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Understanding the Encounter Between Twitch Streamers and Digital Games Understanding the encounter between Twitch streamers and digital games Kas van der Molen Student ID: 5731445 [email protected] RMA Thesis – Media, Art, and Performance Studies Department of Media and Culture Studies Utrecht University 11 June 2021 Supervisor: Dr. Stefan Werning Second reader: Dr. René Glas THE LIVESTREAMING GAME Abstract This thesis explores the relationship between livestreaming and videogames as a cultural form through a qualitative study of game livestreaming practices. Zooming in on the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform, Twitch, I present an approach to analyze this platform as a site to study players. Doing so characterizes the livestreaming ecosystem as crucial to the distribution, proliferation, and cultural form of videogames. On a microscale, livestreaming contributes to meaning-making for communities of players. On a macroscale, it reshapes business models through platformization, represented by the coevolution between game design and livestreaming practices. Studying players, in this context, has several meanings. It addresses both the streamer-player as the one controlling gameplay, as well as the audience members and supplementary players that engage with the gameplay of the stream. In the first part of this thesis, I address how livestreaming can concretely affect games as a cultural form, by providing a site to develop communities and to exchange knowledge in and about games. In the second part, I will delve deeper into the interaction between streamers and videogames, by developing a theory of streamability. I define streamability as a phenomenon that grants Twitch a central position in the distribution of media texts while simultaneously giving participatory users the crucial role as diversifiers of games as media texts. Analyzing which contexts, occasions, and affordances allow for the creation of content that is worthy of streaming, this second chapter develops a theory of what I call “streamable contexts.” Secondly, the study of the coevolution of game design and livestreaming practices will address what makes for “streamable game aesthetics.” My approach consists of a combination of the study of players on Twitch and a grounded theory of streamability for game livestreaming. This thesis displays how the livestreaming ecosystem fundamentally reshapes games as a cultural form, as an industry, and as a culture. This particular cultural form is one that gives streamers the agency to play with games and their audiences while creating long-lasting communities in the process. 2 KAS VAN DER MOLEN – 5731445 Table of contents Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 5 About Twitch.tv 5 Research questions 7 Literature review 8 Twitch as a platform for user-generated content 9 Methodologies and scope 11 Game studies beyond the game-as-text 12 Redefining streamability 13 Livestreams as ‘content’ 14 A player-centric approach to livestreams (Chapter 1) 16 Streamability of digital games (Chapter 2) 17 Chapter 1: A player response approach to Twitch streams 19 1.1 Theoretical framework 19 1.1.1 Gaming capital 19 1.1.2 Paratexts 22 1.1.3 Towards a player-centric game ontology 23 1.1.4 Who is the “empirical player”? 25 1.1.5 Twitch livestreams as venues for player-response 27 1.1.6 Tandem play and the relation between “primary” and “secondary” players 28 1.2 Methodology 32 1.2.1 Studying player-response 32 1.2.2 Qualitative content analysis of digital content 33 1.2.2. Transcriptions of multimodal Twitch streams 35 1.2.4 Corpus 36 1.3 Analysis 39 1.3.1 Playful identity performance 39 1.3.2 Tertiary players: those on the virtual backseat 44 1.3.3 Controlling play and the hierarchy among players 46 1.3.4 Player-response: how livestreamed play informs meaning-making 48 3 THE LIVESTREAMING GAME Chapter 2: Understanding the streamability of videogames 51 2.1 Theoretical framework 52 2.1.1 From spreadable to streamable content 52 2.1.2 Sociotechnical systems and affordances 54 2.1.3 Assemblage of play 59 2.1.3.1 Dynamic relations: how capacities come into being in the assemblage 61 2.1.4 Coevolution of streamable games and livestreaming 62 2.2 Methodology 64 2.2.1 Grounded Theory Approach 64 2.2.2 Coding the data 66 2.3 Analysis of streamable contexts: what makes “content” worthy of livestreaming 66 2.3.1 Which game does a streamer stream? Finding one’s niche and being in charge 67 2.3.2 Backseating, metagaming, and (un)warranted participation between streamer and audience 69 2.3.3 Stream sniping and malicious practices of metagaming 73 2.3.4 Remediation and the streamability of content beyond Twitch 74 2.3.4.1 Exploring the tension between the remediation and centralization of content 76 2.3.5 Supporting the community: “raiding,” hosting, and helping fellow streamers 78 2.4 Analysis of streamable game aesthetics: how game design shapes game livestreaming and vice versa 81 2.4.1 Emergent design: streamer modes 81 2.4.2 Interfacing streamability: designing for interaction 83 2.4.2 Streamable affordances: replayability, customization, and accessibility 85 2.4.3 Marbles on Stream! - Designing games for