Why so toxic? Spelarjargong och stötande språkbruk – skärminspelningar av e-sport i en pedagogisk kontext

As growing societal phenomena, esports and gaming is gaining more interest and visibility in educational contexts. However, online game culture often involves offensive language as an established player jargon. Therefore, employing games in educational settings may be challenging. Here, player jargon is exemplified from an ethno-case study in collaboration with students at an esports program in Finland. Seven students (identifying as male, aged 17–18) from two different teams regularly shared screen recordings of matches of the multiplayer game Counter- Strike: Global Offensive. The aim of the chapter is twofold: a) to analyse and dis- cuss how player jargon is employed in esports within an educational context and b) to discuss how video research, here through screen recordings, facilitates analysis of player jargon within a new educational field of research. The screen recordings, administered by the participants themselves, included the team internal voice chat, thereby offering an intimate participant perspective on player jargon in online game culture. Through this, the researcher gains repeated access into a space no outsider otherwise has access to as the internal voice chat solely includes invited players. The data, and analysis, show that the language use, at times homophobic and/or misogynistic, becomes particularly problematic when esports and education meet, since offensive language defies educational principles of equity. Nevertheless, what would be a better place to address this in-game culture than in educational contexts?