Sports Communication and Social Networks:Streamingthe Olympic Games on Rtve.esTwitch

Rtve.es se caracteriza por experimentar con nuevos formatos impulsando la innovación. Y esta investigación analiza la transmisión que ofreció de los Juegos Olímpicos de Tokio 2020 en un nuevo formato, Twitch: red social que se alza como una de las principales plataformas de streaming. Se analiza el formato (tipología, estructura, duración y género) y la implementación del chat (apertura,moderación y configuración). La metodología consta de una entrevista a los creadores de contenidos yun análisis de contenido. Se concluye con un patrón de uso de interés para profesionales de la comunicaciónen en activo y en formación

Audiències i streamers a Twitch : patrons de consum i producció en l'àmbit hispanoparlant

En un context de pugna per l'atenció de les audiències, Twitch s'ha consolidat proposant l'emissió en directe de continguts generats pels usuaris mateixos. Aquest article dimensiona la plataforma esmentada centrant-se en la comunitat hispanoparlant i posa el focus sobre els patrons d'emissió dels streamers, el repartiment d'audiències i els cicles de consum. Els resultats mostren audiències massives, consolidades i amb patrons cíclics, així com diferències clares entre creadors amateurs i professionals, els quals concentren la gran part de l'audiència i han generat rutines de producció homologables a la indústria televisiva.In the context of the struggle for audience attention, Twitch has gained ground by offering live broadcasts of user-generated content. This article quantifies this platform by focusing on the Spanish-speaking community, specifically by analysing the broadcast patterns of streamers, audience distribution and consumption cycles. The results show massive, consolidated audiences with cyclical patterns, as well as clear differences between amateur and professional creators; the latter capture the majority of the audience and have generated production routines comparable those in the TV industry

La desintermediación en Twitch: el caso de Luis Enrique en Catar, el seleccionador-streamer.

Durante el mundial de Catar 2022, el seleccionador de fútbol español, Luis Enrique Martínez llevó a cabo una serie de retransmisiones en directo entre el 18 de noviembre de 2022 y el 5 de diciembre de 2022, a través de un canal propio de Twitch, que creó para la ocasión, con la voluntad de eliminar la intermediación periodística y así trasladar directamente sus mensajes a los aficionados de La Roja. Los investigadores han visto la necesidad de sondear con profundidad a una docena de periodistas deportivos españoles para discernir si consideran lo realizado por Luis Enrique periodismo deportivo, en línea con lo realizado por el caster Ibai Llanos y numerosos imitadores y periodistas deportivos, partícipes del llamado «Modelo Ibai». Aunque no hay consenso en las respuestas obtenidas, el 58% de los profesionales consultados concluyen que se trata de periodismo, mientras que el resto no lo ve así, habiendo algunos que tienen dudas. Sobre la formación específica necesaria para los futuros periodistas o comunicadores que quieran desempeñar su carrera profesional en las nuevas plataformas de comunicación se conviene que la adaptación y la adecuación tecnológica e interpretativa deben estar presentes entre sus competencias.2022-2

Proc ACM Hum Comput Interact

Participation in communities is essential to individual mental and physical health and can yield further benefits for members. With a growing amount of time spent participating in virtual communities, it's increasingly important that we understand how the community experience manifests in and varies across these online spaces. In this paper, we investigate Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC) in the context of live-streaming communities. Through a survey of 1,944 Twitch viewers, we identify that community experiences on Twitch vary along two primary dimensions: |, a feeling of membership and support within the group, and |, a feeling that the group is a well-run collective with standards for behavior. Leveraging the Social-Ecological Model, we map behavioral trace data from usage logs to various levels of the social ecology surrounding an individual user's participation within a community, in order to identify which of these can be associated with lower or higher SOVC. We find that features describing activity at the individual and community levels, but not features describing the community member's dyadic relationships, aid in predicting the SOVC that community members feel within channels. We consider implications for the design of live-streaming communities and for fostering the well-being of their members, and we consider theoretical implications for the study of SOVC in modern, interactive online contexts, particularly those fostering large-scale or pseudonymized interactions. We also explore how the Social-Ecological Model can be leveraged in other contexts relevant to Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), with implications for future work.CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States

Co-creating games with customers:a study of online communities and live streaming implications for video game companies

