Brief 3
#Post 1: Twitch - the streamers' platform all around the world
Media object that I have chosen for Brief 3 is the online live streaming platform which is called Twitch.tv. According to KREFETZ (2017), Twitch.tv is not only an interactive video game community where approximately 10 million daily users spend hours watching and interacting, but it is also a public ‘petri dish’ where people could develop their experiment with what the future of media can be (KREFTZ, 2017). It connects the gamers around the world to stream their real-life plays to the audience whom also have access to these streamers without any restrictions based on their location or ethnicity. I will focus on the platform itself, which will include critical analysis of their digital interface as well as their user interface. This will allow linkage of how streamers interact with their audience in real-life, as well as using alternative platform such as YouTube to increase their exposure to general public which will ultimately link to increased traffic to their streaming channel in twitch.tv platform. I would like to explain several reasons why I feel Twitch.tv is attractive for both streamers and audiences.
With regards to its visual design, Pellicon (2017) states that common layout for a stream especially on Twitch.tv could be described as having six items itself contains: Header and Avatar, Gameplay, Chat, Reaction cam and Overlay, Stream metadata and Information Panels. To describe the details, Header and Avatar is a kind of ‘skin’ that represents each streamers’ identity through using graphical elements. The streamers create their own brand by images and also link their social media accounts for increased identity exposure. The gameplay window is one of the most significant features of the stream, and is a live broadcast captured by the streamer from either their computer, or from a gaming console. Primarily the broadcast window contains a game being played, but streamers may capture any element of their screen (e.g. bringing up a website with a leaderboard for a competitive game). Intermediary programmes are used to capture screen data, with the most popular being the free application called Open Broadcast Software (OBS). By default, Twitch does not archive broadcasts, however streamers can turn the archive function on if they desire to create Video on Demand (frequently abbreviated as VOD). Now, here is another fascinating functions of Twitch.tv, which is a chatting function. It is a text-based chat with every Twitch user who watch the live channel. In addition to text, chatters also often use emoticons that are specially designed by Twitch, and sometimes by the streamer themselves. Because of the social nature of online chat, streamers have the ability to moderate chat through common moderator tools, such as bans, blacklists, and muting. This animated interaction between streamers and audiences often help streamers to create better quality of their broadcasting. The most ordinary overlay on Twitch.tv is the ‘reaction cam’, which is a live feed of the streamer themselves. Other overlays include people who have recently subscribed to or followed the channel, donations that have been given to the channel, and a duplication of the chat box so that chat is saved for later viewing through pre-recorded VODs. The streamers also can set the title of their stream and the metadata describes how many people view their broadcasting. Lastly, the information panel is entirely designed by the streamer, and has limited capabilities for HTML coding and graphic design. Common usages of these panels are rules for chat, the schedule that the streamer operates on, a link for monetary donations, and links to outside social media. In the example above, the streamer has designed their ‘donations’ graphic to match their header and avatar graphics, indicating a larger, overall branding effort (Pellicon, 2017).
I explained how Twitch.tv works, by referring to its visual items to attract people who love to play variety of games and watch game plays (Currently, the streamers can also broadcast ‘cook room’ and ‘In Real Life (IRL)’). Another interesting thing is due to maximized advertising impact of individual channels on Twitch.tv and to earn more income, most of the Twitch streamers record and edit their live video clips and upload them on YouTube, by creating their own YouTube channel accounts. Postigo (2016) explains that whether we call them [(people who have heaps of followers)] network nodes or YouTube Stars, those that rise, hold, and grow large follower bases are important players in ensuring revenue generation from UGC [(user-generated content)] (Postigo, 2016). In addition, approximately 517 million audience watched gaming video contents through YouTube in 2016 whereas the amount of Twitch.tv audience was 185 million (KREFETZ, 2017). Therefore, Twitch streamers’ YouTube channel subscribers’ influence to increase Twitch.tv audiences is literally unavoidable and also I, myself am one of many who influx to Twitch.tv from YouTube. Moreover, also through YouTube channel, people who missed out on favourite Twitch streamer’s live gaming broadcast because they were busy at that time or people who found the particular gaming clip is hilarious and could not wait to watch it again can turn on the channel anytime and anywhere they want, maximising convenience and accessibility.
