Motivations for Commenting on Twitch.Tv Live Streams Evan Lybrand Clemson University, [email protected]
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Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 5-2019 Community in the Crowd: Motivations for Commenting on Twitch.tv Live Streams Evan Lybrand Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Recommended Citation Lybrand, Evan, "Community in the Crowd: Motivations for Commenting on Twitch.tv Live Streams" (2019). All Theses. 3073. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3073 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Running Header: Community in the Crowd COMMUNITY IN THE CROWD: MOTIVATIONS FOR COMMENTING ON TWITCH.TV LIVE STREAMS A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Communication, Technology, and Society by Evan Lybrand May 2019 Accepted by: Dr. Travers Scott, Committee Chair Dr. Kristen Okamoto Dr. Darren Linvill Leland Fecher Community in the Crowd ABSTRACT Twitch.tv is a growing platform designed or interaction, communication, and socialization. It is space for content creators and viewers can to interact and build communities. Although it is not exclusively video game streams, Twitch.tv has become a major player in the industry. This study is a thematic analysis of comments made during live streams of video game content. The questions guiding this research were: What do viewers comment about on streams? What do these comments reveal about their motivations for participating? What are the variations between content types? After analyzing 9084 comments across 10 streams, what was found was that a major motivation for Twitch.tv viewers is the creation and maintenance of social bonds. Additionally, the building of hype was a large motivator. There was a small but widespread number of toxic comments. This research shows that Twitch.tv acts as a center for communities to grow around unique streamers and the potential significance of the platform itself. ii Community in the Crowd ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Travers Scott for not only being there every step of the way during the process of writing my thesis but for being a mentor during my entire time in this program. Not only for the good times but for the trials and tribulations as well. I would also like to thank my committee for their knowledge and support throughout this process. Dr. Darren Linvill, for challenging me and pushing me to go further in my research as well as his welcomed wit. Dr. Kristen Okamoto for her in-depth knowledge of methods, encouragement, and her fantastic taste in music. Leland Fecher for helping me find worth in my research, keeping me grounded, and discussing all things video games. Thank you all for your constant guidance and support. I would also like to thank my family for always being there for the long journey to reach my masters. You are the reason I’ve made it this far and why I continue to push forward. You’ve been there for every orchestra concert, every Tee ball game, that one time I had a piano recital, and know you’ve helped me get here. Thank you all, you mean the world to me. Finally, I wanted to thank all the amazing faculty and staff in the Department of Communications and my incredible cohort. If it wasn’t for you all this past two years wouldn’t have been anywhere near as rewarding or bearable. We’ve overcome hard times, shared impressive triumphs, and more inside jokes than I can reasonably list here. Thank you all. iii Community in the Crowd TABLE OF CONTENTS TITILE PAGE ............................................................................................................... I ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. II ACKOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. III CHAPTER INTRODUTION .......................................................................................................... 1 SHARING THE SELF ONLINE, FROM WEBLOGS TO TWITCH.TV ................. 4 TYPOLOGY OF GAME STREAMS .......................................................................................... 7 IMPACT .......................................................................................................................................... 10 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ..................................................................................... 13 VIDEO GAME HISTORY ......................................................................................................... 13 VIDEO GAME STUDIES .......................................................................................................... 17 MASS MEDIA AND COMMUNITY ........................................................................................ 20 newspapers ...................................................................................................................................... 21 radio ............................................................................................................................................... 22 television.......................................................................................................................................... 24 ONLINE TECHNOLOGIES .................................................................................................... 25 Questioning community online .......................................................................................................... 26 AUDIENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 28 Mass communication audiences ........................................................................................................ 28 Cultural studies and audiences ......................................................................................................... 31 USERS ............................................................................................................................................. 32 AUDIENCES AND USERS: UNDERSTANDING THE TWITCH.TV VIEWER ........ 34 Typology of eSports viewers .............................................................................................................. 35 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ........................................................................... 38 ENGAGEMENT IN ONLINE COMMUNITES .................................................................. 38 COMMITMENT TO ONLINE COMMUNITIES ................................................................ 40 AUDIENCE INVOVLEMENT AND MOTIVATIONS ..................................................... 41 USER PARTICIPATION ............................................................................................................ 42 HYPE AND VERBAL VENTING ........................................................................................... 44 RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................................ 46 METHODS .................................................................................................................................... 46 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................ 54 FINIDNGS .................................................................................................................. 58 COMMENTS ................................................................................................................................. 59 MOTIVATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 60 Social maintenance .......................................................................................................................... 60 iv Community in the Crowd Parasocial interaction ....................................................................................................................... 61 Sharing information ........................................................................................................................ 62 hype ................................................................................................................................................ 62 verbal venting .................................................................................................................................. 63 community policing .......................................................................................................................... 63 VARIATIONS BY STREAM TYPE ....................................................................................................... 64 Let’s Plays ...................................................................................................................................... 64 eSports ............................................................................................................................................ 68 Speedruns ........................................................................................................................................ 71 DATA ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................... 75 COMMENTS