Identification of Forms of Capital in Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) Video Games: Study of Mobile Legends Gamers in Indonesia

Abstract

Previous studies have seen the world of video games as a field of its own. The development of video games has created a much broader context that include not only game as social field but also professional field through the rising of electronic sports. The presence of MOBA has shown how gaming becoming the source of entertainment and competition. These field have a structure of its own where forms of capital take role in supporting gamers as an agent to take their own ‘positions’. Gamers own and express different habitus in the field. This qualitative research aims to explore the forms of capital identified by the gamers as essential to possess in the field of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena video games, by doing in-depth interviews with Indonesian gamers of Mobile Legends. The research shows that gamers can be categorized into two types, which are achievementoriented gamers and socializing-oriented gamers, which both identify the forms of capital differently, as they aligned it to their purpose of playing the game