research-article

Streaming on twitch: fostering participatory communities of play within live mixed media

Authors:

William A. Hamilton,

Oliver Garretson,

Andruid KerneAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1315 - 1324

https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557048

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Previously, video streaming sites were at the fringes of online social media. In the past two years, live streams of video games, on sites such as Twitch.tv, have become very popular. Live streams serve as meeting grounds for player communities. The Twitch streaming medium combines broadcast video with open IRC chat channels. In conjunction with gameplay, viewer participation and community building gain emphasis. Twitch streams range in size and nature, from intimate communities with fifty viewers, to massive broadcasts with tens of thousands. In this paper, we present an ethnographic investigation of the live streaming of video games on Twitch.

We find that Twitch streams act as virtual third places, in which informal communities emerge, socialize, and participate. Over time, stream communities form around shared identities drawn from streams? contents and participants? shared experiences. We describe processes through which stream communities form, the motivations of members, and emergent issues in the medium. Finally, we draw from our findings to derive implications for design of live mixed-media environments to support participatory online communities.

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Cited By

Lee SLee SBaek H(2025)How does live streaming impact media content consumption? The effect of game live streaming on game playersEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2024.10080252(100802)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100802
Aguirre Gamboa PÁvila Cortés JAnaya Avila MLaurencio Meza R(2024)Mundo Twitch: Entre Jóvenes Streamers y EspectadoresEstudios y Perspectivas Revista Científica y Académica10.61384/r.c.a..v4i1.1934:1(2421-2439)Online publication date: 2-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.61384/r.c.a..v4i1.193
Baltezarević RBaltezarević BBaltezarević I(2024)Advantages of digital marketing in the world of digital gamesInternational Review10.5937/intrev2401069B(69-76)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.5937/intrev2401069B
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Index Terms

Streaming on twitch: fostering participatory communities of play within live mixed media
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2014

4206 pages

ISBN:9781450324731

DOI:10.1145/2556288

General Chairs:
Matt Jones
Swansea University, Wales, UK
,
Philippe Palanque
Université Paul Sabatier, France
,
Program Chairs:
Albrecht Schmidt
University of Stuttgart, Germany
,
Tovi Grossman
Autodesk Research, Canada

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Published: 26 April 2014

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CHI '14: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2014

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CHI '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 465 of 2,043 submissions, 23%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Lee SLee SBaek H(2025)How does live streaming impact media content consumption? The effect of game live streaming on game playersEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2024.10080252(100802)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100802
Aguirre Gamboa PÁvila Cortés JAnaya Avila MLaurencio Meza R(2024)Mundo Twitch: Entre Jóvenes Streamers y EspectadoresEstudios y Perspectivas Revista Científica y Académica10.61384/r.c.a..v4i1.1934:1(2421-2439)Online publication date: 2-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.61384/r.c.a..v4i1.193
Baltezarević RBaltezarević BBaltezarević I(2024)Advantages of digital marketing in the world of digital gamesInternational Review10.5937/intrev2401069B(69-76)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.5937/intrev2401069B
Prummer Arabaolaza BDíaz-García IChales-Aoun AMuñoz-Carballo MCarniglia-González G(2024)Investigación social en Twitch: un análisis experimental de seis streamers hispanohablantesTeknokultura. Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales10.5209/tekn.89203Avance en línea(1-13)Online publication date: 12-Apr-2024
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González-López RNegreira-Rey MVázquez-Herrero J(2024)Periodismo en Twitch: análisis exploratorio de las primeras iniciativas informativasRevista de Comunicación10.26441/RC23.1-2024-3433Online publication date: 31-Jan-2024
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Akın M(2024)New Trend in Online Shopping: L-commerce (Live Stream Commerce) and a Model Proposal for Consumer AdoptionEskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi10.17153/oguiibf.138472119:2(474-488)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
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