Med tillväxten av e-sport och online gaming har det blivit alltmer populärt att titta på streaming av datorspel. För detta måste stora mängder data överföras, vars energikostnad hittills har varit relativt outforskad. Denna studie har för avsikt att undersöka elanvändningen inom nätverk som uppkommer under streaming. Med fokus på plattformen Twitch och spelet League of Legends, utfördes mätningar av dataanvändningen för olika upplösningar som tittaren kan välja mellan. Des- sa mätningar konverterades sedan till effekt med hjälp av olika uppskattningar av energiförbrukning inom nät- verk och analysen som har gjorts kring dessa av tidigare forskning. Resultaten visade att energiförbrukning- en inom nätverk har samma storleksordning som den genomsnittliga elanvändningen av en användares enhet och nätverkutrustning. Vidare noterades de kunskapsluckor som finns och hur framtida forskning kan leda till en bättre uppskattning och en mer holistisk syn på energiförbukningen av streaming. / With the growth of e-sport and online gaming, it has become increasingly popular to watch streaming of computer games. As streaming requires large amounts of data to be transferred, there is a cost of energy which has been relatively unexplored in academia. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of electricity in networks caused by streaming. Focusing on the platform Twitch and the game League of Legends, measurements of data usage were carried out for different resolutions available to the viewer. These measurements were then converted to effect with the help of different estimations of the energy consumption in networks as well as the analysis of these estimations that has been done in existing scholarly work. The study finds that energy usage in networks has the same order of magnitude as the average electricity consumption of a user’s unit and network equipment. Furthermore, existing gaps in knowledge were demonstrated, therefore, future research can lead to better estimations and a more holistic view of the energy consumption of streaming.

Denna studie belyser skillnaderna i hur kvinnliga respektive manliga streamers bemöts på Twitch.tv. Den tidigare forskningen visar att gamingvärlden är manligt dominerad och att kvinnor som streamar utsätts för trakasserier och kränkningar på plattformen Twitch.tv. Dessa trakasserier och kränkningar kan i sin tur påverka kvinnors motivation till att spela och streama. Därtill visar den tidigare forskningen att kvinnor använder sig av olika strategier för att attrahera och behålla tittare. Strategierna inkluderar att kvinnor exempelvis lägger stort fokus på utseendet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka skillnaderna i interaktioner i svenska manliga och kvinnliga streamers kommentarsfält på streamingplattformen Twitch.tv. Fokuset i frågeställningarna ligger på språkbruk samt diskurser som kan observeras i de undersökta kommentarsfälten. Det empiriska materialet består av insamlade kommentarer från tio livestreams på Twitch.tv. Av dessa tio livestreams var fem stycken gjorda av män och fem stycken av kvinnor. Studiens teoretiska ramverk består av kritisk diskursteori, symbolisk makt och symboliskt våld samt stereotypt hot. Resultatet visar att tittarnas bemötande av manliga och kvinnliga streamers skiljer sig åt. Kvinnor mottar nedlåtande kommentarer i högre utsträckning än män och kvinnor får även fler kommentarer kopplade till dem som person snarare än kommentarer kopplade till spelet eller spelandet. Kommentarerna på kvinnliga streamers livesändningar handlar därtill i större utsträckning om henne, medan kommentarer till männen är riktade direkt till streamern. Slutsatserna är dels att kvinnor mottar nedlåtande kommentarer i större utsträckning än män och dels att många diskurser som observeras i kommentarsfälten kan antas handla om att kvinnor är underordnade män i gamingvärlden.

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With the rise of the commercial gaming industry the phenomenon of watching others play has become more and more common. One platform that has made this accessible is Twitch.tv. This paper investigates the interaction taking place on Twitch between streamers and viewers from the perspective of interaction ritual theory (IR theory). Previous research on Twitch has investigated this interaction but none has so far done this from the perspective of IR theory. IR theory has been criticized by previous research as it states that interaction has to take place face to face in order for the ritual to be successful. This paper adds to the discussion on the applicability of IR theory to none-face to face interaction. The research question was; how is emotional energy and the feeling of group membership created in interaction on Twitch? The results show that emotional energy and a sense of group membership is created through the combined efforts of the streamer and viewers. The key points of the results are how the streamer as ritual leader charges symbolic objects with emotional energy to get different reactions from the viewers. The viewers power to create inside jokes as symbolic objects which define group membership and how the occurrence of raids and hype trains act as spikes of emotional energy.

Femotes is a project about brining awareness to sexism in gaming by creating emotes, a common way of expression on the streaming website Twitch.tv. The goal is to bring up a discussion in the gaming community to make minority groups of gamers more welcome in the community. The ten emotes made are a way to show support to streamers who must deal with toxic behavior and to show that we stand for equality.

