POLA KOMUNIKASI KELOMPOK DALAM KOMUNITAS VIRTUAL GAME ONLINE GENSHIN IMPACT

Virtual communities are formed from the participation of a group of people that have certain interests and hobbies on the internet. The Genshin Impact online game virtual community is one of the many virtual communities that created based on the interests of its members. In social media X there is an account that became a virtual community for Genshin Impact online game players, the account’s name is @paimonfess. This community runs well by communicating behind anonymous messages and pseudonyms regardless of the background of its members. Therefore, this research discusses the form of group communication patterns in the virtual community of the online game Genshin Impact.
Through a qualitative approach and netnography method that relies on computer-mediated communication (CMC) and also the uses sociometric theory. Data collection was done by participant observation, interviews, and documentation. The data collected was then analyzed netnographically, assisted by NVIVO qualitative data processing software, and tested for validity using validity and triangulation tests.
In this study, it is concluded that the Genshin Impact online game virtual community in social media X uses a wheel pattern of communication. Communication using this pattern makes one person the source of information and centralized communication. This is in accordance with how communication messages are sent by members to the Genshin Impact virtual online gaming community on social media X in the form of anonymous messages and then disseminated by the community to other members.