Os sentinelas locais: análise dos enquadramentos sobre a luta contra o preconceito na comunidade do jogo League of Legends

Abstract

During the period from July 8 to August 10, 2021, North American developer and publisher of online games, Riot Games, developed a transmedia storytelling experience campaign called Sentinels of Light. The event was held in different games that shared the universe of its most popular game, League of Legends (LoL), and featured a story of the struggle of the forces of good, represented by the Sentinels of light, agents tasked with protecting the world from evil, against the forces of evil, represented by the so-called Ruination, an evil power in the form of mist that was consuming characters and kingdoms of Runeterra, the fictional continent in which LoL is set. This event had rewards for players who participated in the event, such as emotes, skins, icons and other virtual goods, in addition to offering various content on their online social networks that complemented the player's immersion in the event, such as narrated tales and animations. During this period, analogous to the narrative context of Sentinels versus Ruination, the company's headquarters in Brazil decided to develop a series composed of 4 videos called Sentinelas Locais, which presented NGOs and people within the LoL community who fought and still fight against prejudice, discrimination and toxicity not only present in this community, but also in most games, seeking the right to be respected. For the videos, projects and people were chosen that represented movements of social minorities in games, the chosen ones were: Wakanda Streamers, black empowerment movement, Sakuras Esports, representing the women's movement, Fierce Project, for the LGBTQIA+ movement, and the people's movement with disabilities, represented by the Libras translator known by the nickname Suuhgetsu. The company sought to implement efforts to build new cultures that affect both internally and externally, aiming to establish new and healthier social practices among players, driven by campaigns and content for the appropriate purposes. Through the speeches presented in the videos and using the framing methodology to categorize narrative patterns, 5 types of frames could be observed and created around the total of 36 frames perceived throughout the videos, which reveal that prejudice does not originate from the gaming community, but which was transported from the personal environment and established as a result of historical and social factors, that the movement and culture of players impact the entire structure of the industry and market, from the creation of games to their dissemination, showing that the itself became hostage to an environment created by it, difficult to adapt, requiring the constant presence of collective and coordinated actions for a possible modification of the scenario.