Talk given on May 18, 2019 during the Media in Transition conference at MIT. Gaming is a historically toxic environment for women, people of color, disabled and LGBTQ+ folks. But on the world’s largest live streaming platform, Twitch, minority streamers and their allies are creating safe spaces for their communities and keeping the trolls at bay. The proliferation of these groups, which have managed to effectively moderate their communities and monetize their gameplay, while maintaining the values of integrity and inclusivity that are at the core of their identities, represents an intriguing new cultural phenomenon which has not yet been examined in detail. In this talk I will present findings from an ongoing ethnographic study seeking to understand the origin, and influence, of the growing inclusivity movement on Twitch. First, I’ll introduce the different ways in which inclusive communities form around marginalized streamers. Secondly, I’ll detail the shared values and standards of behavior that these communities are developing. Finally, I’ll explore how the affective labor of stream communities is transforming the aesthetic language, economic values, and governmental structure of the service. By critically analyzing the emergence of the inclusive Twitch community, the goal of this talk will be to shed light on, and draw inspiration from, the powerful, co-creative, role this labor force plays on the platform that supports it.

1. Inclusive Streamers
Live Broadcasting Safe Spaces
Johanna Brewer, PhD
co-founder,
Research & Design Studio

2. Land acknowledgement

3. Game culture & the toxic web

4. More than a troll factory?

5. The search begins

6. What's Twitch?
The world’s largest
live streaming platform

7. Producers of play
2.2 million streamers watched
by 150 million viewers each month

8. Behind the stream

9. Seeking inclusivity

10. Immersive observation
Watched 1,000+ hours live
Captured 100s of screenshots

11. Speedrunning

14. “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)

15. 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

16. Casual gamers

17. Musicians & artists

18. Cosplayers & crafters

19. Decentralized movement

20. What values do inclusive communities share?

21. 1. Be genuine & honest

22. “People here want genuine connection.
That's why we're all on Twitch.
If we didn’t, we'd be watching YouTube.”

23. 2. Lead by example

24. "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."

25. 3. Collaborate before competing

26. “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.”

27. 4. Create & share knowledge

28. “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.”

29. 5. Pass the privilege

30. "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.”

31. How can we uphold & amplify these values?

32. @deadroxy
netasnook.com
Questions?