« Dans le chat, personne ne vous entendra crier ? » : Fonctions pragmatiques du bruit dans le streaming vidéoludique sur Twitch

Cet article prend pour objet la webdiffusion en direct (live-streaming) de jeu vidéo sur la plateforme Twitch et propose de définir et d’analyser les fonctions pragmatiques qu’y exerce la messagerie instantanée (chat) en tant que forme de bruit vidéoludique, afin de montrer comment les dysfonctionnements de la communication participent en réalité à la mise en spectacle de l’expérience de jeu. Partant d’un corpus de prestations du webdiffuseur (streamer) Antoine Daniel, l’article se divise en deux temps. Une première partie – quantitative et méthodologique – mobilise des outils de traitement automatique des langues (NLP), en particulier une analyse lexicographique temporalisée du chat, afin d’y détecter automatiquement et d’y différencier trois profils de bruit : les formes ritualisées de participation (bruit de fond), les moments d’interaction entre streamer et spectateurs (écho) et les pics d’activité du chat déliés du discours du streamer (vacarme). Sur la base des observations permises par ces traitements, une seconde partie – qualitative – formalise ensuite les différentes fonctions pragmatiques que peut servir le bruit du chat selon ses contextes d’apparition. Quatre catégories seront détaillées : ses fonctions communicationnelles (amplifier, jusqu’à dissoner), performatives (faire communauté et modaliser la performance), spectaculaires (générer de la contingence) et ludiques (court-circuiter et préserver).This article focuses on video game live-streaming on Twitch and proposes to define and analyze the pragmatic functions of the chat, considered as a form of videogame noise, to show how these communication dysfunctions participate in the spectacularization of the game experience. Based on a corpus of performances originating from Antoine Daniel’s channel, the paper is divided into two parts. The first part – quantitative and methodological – mobilizes automatic language processing (NLP), more precisely a temporalized lexicographic analysis of the chat, to automatically detect and differentiate three noise profiles: ritualized forms of participation (background noise), moments of interaction between streamer and viewers (echo) and peaks of activity in the chat unlinked from the streamer’s discourse (commotion). Based on the observations permitted by this processing, a second part – qualitative – formalizes the different pragmatic functions that the chat’s noise can serve according to its contexts of appearance. Four categories are detailed: its communicative functions (to amplify, to the point of dissonance), performative functions (making community and modalizing the performance), playful functions (generating contingency) and spectacular functions (short-circuiting and preserving)

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

Transgressive Positivity in Four Online Multiplayer Games

Online games have a reputation for toxicity. Forms of play that have been theorized as transgressive from the perspective of idealized play have become highly normalized within the toxic space of online gaming. In this context, positivity in online gaming takes on a transgressive quality that challenges the common behaviours, the norms of communication, and their underlying ideologies found within online gaming communities. Through an ethnography of four massively multiplayer online game spaces - DOTA 2, Lost Ark, Destiny 2, and World of Warcraft - this project examines the effects of positivity in play on others who share these game worlds to consider ways that positivity might be leveraged to impact gaming’s toxic culture. Positivity is approached through different scales, from smaller individual actions like friendly greetings and helpful gestures not often seen in these particular games, to larger community formations that promote positivity and inclusivity within these gaming communities. This study finds that positivity across these scales produces substantial and proportional resistance to positive deviations from the toxic norms within these games and their linked community sites. Players actively trying to resist toxicity through positivity add varying levels of labor to their leisure and are frequent targets for harassment, leading to burnout or self-exclusion from these online games. Transgressive positivity in online play can produce alternatives to self-exclusion from gaming by producing ephemeral connections and networks of support between players. Enclaves built on positivity can form, but they are always under threat when they intersect with the mainstream culture across each of these four games. Ultimately, there are severe systemic issues within these communities - reinforced by trends within the games industry and in online game design - that undercut player-led positivity initiatives. While positivity can be a useful strategy for some to connect with others and to persist in spite of these toxic environments, positivity’s transgressive quality in online play produces substantial vulnerability for those who actively pursue it as a strategy of resistance or cultural intervention