Game spectatorship: Twitch client implemented in CoH2

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This is the seventh part of the video game / e-sport spectator series. This time, I’ll focus on the internal twitch.tv client of „Company of Heroes 2“.

Company of Heroes 2 (CoH2), a real-time strategy game, was released this week on June 25th. But it’s not the release of the game itself I want to talk about. It’s one litte feature implemented in CoH2: It has an own twitch.tv broadcasting client.
Typically, to broadcast the own gameplay over twitch.tv, the user has to install a small broadcasting client. This client captures the video and sound output of a game and streams it over the user’s twitch.tv channel.
The developers of CoH2 implemented this feature directly into the game. The user just has to connect CoH2 to their twitch.tv account to broadcast the own gameplay.

CoH2 Twitch Client

But what makes this internal streaming client so special? From my point of view, it indicates that game developers become aware of the importance of broadcasting gameplay. As already discussed in this spectatorship series, watching other player’s gameplay is entertainment for various reasons. But from the point of view of a game company, gameplay broadcasts are cost-free advertisement.

If the gameplay seems to be entertaining, interested players might buy the game and start playing it themselves. By allowing all active players to broadcast their gameplay without having the issue of setting up a broadcasting software, the game company might increase the numbers of broadcasting players. This approach could result in an increased amount of spectators who might get interested in playing the game.

Game spectatorship: Spectating tournaments

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This is the sixth part of the video game / e-sport spectator series. This time, I’ll focus on the spectatorship of tournaments: Spectators are sitting on a tribune and watching their favorite players performing on a stage.

I’ve listed four ways of spectating computer games in the first part of the spectator series. However, one additional method should be discussed: Watching competitive gameplay live in the arena during a tournament.

Major tournaments and grand finals, like the Grand Final [1] of the World Cyber Games (WCG) [2], are taking place in exhibition and convention centers. Typically, these events are taking place on a stage in front of a tribune. Several computers are set up on the stage and thus are creating the playing field. The stage itself provides a huge screen allowing all the spectators to watch the matches between the players. Finally, the gameplay is spectated and commentated by a commentator.

This kind of spectating gameplay is comparable to watch a sport event in a stadium. Apart from enjoying the gameplay, most of the entertainment derives from spectating in a crowd [3]. Fans are cheering for their favorite players and a excellent gameplay is honored with applause.

These live events do also have a social and a society aspect. Spectators can see the attending expert players performing live and walking around on the venue. Additionally, depending on the country and the interest in e-sports of the society [4], these tournaments evoke a huge media coverage.

However, the two main spectator personas of this spectatorship series, can’t benifit much from visiting these events. Watching these live events can be almost compared to watching live broadcasts [5]: The Interested hasn’t ever played the game. Thus the fast paced gameplay of expert players could blur the impression of the avarage gameplay of the game.
The Pupil likes to improve its own gameplay and analyze the tactics of the expert players. Like watching a live broadcast, the Pupil can’t pause the action and rewatch critical situations. However the commentator might provide some useful information.

[3] Cheung, Gifford; Huang, Jeff (2011): Starcraft from the stands: understanding the game spectator, in: CHI 2011 Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 763 – 772.

Game spectatorship: Let’s play videos

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This is the fifth part of the video game / e-sport spectator series. This time, I’ll focus on „Let’s play“ videos (LP). I’ll mostly explain my own obervations of watching LPs and thus try to define what „Let’s play“ videos are.

A LP is a full video coverage of the playthrough of a computer game, which is, in most cases, commentated by the player. A playthrough of a game in case of a LP has not necessary to end with the beating of the game [1]. Players can even stick to some contraints like playing until a particular character dies or playing until the player gets defeated by the game without reloading older save games [2][3]. In this case, a LP ends before the player beats the game.

LPs belong the user generated content [4]: In most cases, LPs are uploaded to video platforms like youtube and aren’t created by professionals.

A playthrough of a regular video game takes several hours (in most cases between 10 to 30 hours). Therefore, a LP is split into several videos and thus creating a movie series [5]. Recipients of a LP series are following the story of the computer game not by playing the game itself. Instead, they’re watching every part of a series and thus are experiencing the same story as the player. However, they do not have the experience of the importance of their own decisions in critical situations. This removes one of the key aspects of experiencing a computer game: the oppurtunity to be in control of the situation. Watching a LP is like watching a movie or reading a book: The recipient can’t influence the actions.

One very interesting fact about LPs is the additional narrative part: A LP is recorded while the player is progressing through the game. During this process, the player is interacting with the game and reacting to events. In this case, the player becomes an additional actor of the full gameplay coverage [5].

On the one hand, the player is interacting with the game itself. A certain part of the entertaining aspect of watching LPs derives from the uncertainty of the player’s actions. As the recipients are watching a LP episode, they’re thinking about the situations the player is in. They start making up own solutions how to deal with a particular situation. However, they’re not in control of it. Thus they’re entertained by watching how the player’s actions unfold.

On the other hand, the player is creating another story arc to the gameplay by commentating the own actions or by speaking as if the player is the own avatar or a person directly involved in the current gameplay situation.

