WHY PLAY WHEN YOU CAN WATCH OR LISTEN? MULTI-MODAL ENGAGEMENTS IN DIGITAL GAMING

Authors

  • Dahlia Jovic University of Sydney
  • Mahli-Ann Butt University of Sydney
  • Ryan Stanton University of Sydney
  • Tom Willma University of Sydney

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2022i0.12958

Keywords:

Gaming spectatorship, gaming content creation, games cultures, digital cultures, media paratexts

Abstract

Developments in the past decade have demonstrated that computer game players have become increasingly keen to watch, spectate, or listen to games content instead of (or alongside) playing games themselves. This might mean watching videos about or involving games on a site like YouTube, viewing others playing in high-level competitive “esports” events, listening to games-centred podcasts that might be about game design, development, play or politics, or consuming the music of and surrounding digital games. The increasing ubiquity of easily-shared content on leading internet platforms, rapid internet speeds, and gaming as a whole becoming an ever-more varied and diverse activity, have all contributed to the growth of these activities. Although each has been studied they have rarely been considered alongside one another, nor framed in a broader context of understanding what game-related activities game-players do when not actually, themselves, playing. In this paper we bring together findings and analysis from four ongoing research projects into gaming-adjacent activities, specifically into the culture of gaming hardware videos on YouTube, drinking culture and masculinity in esports broadcasts, the production and reception of gaming podcasts, and the relationship between game music and broader practices of music creation. The panel highlights the range of phenomena in these non-gaming yet gaming-adjacent activities, and also brings out commonalities that these phenomena exhibit. We show the wider ecosystem of media consumption that many gamers engage in, and it is thus our hope that this panel will strengthen game studies’ and internet studies’ interest in these practices.

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Published

2023-03-29

How to Cite

Jovic, D., Butt, M.-A., Stanton, R., & Willma, T. (2023). WHY PLAY WHEN YOU CAN WATCH OR LISTEN? MULTI-MODAL ENGAGEMENTS IN DIGITAL GAMING. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2022i0.12958

Issue

Section

Panels