Tell Me Before You Stream Me

Abstract

Live streaming is a new media format that simultaneously records and broadcasts in real time, in multiple channels including video, audio, and text. A new application area of live streaming is in the video game community, where players stream their gameplay. Since most of the streamed games are team-based, one's live streaming may involve other players' gameplay and disclosure. In the present paper, we aim to understand the attitudes and strategies of players who have been streamed by others in video game live streaming. From an interview study with 20 World of Warcraft (WoW) players, we found that participants had concerns about being streamed due to different factors, and adopted individual and collaborative strategies to cope with their concerns. We discuss privacy challenges in live streaming and present design implications for live streaming tools to improve privacy management.

Live Streaming, Playing, and Money Spending Behaviors in eSports

“…Yet many researchers agree that as a high-level understanding, eSports usually refers to competitive multiplayer gaming that involves spectating real time or asynchronous gameplay, team competitions, and tournaments either online or off-line. In particular, some have highlighted how live streaming has coevolved with the rise of eSports and directly attributed to the growing popularity and success of the latter (e.g., Hamilton, Garretson, & Kerne, 2014; Li, Kou, Lee, & Kobsa, 2018; Sjöblom & Hamari, 2017; Wulf, Schneider, & Beckert, 2018).…”

“…It started as a niche, nonmainstream media platform for video game players to share their gameplay in real time and communicate with other players. Since 2009, live streaming has increasingly become a broader social media trend due to advanced network technology and the growing public interests in user-generated digital content (Hilvert-Bruce, Neill, Sjöblom, & Hamari, 2018; Li et al, 2018). Now various live streaming platforms and services such as Twitch.tv, YouTube Live, and Facebook Live are offering a wide range of live content from gameplay, painting, eating, to cooking to millions of daily viewers.…”

“…For example, Twitch.tv, one of the primary live streaming platforms, has approximately 10 million daily active users and more than 2.2 million creators of content per month (Twitch, 2017). Although live streaming has been extended to broadcast nongaming content, it is still considered one of the most important features of today’s gaming culture (Li et al, 2018).…”

“…This new social phenomenon of live streaming has drawn researchers’ attention to understand its role in (re)shaping interactive experiences, social engagement, and sense of community in online social spaces (e.g., Hamilton et al, 2014; Li et al, 2018; Sjöblom & Hamari, 2017; Wohn, Freeman, & McLaughlin, 2018; Wulf et al, 2018). It has also opened new research frontiers with regard to viewer–streamer interaction (e.g., Wohn et al, 2018), content moderation (Seering, Kraut, & Dabbish, 2017, Wohn, 2019), and privacy issues in cyberspace (e.g., Li et al, 2018). In general, previous research has described live streaming platforms such as Twitch as virtual third places where participatory communities emerged and encouraged members to engage in shared activities (Hamilton et al, 2014) or as authentic, unedited views of streamers’ personal lives (Tang, Venolia, & Inkpen, 2016).…”