INTRODUCTION

Reddit is a social networking website where users debate and share content based on a
variety of topics. It has over 430 million active users as of 2021. The widely-known social media
platform is seen as a massive online community where users can post text, images, videos and
links to other websites, and can create discussions among other users through comments and
upvotes or downvotes. It’s organized into sub-communities, known as “subreddits,” with over
130,000 active subreddits since September 2021. Subreddits are marked by “/r”, in which there
are subreddits that are made for specific communities. For instance, students who are
interested in computer science can join subreddits such as r/programming or
r/cscareerquestions to learn more about the topic. Users can join subreddits that allow them to
connect with like-minded individuals globally and meet those who share their goals and values
to build friendships.
The online gaming community has existed for quite awhile now, but has become even
more popular in recent years. The majority of online gamers are between the ages of 18 and 30,
with the gender split being fairly even. Online gaming allows players to connect and compete
with others internationally, with no limits on geographical location. Mobile devices, consoles, and
PCs are the most notable platforms of online gaming. Although online gaming communities can
be a source of friendship and social support, it also can be plagued by toxic behavior, such as
trash-talking and cyberbullying. (include some info abt previous research (secondary sources)
on reddit; i realized i haven’t done any previous research about reddit in general through ebsco
so i will include that in my final draft)

The research I have conducted targets trash-talking within the online gaming community.
Now there really isn’t a specific subreddit that tackles this subject, however there are multiple
posts in different subreddits that do talk about it. Some of these subreddits include
r/unpopularopinion, r/truegaming, and r/gaming. All three of these subreddits have A) a shared
interest and B) demonstrate Henry Jenkins’ definition of participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006.) In
r/unpopularopinion, there are 3.5 million active users talking about opinions they find to be
unpopular, which really isn’t related to my topic, but it does include it in some discussion posts.
Along with this subreddit, r/truegaming has 1.4 million Redditors and r/gaming has 36 million
users. Debate posts within these Reddits attracted a large community response where users
discussed their opinions about trash talking in video games and gave their stories on it. My
research aims to break down communication within these subreddits while being compared to
past analysis.
Some research questions proposed by this study include:
1. How does trash talking form as a form of communication within the online gaming
community?
2. How do these subreddits fall under Henry Jenkins’ definition of participatory
culture?
3. How do the communities of these subreddits use discussion in the comments to
bring new ideas and further communication to posts?

METHODOLOGY
To analyze the communication within these three subreddits, I spent some time looking
for Reddit posts that were targeting what I wanted to discuss. This was a quick process as I was
able to find multiple Reddit posts that related to trash talking within video games and the online
gaming community. To begin with, I first went onto Reddit and searched up specific subreddits.
The one I came across was r/blackopscoldwar. I then found a post related to what I was going
to research and bookmarked it. I looked through other subreddits, but couldn’t find anything.
The next step I took was just googling “trash talking in video games reddit posts.” Although the
search was somewhat vague, it provided a ton of posts that were valuable for my analysis within
a matter of seconds. I was introduced to more subreddits such as r/gaming, r/AskReddit, and
r/truegaming. This process itself took almost 10 minutes. I bookmarked all of the posts that I
thought were relevant to my research topic and then later analyzed it. These Reddit posts also
gave me access to a wide variety of content to use. In order to illustrate these subreddits as
participatory culture, my research shows posts that demonstrated active community discussions
that had numerous comments to analyze. All of the posts are text-based communication, so I
did not have any issues for the case if there were any photo/video based posts. These posts
allowed me to analyze a variety of content and break down the communication that keeps these
discussions and subreddits active throughout the years.

RESULTS
To answer the first research question, I had to establish how trash talking can be seen as
a form of communication. To accomplish this, I immediately found a post that talked about the
“best trash talk one-liners.” This Reddit post was made by the user u/TotalRogue and was
posted 12 years ago to the subreddit r/AskReddit. Most of the comments in here are NSFW (not
safe for work), using profane language. However, this can be seen as a form of communication
as profane language is used widely around most games. Trash talking within competitive sports
is understood to be used as “verbal insults toward another player, which can include racist,
homophobic, and sexist language” (Ortiz, 2019.) Within this one Reddit post, there are a
combined total of 86 words that relate to profanity, homophobic, racist, and sexist language.
While it was a necessity to establish trash talking as a form of communication, even if it
means to use vulgar language, this can lead to the second idea of how it can be defined as
Jenkins’ definition of participatory culture. The bulk of the research comes straight from the
Reddit posts in numerous subreddits. Another Reddit post, titled “Trash talking in video games
is not ‘part of the fun’ and is just unnecessary toxic behavior,” under the subreddit
r/unpopularopinion by the Reddit user u/ZeusTheAngolian was made to discuss everyone’s
opinions about trash talking. The user also gave their opinion in the post, stating that nothing
ruins video games more than “some idiots trash talking.” This Reddit post has received 710
upvotes, along with 379 comments in just 2 years. Comments in this scenario are direct
responses to the original post. First-hand responses are replies to comments and secondary
responses are those who replied to replies, or first-hand responses. About 32 of these
comments had first-hand responses. Out of these 32 first-hand responses, there was a larger
number of secondary responses, roughly about 70 in this one post.