In conclusion, Twitch.tv is a representative platform that is creating and enhancing the individual broadcasting culture through utilization of its zappy design, optimized to gain more audiences and also through its intimate connection with YouTube. Nevertheless, some people might argue that the individual broadcasting system has many problems such as buffering, inefficient restraint of undiscerning broadcasters and audience (e.g. people who use abusive and smutty language) and also according to KREFETZ (2017), still less women show an interest on gaming video content than men which could be showed as the contents in Twitch.tv are biased towards men’s interests. Of course, I can strongly refute buffering is inevitable especially when the broadcasting is lively progressed and Twitch buffering is not significant enough to discourage people from using this platform. Moreover, people who behave too aggressive and thoughtless during streaming or chatting will immediately be banned from the platform itself, which will be attractive for most “normal” viewers and audiences. However, I am afraid that I cannot argue against the fact that there are less female users than male users in Twitch.tv in feminists’ perspective. To get over this problem, as one of representative medias which have an impact to connect all over the world, Twitch.tv should not be biased towards men but allow publishing more various contents which will also target women such as make-up content and encourage more streamers to create more IRL contents which might attract more women into the streaming world and attempt to increase traffic and pursuit equal gender distribution.
References:
KREFETZ, N. (2017). The world according to twitch: Twitch is more than just the world's most popular gaming video content platform. It just might be the future of media. Streaming Media, 14(8), 34-41.
Pellicon, A.J. (2017). Performing play: Cultural production on Twitch.TV. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park.
Postigo, H. (2016). The socio-technical architecture of digital labor: Converting play into YouTube money. The Author(s) 2014, 18(2), 332-349. doi.org/10.1177/1461444814541527
#Post 2: Peer Group Reflection
The first work I have looked at is Chip Geeson’s point of view on ‘Spelunky’. To be honest, I literally love Spelunky and have found its merits since after one of my favourite Twitch streamers has played this game. Therefore, I could found that Chip’s explanations of constituents in Spelunky were clearly defined and also the theory behind them were accurate. Moreover, it was impressive that Chip did the analysis of Spelunky not only in the perspective of visual design and the graphics but he also did great explanation in terms of soundtrack. I strongly agree with him that the different soundtracks which let players to know about their situations in the game are attractive enough to gain more players. In addition, he states that he cannot give a rating of Spelunky because this game is inestimably great. Of course, it depends on how each individual player of Spelunky liked this game and to judge this game or not is depends on them as well. However, apparently Chip’s views on this game were overall well-explained and agreeable for me.
Lastly, I have looked at Tiffany Ji’s work on ‘League of Legends (LoL)’. By explaining how LoL was created as well as letting readers know how to play it on basic at the introduction, Tiffany considered the readers those who are not familiar with LoL. Therefore, I think her attitude towards the readers is quite polite which is crucially demanded when writing something to public. As a person who only like to watch the game play of LoL but had lack of knowledge of it, I could learn that this game was motivated by DOTA. It would be better if she explains more about DOTA because some of the readers might not familiar with that but since she describes LoL, not DOTA, I think it is not a big deal. With regards to Tiffany’s views towards LoL, her describing of the past improvement point on UX adversely shows us that the current LoL is well-communicated with the game players. Overall, I liked the way how Tiffany convinced the reader logically that LoL is a great digital artifact.
References
1. Geeson, C. (2018, May 17). Digital Artifact – Spelunky (2012). Retrieved June 11, 2018. from https://chip754134499.wordpress.com/2018/05/17/digital-artifact/
2. Ji, T. (2018, June 6). League of Legend – A multiplayer online battle arena. Retrieved June 11, 2018. from https://storieswhispered.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/league-of-legends-a-multiplayer-online-battle-arena/