afk: Away from keyboard; informing that the player has left the game
 brb: Be right back; informing that the player typing this will not be playing for a
certain amount of time, yet will return shortly
 cd: Cooldown; time any ability needs to become available again
 cc: Crowd Control; all the abilities that reduces the amount of control over a
hero. Those include slows, stuns, blinds and snares.

2.2. Clipping in MOBA Games

Clipping is another factor that influences the vocabulary of MOBAs. Shortening
implies a break in one of its sections–a split in one phrase (Marchard, 1969:441). This
practice is common in abbreviations, and it does serve the same purpose but affects the
objects which were considered inappropriate for abbreviation for some occasion.
The example is:
 ult: Ultimate Ability. The strongest skill any hero can learn. It can be chosen
after reaching the 4th level of experience.
 Mid: The middle lane or the person assigned to this specific lane.
 Roam: Clipped from Roaming; the player should go to another lane for giving
help to another player
 Miss: Clipped from Eemy missing; for informing another player that the enemy
has gone from the map
 Def: defend. Action of defending a certain area of the map or a map objective

3. The Influence of the Pro Players of the Gaming Community on the Language
The professional players from top teams will know the majority of the fan base
as the Mobile legends community has expanded to a considerable scale. Pro player
videos on platforms such as Nimo.tv, Youtube or Facebook gaming is viewed by
thousands of people every day. It is only normal to draw such publicity with the most
spectacular or disappointing works. Many behaviors are now so popular as to illustrate
that dramatically, the scene responds to incidents in the play. The identities of the
performers who execute such behavior lead to new gaming words.
I will present the most often used namesakes of Mobile Legends
 Tuturu as “The next level marksman”
Diky “Tuturu” is the marksman user from team Rex Regum Qeon or also known
as RRQ, one of the most popular e-sport team in indonesia (he with his team together
was the triumphant of the season 2 MPL or Mobile Legends Proffesional League)
During his good performance at the season 2 MPL, especially when RRQ meet
EVOS at the final of the tournament while there was a team fight, tuturu was the last
man standing for team RRQ because his impresive performance. He could survive
during the war and could beating all the enemies that called savage, a rare moment at
the competitive match especially final match. After beats all enemies and become the
last man standing at the games, he did straight push in the mid lane and bring the
victory for his team. This act become unforgottable moments in season 2 MPL and the
caster or commentator labelled him as the next level marksman. Yet, after getting that
label. The next level marksman become a popular name for the other player when they
get a wonderful performance like him. Mostly, the other player will called him as that
when he get savage using marksman hero.
To commemorate that players who successfully beats all enemies and getting
savage at that match using marksman hero would say―this is me, the next level
marksman!‖
 MarshaNoMercy as the symbollic when trolling the teammates
Steven “Marsha” Kurniawan was the proffesional player of EVOS and
LOUVRE e-sport, has already contributed in the proffesional league, but marsha
could’nt bring his team being a champion of the tournament.
Although he had a bad performance in the competition, however he still being a
well-known Mobile Legends player because of his humor. There are many poeple
watching his live streaming in Nimo.TV for just getting entertaintment of his gameplay.
Often play incorrectly or usually called “Troll”, he become a symbol for other player
when there is a teammates like him. Mostly, the troll begin whe the draft-pick hero then
he pick a strange hero that non suitable with the team, like when the team needs a tank
he would pick a fighter that actually the team does’nt need it. The troll continues in
game when he actually should going to the top lane, he would go to the jungle and kills
the jungle monster so the jungler of the team could not getting a good gameplay as well.
This act could trigger the emotional of the teammates and after they get angry, he would
laugh because he feels so succes for trolling his team.
Therefore, he become a symbol of trolling player and usually the other player
would say―NO MARSHA!!
 Rekt “si petani” or the fastest gold owning man
“Rekt” Gustian, is the one of the best side laner who played for EVOS e-sport.
Successfully bring a world champion for his team, rekt become more famous through
his wonderful performance along the tournament and known by each people who played
this game in the world.
During the tournament, rekt had a different gameplay and style with another
player that become a signature for him. Recognized as a “petani” since he had a farming
ways that unknown by another player. The terms of farming itself is a ways for getting
level and gold for buying an item and become stronger. He could get a many gold in a
short time that could not did by other player, he could get 1000 gold per minutes in
average even his team is going to under pressure. Every enemy player only know that
rekt is gone from the map then realize that he suddenly show off with many items and
leading the level. This phenomenon surprised the spectator, player, and the caster at that
time.
Finally, since his amazing gameplay he get a “petani” label that become an
influence the other people who could get same interpretation like him, usually the player
would say―keep calm bro, petani is here!

Conclusion
The aim of this study was to present and examine, using Mobile Legends as an
example, the most significant language processes that influence the writing language of
MOBA players. For in-game dialog the conceptual understanding of the processes
influencing internet language groups was extended and the conclusions of the researcher
was tested.
 The complexities and informality are the main feature of the MOBA script. It is
intended to convey as many game-related data as possible in a condensed way and, as
shown in the descriptions, heavy use of the abbreviation and clipping. However, a
number of words do not exist beyond the world of the game and invokes the social
aspect of slang and jargon of belonging to a group that allows for a separation between
the young and the experienced. Yet another amazing thing is the knowledge and
willingness of the group to produce the most impressive display of skill and capacity.
In comparison, observations from the authors ' almost three-year experience as a
foundation for their in-game conversation as well as vocabulary used by other players
show that it is the true game language were supported by the characteristics of the
jargon which were defined in the study.

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