Live-streaming changes the (video) game

TLDR

Video games are inherently active, yet a growing community of spectators exists online, at events, and in traditional broadcasts, creating a hybrid of activity and passivity. The paper aims to examine the communities surrounding video game spectating, the incentives of stakeholders, and the technologies involved. It does so by analyzing selected examples and fostering discussion on how insights from video game spectating could inform interactive television.

Abstract

Video games are inherently an active medium, without interaction a video game is benign. Yet there is a growing community of video game spectating that exists on the Internet, at events across the world and, in part, as traditional television broadcasts. In this paper we look at the different communities that have grown around video game spectating, the incentives of all stakeholders and the technologies involved. An interesting part of this phenomenon is its relation to the malleability of activity and passivity; video games are traditionally active but spectatorship brings an element of passivity, whereas television is traditionally passive but interactive television brings an element of activity. We explore this phenomenon based on selected examples and stimulate a discussion around how such understanding from the video game field could be interesting for interactive television.