Why Do We Twitch? a Study Into the Phenomenon of Voyeuristic Consumption
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Why Do We Twitch? A Study into the Phenomenon of Voyeuristic Consumption A Thesis Presented to The Honors Tutorial College Ohio University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for Graduation From the Honors Tutorial College With the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration By Harper Kohls April 2019 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my parents, Tom and Kelly Kohls, whose intentional and loving parenting helped me become a lifelong learner and a curious individual. Without them to teach me to persevere, I would not be where I am today. My siblings played an integral role in this self-development as well; if nothing else, their own personal achievements invoked in me a sense of competition. I have been blessed with a large family that is equally as supportive. Of course, I would not be part of the Honors Tutorial College or at Ohio University in the first place if it were not for my Director of Studies, Dr. Raymond Frost. His direction over the years has been vital to me finding my academic interests and developing into a professional adult. Thanks to Dr. Frost seeing my value as a high schooler and admitting me to HTC, I have been able to achieve a degree without serious financial stress or burden. I also need to thank my Thesis Advisor, Dr. Jacob Hiler. His passion for research, both academic and managerial, inspired in me a similar passion. His guidance and assistance throughout my tutorials and thesis work has been constant, timely, and has pushed me to do better work than I thought I could produce. Overall, his role was one of the most influential in my undergraduate experience, and I know that I would have enjoyed the journey less without him here to teach me. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Abstract 5 2. Introduction 6 3. Conceptualization 8 4. Methodology 18 5. Study One 22 6. Study Two 41 7. Discussion 48 8. Limitations and Future Research 52 9. Works Cited 54 10. Appendix 56 3 ABSTRACT Purpose: This paper aims to examine the phenomenon of voyeuristic consumption through the context of the video game streaming platform Twitch. Voyeuristic consumption is a consumption activity where one observes someone else performing the activity and experiences the same enjoyment as to that which they would experience performing the activity themselves. Twitch is a culturally prevalent example of this phenomenon. Design: Research was done in four distinct parts: a literature review, naturalistic inquiry, semi- structured qualitative research, and a two-condition, between subjects field experiment. Findings: This research furthers the definition of voyeuristic consumption within the context of Twitch. It finds that Twitch’s ability to play different roles for different users attributes to its success. It also shows that voyeuristic consumption can produce the same levels of enjoyment as the active consumption activity that it replicates. Originality: Voyeuristic consumption has only been examined once prior to this research and within a different context. Thus, this research builds out the phenomenon and creates avenues for future research. Keywords: Voyeuristic Consumption, Active Consumption, Consumer Experience 4 INTRODUCTION Twitch is a video game streaming platform that was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for nearly one billion dollars. This acquisition was surprising at the time, but Twitch has become widespread in 2019. It now has 15 million active daily users, 81.5% of which are male and 55% of which are ages 18-34 (Twitch Advertising, 2019). The number of these young male viewers is enormous, but they are not necessarily well understood. Indeed, the lack of understanding is what has led Amazon to tout Twitch as an advertising platform that can reach an otherwise difficult-to-reach audience. Twitch users are deeply invested in the platform, with 58% of users spending more than 20 hours per week on the site (Davis, 2014). Both the number of people on Twitch and the amount of time the viewers spend on the site is perplexing to the non-gaming community, which is exactly why efforts must be made to understand them. Otherwise, the non- gaming community may not see the value in this hyper-engaging platform, writing it off as just a fad. Twitch is, in reality, a powerful, growing platform, deserving of everyone’s attention. Why would self-proclaimed “gamers” enjoy watching other people play video games so intensely that Twitch could grow to such astronomical heights? In the research film Living the Stream: A Study of Voyeuristic Consumption in Video Game Live Streaming (Hiler, Kuo, & Northington 2016), the phenomenon of voyeuristic consumption is explored: watching others perform activities and receiving enjoyment that performing the activity itself would induce. One way to convey the value of Twitch is to relate the concept of voyeuristic consumption to other, more wide-reaching activities. Professional sports viewership is a profound example. Surely when compared to watching hours of competition between people whom the viewer does not know (but in fact relates to on some level), Twitch does not seem quite so strange. 5 Beyond discovery of this phenomenon and its manifestation in activities besides watching video game streaming, questions remain. To what extent is the level of enjoyment similar to that of performing the actual activity? What motivates the Twitch audience to engage in this community? Which of the motivating factors plays the strongest role in turning these “participators” into mere “observers”? The objective in this research is to further define the phenomenon of voyeuristic consumption in the context of the video game streaming platform Twitch. The objective also extends to testing the difference between enjoyment levels of playing a particular game or watching a popular Twitch streamer play it. Voyeuristic consumption may be directly applicable to video game live streaming, but its implications are easily shared among other scenarios. These other scenarios, like professional sports viewership (as mentioned previously), explain Twitch in a more universal light. For example, numerous television shows exist where hosts travel between restaurants, tasting new cuisines. YouTube is filled with videos of children unboxing new toys and playing with them. Examples like these show that voyeuristic consumption is not limited to the young, male, gamer population. In fact, many different audiences enjoy watching relatable people perform activities that they themselves are not able to do for one reason or another (an idea that will be explored further later). This research could be used to further explore the other facets of the phenomenon. It contributes a more complete definition of voyeuristic consumption for application in other realms, although the Twitch example is one of the more prolific and as such was used to explain the concept. Voyeuristic consumption is one form of consumption among many that defines consumers, and thus this research contributes to the discipline of consumer behavior. 6 CONCEPTUALIZATION Prior to examining voyeuristic consumption as its own activity within consumer behavior, it is necessary to build up the context in which it exists. Past research within the field was used to develop this study and it is important to explain the relevance of each work used in this process of development. These studies include examinations into experiential and hedonic consumption, video game research, escapism, consumer experience, and more. Each of the studies used in development of the hypothesis are explained below, with their respective ties to the topic at hand. The phrase voyeuristic consumption was pulled from past research where it is explained in the context of Twitch (Hiler, Kuo, & Northington 2016). The research film builds the idea of voyeuristic consumption from one past work, specifically defining it in the context of video game live streaming. It draws from concepts such as that of mirror neurons to explain the enjoyment received by those that watch others play video games. It uses a series of in depth interviews amongst students who watch Twitch to ground the phenomenon of voyeuristic consumption with quotes. This study is the basis for the research. Also important in introducing this study is one that covers Twitch as a platform. One study specifically reviews video game live streaming, and notes that viewers of professional eSports (electronic sports), if they are only casual players themselves, prefer viewing to playing (Kaytoue et al. 2012). The paper categorizes Twitch viewers and described their behavior at a high level. Using data from Twitch, it looks at viewership on a time-of-day basis and geographical location basis. The two main takeaways here are that the U.S. houses the largest population of Twitch viewers and that peak times occur regularly and daily. It also finds that Twitch stream early popularity is highly indicative of its future popularity as well. The study 7 argues that video game live streaming is distinctly unique and that it is a new form of entertainment that democratizes the finding of new video games. It describes trends in Twitch viewership and ranks streamers. It also lists implications for social networks, as Twitch itself exists as one, even though it is primarily an entertainment source. This study gives the reader a holistic view of what exactly Twitch is, and what how its uniqueness has created a loyal user base. Many of the discoveries of this study, such as the point that casual gamers sometimes prefer viewing to playing, were supported by the findings for this research as well. It is also true in noting the uniqueness of Twitch as a platform, although this research focuses more on how Twitch viewership is actually similar to other activities that fall within the umbrella of voyeuristic consumption. Past research has been done to create a model of consumer choice regarding attendance at performing arts (Caldwell & Cowley 2000).