Figure 1: First-hand responses were grouped into 2 categories and put into a bar graph.
Figure 2: Secondary responses were grouped into 3 categories in lieu of first-hand responses
and put into a bar graph

ANALYSIS
Before indulging into how these subreddits show a clear demonstration of participatory
culture, a clear definition of what this means is given by author Henry Jenkins:
“1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is
passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they
care what other people think about what they have created).” (Jenkins, 2006).
Reddit is a social networking website that is free to join and users can sign up pretty
easily. It consists of hundreds of thousands of sections, known as subreddits, in which users
who are interested within a certain topic can join and create conversations with others who
share similar ideas and goals. The subreddits I will be focusing on are r/unpopularopinion,
r/truegaming, and r/gaming. While these three subreddits are not completely different, they do
share some important discussions about toxic behavior and trash talking within the online
gaming community.
The online gaming community comes together when trash-talking exists. For instance,
as previously mentioned, within the reddit r/AskReddit a lot of users give their “best one-liners”
for trash talking. Within this reddit post, there is a sense of unity, as this is what this specific
Reddit post thrives on. It also thrives on being
very toxic, in which it includes very vulgar,
sexist, homophobic, and racist language.
Some one-liners do not use any toxic
language, but have a toxic meaning behind it.
For instance, u/rtwpsom2 said “You are the reason they put instructions on shampoo.” This has
no vulgar language, but indicates that the other person is just blatantly dumb, hence why
instructions on shampoo are needed. There was that bit of toxic meaning behind it, which is the
main focus of unity in this Reddit post. This exemplifies Jenkins’ ideas of how members feel
somewhat of a degree of a social connection with one another.
In another Reddit post under the subreddit r/unpopularopinion titled “Trash talking in
video games is acceptable” by u/safetysheep, this user gives his opinion on how trash talking is
acceptable in video games and how “it doesn’t mean anything.” Other users gave their opinions
as well, with each opinion agreeing or disagreeing with the post. Trash-talking is “never in the
context of malicious intent” and is “more related to the norms of the game or genre” (Kaye et al.,
2022). Within the reddit post, most users agree that trash talking is “part of the nostalgia”, “was
beautiful”, or “clearly joking.” This indicates that Reddit users who play video games show no
signs of malicious intent, and usually trash talk due to the competitive nature of the game.
However, other Reddit users say that there should be a “fine line between trash talk and
harassment” as said by u/U1traVio1ett, who replied to the reddit post by u/safetysheep. Most
participants had found “the fine line between trash-talking and cyberbullying in gaming” to be
“rare” (Kaye et al., 2022). u/U1traVio1ett says that she uses video games as a “distraction from
shitty situations” and to get on video games and receive similar treatment from their abusive
family makes them believe that a fine line should exist. In another Reddit post by a Reddit user
whose account is deleted, this post asks other users on “How fine is the line between toxic and
a trash talker?”, in which u/Dissentient replies that trash talking “involves comments on
someone’s playstyle” and toxicity “is primarily personal insults.” As someone who plays video
games myself, I have also partaken in trash-talking. I personally mean no harm towards the
person I talk trash towards, as they also talk trash back, thus resulting in a rarely noticeable fine
line between toxicity and trash-talking.
CONCLUSION
Reddit is seen to be a pioneer in the social networking world, as it stands to be one of
the most used social media websites. However, unlike other social media platforms such as
Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, Reddit’s primary focus is not to share personal information
and chat with friends, but to basically say whatever you want unfiltered. As far as your
imagination can go, there is probably a subreddit that exists. The research value that Reddit has
has been previously established throughout the entirety of this paper, but this is only a way that
Reddit can be seen as. You can write, upload videos and pictures, and use links to express your
thoughts. The voting system on reddit allows other users to agree or disagree with your beliefs
and can even respond to it, creating a discussion post among other users. Subreddits such as
r/unpopularopinion, r/truegaming, and r/gaming are great examples of how possibilities can be
endless in Reddit and how they can serve as a community for people of all ages internationally.
Specific Reddit posts from all of these subreddits have a common theme: unity. I aimed
for just looking at text-based Reddit posts since that would be more helpful in my research and
studies. The subreddits are all welcoming and supportive, in which users can discuss anything
they want. However, these reddit posts are all based on trash talking within the online gaming
community. People are able to share their stories and thoughts, which creates a discussion
post, causing several social connections in unimaginable ways. Discussion posts are there to
create organization within a subreddit, and also give a space for people to talk about that
specific discussion within that post.
WORKS CITED

R/truegaming - how fine is the line between being toxic and a trash talker? reddit. (2018).
Retrieved April 3, 2023, from
https://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/8c780l/how_fine_is_the_line_between_b
eing_toxic_and_a/

u/safetysheep. (2020). R/unpopularopinion - trash talking in video games is acceptable. reddit.

Retrieved April 3, 2023, from
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/esc8yu/trash_talking_in_video_ga
mes_is_acceptable/

u/TotalRogue. (2011). R/askreddit - what are your best trash talk one liners? reddit. Retrieved
April 3, 2023, from
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/f4w8v/what_are_your_best_trash_talk_on
e_liners/

u/ZeusTheAngolian. (2021). R/unpopularopinion - trash talking in video games is not "part of the
fun" and is just unnecessary toxic behavior. reddit. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/ml7k2q/trash_talking_in_video_ga
mes_is_not_part_of_the/

Ortiz, S. M. (2019). The meanings of racist and sexist trash talk for men of color: A cultural
sociological approach to studying gaming culture. New Media & Society, 21(4), 879–894.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818814252

Kaye, L. S., Hellsten, L. M., McIntyre, L. J., & Hendry, B. P. (2022). “There’s a fine line between
trash-talking and cyberbullying”: a qualitative exploration of youth perspectives of online
gaming culture. International Review of Sociology, 32(3), 426–442.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2022.2133407

Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: media education for the
21st century (part one). Retrieved from
http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html