Examining the learning effects of live streaming video game instruction over Twitch

Technology facilitates advances in learning and drives learning paradigms. One recent innovation is Twitch™, an online streaming platform often used for video game tutorials but also enables amateur online instruction (Hamilton, Garretson, & Kerne, 2014)). Twitch represents a unique learning paradigm that is not perfectly represented in previous technologies because of its “ground-up” evolution and the opportunity for novice instructors to educate mass audiences in real-time over the Internet while enabling interaction between teachers and learners and among learners. The purpose of this research is to empirically examine the efficacy of Twitch as a learning platform by manipulating each of the key characteristics of Twitch and to understand the conditions in which novice instructors may be beneficial. Drawing from Cognitive Load Theory, we demonstrate the worked-example effect in the Twitch environment by manipulating teacher-learner-learner interactions, live versus recorded streaming, and expert-versus novice-based instruction. Based on a laboratory experiment involving 350 participants, we found that learning performance under novice instructors was at least as good as that of experts. However, an exploratory analysis of learner personalities revealed that extroverts benefit only when learner-learner interaction is enabled. Surprisingly, those who are highly agreeable and less neurotic benefited more from novice instructors

Predicting Twitch.tv Donations using Sentiment Analysis

Twitch.tv streamers have a rare opportunity to receive immediate feedback from their audience through a real-time chat log that is rife with sentiment information. Tools that can help a streamer understand how they need to influence their audience can be useful in increasing the donations and subscriptions they earn. Although millions around the world stream on Twitch, only a minuscule fraction of these streamers earn a living streaming alone. This paper aimed to provide muchneeded guidance to enable more streamers to succeed. We used stream logs, known as VODs (video on demand), which can be easily accessed through Twitch’s API or web interface, and parsed these logs for chat and donation data. After normalizing the data, we performed sentiment analysis using a combination of VADER, TextBlob, and Flair algorithms. We found that chat sentiment is a useful indicator for predicting the occurrence of donations. The results have set the foundation future researchers and developers can use to create tools and further our collective understanding of stream viewer sentiment

Exploring the Emerging Domain of Research on Video Game Live Streaming in Web of Science: State of the Art, Changes and Trends

In recent years, interest in video game live streaming services has increased as a new communication instrument, social network, source of leisure, and entertainment platform for millions of users. The rise in this type of service has been accompanied by an increase in research on these platforms. As an emerging domain of research focused on this novel phenomenon takes shape, it is necessary to delve into its nature and antecedents. The main objective of this research is to provide a comprehensive reference that allows future analyses to be addressed with greater rigor and theoretical depth. In this work, we developed a meta-review of the literature supported by a bibliometric performance and network analysis (BPNA). We used the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) protocol to obtain a representative sample of 111 published documents since 2012 and indexed in the Web of Science. Additionally, we exposed the main research topics developed to date, which allowed us to detect future research challenges and trends. The findings revealed four specializations or subdomains: studies focused on the transmitter or streamer; the receiver or the audience; the channel or platform; and the transmission process. These four specializations add to the accumulated knowledge through the development of six core themes that emerge: motivations, behaviors, monetization of activities, quality of experience, use of social networks and media, and gender issues

The Language of League: Making Sense of Multimodal Meaning in Twitch Live Streams

Though there has been a good deal of research on digital discourse and online gaming, there has been relatively little research on 1) the social structure of specific groups within the large online gaming community, 2) the multimodal structure of the online gaming live stream, and 3) the impact that these structures have on the final communicative event. One noteworthy component of the social characteristics of online streams is the streamer gender and size of the stream’s audience. In addition, one difference that sets the live stream apart from other online communications is its intense technological complexity. This study then, will examine both of these social and technological characteristics, in an effort to understand how the participants themselves influence language use and how that language use is further impacted by the availability of multiple mediums, each of which houses multiple modes for communication. The data for this study consists of a corpus of 32,397 messages posted in the public chat area of 12 League of Legends live streamers, collected between July and September of 2019. Once collected, however, there was no prior convention in place for organizing and transcribed the data for analytical purposes. Therefore, this study also examines multiple transcription vi protocols and outlines the model developed by Graham and Arendall for an online gaming digital corpus. For this study, I take an interactional approach to explore the communicative strategies employed by participants in a complex multimedium-based multimodal event. Using quantitative analysis, I examine patterns of communicative strategies as related to streamer gender and stream size (participant population). In addition, I examine the qualitative characteristics of those patterns, as well as the influences that multiple available mediums and modes have on those patterns. The results of this analysis indicate that both social and technological characteristics of the live stream heavily impact the communicative strategies employed by participants and is often tailored to the specific needs of each community, especially where the use of graphic images is concerned. These results have implications for the further study of online gaming, live streams, and visual communications within multimediumbased multimodal events

Video Game Streaming in Young People and Teenagers: Uptake, User Groups, Dangers, and Opportunities