streaming 87 Conclusion 90 Limitations and suggestions for future research 93 Methodology and scope 93 Politics of livestreaming 94 Esports 95 Looking ahead 96 Ludography 97 Bibliography 98 Appendix: Data for Chapter 1 108 4 KAS VAN DER MOLEN – 5731445 Introduction Introduction In the spring of 2020, when large parts of the world went in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the livestreaming platform Twitch.tv (henceforth “Twitch”) saw a sudden increase in concurrent viewers, channels, hours watched, and hours streamed (“Statistics” n.d.). As a result, some videogames have become more relevant than ever and game livestreaming itself has received mainstream media awareness. The indie game Among Us (Innersloth 2018) suddenly rose to popularity two years after release, when several streamers decided to stream the game on Twitch. Even US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been streaming Among Us on Twitch on several occasions, for entertainment purposes, to talk about politics, and for fundraising. This popularity of games through livestreaming is by no means exclusive to Among Us. Other games, such as Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North 2020; henceforth GTA V), League of Legends (Riot Games 2009), Minecraft (Mojang 2011), and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve 2012) are all relatively old but usually among the most streamed games on the livestreaming platform. This thesis will delve deeper into the relation between games and livestreaming. I argue that livestreaming contributes to a common cultural understanding of games and vice versa, meaning how broader cultural phenomena are represented in games. In other words, I seek to develop an understanding of games as a cultural form (Williams 2003). The title of this thesis refers to both the literal games as cultural artifacts for livestreaming, as well as the proverbial “game” streamers play to transform games into content for Twitch. What I call “the livestreaming game” is thus best understood as a metagame, a game about games (Boluk and LeMieux 2017). This way, the practice of livestreaming transforms games as artifacts into tools for the creation of content and consequently games as a cultural form. I will define streaming as a form of player-response and develop a renewed understanding of what I call the streamability of games. Doing so can gain further insights into the relationship between the livestreaming industry and the game industry and how it affects game aesthetics, public opinion, and ultimately games as a cultural form. About Twitch.tv As of 2011, Twitch was the game live streaming sub-branch of a general interest livestreaming platform called Justin.tv. In 2014, Justin.tv was rebranded into Twitch and the service was later acquired by Amazon. The platform has since been growing steadily, averaging over 2 million 5 THE LIVESTREAMING GAME daily concurrent viewers in 2020 (“Statistics” n.d.). Despite some large-scale professional productions with significant viewership numbers – mainly in esports (formalized competitive gaming competitions) – user-generated content (UGC) is Twitch’s main feature and has allowed for numerous microcelebrities to emerge. Content creators can stream various forms of live creative content, ranging from podcasts to gameplay. The majority of content centers around digital games. Twitch orders content primarily utilizing “categories.” Each game has its own category and there are several other categories on Twitch, ranging from “Just Chatting” to “Cooking” and “Music.” Content creators can stream from their computers or game consoles while relaying their audio feeds, with or without webcam footage. Succesful content creators – those who achieve the “Affiliate” or “Partner” status on the platform – can receive donations through audience subscriptions and donations. Twitch Partners can generate revenue by activating advertisements and accepting sponsorships. Audience members can subscribe to a streamer, which can grant them access to exclusive content, or they can donate “bits” – Twitch’s donation currency – to a streamer. Oftentimes, receiving a donation, subscription, or even a follower will result in a notification displayed on screen to which streamers commonly react by thanking the audience. The nature of Twitch as a platform for UGC dictates that the content creators become crucial players within this codependency. The streamers are the ones responsible for the transformation of “private play” into “public entertainment” (T. L. Taylor 2018), therefore changing the very nature of the videogame as a cultural form. Even though Twitch now also welcomes non-gaming livestreaming content, game livestreaming remains the platform’s core characteristic. For the contemporary game industry, livestreamed play has become a significant practice in the reception and lifespan of videogames, causing an increasing state of codependency between Twitch and the game industry (Johnson and Woodcock 2019b). We find the cultural producers of Twitch in between these two industries taking up the crucial role of facilitating the interaction between the consumers and the two industries.
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