PERILAKU KOMUNIKASI VIRTUAL DALAM PERMAINAN GAME ONLINE (Analisis Pada Room Permainan Game Mobile Legends)

The advancement of technology in the digital era has brought significant changes to how humans communicate, including through new media such as online games. Mobile Legends, as one of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre games, provides a virtual communication platform through voice and chat features. This communication fosters diverse social interactions, ranging from collaboration to competition. This study aims to analyze the virtual communication behavior of players in Mobile Legends, focusing on interactions within the provided communication features. Referring to Howard Rheingold's theory of virtual communication, this research employs a qualitative descriptive approach to explore strategic, emotional, social, adaptive, and other behaviors that emerge during gameplay. The findings reveal that virtual communication behavior in the game encompasses various dimensions, such as team collaboration for strategy formulation, emotional expression through chat features, and adaptation to game dynamics. These behaviors reflect how virtual communication influences social relationships among players. The study concludes that virtual communication in Mobile Legends functions not only as a strategic tool but also as a medium for complex social interaction. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of communication behavior in digital media.