This clip is taken from Twitch's About Page. It depicts a twitch stream on a desktop and a phone. On the screens, footage from a video game runs while viewers contribute messages to the live chat. In the messages, you can see "emotes," (which are graphics added to chat messages and used much like emoticons) and teal or purple "bits" (these shapes represent the platform's currency). Viewers may donate bits to financially support the streamer.

This video provides some context about some of the live, interactive elements that distinguish Twitch streams from other kinds of content creation. As shown through this video, Twitch's interface provides different options for participation and engagement, resulting in content creation that prioritizes immediacy.

Most Twitch streams are not available after the stream ends, unless the content creator chooses to record the stream and re-post it onto their YouTube channel, where critical elements of the stream like the live chat log are not often remediated. In this project, most included footage, whether original to YouTube or Twitch, has often been shared from YouTube due to the constraints of Twitch's hosting.

This video discusses some of YouTube's newer features that are intended to increase interaction and community-building on the platform.

Click here to see the basic components of a livestreaming page.
Click here to for basic components of YouTube commenting and interaction.

About the Platforms

Twitch and YouTube share many things in common. Both host user-created video, both provide space for viewer feedback through comments or chat messages, both have systems for following/subscribing to content creators, and both are a relatively popular: "Content creators are increasingly turning to games as a new media of conveying a message to their audience in the form of both video game streaming and videos on services such as YouTube" (Sjoblom and Hamari 993).

Their key difference, then, is the timing of production. Twitch is dedicated to the purpose of housing livestream channels. Unlike YouTube, in which content creators can strategically clip and edit content to produce polished videos, Twitch streams are subject to live revision, interjection, and influence. Compositions on this platform are often long, and participants in chat often guide the process through providing feedback. Sjoblom and Hamari refer to the two aspects of a video game live stream as "hot" and "cool" media: "The mix of media allows for a highly interactive experience, with the hot media (video content) serving as a facilitator for interaction via the cool media (chat functionalities)" (986). In contrast to traditional YouTube video comment sections, chat functionalities on Twitch are live and provide oppportunities for community-building through financial donations, sub-gifting (the act of gifting a subscription to the channel to another viewer), and use of community symbols (emotes that participants gain access to after paying for or being gifted a subscription to the content creator's channel). Sjoblom and Hamari describe viewing and participating in a Twitch stream as "an experience that is more passive than playing games, but at the same time more active than consuming traditional television content" (985) and claim that "the live experience and social interaction available between viewer and streamer allows for a level of personalisation that is not possible with pre-recorded material" (991).

In their ethnographic study of Twitch livestreams, Hamilton et al. describe the platform, saying, "Live streams serve as meeting grounds for player communities. The Twitch streaming medium combines broadcast video with open IRC chat channels. In conjunction with gameplay, viewer participation and community building gain emphasis" (1315). These "player communities" often share members across channels, but each particular channel will lay claim to its own unique community, comprised of the regular viewers, followers, and subscribers that participate in its live streams.

On YouTube, traditionally viewers have watched a video and left a comment in the section below the video on the screen. The comments sections operate more like Facebook or Reddit threads, where upvotes or "likes" bump comments further up on the feed, and replies are housed within a sub-thread under the comment. However, while these comments sections can and do influence future video production by the content creator, they are incapable of travelling back in time and exerting the same live-influence seen in Twitch streams. Lately, however, YouTube's interface development seems to be striving to encourage community-building within channels' viewerships.

YouTube's traditional "subscriptions" are free for viewers, but it recently released "channel memberships." These are similarly priced to Twitch subscriptions and provide paying viewers with access to additional, exclusive content and badges in comments sections. For more information on channel memberships, merch integration, and other new features, see the third video on the left. These features are still integrated with previously composed content that will be published after its completion. Additionally, due to their newness and exclusivity (only the largest Simmer channels have access to these features), they are less integrated into the Simming Ecology's production and interaction on YouTube.

While YouTube also values participation and community building, on Twitch, continual engagement with a live stream community is a major determinant of a viewers' decision to subscribe and support. Sjoblom and Hamari argue that "feeling a sense of community in watching experience not only increases how much people watch streams, but perhaps more importantly, was also the strongest determinant of following streamers and subscribing" (993). Participating through subscription and donating can result in higher levels social capital and stronger connections with friends. "By supporting a streamer and following them, the person can develop a deeper involvement with the community and feel involved in a larger part of the...shared experiences...other viewers often offer positive encouragement to new and renewing subscribers" (Sjoblom and Hamari 992). Taking part in these live, shared experiences and receiving social support and encouragment for doing so provides viewers with a unique opportunity that they cannot obtain from YouTube.