Cultural Motivations and Effects of Live Game Streaming

Live game streaming combines many of the social mechanisms and cultural impacts of social media with the entertainment and social impacts of traditional media. Live game streaming (LGS) is growing in audience size and engagement. Further, the financial impact of LGS is rising to the level of Hollywood films and the music industry. As such this study focused on how the communicative environment of live game streaming impacts the live game streaming culture at large, as well as the effects on both the individual streamers and their communities during live game streams. The emergent design of this qualitative digital ethnography leveraged the theoretical perspectives of parasocial relationship theory, social presence theory, and identity management theory to explore the LGS communicative environment. This approach allowed for the culture found within the LGS to be understood from the perspective of the communication environment’s impact on both the content creators and the audience members. Two overarching concepts emerged from this study. First, relationships trump gaming. While the game may coalesce and homogenize the audience, the primary driving force behind the growth of the culture and communities seems to be relationships and social connectivity, not necessarily the games that were being played. The second discovery was that the three communication theories worked in tandem with each other to bolster their effects on each other. Parasocial relationships enhanced the sense of social presence which was also impacted by identity management. Then the sense of presence and closeness within the group could then impact how they wanted to present their identities and would heighten the depth of the parasocial experiences. This study provides future research with a solid foundation from which to build.