Through the past decade live streaming has grown to be a greater sensation, creating a competitive scene among those involved. Live streamers are able to broadcast their daily life or their gameplay sessions while also interacting with viewers. As this is a relatively new phenomenon it has not yet been fully explored, and it is missing critical research in how attitudes and purchase intention among viewers change with different factors. Previous research has shown that elements such as demographics, content consumption and behavioral aspects might increase viewers’ purchase intention. Furthermore, in accordance with attitudinal theory, attitudes have been shown to correlate with the general purchase intention,  when it comes to Internet users. This study was therefore conducted to fill the gap in knowledge regarding personal branding on Twitch.tv, or Twitch in short, and how it affects attitudes with its subsequent purchase intention.   This research adopted an exploratory approach as it aimed to “explore the unknown” and to provide pertinent data for future studies. This was realized via a qualitative method of semi-structured one-to-one interviews involving both streamers and viewers. Findings show that two aspects of personal branding on Twitch have a greater potential of affecting attitudes; namely personalities of a streamer and the type of content they provide. If these two are managed well there are implications of positive attitudes among the viewers and subsequently an intention to purchase.

This thesis studies online fan communities, using the recent popularity of chess on live streamingplatform Twitch.tv as a case study to examine audience and cultural convergence between high and popular culture in a digital community setting. Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts field and capital are utilised in order to investigate changing structures and norms within this converging chess field. Affordances of the Twitch platform, too, are considered as key role players in the transformation ofchess culture online. Through participant observation in a live stream channel and through content analysis of online forum materials discussing the Twitch-hosted amateur chess "PogChamps"tournament, the study’s findings suggest that the introduction of a new platform like Twitch into a fieldlike the chess field can fundamentally restructure the community. This can occur because of platform affordances that offer new means for community members to accumulate valuable capital by setting new terms for what constitutes valuable capital and what it means to be "in the know" in the field. Additionally, by bringing new audiences to the chess community, Twitch is a key influencer indeveloping what can be seen as a new form of fan community centred around chess that emphasises spectacle and entertainment above game proficiency. These findings, the thesis concludes, can beapplied in similar community contexts in order to further understand the dynamic nature of online communities.

Participatory culture inside a filter bubble – A content analysis of the network society Twitch.tv’s external communication. The aim of this essay was to study how user-generated content is being used and how it is presented by Twitch Interactive, Inc. in its external communication, more specifically how the discourse of this content is shaped on Twitter. To gather the information needed a quantity based content analysis was made, ranging from 1-31st of October 2015. From this data patterns where detected and a discourse analysis based on Berglez version of van Dijks model was conducted on six of the Twitter posts that followed said pattern. This was done to answer how the discourse was shaped and what the consequences could be of using such a pattern. Analyzing the results was done using theory from strategic marketing researchers such as Larsåke Larsson, Lars Palm, Ulf Dahlqvist and Magnus Linde. Furthermore theorist like Gripsrud, Pariser, Lindgren, Jenkins, Ford and Green were used to describe and analyze the field of culture, more specifically participatory and popular culture. The conclusion of the study was that Twitch representation of user-generated material and the culture it represents was unjustified and could be seen as a filter bubble. The results showed that the majority of content was young white male gamers where as other research on the field of gaming culture shows a more equal split between genders. The individuals that where represented in the content could be seen as objects of admiration and association. Discussion led to the belief that Twitch may not possess the power to change to discourse due to the strong economic need of the consumers. This need was concluded to arise from the fact that the platform and its culture is much like participatory culture and where this culture has been taken to a commercial level.

This thesis focuses on the phenomenon of live-streaming of computer games in the Czech Republic. This thesis is based on an approach of online ethnography and tries to describe what meaning do the producers of content (who are labeled as performers in this thesis) ascribe to streaming, what are their motivations to stream, how they present themselves on the streams and what is the content of those streams. The live-streaming of computer games in this thesis is put into context of user-generated content. The main part of this thesis is a qualitative research realized through an online observations of streams and through interviews with the performers, who stream on the streaming service Twitch. The findings show that streaming is entertaining and time passing activity for the performers, but also a form of a social contact. Some motivations of the performers include the satisfaction of their viewers and recurring contact with them. There were no financial motivations involved among the performers. Performers mostly do not stylize themselves into any specific role, however some of them do take on themselves the roles of teachers, who teach their viewers to be a better gamer, or the roles of entertainers. During the stream the performers mostly put their attention to only a single game and also to an...

This thesis studies online video game live streamers. The study aims to explore the interrelationship of play and labor within streaming. Through this exploration, the study also enquires about the emerging platform economy. Streamers share their gameplay with viewers, interact through the accompanying live chat and subside mainly on donations from their audience. Streaming turns the leisure activity of gaming into a part-time or full-time subsistence pursuit. Twitch.tv, like other social media platforms, exists within the platform economy, inhabiting novel positions both in contexts of the global economy and in relations to laborers and consumers. Achieving the studies’ aim is done via methods of ethnographic interviewing, digital participant observation, and endeavoring into streaming. In fulfilling the thesis purpose, contemporary anthropological theories of play, labor, and the platform economy are utilized by the author in analyzing the ethnographic material. The main results of the study showcase the economic realities of streamers in Sweden. The conditions streamers exist within are characterized by spatiotemporal dislocation of labor, the commodification of play, mental struggles, and the platform economy's embedded precarity. The work contributes to the sub-fields of digital anthropology, new media studies, digital play & labor, and studies of the platform economy. Studying streamers aids the production of emic knowledge within these crucial disciplines of understanding.