TwitchViz: A Visualization Tool for Twitch Chatrooms

Abstract

Twitch.tv is a flagship platform for live game streaming between players and viewers. It allows players to broadcast their gameplay to a public audience where viewers chat with each other and discuss gameplay. Current tools for analyzing live game streaming and chat rooms are limited. In this paper, we describe the design of TwitchViz: a new visualization tool with the goal of helping both players and game designers to better understand the relationship between gameplay and Twitch viewers' chatting behaviors. An initial feasibility study showed that TwitchViz supports novel ways to get an insight of gameplay issues from the patterns of chatting behaviors of viewers and highlighted design issues to address in subsequent versions of the tool.