Commentating the gameplay let the viewers experience how the player’s feeling about the situation. By doing so, the LP are loaded with an additional narrative part: the experiences of the progressing player. This might be the most entertaining, when the game caught the player off guard [5].

Acting as if the player is a part of the game can be quite entertaining as well. The player can respond to communications of the game:
Game character: „Hello!“
Player: „Hello!“
The viewer of the LP gets the impression, as if the player is directly responding to the game and thus interacting with it.

Finally, players can act as if they’re the own avatar. This mostly happens while a role-playing game is being played. The player starts talking to non-player characters and is reacting to new situations as if they are really in that particular situation [6].

As a conclusion, LPs are special form of experiencing the gameplay of computer games. The gameplay can be enhanced with an additional story arc through the interaction of the player with the game. Even if the recipient of a LP can’t take actions in the game, they can experience the whole gameplay of it. Finally, the accompanying commentary creates an important aspect of the entertainment of watching LPs.

[4] Daugherty, Terry.; Eastin, Matthew, S.; Bright, Laura (2008): Exploring consumer motivations for creating user-generated content, in: Journal of Interactive Advertising, 8 (2), pp. 16 – 25.

Game spectatorship: Spectatorship methods in detail

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This is the fourth part of the video game / e-sport spectator series. This time, I’ll focus on two of the spectatorship methods: Watching over the player’s shoulder and watching recorded videos.

Watching over the player’s shoulder (wotps) can be separated into two different methods: Sitting physically next to the performing player and watching video game live streams like Twitch. For the rest of this article, these two methods will be defined as real wotps and virtual wotps.

As already discussed last week, real wotps has some disadvantages due to the requirement of physical presence. However, real wotps can be very useful for the Interested. The Interested likes to get additional information about the gameplay. Sitting next to the performing player allows the Interested to directly ask questions and to experience the gameplay live.
The use of real wotps for the Pupil is depending on the skill level of the Pupil and the performing player. If the player and the spectator are at the same skill level or the player is even better than the Pupil, then real wotps can be useful for the Pupil. However the Pupil won’t be able to get new knowledge, if the Pupil has a higher skill level than the player.
The Pupil can observe how the player is reacting to critical situations and the player can explain the own actions. The explanations can compensate the lack of the possibility to replay important situations.

Virtual wotps can provide the same information for the Interested as the real wotps. The Interested can experience the gameplay from the same pov as the player. Additionally, the player and the Interested can communicate using the implemented chat function. Finally, it’s up to the Interested to chose a stream, which suits them best. Compared to the real wotps, the virtual wotps allow the Interested to easily switch between different players. Thus the Interested is given the opportunity to gather as much oppinions as desired.
Virtual wotps has a great advantage over the real wotps for the Pupil. The Pupil can chose the appropriate video game live stream. In most cases, the Pupil likes to analyze the gameplay of expert players. World wide streaming platforms like Twitch allow the Pupil to watch the gameplay of expert players, even if they are physically far away.
Live streams in general do not have a replay function. This might be the only disadvantage for the Pupil, because they can’t analyze critical situations in detail. However, the implemented chat function and the possibility of commentating the own actions can compensate the lack of control.

Watching recorded videos is a very broad and even blurred aspect of spectatorship. Recorded videos can be classified into five categories: Review, tutorial, proof of success, commentated replays and let’s play.

Gameplay reviews [1] are mostly giving a general overview over the gameplay of a particular game. The performing player is demonstrating the most important facts of the gameplay and is concluding with a recommendation about the whole game. Considering this, gameplay reviews are very useful for the Interested.

Tutorial videos [2] are mostly focused on a particular part of the gameplay and how to master it. To understand a tutorial video, basic knowledge about the gameplay is required. These videos are created to improve the gameplay of others. Considering this, tutorial videos are very useful for the Pupil.

Proof of success videos [3] are mostly created to proof the own success. These videos demonstrate the way how an encounter is defeated by a player or, in the case of multiplayer games, a group of players. These videos can be useful for both spectator personas. The Interested can inform themselves about the endgame gameplay. The Pupil can analyze the gameplay in detail and rewatch situations if needed.

Commentated replays [4] can be defined as delayed live streams. Games like StarCraft2 do have a function to save replays of the own gameplay. These replays can be watched using the replay function of the game, which can be compared to the spectator mode. By doing so, the replay offers the same information as if the gameplay is watched live using the spectator mode.
In conclusion the replay function allows to watch the gameplay as if it’s live. In this case, commentators can create videos by commentating the action. These videos look like a live broadcast.
Watching these videos can be very useful for the Pupil because they can pause the video, rewatch critical situations and even gain additional knowledge by listening to the commentator.

Let’s play videos [5] are a special form of video based gameplay coverage. These videos show the playthrough of a video game from the pov of the player. In most cases these videos are additional commentated by the player. By watching a let’s play series, the Interested can experience the complete game and in the process, gain a complete impression of the game. The Pupil won’t benefit much from watching these videos, because they already know the gameplay and the focus of these videos isn’t on critical situations or high performance gameplay.