Abstract. Over the past decades, the implications associated with the development of new technologies has thoroughly affected businesses. With the rise in popularity of live-streaming, newer changes are being noticed in both customers and businesses behaviors. Due to the close ties that the live-streaming platform Twitch.tv shares with video game companies, the associated implications of live-streaming in this context are questioned. Therefore, this thesis aims at assessing the impact of live-streaming on the notions of customer involvement, online communities and value co-creation in video game companies. To study this phenomenon, the following research question was formulated: What is the importance of customer involvement, community building and live-streaming in the context of video game development, and how relevant is it for video game companies? In order to answer this research question, the thesis followed qualitative research methods. The formation of the theoretical framework was done through extensive literature review of previous relevant academic articles, aiming at providing an accurate overview of the concepts central to the study. Online communities, value co-creation and relevant surrounding theories were thusly described. The empirical data of the study was collected through semi-structured interviews with employees and managers of video game companies. The data was analyzed thematically in order to assess, recognize, define and elaborate the essential elements and challenges relating to the phenomenon studied. Based on the theoretical and empirical data, video game companies were found to be aware and familiar with the central concepts of this thesis. An important part of the insights from the theoretical framework utilized and conceptualized in this thesis were confirmed by the analysis of the empirical data. Moreover, extensive evidence of both theoretical and managerial implications for video game companies were highlighted. These effects could be noticed on the ways in which companies plan and conduct their business, or even on how they are organized and structured. Live-streaming was found to be relevant for video game companies both within the context of live-streams conducted by external parties, through paid sponsorships for example, but also from the possibilities for companies to organize and conduct live-streaming sessions by themselves. The main finding achieved through this thesis is thus twofold. On one hand, the implications of customer involvement and online communities in video games companies were thoroughly demonstrated. On the other hand, the role of live-streaming in this context was elucidated, and so was the connection between live-streaming, customer involvement and online communities. The results of this thesis can thus be utilized by video game companies as a framework to understand the environment in which they are operating and to evaluate the degree to which their company processes integrate the key elements identified by this research. Additionally, this thesis provides suggestions for future research about the implications of live-streaming in other contexts

LIVE ALIVE The Community Ecology in Livestreaming Platforms

Essa pesquisa explora a ecologia de comunidades presentes na Twitch, a maior plataforma de transmissão ao vivo atualmente, diferenciando os diversos grupos e as ferramentas que proporcionam um maior senso de comunidade entre membros.This research explores the community ecology within Twitch, the biggest livestreaming platform to this date, shedding light on the different types of groups and the features that foster a stronger sense of community between members

A Design Exploration of Affective Gaming

Physiological sensing has been a prominent fixture in games user research (GUR) since the late 1990s, when researchers began to explore its potential to enhance and understand experience within digital game play. Since these early days, it has been widely argued that “affective gaming”—in which gameplay is influenced by a player’s emotional state—can enhance player experience by integrating physiological sensors into play. In this thesis, I conduct a design exploration of the field of affective gaming by first, systematically exploring the field and creating a framework (the affective game loop) to classify existing literature; and second by presenting two design probes, to probe and explore the design space of affective games contextualized within the affective game loop: In the Same Boat and Commons Sense. The systematic review explored this unique design space of affective gaming, opening up future avenues for exploration. The affective game loop was created as a way to classify the physiological signals and sensors most commonly used in prior literature within the context of how they are mapped into the gameplay itself. Findings suggest that the physiological input mappings can be more action-based (e.g., affecting mechanics in the game such as the movement of the character) or more context-based (e.g., affecting things like environmental or difficulty variables in the game). Findings also suggested that while the field has been around for decades, there is still yet to be any commercial successes, so does physiological interaction really heighten player experience? This question instigated the design of the two probes, exploring ways to implement these mappings and effectively heighten player experience. In the Same Boat (Design Probe One) is an embodied mirroring game designed to promote an intimate interaction, using players’ breathing rate and facial expressions to control movement of a canoe down a river. Findings suggest that playing In the Same Boat fostered the development of affiliation between the players, and that while embodied controls were less intuitive, people enjoyed them more, indicating the potential of embodied controls to foster social closeness in synchronized play over a distance. Commons Sense (Design Probe Two) is a communication modality intended to heighten audience engagement and effectively capture and communicate the audience experience, using a webcam-based heart rate detection software that takes an average of each spectator’s heart rate as input to affect in-game variables such as lighting and sound design, and game difficulty. Findings suggest that Commons Sense successfully facilitated the communication of audience response in an online entertainment context—where these social cues and signals are inherently diminished. In addition, Commons Sense is a communication modality that can both enhance a play experience while offering a novel way to communicate. Overall, findings from this design exploration shows that affective games offer a novel way to deliver a rich gameplay experience for the player

Paratextualizing Games

Gaming no longer only takes place as a ›closed interactive experience‹ in front of TV screens, but also as broadcast on streaming platforms or as cultural events in exhibition centers and e-sport arenas. The popularization of new technologies, forms of expression, and online services has had a considerable influence on the academic and journalistic discourse about games. This anthology examines which paratexts gaming cultures have produced - i.e., in which forms and formats and through which channels we talk (and write) about games - as well as the way in which paratexts influence the development of games. How is knowledge about games generated and shaped today and how do boundaries between (popular) criticism, journalism, and scholarship have started to blur? In short: How does the paratext change the text

Paratextualizing Games

Gaming no longer only takes place as a ›closed interactive experience‹ in front of TV screens, but also as broadcast on streaming platforms or as cultural events in exhibition centers and e-sport arenas. The popularization of new technologies, forms of expression, and online services has had a considerable influence on the academic and journalistic discourse about games. This anthology examines which paratexts gaming cultures have produced - i.e., in which forms and formats and through which channels we talk (and write) about games - as well as the way in which paratexts influence the development of games. How is knowledge about games generated and shaped today and how do boundaries between (popular) criticism, journalism, and scholarship have started to blur? In short: How does the paratext change the text