Video game live streaming and the perception of female gamers

Video game live streaming, the practice of broadcasting one’s gameplay via live streaming or video on demand platforms, has dramatically risen in popularity over the last five years. Whether broadcasters are professional esports competitors or casual gamers entertaining their viewers from their bedrooms, millions of users log into platforms, such as Twitch, to watch their favorite gamers play. Gaming culture, however, is infamous for lacking inclusivity regarding race and ethnicity, gender, age and sexuality. This dissertation used close observations and an experimental design to investigate 1) how different types of Twitch channels can be categorized and what could motivate viewers to watch them, 2) whether viewers objectify certain female streamers, and 3) how viewing and possibly objectifying female streamers influences viewers’ perception of female gamers and women in general. The study was conducted in the field, i.e. it assigned participants to watch one of two existing Twitch channels hosted by female streamers or a control (tournament stream). One of the female streamers was identified to build her channel and her brand around her good looks with a strong focus on her body. Therefore, she was also more likely to be objectified (objectified condition). The other female streamer’s channel focused more on her personality and gameplay (personalized condition). Participants were surveyed online before and after a four-week viewing phase. Analysis of variance, t-tests and regression models used to examine the data resulted in models showing that viewers in the objectified condition rated their assigned streamer’s gaming skill to be lower as well as rating her less intelligent, and less warm than viewers of the personalized condition. Viewers assigned to one of the female streamers (as opposed to the control) estimated the percentage of female gamers playing the game mainly played on all assigned channels to be higher. While pretest-posttest comparisons resulted in an increase in perceived importance of sex appeal for a female streamer’s success on Twitch for participants in the objectified condition, no such increase was found for participants in the personalized and the control condition. However, there was no evidence that viewing and objectifying female streamers can lead to more negative or sexist opinions about female gamers. Participants assigned to the objectified condition did not cultivate more sexist opinions than the subjects assigned to view the personalized streamer or the control. Cultivation theory appears to be an adequate theoretical approach to studying effects from viewing Twitch. Practical implications include possible strategies for promoting games to female streamers and underline the power this new media has in shaping users’ ideas about who plays games and what we expect of online entertainers.