Setting the digital stage: Defining game streaming as an entertainment experience

Jih Hsuan Tammy Lin, Nicholas Bowman, Shu Fang Lin, Yen Shen Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Game streaming—viewing live or recorded broadcasts of others’ video game play—has become widely popular in recent years due to the emergence of platforms such as Twitch and YouTube Gaming. We position game streaming as a form of collaborative game play, with implications for how we study games and communication. We first review the social history of gaming before explicating game streaming as a gaming activity that involves public performance and varying levels of social interaction and synchrony. The influence of these three core elements on the uses, processes, and effects of game streaming as an entertainment activity are discussed through the twin perspectives of communication and media psychology.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number100309
JournalEntertainment Computing
Volume31
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Audience effects
  • Game streaming
  • Media psychology
  • Performance
  • Self-determination
  • Twitch
  • YouTube gaming

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Setting the digital stage: Defining game streaming as an entertainment experience'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this