Inclusive Streamers
Live Broadcasting Safe Spaces
Johanna Brewer, PhD
co-founder,
Research & Design Studio
Land acknowledgement
Game culture & the toxic web
More than a troll factory?
The search begins
What's Twitch?
The world’s largest
live streaming platform
Producers of play
2.2 million streamers watched
by 150 million viewers each month
Behind the stream
Seeking inclusivity
Immersive observation
Watched 1,000+ hours live
Captured 100s of screenshots
Speedrunning
“What speedrunning on Twitch does, and what
watching these types of events live does,
is it humanizes inhuman abilities.”
–Jared Rae (former Twitch community manager)
Methodological approach
Direct recruiting from observational cohort
Semi-structured interviews (~2 hours)
Video chats conducted on Discord, recorded with OBS
Snowball sampling to find more participants
Casual gamers
Musicians & artists
Cosplayers & crafters
Decentralized movement
What values do inclusive communities share?
1. Be genuine & honest
“People here want genuine connection.
That's why we're all on Twitch.
If we didn’t, we'd be watching YouTube.”
2. Lead by example
"I can't enforce respect. I can't enforce
conduct. If you try, that's gonna fail. But…
I try to encourage people and
lead by example rather than decree."
3. Collaborate before competing
“The way a community speedruns a game is
not to see who can have the fastest time,
but to see how fast the game can go.
Speedrunning is a communal effort.”
4. Create & share knowledge
“I’m having the most fun when I’m learning
from the chat about something.
And for some people, the most impressive thing
about my stream is that I can explain abstract
queerness versus sexuality and gender queerness
while playing a really hard Mario level.”
5. Pass the privilege
"I think it's important to spread the
love and share viewers with people.
I look for people who are on the cusp of
having above-average viewership to host
so they can be closer to hitting their goals.”
How can we uphold & amplify these values?
@deadroxy
netasnook.com
Questions?

Inclusive Streamers: Live Broadcasting Safe Spaces