research-article

Behind the Voices: The Practice and Challenges of Esports Casters

Authors:

Lucas Kempe-Cook,

Stephen Tsung-Han Sher,

Norman Makoto SuAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Paper No.: 565, Pages 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300795

Published: 02 May 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Casters commentate on a live, streamed video game for a large online audience. Drawing from 20 semi-structured interviews with amateur casters of either Dota 2 or Rocket League video games and over 20 hours of participant observations, we describe the distinctive practices of two types of casters, play-by-play and color commentary. Play-by-play casters are adept at improvising a rich narrative of hype on top of live games, whereas color commentators methodically prepare to fill in the gaps of live play with informative analysis. Casters often start out alone, relying upon reflective practice to hone their craft. Through examining challenges faced by amateur casters, we identified three design opportunities for game designers to support casters and would-be casters as first-class users. Such designs would provide an antidote to the challenges faced by amateur casters: those of the lack of social support for casting, camerawork, and data availability.

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Index Terms

Behind the Voices: The Practice and Challenges of Esports Casters
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2019

9077 pages

ISBN:9781450359702

DOI:10.1145/3290605

General Chairs:
Stephen Brewster
University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
,
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
TU Wien, Austria
,
Program Chairs:
Anna Cox
University College London, UK
,
Vassilis Kostakos
University of Melbourne, Australia

Copyright © 2019 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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Published: 02 May 2019

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CHI '19: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 4 - 9, 2019

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CHI '19 Paper Acceptance Rate 703 of 2,958 submissions, 24%;

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

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637357
Lei QTang RHo HZhou HGuo JTang Z(2024)A Game of Love for Women: Social Support in Otome Game Mr. Love: Queen’s Choice in ChinaProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642306(1-15)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642306
Tan-intaraarj P(2024)Exploring influence attempts, wishful identification, parasocial relationships, and behavioral loyalty among Thai game live-streamers and their viewersAsian Journal of Communication10.1080/01292986.2024.231558034:2(178-194)Online publication date: 9-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2024.2315580
Barra EVives JLópez-Pernas SMéndez AGonzález ÁFuentetaja A(2024)An autonomous low-cost studio to record production-ready instructional videosMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-024-18250-883:28(71951-71971)Online publication date: 6-Feb-2024
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Sher SSu N(2023)From Screens to Projector, Wall, and TVs: Conceptualizing Livestreams as Design Material for Direct and Indirect Viewership ExperiencesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35794897:CSCW1(1-22)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
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He CHe LLu ZLi B(2023)Seeking Love and Companionship through Streaming: Unpacking Livestreamer-moderated Senior Matchmaking in ChinaProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581195(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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Margetis GApostolakis KNtoa SChatzakis ISykianaki EMarkopoulos IStephanidis C(2023)Visual Summarisations for Computer-Assisted Live Color Casting and Direction in League of LegendsHCI in Games10.1007/978-3-031-35930-9_10(133-153)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2023
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Felczak M(2022)Systemic issues with narratives of identity: Toxicity and esports media professionalsConvergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies10.1177/1354856522113876129:2(400-416)Online publication date: 10-Nov-2022
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