How a Live Streamer's Choice in Played Game Affects Mental Health Conversations

Abstract

As more viewers become interested in watching authentic personalities as opposed to artificial, crafted performances, Twitch streamers have begun to discuss personal issues such as mental health to form a closer bond with their community. This paper seeks to further explore how a live streamer's choice in game affects their viewers' perception of their stream's content. We interviewed 24 Twitch viewers and found that the pace of the game a streamer chooses to stream is a key factor in what viewers expect to see during the stream. These expectations at least partially determine whether viewers want to hear conversations about mental health. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI).

Twitch Users' Motivations and Practices During Community Mental Health Discussions

“…Live streaming is a unique social media context in which mental health conversations occur [22]. It differs from other social media and streaming services, like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and television, in that it facilitates synchronous social interaction and real-time information sharing of chat messages, video, and audio between streamers and viewers [4,18,42].…”

“…Consequently, viewership may fluctuate depending on the content of a channel [46]. Some viewers may not see Twitch as right place to talk about heavy topics, mental health inclusive, and may only want to see gaming content [22]. Streamers may feel pressured to cater content to audiences' preferences to make viewers stay, as well as to grow one's community and channel numbers.…”