However, let’s play videos are a complex case which I’ll cover in the next part of the game spectorship series.

Game spectatorship: Ecosystem Twitch

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This is the third part of the video game / e-sport spectator series. Last week, two main ways of spectating were discovered for the Pupil and the Interested: Watching over the player’s shoulder and watching recorded videos. Before I can focus on these two methods, I have to present and analyze an important video gameplay streaming platform at first. In this episode, I’ll focus on Twitch, a video gameplay streaming platform, which can also be used for a world wide „watching over the player’s shoulder“.

Normally, watching over the player’s shoulder can be almost seen as a face-to-face interaction. The player and the spectator are physically in the same room and the spectator is watching the player’s gameplay. However, this concept is limited to only a few persons at the same time. On the one hand, only few persons can assemble around a player at the same time. On the other hand, the spectators are limited by the distance: Visiting a friend playing a particular game in the neighborhood works well. Visiting a player on the other side of the world might work as well, but the travel costs would be quite high. Considering this, watching over the player’s shoulder has a disadvantage for the Pupil, because this spectator persona likes to watch the gameplay of expert players, who are scattered over the whole world.

By now, there exists another method of watching over the player’s shoulder: personal live streams using the Twitch.tv platform. Watching these streams „is becoming a new entertainment on its own„[1]: There’s already a new web community evolving around the live streams of video games [1].

Twitch allows players to broadcast their own gameplay all over the world by providing a platform to create an unique player channel. This cannel is the connection between the performing player and their audience. On the one hand, players can comment the own gameplay using a microphone or use a webcam to show themselves playing. Spectators watching a player’s channel do have the opportunity to use the implemented chat function to communicate with the player [1]. Taking this into consideration, Twitch becomes the virtual way of watching over the player’s shoulder. Additionally, distance and space problems are solved.

Twitch has created a new business ecosystem [2] in this process. Twitch, as a provider of a broadcasting platform, can be defined as the keystone of the business ecosystem. Keystones are crucial for the development of an ecosystem. They try to improve the health and the productivity of their ecosystem by providing a common set of assets [2]. For that purpose, Twitch tries to improve and simplify the streaming of video games by providing a common video streaming platform. Broadcasters using Twitch can be defined as niche players [2]. Niche players try to differentiate from other niche players by offering unique content in the same ecosystem. In the case of video game broadcasting, they try to develop an unique gameplay to attract the attention of the the Twitch viewers.

The specific characteristic of a business ecosystem is the interdependency of all the players in a particular system. The keystone is winning, if it’s leveraging the niche creation. Niche players are winning, if the keystone is providing a healthy and well developed environment. In the case of Twitch as a keystone, Twitch is winning, if enough video game players are using Twitch to broadcast their gameplay. Video game players are winning, if they do have a platform to share their gameplay with others.

However, Twitch doesn’t provide this service for free. As a business, Twitch wants to generate revenue. By providing the broadcasting platform, Twitch benefits from the attention of viewers drawn by the performing video game players. Twitch uses this attention to allow another niche player to evolve: advertisers.

„Twitch offers a full suite of ad products including high impact frontpage takeovers and in-stream video advertising, as well as turnkey, custom solutions.“ [3] Through providing a streaming platform, Twitch allows every video game player to broadcast their gameplay for free. The easy way of sharing the own gameplay experience with the whole world attracts a lot of video game players, who start streaming their gameplay. The streamed gameplay attracts spectators. Just by providing the streaming platform, Twitch reaches, according to internal analytics, over 34 million unique visitors [3]. This attention is highly valuable for advertisers, who pay for the service of placing advertisement. Therefore, Twitch’s business strategy can be called „charge third parties“ [4].

Consequently, video game players who stream on a regular basis are crucial for Twitch’s business strategy. In order to keep these video game players active on Twitch, a partner program was created: „As a Twitch Partner, you earn a share of the revenue generated from the videos you broadcast. We take care of everything: you just collect a check.“ [5]

To wrap things up, the interest of the gaming video community in spectating other’s gameplay has created a healthy ecobusiness system. The friendly coexistence is beneficial for every player in this system.

Additionally, Twitch allows to rewatch broadcasted streams and is also used for broadcasting tournaments from all over the world. Twitch combines the different methods of spectatorship in one platform.

[1] Kaytoue, Mehdi; Silva, Arlei; Cerf, Loïc; Meira, Wagner Jr.; Raïssi, Chedy (2012): Watch me playing, i am a professional: a first study on video game live streaming, in: Proceedings of the 21st international conference companion on World Wide Web, pp. 1181 – 1188.

[2] Iansiti, Marco; Levien, Roy (2004): Strategy as Ecology, in: Harvard Business Review, 82 (3), pp. 68 – 78.

[3] Twich.tv (2013a), twitch.tv/p/advertise, retrieved on 2013/06/01.

[4] Bryce, David J.; Dyer, Jeffrey H.; Hatch, Nile W. (2011): Competing Against Free, in: Harvard Business Review, 89 (6), pp. 104 – 111.

[5] Twitch.tv (2013b), twitch.tv/p/partners, retrieved on 2013/06/01.