In recent years, live video streaming platforms for video games have been gaining popularity. These types of services, which enable anyone to broadcast and consume live content, are revolutionising the current video game landscape. Users approach the emergence of and participation in these platforms driven by a range of motivations. It is essential to characterise the different forms of participation in services such as Twitch to evaluate the phenomenon and reflect on its advantages and disadvantages. To that end, a survey was carried out of 580 young people and adolescents aged between 14 and 24. The aim of this study is thus to explore the uptake of these platforms, as well as identify user groups, distinguish between different motivations, and address the associated benefits and harms. Applying a methodology based on factor analysis and cluster analysis, user profiles were characterised according to their specific features, gaming/viewing hours, self-perception of their skill level as a player, devices used, and type or genre of video game. Four subgroups of gamers/viewers were thus identified: casual, social, hobby, and problematic. The results showed that older users and female users feature more prominently in the first two groups, as do those spending less time on video games and live streaming platforms. Conversely, in the hobby and problematic groups, we observe just the opposite. The existence of profiles at possible risk of addiction underlines how, at a preventive level, there is a need for more in-depth research on these types of services and greater public awareness of the dangers of uncontrolled use

Political entrepreneurs in social media: Self-monitoring, authenticity and connective democracy. The case of Íñigo Errejón

Political entrepreneurs seek to mobilise public opinion and access large audiences who are not directly interested in politics, but are exposed to the digital environment. The aim of this research was to analyse how these figures promote experimental communication uses on channels far removed from political activity. We focused on Twitch, a successful platform for promoting entertainment and learning in the video games field. To do so, we conducted a significant case study, that of Íñigo Errejón, a Spanish male Member of Parliament, in 2021 through 18 live streamings that lasted 1223 min. We specifically described the conception and use of Twitch, measured the audience’s impact, analysed the accountability exercise through this platform and evaluated the deliberative quality of conversation with users. To conclude, we identified three novel contributions of Twitch to digital political communication: self-monitoring, insofar as the elected politician himself proactively exercises accountability to the public without a third party intervening; the activation of mediated authenticity as a key value in the political actor’s public construction; promoting connective democracy, which would help those sectors not used to employing political information to take an interest in it by detecting attention being paid to their needs and questions

Appropriating Play: Examining Twitch.tv as a Commercial Platform

This thesis critically analyzes Twitch.tv, a gaming-oriented, online live-streaming site. Viewing the site as a ‘lean platform’ (Srnicek, 2017), it analyzes many aspects of Twitch’s business operations, including ownership structure, video game industry affiliations, use of data, and the monetization of user activity. This analysis then identifies three major areas of concern arising from these operations: the tendency toward monopolization in the gaming industry and its peripheral activities; the intensification of audience commodification; and, the tendency to turn professional streamers into precarious creative labourers. All of these implications point to a growing need for concerted labour organization. The goal of this thesis is to address gaps in the existing literature about Twitch and to provide a foundation for future critical inquiries into the site

RETHINKING DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE: THE EFFECTS OF STREAMING ON DISCOURSE OF GAMING COMMUNITIES

This thesis applies of John Swales’ theory of discourse community (DC) to online streaming sites—a context that creates what this thesis defines as a streamed-discourse community—while examining the context of online streamed discussions, and why they are relevant to rhetorical barriers to digital community building within composition/rhetoric scholarship, especially discourse community research such as Swales\u27 that considers how discourse within a group can create distinct types of communities and social activities

An investigation on the consumer demand and behavior in video game live streaming

Abstract. Over the past decade, consumption of video games and popularity of eSports has risen gradually over time, which has led to the emergence of many new video game live stream services and their explosive use. The rise of new media, in which user interaction and socialization play a crucial role in influencing user behavior and demand has driven many organizations to begin actively advertising their offerings through video game live streaming platforms. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to make an investigation and gain understanding of what factors affect the overall demand and behavior of the users in video game live streaming services. First, this research approaches the topic by exploring the field of eSports from the perspective of experience economy theory to further understand from where the experience value of eSports consumers is formed. Secondly, the user demand and interaction were investigated thoroughly since they play a significant role in understanding the consumption of video game live streaming. Following this, the theoretical framework was developed by a comprehensive examination of past relevant academic articles, with the goal of presenting an accurate summary of the issues fundamental to the study. The study provides a qualitative empirical perspective on the subject. The empirical data of the study was gathered through semi-structured interviews with the streamers and active users of video game live stream services. The data was thematically analysed in order to evaluate, recognize and identify the fundamental features and issues associated with the phenomena under consideration. A significant portion of the insights from the theoretical framework used and conceived in this thesis were supported by the analysis of empirical data, which highlighted the importance of interaction and socializing elements in watching and consuming video game live streaming. Based on the theoretical and empirical data, a new framework was developed which in addition to factors of user demand, user interaction and platform impact now included external factors and communities which further affect the consumption and overall experience of the users in video game live streaming services. Furthermore, considerable evidence of both theoretical and managerial implications for organizations planning to market their offering in these services was emphasized