Let's Play My Way: Investigating Audience Influence in User-Generated Gaming Live-Streams

Abstract

We investigate how the audience of gaming live-streams can influence the content. We conducted two case studies on streams in which audience influence is central and in which the audience can directly participate: First, we review an existing format of the Rocket Beans TV channel and describe how the audience can influence its course of action. With this, we illustrate current practices for integrating the audience. Second, we report the results of our investigation of a "Twitch Plays Pokémon" (TPP)-like setting in which the audience shares the control of the main character through aggregated chat messages. We explored a wider range of techniques than the original TPP offered and found that this can help the audience to organize itself in more nuanced ways. From both case studies, we synthesize results that are of relevance for streams that want to give the audience more influence.