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The Game of Performing Play: Understanding Streaming as Cultural Production

Published: 02 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Live streaming has become pervasive in digital game culture. Previous work has focused largely on technological considerations in streaming platforms. However, little is known about how streamers enter the practice, gain skills, and operate as content producers. We present a qualitative study of an online forum dedicated to streaming. By observing the conversations between veterans and newcomers to the practice, we develop an understanding of how streamers must tie together technological, social, and gameplay-based skills to craft an appealing performance of play. We find that a key skill in streaming is the development of a unique attitude and persona as a gamer, which permeates into every element of a streamer's performance. As individual identity becomes important in streaming practice, design considerations for platform features such as community moderation and stream metrics may help improve equitable participation in this increasingly important aspect of game culture.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2017
    7138 pages
    ISBN:9781450346559
    DOI:10.1145/3025453
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 02 May 2017

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    Author Tags

    1. digital games
    2. games and learning
    3. games studies
    4. streaming media

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    CHI '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 600 of 2,400 submissions, 25%;
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    • (2025)Ethnicity, Race, and Identity in the Digital AgeDigital Geographies—Theory, Space, and Communities10.1007/978-981-97-4734-4_5(497-675)Online publication date: 3-Jan-2025
    • (2024)Beyond subcultures: A literature review of gaming communities and sociological analysisNew Media & Society10.1177/14614448241252392Online publication date: 16-May-2024
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    • (2023)Behind the Streams:Culturas Midiáticas10.22478/ufpb.2763-9398.2023v20n.6879520(194-221)Online publication date: 22-Dec-2023
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