Videogame Live-streaming as a Communication Tool: Interaction Practices and Features of Mediated Gaming Experience

Videogame live-streaming is the process of broadcasting of the game-related activities to a live audience in real time. It usually involves showing videogame walkthrough combined with synchronous communication with viewers via chat messages. The research aims at studying practices of interaction through these activities. The phenomenon of practices in this paper is considered in connection with conceptual framework described by L. Wittgenstein and his followers. The purpose of this study is to define and describe existing practices, but also try to identify processes that lead to the occurence of rule. It is also important to find out how participants extract these rules from the context of communication. The study uses a mixed methods approach with a range of qualitative digital anthropology techniques, such as in-depth interviews, autoethnography and participant observation. Based on the interviews three main topics were identified. The first of them is the relations between streamers and the platform the broadcast is taking place on. The second one is the self-reglamentation of streamers’ content production processes and streamers’ self-perception. The third one is the features of communication between streamer and viewers (and amongst viewers only). The result of the research is the detailed description of the existing practices and some assumptions about the reasons for their emergence. Findings can be used for the further research on streaming practices and communities.