Callouts as a coordinating device in a team-based networked first-person shooter game

Abstract

This study investigates the role of callouts as a vital communicative and coordinating practice in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), a team-based networked first-person shooter (FPS) video game. Through callouts, players share relevant information regarding opponents’ locations and movements, contributing to a co-construction of a distributed knowledge of the game environment. By analyzing callouts as a coordinating device that is part of sequences of actions, this research delves into their significance in shaping the overall structural organization of activities in competitive CS:GO gameplay. The analysis also demonstrates the utility of ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA) for understanding the communicative richness of social practices in team-based networked video games.

Keywords

• Networked gaming
• Competitive gaming
• Ethnomethodology
• Conversation analysis
• Callouts
• Coordination