Navigating Ambiguous Negativity: A Case Study of Twitch.tv Live Chats By © 2019 Teodora Mihailova Mihailova B.A., American University in Bulgaria, 2017 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Communication Studies and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Chair: Jeffrey A. Hall Joshua D. Miner Meggie Mapes Date Defended: 7 October 2019 ii The thesis committee for Teodora Mihailova certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Navigating Ambiguous Negativity: A Case Study of Twitch.tv Live Chats Chair: Jeffrey A. Hall Date Approved: 18 October 2019 iii Abstract The popular gaming-oriented platform Twitch.tv, which offers video game fans an online space to interact by sharing and viewing gameplay and participating in live chats, is faced with the problem of online negativity alongside all of gaming culture. The content of live chat interaction has been explored on a larger scale, using rules from computer-mediated communication to classify behaviors such as spam and capital letters as negative. The current study used a nuanced qualitative look at particular user communities and the intersection between their descriptive and injunctive community norms and the use of ambiguous negativity, or interactions whose valence is not unanimously understood because communities have their own sets of meanings and rules that can be misunderstood by outsiders. Based on a study of systematic recordings of chats and streams of the Dark Souls game series, ambiguous negativity is prevalent and includes behaviors like cursing, game jargon, banter, spam and sarcasm. True negativity and hostility are rare, but they exist and manifest as usage of exclusionary language and banter gone too far. Despite its infrequency, clear negativity shapes the way people experience these communities. The role community members are to assume in responding or not responding to negativity is often not clearly defined by community norms. iv Table of Contents INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 About Twitch.tv .......................................................................................................................... 3 A Short History of the Video Game Industry ............................................................................. 6 History of Social Gaming and Spectatorship .............................................................................. 8 Academic Study of Gaming ...................................................................................................... 13 Academic Perspectives on Spectatorship ................................................................................. 15 Online Communities and Gaming ............................................................................................ 15 Sense of Community ............................................................................................................. 17 Social Affordances ................................................................................................................ 19 Online Communities, Toxicity and Norms ............................................................................... 22 Academic Study of Twitch.tv and Live Streaming ................................................................... 26 This Project’s Research Focus .................................................................................................. 30 Justification for the Game and the Focal Community .............................................................. 33 Dark Souls on Twitch.tv ....................................................................................................... 37 Author’s Background ................................................................................................................ 38 METHOD ..................................................................................................................................... 40 Preliminary Observations ......................................................................................................... 40 Sampling ................................................................................................................................... 41 Procedures ................................................................................................................................. 42 Coding and Analysis ................................................................................................................. 43 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................................... 46 Analysis Layer 1 ................................................................................................................... 46 v Category 1.1: Spamming and Cheering ................................................................................ 46 Category 1.2: Cursing, Profanity, and Exclusionary Language ............................................ 53 Category 1.3: Yelling and Writing in All Caps .................................................................... 57 Analysis Layer 2 ................................................................................................................... 59 Category 2.1: Banter ............................................................................................................. 60 Category 2.2: Irony and Sarcasm .......................................................................................... 65 Category 2.3: Trolling ........................................................................................................... 68 Category 2.4: Game-related knowledge/jargon .................................................................... 71 Analysis Layer 3 ................................................................................................................... 73 Category 3.1: Current game and game series ....................................................................... 74 Category 3.2: Other content creators .................................................................................... 75 Category 3.3: Rules and norms ............................................................................................. 78 Category 3.4: Other games and current events ..................................................................... 83 Category 3.5: Miscellaneous negativity ................................................................................ 83 Category 3.6: References to Homosexuality/Homosexual innuendo ................................... 86 Category 3.7: Health and disability ...................................................................................... 90 Category 3.8: Gender and sexism ......................................................................................... 92 Overview of ambiguous negativity ........................................................................................... 95 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................... 96 Potential Places of Norm Misunderstanding ......................................................................... 98 Clear Negativity and Problematic Issues .............................................................................. 99 Conclusions: Is the Dark Souls Community on Twitch.tv. Hostile or Welcoming? .......... 103 The Role of Dark Souls ....................................................................................................... 108 vi Limitations .............................................................................................................................. 109 Future Directions .................................................................................................................... 112 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 116 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 128 Appendix 1: Stream Statistics for Recording ......................................................................... 128 Appendix 2: Rule Sets from Recorded Channels ................................................................... 129 Cirno_TV (2019): ............................................................................................................... 129 Zazztrain (2019): ................................................................................................................. 129 The_Happy_Hob (2019): .................................................................................................... 129 Darksyde_Phil (2019): ........................................................................................................ 130 AdamKoebel (2019): .......................................................................................................... 130 Xwater (2019): .................................................................................................................... 131 SwishandShoot (2019): ....................................................................................................... 131 GrandPOObear (2019): ......................................................................................................